Another Free Dining Trip!

[JerseyJanice]

It helps me organize my mind when I write out my plans, and so this pre-trip report.

I was very fortunate to take two WDW trips in 2008. One was during President's Week and the other for the week leading into Labor Day weekend. That trip was on Free Dining and we loved it! Everything in WDW that week exceeded my expectations. The resort (Pop), restaurants, parks--everything was fantastic.

So I just had to do it again and we're leaving next Saturday. Last year, I brought my nephew instead of my husband. This year, hubby is coming. Our dog will have to go to the kennel. He survived that in February 2008, so he'll be fine after his first day or two. It takes him a bit to warm up to new surroundings.

Our group consists of:

Myself -- Forty-something, hard-working mother of one human and one canine.
Hubby -- Forty-something, hard-working man who loves to eat.
Son -- 13 years old, fun loving, and truly the most wonderful kid in the world.
Bro -- Thirty-something, hard-working (I think) single guy who currently lives in Tampa.

We fly out early Saturday morning, Newark to Orlando. We're scheduled to arrive in Florida about 10:30 a.m. and will take the Magical Express to our resort which is Pop Century. We stayed there last year and loved it. It was our first time staying in a value resort, and I was very pleased with everything there, especially for the money. I hope my husband likes it as much. We've been together for over 20 years, so I think I know his tastes well enough to say that he'll like it.

Bro will meet us at the resort--I guess. I haven't worked out with him when and where we'll meet. He'll have his van. I sent him a shopping list of things we'll need for a good stay--beer, water, cooler, air mattress, and breakfast munchies. He's a great guy. A lot of fun, and as I type this, I realize how valuable having him and his van will be. I am such a lucky woman! I have the best family in the world.

I want for us to eat a good breakfast in Newark airport so we won't be starving when we get to Florida. What I'd like to do is check in and meet up with Bro. If our room is ready, we'll get Bro's van unpacked, then head to the World Showcase. Last trip, we spent no time in the World Showcase even though we were in Epcot for a full Extra Magic Hours day and night. We need to make up for that this trip.

When we get there, we'll have a toast to start our trip. I want a Grey Goose frozen lemonade. I'd like to spend us the afternoon noshing and drinking our way around the World Showcase. We have an ADR at Chefs de France that evening. I got it for as early as was available, since we're trying to see Remy, but the earliest time was 5:10. We'll need to check in early since Remy's last scheduled performance is at 5:20.

Definitely need to see Illuminations this night, as I missed it entirely last trip.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Our second day in WDW will be spent at the Magic Kingdom so we can take advantage of PM EMH. I love PM EMH! They can keep AM EMH. Jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn is not my idea of vacation. PM EMH is great though. I like to be a night owl, and that's impossible with my current work situation. So on vacation, I'm going to be a night crawler.

Our ADR this day is for dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I finally ate there for breakfast last year and loved it. That strawberry soup is really special! On-line menus show that their dinner soup as cream of mushroom and I hope that's true. I love a good cream of mushroom. The step sisters sound like a hoot too.

No Spectro is scheduled for that night, which surprises me being since they held it twice during PM EMH last year. We'll see when we get there. I check the park schedules on Disney's website all the time and they have been adding to it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get to see Spectro this night.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Originally, I scheduled this day for DHS since it's PM EMH. Over the past couple of weeks, my son has been insisting on going to AK instead. Why? Because he can't wait to see me terrified on Expedition Everest.

I promised him I was going to ride it with him. I am a real ride wimp, so I'd just as soon not do it, but it's one of his favorite rides of all times and insists I have to do it.

I have an ADR for breakfast at Tusker House and another one for dinner at Sci Fi. I'll have to cancel whichever one we don't use. The main reason I'm thinking of going along with the switch in park plans to AK is because I don't think doing PM EMH two days in a row is a good idea. My DH, in particular, is not a hardy park goer, and I don't want to wear him out so early in the trip. So we'll see.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We'll likely go to whichever park we didn't go to the day before. The ADR for today is dinner at Cape May Cafe. We had this meal in 2/08 and enjoyed it a great deal.

At DHS, we'll try to get on Toy Story Mania and need to do the Backlot Tour. We were on this once in 9/00. DS was only 4 then and doesn't remember it. I think he'll like it a lot.

We saw the Motor Car show last trip and thought it was great. If the show times fit into our day, we may see it again because neither Bro or DH have seen it.

DS is also determined to go on Tower of Terror. There is no way I'm doing it! It scared the heck out of Bro, so I don't know he'll do it, but my DH will ride pretty much anything so he can take DS on it.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I think it's good to have a down day to rest our feet, swim and do laundry, so this is the day for that as we'll be smack dab in the middle of our trip.

I have an ADR for breakfast at Cape May Cafe that I'll cancel if we haven't missed any of our meals up to this point. Dinner ADR is at Ohana. It's late (8:50) and I wish I could have gotten something earlier, but I suppose we can get there earlier and hope they can seat us sooner.

Our dinner at Ohana in 8/08 was the best of the trip, in a week of great dining, so I'm hoping for a similar experience this year. We loved Ohana. The atmosphere reminds me of the Polynesian restaurants that were popular back in the 60's and 70's when I was growing up. Most of those restaurants are gone now. The only one left I can think of is Chan's Dragon Inn in Ridgefield, and it's in sad shape now. They haven't changed any of the decor since the early '70's and it's just gross nowadays, so Ohana is a special treat.

 

[JerseyJanice]

This is an AM EMH day, so I'm a bit apprehensive about scheduling this as a MK day. They are showing Spectro, so that's one reason to go. I have a lunch ADR at the Crystal Palace and a dinner ADR at Chef Mickey's. I'll see how we're doing with our table service credits before deciding whether to keep them both.

 

[JerseyJanice]

This is PM EMH at Epcot, which I think is the best thing ever! We did it both 2008 trips and it's a fantastic benefit of staying at a WDW resort. That extra time at night is very enjoyable.

We have a lunch ADR at LeCellier which we'll probably keep no matter where we are at with our TS credits. I just want the soup! DS will probably want it too and we'll just pay cash for this meal. Dinner ADR is at the Coral Reef and I am very much looking forward to trying this place. Even if the food isn't great, I know we'll love the atmosphere.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I don't know if we need another day at AK, but we do enjoy that park a great deal. You can spend a lot of time there just looking at the animal exhibits. Since this was always a planned AK day, I have a breakfast ADR at Tusker House that I'll cancel if we went to it earlier in the week.

At night, I have two ADRs. One for Bro and DS at Boma, and the other for DH and me at Raglan Road. I have to see where we're at with TS credits before keeping the RR meal. We ate there last year and loved it, but if we need the credits to make our Fantasmic dinner the following night, we'll go to Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner. This will be a date night for DH and me. Bro is on his own all the time, so he doesn't mind hanging with DS who loves all his family dearly.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I never expected to get a Fantasmic package ADR at Mama Melrose and wasn't even trying for it when I called in my ADRs, but the CM offered to me, so I took it. Why not?

According to Allears, the package is now ala carte, so I guess that means we don't get an appetizer? DH is calamari crazy so we'll probably spring for it even if it's not on the plan. He's also into sangria in a big way and I see that they serve pitchers of it there, so he'll like that.

We saw Fantasmic last year and sat in the third row from the stage. Wow, was it ever great from that viewpoint! Every other time I've seen it, DH insisted on sitting near the top of the stadium so we could get away quickly at the end. We told him this year, he's outvoted and we're down in the front to take our time exiting. Since Bro will drive over and we would already have had dinner, there's no reason to rush out either.

 

[JerseyJanice]

This will be Labor Day. Our flight leaves in the evening, so we'll either swim at the resort after check out or head to Downtown to shop for souvenirs. It depends on how our feet are doing.

Well, these are my plans. I'll do a report after the trip to let you know how close to the plans we stuck. The ADRs tie you down to some extent, but I try to stay flexible.

 

[SilverL]

Lucky you! I've called back trying to get the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose 3 times and have had no luck for our trip

 

[JerseyJanice]

Lucky you! I've called back trying to get the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose 3 times and have had no luck for our trip

Keep trying Silver! I tried for a long time to get the Monday Tusker House reservation and snagged it a couple weeks ago, so things do open up.

Back to the plans--I really want to try and see all the movies in the World Showcase and some of the entertainment (like The British Invasion and the candy maker in Japan). I've seen on the boards that a belly dancer performs at the Tangerine Cafe; the guys in my group would really appreciate catching that. I'm also going to get DS to try that Kimpossible thing. I'm guessing it's like the Magic Wand at Great Wolf Lodge, and he loves that.

At MK, I have to see the Hall of Presidents. I have not seen it since I was a teenager, and since I adore our current Commander-in-Chief , I have to check it out this trip.

I made more ADRs than we plan to use since last year, we missed two meals for reasons that were completely out of our control and I want to have back-up plans this time. We'll also stretch a meal or two out because DS eats like a bird. For instance, at places like Chefs de France, LeCellier and the Coral Reef, he'd be satisfied with just a soup, so we can squeeze in an extra TS meal if we want.