elaine amj
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2012
We shared credits AND paid for guests not on the Dining Plan, had some OOP stuff, juggled credits like crazy, and ate an insane amount of food.
Let's backtrack a wee bit. We had a trip planned to spend a weekend at Universal Studios during Canadian March Break. A month before the trip, my 17 and 20 yr old "nieces" (in reality, the beloved daughters of best friends) told us that they planned to go to WDW that week and asked for help planning. They hadn't been since their one trip as little kids. I went home and asked DH if there was any way to extend our trip since I would be way too jealous if they got to go to Disney without me LOL!
Long story short, we added another 5 days to our time in Orlando!! I planned multiple scenarios and ended up deciding to only join them for ONE park day. The girls would be staying offsite with their grandparents (who didn't plan to go to the parks). So here was how the Disney portion worked out:
Tuesday, March 15th: The girls would spend the day in Magic Kingdom. We would move from our Universal hotel to Pop Century, joining them for a 3:45pm reservation I had snagged at Ohana. Their grandparents would also join us for dinner.
Wednesday, March 16th: The girls would be at Animal Kingdom all day. We would start at Epcot, having lunch at Le Cellier before joining them at AK in the afternoon. After park close, we would all go to Whispering Canyon Cafe (joined by the grandparents) for dinner. They would then go back while our family would move on to MK for Evening EMH.
Thursday, March 17th: We all went our separate ways, even though all of us were at Disney Springs. The girls shopped and had lunch at T-Rex while we had lunch at Bongos Cuban Cafe and spent the day at Disney Quest. DH and I left the kids for a bit to go for a romantic dinner at The Dining Room at Wolfgang Puck Cafe. After closing at DisneyQuest, we took the boat over for a 10pm dinner at the Turf Club.
I do like to maximize and love juggling credits so you'll see some of that in my review. We're very used to sharing food and love optimizing our value. Adding the Deluxe plan to our room-only (to make a ticketless package) wasn't hugely rational though. I crunched the numbers like crazy, and feel we paid a little more (because we ate more) than we would have if we had paid cash. But I was not being really rational about this trip and wanted the freedom to indulge like crazy. The DXDDP allowed us to do that. And I don't regret the decision one bit (although I do sigh occasionally about how much money we spent).
Some notes about us.
DH was on a restricted diet for health reasons and avoids sugar, salt, meat, dairy, and basically every food that you would normally eat (Just Kidding! I do manage to cook for him ). He did plan to be pretty relaxed this trip - would watch what he could but would also eat some stuff he wouldn't normally eat.
I LOVE my food, particularly meat. I can be a glutton...but have been watching calories since January. Lost 15 pounds before the trip - Woot! I did plan to indulge like crazy all week.
DD is a pretty picky teen girl. She eats frequently in small portions. I'm always jealous about how skinny she is.
DS has been on a bit of a growth spurt and has been eating more than normal. Not really satisfied with his old kid-sized portions. Not sure yet if I'm going to end up with a typical bottomless teen boy on my hands.
Without further ado, let's get started with this Dining Review!
My rating system:
Yuck, yuck, YUCK! Will never, ever eat here again
Edible, but forgettable
Decent, will eat here again but will not go out of my way
Good, will happily eat here again
Loved it!!! Highly recommend this!
Let's backtrack a wee bit. We had a trip planned to spend a weekend at Universal Studios during Canadian March Break. A month before the trip, my 17 and 20 yr old "nieces" (in reality, the beloved daughters of best friends) told us that they planned to go to WDW that week and asked for help planning. They hadn't been since their one trip as little kids. I went home and asked DH if there was any way to extend our trip since I would be way too jealous if they got to go to Disney without me LOL!
Long story short, we added another 5 days to our time in Orlando!! I planned multiple scenarios and ended up deciding to only join them for ONE park day. The girls would be staying offsite with their grandparents (who didn't plan to go to the parks). So here was how the Disney portion worked out:
Tuesday, March 15th: The girls would spend the day in Magic Kingdom. We would move from our Universal hotel to Pop Century, joining them for a 3:45pm reservation I had snagged at Ohana. Their grandparents would also join us for dinner.
Wednesday, March 16th: The girls would be at Animal Kingdom all day. We would start at Epcot, having lunch at Le Cellier before joining them at AK in the afternoon. After park close, we would all go to Whispering Canyon Cafe (joined by the grandparents) for dinner. They would then go back while our family would move on to MK for Evening EMH.
Thursday, March 17th: We all went our separate ways, even though all of us were at Disney Springs. The girls shopped and had lunch at T-Rex while we had lunch at Bongos Cuban Cafe and spent the day at Disney Quest. DH and I left the kids for a bit to go for a romantic dinner at The Dining Room at Wolfgang Puck Cafe. After closing at DisneyQuest, we took the boat over for a 10pm dinner at the Turf Club.
I do like to maximize and love juggling credits so you'll see some of that in my review. We're very used to sharing food and love optimizing our value. Adding the Deluxe plan to our room-only (to make a ticketless package) wasn't hugely rational though. I crunched the numbers like crazy, and feel we paid a little more (because we ate more) than we would have if we had paid cash. But I was not being really rational about this trip and wanted the freedom to indulge like crazy. The DXDDP allowed us to do that. And I don't regret the decision one bit (although I do sigh occasionally about how much money we spent).
Some notes about us.
DH was on a restricted diet for health reasons and avoids sugar, salt, meat, dairy, and basically every food that you would normally eat (Just Kidding! I do manage to cook for him ). He did plan to be pretty relaxed this trip - would watch what he could but would also eat some stuff he wouldn't normally eat.
I LOVE my food, particularly meat. I can be a glutton...but have been watching calories since January. Lost 15 pounds before the trip - Woot! I did plan to indulge like crazy all week.
DD is a pretty picky teen girl. She eats frequently in small portions. I'm always jealous about how skinny she is.
DS has been on a bit of a growth spurt and has been eating more than normal. Not really satisfied with his old kid-sized portions. Not sure yet if I'm going to end up with a typical bottomless teen boy on my hands.
Without further ado, let's get started with this Dining Review!
My rating system:
Yuck, yuck, YUCK! Will never, ever eat here again
Edible, but forgettable
Decent, will eat here again but will not go out of my way
Good, will happily eat here again
Loved it!!! Highly recommend this!
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