A New Trip Full of New Memories...Hopefully It Happens! - July 2020 PTR (Completed)

[cstorm65]

We haven't been to D-Lux Burger yet as we don't do lost of QS but everyone I know who has gone really enjoys it. For some reason I feel like, if our July trip is a go, we may be doing more QS?? And if so we'll give it a try along with Polite Pig for the first time.

I agree, dining in July will be interesting how they handle things. We don't do many buffets normally, but we like the family style meals; Garden Grill, Whispering Canyon, 'Ohana, etc...all of those will be interesting too! D-Lux Burger was awesome the one time we've been there!

Nice! We enjoy breakfast here as well. Boma too, and we finally tried Cape May breakfast last year and the food was great! A few different choices and the characters were great as well.

I've always wanted to try Boma, but Animal Kingdom Lodge is a little harder to get there and dragging to younger kids has never appealed to us. Of course everyone loves Boma, so we are going to have to make that a priority. Of course we also want to stay at AKL now that we are DVC members, so maybe we can link that up in the near future!

Yeah.....same boat. I've done 2 AH at HS and 2 at MK but not villains yet and I had it in mind for July. I'm holding off until I know for sure we're going, and I do hope we have a clue by the end of the week. Our originally planned trip starts 7/3 but I have a back up starting the 24th just in case.

I am hoping so much the Orange County Mayor is correct in saying he thinks Disney will present their plan this week to the task force. At least at that point we will know one way or the other.

So far your trip sounds great! We just turned our June Disney trip into a Universal trip and while I'm excited, this is the first Universal "only" trip we've ever done and......there's no planning to do lol.

DW and I just went to Universal for our anniversary last summer, first time in five years for us to go there. We LOVED it!!!! We can't wait to go back and honestly, if we have to do that instead of Disney for this summer I don't think we'd be too disappointed. We definitely think DS8 will LOVE it!! DS4 is the one we have been holding off a bit in going to Universal for until he's just a little older.

 

[vamassey1]

Hi Jon! I followed you over from our report.

You have a beautiful family. My oldest son is a music education teacher in Texas and now Michelle is working on being a teacher. We love our educators. I really hope this trip works for y'all. DS4 reminds me of JP. He loves Frozen too but his favorite character is Sven. I hope he makes it on those coasters. I would love to spend 2 weeks in Disney. No one else in my family would want to but me. We stayed in the Music suites in 2017. Loved having the extra bathroom, they should be even better with the remodel. They look much better.

Plans sound really good so far. I'm going to follow along as you navigate all the changes with Covid-19.

 

[cstorm65]

What Are We Going to Do Now?

Well, Disney did it...not only did they jab the knife in my back the other day with their reopening announcement, they just twisted and twisted and twisted it by putting us in a position to still have to use our DVC points before they expire on July 31. I mean does anyone feel this is what Disney’s reopening plan has been like this week:

Of course in opposition to Disney this is what Universal has done with the re-opening process:

I mean I know the two places are different in size and stuff, but it just seems like all along Universal has had a plan and Disney has just been in complete meltdown mode. I’m trying not to be mad at Disney about this because it is a bad situation and we certainly want everyone to be healthy and safe, but just the planning and communication from Disney throughout all of this has been pretty pathetic.

So, back to the story...after I finished laying like this for about six hours after Disney’s announcement:

DW and I were able to sit down and discuss things and we decided that we definitely didn’t want to move our trip back a couple of weeks because it wasn’t going to be worth it to us to start our annual passes, that we spent about $3,000 on for our family only to not get character meets, parades, fireworks, character meals and other things like that. Those are the things that differentiate Disney from other theme parks and we decided it was best to wait until next summer to activate our AP’s. We could get a refund, but the price is only going to go up so we might as well just keep them and wait to activate them.

With that said we had the dilemma of what to do with our DVC points. Since DVC is opening on June 22 the closure does not affect our stay so we don’t qualify for the extension of 12 months to use our points that are going to expire at the end of July. So, how are we going to use the points we need to use, make a vacation out of it, but not completely hate not being able to go in the parks. So we decided to go for this:

Yep, we are going to go over and take the boys to Universal for the first time. Well, actually this will be the second trip for DS8, but he was only 15 months old the first time we were here and DMiL came with us on the trip. We only came for one night and two park days because DW is a big Harry Potter fan and wanted to see Hogsmeade as it was still relatively new.

Fast forward to last summer and DW and I had an anniversary trip we went on and I surprised her with a trip here. I think I might go ahead and do a trip report on that at some point here once I finish our cruise report. Anyways, we had a great time at Universal and determined we thought the boys would love it, especially DS8. So, this seems like a good time for it. One of the things we like is that Universal will have been open for 5-6 weeks by the time we go and Disney will just be opening, so maybe all of the people will be running over to Disney and Universal will have all of the re-opening kinks worked out. We shall see.

So, I will do a full itinerary in the next update and tell you guys where we are staying, but let’s just say we are spending some time at a first time Disney resort with our DVC points for a few nights and then moving over to spend some time at Universal. So, that’s the plan...we are going to to our best to make the most of this situation and have a great summer vacation regardless!

Up Next: The Master Itinerary: Take 2​

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!!! And you're making lemonade Universal style!!!

Sounds like you're still going to have a fun relaxing vacation!!!

Have you every gone kayaking??? When we're down there in October, we're going to drive over to St Petersburg and do a kayak tour with See Through Adventures... The kayaks are clear and you can see the fish, dolphins and manatee swimming beneath you... And they have 2 person kayaks too...

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I thought of you when I saw Disney was going to open in July! I'm sorry your trip has to change, but I agree that Disney isn't the same without things like parades and character meals. I think waiting to activate your annual passes is the right move.

I've really enjoyed our last two visits to Universal. Both Wizarding World sections are AMAZING (especially Diagon Alley!) and there are other great attractions as well. Their popcorn isn't as amazing as Disney's, but they do have several great food items including the Krusty Burgers and most importantly, the Butterbeer! I don't know if your boys like water rides, but the water rides at IOA are pretty awesome - and perfect for July! Also, I don't know if you have any plans to visit Volcano Bay (I believe they're reopening too?), but it is hands-down the best waterpark I've ever been to.

They're a few years old, but I included lots of information about our 2015 and 2017 visits in my 2015 Trip Report. I'm sure much of the information still applies!

I'm disappointed you had to change your plans, but I think you'll still have a great trip with your time at Universal. It's an excellent theme park! I can't wait to hear about your plans!

 

[cstorm65]

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!!! And you're making lemonade Universal style!!!

Sounds like you're still going to have a fun relaxing vacation!!!

That is the plan. The boys always love the pool on our trips, so we'll give them plenty of time doing that!

Have you every gone kayaking??? When we're down there in October, we're going to drive over to St Petersburg and do a kayak tour with See Through Adventures... The kayaks are clear and you can see the fish, dolphins and manatee swimming beneath you... And they have 2 person kayaks too...

We haven't done that, but that sounds like something cool to check out. We are definitely looking at a few day trip type things in the area that we've never done before. Will look that up!

I thought of you when I saw Disney was going to open in July! I'm sorry your trip has to change, but I agree that Disney isn't the same without things like parades and character meals. I think waiting to activate your annual passes is the right move.

Yeah, we are happy with the decision. Those annual passes are so expensive and we do the whole three trips within a year while we have it and then we take a year off of Disney, so to us it wasn't worth it to start the clock on the annual passes.

I've really enjoyed our last two visits to Universal. Both Wizarding World sections are AMAZING (especially Diagon Alley!) and there are other great attractions as well. Their popcorn isn't as amazing as Disney's, but they do have several great food items including the Krusty Burgers and most importantly, the Butterbeer! I don't know if your boys like water rides, but the water rides at IOA are pretty awesome - and perfect for July! Also, I don't know if you have any plans to visit Volcano Bay (I believe they're reopening too?), but it is hands-down the best waterpark I've ever been to.

We hadn't been in a while and then DW and I just went in August for anniversary and loved it! She is a big Harry Potter fan so those areas are great and we agree on the Butterbeer. We didn't actually try the Krusty Burger, but will have to this time. We are a little worried because DS4 is at like 41" and a lot of the rides, including the rapids ride at IOA is a 42" height requirement. What kinds of food makes a kid grow again? We need one more inch! haha

We have never been big water park people as our kids were little, but DW and I did Volcano Bay in August too and couldn't agree more. It was unbelievable and I am like you...I couldn't do a trip without it!

They're a few years old, but I included lots of information about our 2015 and 2017 visits in my 2015 Trip Report. I'm sure much of the information still applies!

I'll have to go back and read that information. Definitely interested in learning more since we aren't as experienced with UO as we are Disney.

I'm disappointed you had to change your plans, but I think you'll still have a great trip with your time at Universal. It's an excellent theme park! I can't wait to hear about your plans!

Agreed. We are excited to just get away at this point!

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

Fellow July travelers here! We're also a teacher family and coaching family so July is our window to travel.
My son is 10 and lives/breathes baseball. (He's a left-handed pitcher.) He is also over the virtual learning - he's a social butterfly so and only child so this is not working out for him. Plus - there's the whole disruption of baseball season.
My husband teaches high school social studies and is the president of the local little league. He also coaches one of the teams.
I'm a middle school principal so my summer window is really just July.
You're right - working with kids is the best job ever. That's been one of the the hardest parts of the pandemic shut-down - I miss my kids so much. If I'd known March 13th was going to be the last day, I'd have spent March 12th giving them all hugs.

 

[cstorm65]

Fellow July travelers here! We're also a teacher family and coaching family so July is our window to travel.
My son is 10 and lives/breathes baseball. (He's a left-handed pitcher.) He is also over the virtual learning - he's a social butterfly so and only child so this is not working out for him. Plus - there's the whole disruption of baseball season.
My husband teaches high school social studies and is the president of the local little league. He also coaches one of the teams.
I'm a middle school principal so my summer window is really just July.
You're right - working with kids is the best job ever. That's been one of the the hardest parts of the pandemic shut-down - I miss my kids so much. If I'd known March 13th was going to be the last day, I'd have spent March 12th giving them all hugs.

You are so right on everything. Especially missing our school kids. Our HS kids are so sick of zoom meetings we were lucky to get them to show up by the end of distance learning. We are able to start allowing kids at the school tomorrow in small groups of 10 or fewer to do some strength and conditioning stuff, so it will be good to see them, even if we have to stay six feet apart!

I know what you're talking about with July being the travel month. That is what has made this so hard for us. We usually go in mid-July on an annual pass, then over Christmas break, and then again in late June/early July...all on the same AP so it maximizes what we spend. Well, we don't have the luxury of some others to just move our trip to the fall, we have to wait a whole year before we can try again. That is just deflating, but we are going to make the most of our Universal experience. Holding out hope for a great time! Thanks for commenting and hope everything continues to go well for you all and everyone else our there.

 

[cstorm65]

The Master Itinerary: Take 2

Let’s try this itinerary thing again and hopefully everything works out this time! We are super disappointed in missing out on Disney World, but for us it just doesn’t make sense to start the clock ticking on our annual passes without much of the things we love about Disney taking place...dining, characters, special events, parades, fireworks, etc. So, if you read the last post you know we switched gears just a bit to

But, if you remember we also have some DVC points we have to use before July 31 and so before we go to Universal we have changed our DVC reservation to use those points. For our Disney trip we were booked at our home resort, Copper Creek at Wilderness Lodge, which we love, but if we weren’t doing the Disney parks we were looking into some other options. First off, we were staying there for 8 nights, so we had quite a few points we were using, but now we aren’t staying that long so we have enough points to do a one bedroom villa for four nights instead. Also, we were open to other resorts that may be a better destination since we wouldn’t be doing the Disney parks. Well, one place jumped out at us:

That’s right...it will be our first stay at Jambo House at Animal Kingdom Lodge in a one bedroom villa. Animal Kingdom is the perfect resort if you aren’t actually doing the parks I think and we are excited about it, but we haven’t told the kids yet about the change. We mainly haven’t told them because we thought we’d surprise them with the:

Yes...the Savanna view room! We had just enough points to make this work and the boys are going to love it! We will probably just surprise them when we arrive with our room type!

Anyways, after our stay there we are heading to Universal for four nights and staying at two different resorts. First, we are staying two nights at...

...Cabana Bay Beach Resort! DW and I stayed here in August and agreed the boys would love it! They have awesome pool facilities, but what we loved was that it was just a short walk to the back door entrance of Volcano Bay. More on Volcano Bay in our daily plans though!

After a couple of nights at Cabana Bay we will move to our final resort for two nights…

Loews Royal Pacific Resort! We stayed here seven years ago on our trip so it will be our first time back since then. Of course the big perk of staying here is the Unlimited Express Pass you get, so we will certainly be taking advantage of that during our time there.

So, that’s about it. We will get down to the details as we go day by day over the next several weeks as we try to plan a new trip, from scratch, just a couple of months out. This is going to be very us experienced at planning Disney trips!

Up Next: Day 1 Plans​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Oh my goodness, staying at AKL is PERFECT for a resort-only Disney trip! I didn't know you were able to switch from the Wilderness Lodge with your DVC points - what an excellent choice! I stayed there back in 2012 and LOVED it - it remains my favorite resort of all-time! The pool is excellent and there are several wonderful dining options nearby (Boma! Sanaa! Even the QS Mara is great!). Plus, I could sit out and watch the animals, explore the resort, or sit in that gorgeous lobby with a book all day long. What a great choice!

The best thing about Universal (especially if you have the unlimited express pass!) is that it requires almost NO planning. I know you've been recently so you already know this, but my favorite part of Universal was being able to walk onto any attraction in any order we wanted with practically no or minimal waits. In that respect, it's SO much easier than Disney World.

Your resort choices for Universal are also excellent - I've heard such wonderful things about Cabana Bay and I LOVED our stay at the Royal Pacific in 2015. The ability to either boat (assuming it's running!) or walk to Citywalk and the parks was wonderful. The pool was also excellent and it has good onsite dining options. The rooms are also lovely - in my opinion, maybe nicer than the Disney World deluxes!

I can't wait to hear the rest of your plans!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

We love AKL!!!! We've had savanna view rooms on every floor and my favorite was our last trip... Our room was right down the hallway from the lobby and we were only a couple rooms away from the elevator that takes you down to the pool... Loved it... And being on such a low level, the animals were RIGHT THERE!!!!

We've stayed at Cabana Bay right after they opened... One thing different about their pool is that the shallow end of the pool is only shallow on the sides... As you move closer to the middle, it gets deeper... Didn't realize that until the life guard had to jump in to save our son...

 

[cstorm65]

Oh my goodness, staying at AKL is PERFECT for a resort-only Disney trip! I didn't know you were able to switch from the Wilderness Lodge with your DVC points - what an excellent choice! I stayed there back in 2012 and LOVED it - it remains my favorite resort of all-time! The pool is excellent and there are several wonderful dining options nearby (Boma! Sanaa! Even the QS Mara is great!). Plus, I could sit out and watch the animals, explore the resort, or sit in that gorgeous lobby with a book all day long. What a great choice!

Those are all of our thoughts exactly. People always say it is a great resort if you are doing a resort only stay, so we are going to test it out. I think I got lucky in switching our reservation as I did it about 15 minutes after the July 11 date was announced and there was availability at almost every resort. But within about two hours availability was almost gone everywhere. So I'm certainly glad I made the move when I did!

The best thing about Universal (especially if you have the unlimited express pass!) is that it requires almost NO planning. I know you've been recently so you already know this, but my favorite part of Universal was being able to walk onto any attraction in any order we wanted with practically no or minimal waits. In that respect, it's SO much easier than Disney World.

I know...after years of planning Disney World vacations down to the minute DW and I loved Universal when we went for that reason. We just did whatever we wanted. It was very strange and weird for us...but before too long we were loving it!

Your resort choices for Universal are also excellent - I've heard such wonderful things about Cabana Bay and I LOVED our stay at the Royal Pacific in 2015. The ability to either boat (assuming it's running!) or walk to Citywalk and the parks was wonderful. The pool was also excellent and it has good onsite dining options. The rooms are also lovely - in my opinion, maybe nicer than the Disney World deluxes!

I agree, those deluxe resorts are great...not to mention you get the unlimited express pass. Cabana Bay is awesome too...especially how close it is to Volcano Bay! Hoping for a Volcano Bay view in the new towers!

I can't wait to hear the rest of your plans!

Going to post something on Day 1 after this!

We love AKL!!!! We've had savanna view rooms on every floor and my favorite was our last trip... Our room was right down the hallway from the lobby and we were only a couple rooms away from the elevator that takes you down to the pool... Loved it... And being on such a low level, the animals were RIGHT THERE!!!!

So what floor do you recommend? Our kids are going to love seeing the animals, but I hadn't even thought about requesting a certain floor for best viewing.

We've stayed at Cabana Bay right after they opened... One thing different about their pool is that the shallow end of the pool is only shallow on the sides... As you move closer to the middle, it gets deeper... Didn't realize that until the life guard had to jump in to save our son...

Oh wow! That's not what a parent ever wants to happen. We only did the pool by the lazy river as our room was right next to that, so not sure if you mean that pool or the one on the other side of the resort with a pool slide. We didn't notice the one we were in being like that, but without our kids with us I can certainly see us not paying any attention to pool depth...plus we spent almost all of our time in the lazy river.

 

[cstorm65]

Day 1 Plans: Take 2

We are going to try our Day 1 travel day plans again since this is now a new day and we have drastically changed our plans since I wrote them earlier in this PTR. Now, our flight times are the exact same as we leave Dallas early in the morning and land in Orlando at around 11:00. The boys will be excited for this:

Once we land we are heading over to pick up our rental car. We never rent a car when coming to Disney, but now that we have changed to Universal being the main focus of the trip a car is the best way to go for four of us. We are trying to figure out what to do for a car seat for DS4. The rental car companies charge you $10 per day and I always say, “Crap...I could just buy a car seat for that.” I’ve also looked into renting a car seat from rental places, but they aren’t really any cheaper than just getting one from the rental company. Anyways, if you guys have any experience in this let me know.

After finding the car I think our plan will be to head to Disney Springs since DVC check in isn’t until 4:00 PM. For lunch I am already craving one of our favorite places at Disney Springs:

The burgers at D’Lux Burger are so good and I love all of the different sauces to try. Now, we also want to try Chicken Guy too, so who knows. Maybe we’ll get two burgers for us all to share and then head over and get some chicken for all of us to share. We’ll just call it a progressive dinner. I guess we’d have to go find some dessert too!

We will probably shop a round a bit, visit some of our favorite stores and hope the text message that says, “Your Room is Ready” comes quickly! As soon as we get that we’ll be off to:

I can’t wait to show the boys that Savanna View. After getting settled in the room I would bet a million dollars the boys will want to head straight to the pool, after checking out that patio of course, so we’ll probably spend the rest of the afternoon there. We will probably also just grab a quick service dinner at The Mara. Although, somewhere on our stay I would really like to go over and have dinner at Trails End. We had a reservation for there back before the world flew off its handle and we were looking forward to it. The style of food is just something we really like! Of course, no reservations are possible right now, so we shall see.

Anyways, that should do it for day 1. We will probably be a little sad that we aren’t getting up the next day and heading to a park, but I’m sure that savanna view will get us happy real quick!

Up Next: Day 2 Plans: Take 2​

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

So what floor do you recommend? Our kids are going to love seeing the animals, but I hadn't even thought about requesting a certain floor for best viewing.

I think I requested close to lobby and close to pool, but we were in Kidani Village the last visit... I can't remember if Kidani Village has different options than Jamba House...

When we stay at Jamba House we always request close to pool... We've stayed in the higher floor rooms before and the views of the animals were still great... It's just on the 2nd floor, the animals are right beneath you and so close!!!

At Cabana Bay, we stayed in Startlight, so we only went to that pool... We never went to the pool with the lazy river...

 

[vamassey1]

When I saw the announcement of park opening I thought of y'all. I'm sorry it has messed up your plans but your new plans sound really good too. The boys are going to love AKL and taking things slow. Lots of time for swimming. Hopefully they will be doing the kid activities. I've never been to Universal but would LOVE to see the HP area. Have you kids seen the movies? This might be a good time to watch a few.

 

[cstorm65]

I think I requested close to lobby and close to pool, but we were in Kidani Village the last visit... I can't remember if Kidani Village has different options than Jamba House...

When we stay at Jamba House we always request close to pool... We've stayed in the higher floor rooms before and the views of the animals were still great... It's just on the 2nd floor, the animals are right beneath you and so close!!!

That is all good to know. I was thinking our main request may just be "close to the pool" because I know those hallways can be long, but I figure most of our time will be at the pool. So, as long as we can get there the rest will be ok.

At Cabana Bay, we stayed in Startlight, so we only went to that pool... We never went to the pool with the lazy river...

We were the exact opposite. I didn't even know until when we were leaving that they even had a water slide at the resort because it was in the other pool!

When I saw the announcement of park opening I thought of y'all. I'm sorry it has messed up your plans but your new plans sound really good too. The boys are going to love AKL and taking things slow. Lots of time for swimming. Hopefully they will be doing the kid activities. I've never been to Universal but would LOVE to see the HP area. Have you kids seen the movies? This might be a good time to watch a few.

We were just talking about that today. I can really see DS8 getting into the movies. He has really just gotten into Star Wars & Avengers in the last few months and I think Harry Potter is on a level with those as far as the kids being able to understand what is going on. DS4...well, he just like to talk, like all the time, so watching movies isn't really his thing right now. But hey...he loves the 4-5 minute long Mickey Mouse shorts on Disney+. haha

We are excited about Animal Kingdom and swimming for sure. All of those things are some of the reasons we thought that would be a great place!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Your first day plans sound great - I'm glad you're still planning to see Disney Springs and visit D-Luxe Burger. That burger sure looks tasty!

When we traveled with M when she was just over a year old we bought a cheaper (and significantly lighter) car seat for the plane and our car. We purchased an Evenflo SureRide DLX, and although I wouldn't love the one we bought for everyday use (it was a little clunky and didn't appear as comfortable as our usual carseats), it was a great travel car seat. It was WONDERFUL to carry a less than 10 pound carseat through the airport rather than one of our 20+ pound bohemaths. I'd highly recommend buying a less expensive and super-light travel carseat for your rental car. I'm pretty sure nearly all airlines allow you to check carseats for free (as I don't believe you'll need it on the plane with your Cares Harness). You could even do a pre-order pickup at WalMart or Target and pick it up once you arrive in Florida so you only have to worry about it on your way home.

 

[cstorm65]

Your first day plans sound great - I'm glad you're still planning to see Disney Springs and visit D-Luxe Burger. That burger sure looks tasty!

We loved that place on our last trip. DW had gone to it when she was at Disney for a work conference and said we have to go and she was right!

When we traveled with M when she was just over a year old we bought a cheaper (and significantly lighter) car seat for the plane and our car. We purchased an Evenflo SureRide DLX, and although I wouldn't love the one we bought for everyday use (it was a little clunky and didn't appear as comfortable as our usual carseats), it was a great travel car seat. It was WONDERFUL to carry a less than 10 pound carseat through the airport rather than one of our 20+ pound bohemaths. I'd highly recommend buying a less expensive and super-light travel carseat for your rental car. I'm pretty sure nearly all airlines allow you to check carseats for free (as I don't believe you'll need it on the plane with your Cares Harness). You could even do a pre-order pickup at WalMart or Target and pick it up once you arrive in Florida so you only have to worry about it on your way home.

That's a great idea and exactly what I was thinking. We can buy a car set like that for less than we can rent one in Florida from the car rental company or a third party rental agency. I'm going to start looking into some prices on those!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 2 Plans: Take 2

We start off day two of our trip, which will be our first full day at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course it will be our first time wake up with this view:

And I can’t wait for that! We plan to spend almost all of the day doing a whole lot of nothing except spending time here:

Before Disney went and cancelled all of our dining reservations last week we were planning on keeping one we’d made for our Disney trip at Whispering Canyon Cafe for a late breakfast. WCC is one of our most favorite meals in all of Disney world and it is definitely DW’s favorite! She is addicted to those biscuits and gravy.

So at this point we will hopefully head over to Wilderness Lodge for breakfast at WCC, but at this point who really knows what the chances of that will be. Otherwise it will just be a pool day for us and probably having dinner somewhere like The Mara. Does anyone have anything there that they really love? I’ve heard of the Zebra Domes, but we’ve never tried them. What are everyone’s thoughts on those?

Anyways, that’s it for a lazy, relaxing day 2 of our trip.

Up Next: Day 3 Plans: Take 2​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I hope you get your WCC breakfast! I feel like that one is a possibility as it's a family platter or individual meals rather than a buffet. I will cross my fingers for you!

Another reason I hope they open some dining ADRs is I so HIGHLY recommend both Boma and Sanaa. (I really loved Jiko too, but I don't know if that's something you'd like with two young kids.) Boma's breakfast is WONDERFUL and one of my favorite resort breakfasts. There are so many tasty things and they have the POG juice - delicious! I finally tried their dinner on my 2016 visit and it absoluely lived up to the hype. There are tons of options, including kid-friendly fare like chicken nuggets and mac and cheese if you have less adventuorous eaters. They'd also have multiple salad options for your older son! I think Boma is a bigger question mark as all they have is buffet, but if it's open I highly recommend it for both meals. Sanaa is also excellent - their bread service is a must-do and you could share a plate or two for the rest of your meal. The close view of the animals while dining is wonderful, too!

As for the Mara, I had an excellent chicken pita sandwich there... which is no longer on the menu. Looking at the current menu, I bet their current chicken flatbread is good and the BLT looks tasty, too. If you like a slighly spicy breakfast their version of the bounty platter may be right up your alley. I wasn't a big fan (I have nearly zero ability to handle spice), but for someone who loves zestier food the tomato dish and spicy sausage (assuming they still give that instead of regular sausage) are probably pretty great. It's certainly unique. Also, YES to the Zebra Domes!