When I last left off, we had just discovered that Tink suddenly realized why it was important to make your ADRs 90 days in advance. She was pretty frustrated because we have a large group for several of our meals. (the whole celebrating of the anniversary and birthdays and such)
Our first meal together was going to be the 50's Cafe for Grandma's birthday on Monday evening. But...no seating for a party of 9. Next up was Peter's birthday dinner on Tuesday evening at Garden Grill. Whew! No problems there. Finally, Saturday evening was the anniversary celebration and Tink wanted the Brown Derby. Guess what...no seating that evening for a party of 9.
Ack! What are we going to do!? After quite a bit of deliberation and several calls to Disney Dining...we ended up switching the days we would be going to 50's and the Derby. So now Grandma's birthday is at the Derby and the Anniversary dinner is at 50's. Somehow...it seems even more appropriate.
Since Charming and I will be doing a "Pseudo Disney Dining Plan" (or PDDP), I needed to get the other table service meals figured out. Charming was no help. "I've never been there!" and "I don't care!" were the things I heard the most. Oh, and "Why do we have to do this NOW?". Sigh. So, here are the ones I decided on.
Day 1: We'll be arriving around lunch time so we'll likely just pick up something quick from the resort cafeteria.
Dinner - since we'll be at MK (and there aren't really any TS places I want to eat at) we'll also just pick up something quick when we get hungry again. Probably either Cosmic Ray's (because of the variety) or Casey's Corner (if he's feeling the need for his corn dog nuggets already)
Day 2: We'll be headed to AK for the morning EMH. So I'll probably drag him to Flame Tree. He loves BBQ and it makes me laugh that they have "St. Louis Ribs" on the menu.
*it's
possible that we'll skip the EMHs for this day and just go to HS...but we probably won't decide that till we're there.
Dinner - HS has evening EMH and we'll be meeting up with everyone else when they get in and settled. Our Brown Derby reservations are at 6:15 p.m. and I'm REALLY looking forward to this one. It's always been one of my favorites. I just hope they're not out of the Tuna like they were last time.
*side note - this meal doesn't count against our PDDP because Tink and Peter told us they were buying dinner for the anniversary celebration which was
supposed to be at the Derby. Confused yet?
Day 3: This will be a full day of Epcot.

Lunch will be a counter service meal whenever we get hungry. Probably Sunshine Seasons (again for the variety). Also, since we get desserts with each meal, I fully intend to pick deserts that can be stuffed in my bag for later enjoyment. Don't get me wrong...I

dessert. ANY time. But I also get full pretty quickly...so I'll be saving them.
Dinner - Garden Grill at 7:30 p.m. This is Peter's birthday dinner. It's also the only character meal we'll be doing. I'm nervous/excited to see what Charming's reaction to the characters is going to be. I have some fond memories of a flirtatious chipmunk...but I'm not sure what he's going to think. Normally I wouldn't go for a buffet, but we've got several growing boys that will make up for us girls not eating as much.
Day 4: It's back to AK for day 4. A FULL day at AK and I'm excited! Lunch will be counter service at Yak and Yeti. It's the only counter service place I MUST try. I wanted to do TS here but it didn't make the cut when the dust settled. So I'll content myself with the honey chicken at the counter.
Dinner - somewhere in there we'll have to find a good snack or eat a late lunch because our dinner reservations aren't until 9 p.m. We'll be headed to Raglan Road and I wanted to be there for the music.
Day 5: We'll be heading back to MK for morning EMH. Again, we'll just find a counter service when we get hungry. Though I DO want to try Tomorrowland Noodles one of these days...we'll see.
Dinner - this is the one I've been waiting for for a long time. Peter and Tink haven't ever taken us to this place over the years cause "they're just not into steak that much". But now that
I'm paying, we're going to Le Cellier. We got a table for four and at this point I'm not sure who is joining Charming and I. Our reservation is for 8:25 p.m. and I'll be stretching that meal out as long as possible. I love to walk Epcot at night when everyone else has left. There's only one thing that will ruin this for me...if they don't have the maple creme brulee...
Day 6: Today is another full day of Epcot. Since we're doing the 7 day PDDP and we didn't use a TS meal on day one and Peter and Tink are picking up another TS meal...we have a couple that can be used for lunches. Coral Reef almost didn't make the cut but I'm glad I decided to do lunch here. We'll be doing an early one at 11:30 a.m.
Dinner - another of my favorites. We'll be dining at Chefs de France at 7:30 p.m. I wasn't as pleased with my meal here last April as I had been in the past but I'm hoping they're back to their usual yummy food this year.
Day 7: This is our only full day at HS. Lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. since dinner is a little early tonight. We'll be hitting Sci-Fi Dine In. I love this place! And it works better for lunch since I'm not thrilled about the dinner choices.
Dinner - technically this will be the anniversary celebration at the 50's cafe. Reservations are for 6:50 p.m. We've got a full day of fun and wacky dining! Perfect for a day at HS.
Day 8: Sadly, this is our return day. We've got until 3:30 p.m. so we'll try to hit a park (we did add on park tickets for this day) and I'll probably leave the decision of which one up to Charming since there are no morning EMHs to make that determination for us. I think we'll try to hit Big River Grill and Brewing because we're big microbrew fans. We should have plenty of time to grab lunch there and get back to our resort for departure. (we'll be paying OOP for any meals this day)
Whew! Are you still with me? Ok. Let's recap.
The totals come to: CS meals - 6 and TS meals - 8
What's that you say? It isn't adding up if we're doing the 7 day PDDP? Well, let's look at the TS meals again. We get 7 on the plan. We'll be eating at:
- The Brown Derby
- Garden Grill
- Raglan Road
- Le Cellier
- Coral Reef
- Chefs de France
- Sci-Fi
- 50's Prime Time Cafe
Yep, it's 8 but remember, we're not paying for the Brown Derby. So that brings us to 7.
And I've only got 6 CS meals planned...so what does that mean? That's right! It means one of those days I'll be eating more than a croissant for breakfast!

Here I come Mickey waffles!
As you can see, we tend to plan our meals around what parks we'll be in on what days. Tink and Peter have always planned this way so by default I tend towards it as well. Especially since this will be Charming's first trip and we'll WANT to be spending as much time in the parks as possible. There will be another time to try all the resort restaurants...hopefully.
So, there you go. Those are our plans. I doubt we'll change them much but I'll update if there are any changes.
Up Next!...Finally another photo post! I'll take a break from the planning and tell you a little about my last trip.