First Trip, Free Dining - Will Goofy and his Princesses have fun?

[mom2faith]

Hello,

I have finally decided to do a PTR, after much hemming and hawing. I am doing it just as much for me as I am for all of you (after all I do want to scrapbook these memories, so I had better write them down).

I will link to all posts from here (as I have seen so many of you do)

So here it goes!!

Introductions, ADRs and Free Dining!!

 

[mom2faith]

ME - Amy - a wannabe princess who has never been to Disney. I get chills thinking about it and cannot wait to go

DH - Goofy; Brent - Although I say it is our first trip, it is really just our first trip as a family. DH has been 2 times before: once when he was quite young with his family (before AK, DHS, etc) and once with work, but it was a business oriented trip with little time to play. He had no knowledge of "Touring Plans", "ADRs" or anything else I have discovered, so aside from seeing it before, even he is considering himself a first timer

DD - Faith - the little princess. DD will be just shy of 4 when we go, so I am hoping to see all of the magic through her eyes. She is our princess and we are so pleased to spoil her with this trip!!

Background: We debated this trip last fall, and decided DD was too young. And we had decided to try for #2. That did not work as planned, so we have put those plans on hold to go to WDW!! I am so glad we did!! Last year, we thought we could decide we wanted to go September and have the trip in December - only 3 months!! Now that I am a well trained DISer I realize the amount of planning that goes into these trips! We could never have done it then.

So, in March of this year, we decided we would go in September. I had done a little research (and that means only the WDW site and the Disney Moms site) so I knew it was Value season. We got some great deals on flights (we are in Canada so it is a little more from here) and we chose the ASMo as our resort and added the DDP. So overall, it was an affordable trip and we got to stay for 11 nights!! We booked it and I started to plan.

Actually, I should say, and then I discovered DISBoards, and then I started planning. I did not realize the work that went into this!! I quickly learned about ADRs, and got to work!! I picked a park a day and then picked a restaurant near those parks that we may want to try. I made, cancelled, made, cancelled, made, cancelled, so many time!! But I have confirmed them as well, so I am certain they are perfect!!

Here is a run down:

Cape May Cafe Breakfast
Cinderella's Royal Table Breakfast (right after a BBB appointment)
Coral Reef Dinner
Tuskerhouse Breakfast
Chef Mickey's Breakfast
Tony's Dinner
Akersus Lunch
O'Hana Dinner
Crystal Palace Breakfast
1900 Fare Dinner

Overall, we maximized our Character interaction (I hope).

It was about one week into planning, that I learned of something I had never heard of FREE DINING!!

So, after reading all about it, we patiently waited for April 10th like the rest of you. We got up at 5:00am our time (7:00 am Orlando Time) and started to call. We used the home phone and 2 cell phones ans sat on hold for 62 minutes!! We finally got through and, we got it!! Our original booking, but with FREE DINING!! We did not have to change anything at all!! Over all we saved $945!! Now, keep in mind, we had already budgetted this money, so this was BONUS money!! It changed our plans (a little) and we decided to definately go to Sea World and Universal for one day each as a reasult. (We had been thinking about this already, but the extra savings made it a "for sure" thing!!

Up next..."Everything I Know I Learned from the DISBoards"

 

[stitcharoo]

breanna:
haha
this is interesting!
i'm going to keep reading.