is this too much in one day/week?

[Lisa F]

My son and I are doing the DDP for a split stay for our upcoming trip in December and I'm trying to cram it all in in a week... it's tough!

I have decided to do the candlelight processional package out of pocket - it is a terrible use of 2TS, but recent talk of HDDR has made me want to do that too. I kind of want to do something special on our last night there and for a while I had crystal palace dinner planned for there. We had a great time last year but it is not scratching my "last night" itch so I have been shuffling things around a bit.

Right now my week looks like this:
Arrive Saturday late afternoon (hoping for Poly DVC at 7 months otherwise will be BLT), dinner at Ohana

Sunday morning: AK, lunch at Tusker House
Sunday afternoon/evening: QS dinner at MK, Mickey's Very Merry Xmas party

Monday morning: BoG breakfast at MK, do a few rides
Monday mid-day: check in to boardwalk villas, QS lunch at boardwalk bakery (lobster roll is kind of light and small but good value)
Monday dinner: Garden Grill, illuminations

Tuesday: break day for the morning, HS/fantasmic evening. Downtown disney etc.
Tuesday lunch: QS at wolfgang puck express
Tuesday dinner: H&V Holiday Dine w/fantasmic package

Wednesday: up early for Jedi Training Academy at HS
Wednesday lunch: Sci Fi dine in
Wednesday afternoon/evening: back to AK for Rivers of Light, planning on QS at Flame Tree.
this is in flux and may change if there is a tusker house dinner package, may end up shuffling some things around.

Thursday: all day Epcot
Thursday early lunch: CP package at Coral Reef (planning to get first available seating)
Thursday dinner: QS at Tangierine Cafe after 5pm CP

Friday: back to MK
Friday breakfast: Crystal Palace
Friday lunch: BoG
Friday Dinner: 6:30 HDDR

Saturday morning before flight:
Ohana breakfast

is this just TOO much in one day at the end of a trip? I'm half wondering if we should spend a 3rd night in the MK area at the beginning of our trip so I can get another TS in and do CP breakfast instead of BoG breakfast on Monday, then do Rivers of Light that night (maybe with dinner dining package - if they offer it with tusker house will definitely move it to that day). I was JUST cramming in all of the QS not using them for breakfast except for BoG but adding this meal will mean using a bunch of them for breakfasts, which is ok... I just worry about there being too much food. I would rather pay OOP for a few things than doing DxDDP because I think overall it will cost me a lot more to do it that way AND they do not have tier 1 availability at HDDR.

Or maybe I should look into doing DxDDP for just the first two nights and front load a lot of TS stuff there and then regular DDP for the remaining 5 nights. Especially if there is a dining package for Rivers of Light I could see adding more TS early on and then spreading it out more toward the end of the trip.

Is this way TMI or can any other planning obsessed people help me out here?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I agree that Friday seems heavy.

Odds are immense on there being a RoL Dining Package, because those packages are nothing but profit for the Mouse. Suspicion would be that it'll be a 2 credit at Tiffin's, or a 1 credit at TH or MAYBE Y&Y/RFC. None of the F! packages use a third-party run restaurant, so it's a bit of new territory trying to guess there.

 

[hookedonears]

For your split stay, you can drop your bags off at the Poly Bell Services on your way out. Your bags will be delivered to and be in your new room at the BWV. Check-in process will be automatic. You'll receive a text of your new room number when its ready. Real easy. Just take a back-pack to the parks with anything you may need before heading to the BWV.

 

[Lisa F]

For your split stay, you can drop your bags off at the Poly Bell Services on your way out. Your bags will be delivered to and be in your new room at the BWV. Check-in process will be automatic. You'll receive a text of your new room number when its ready. Real easy. Just take a back-pack to the parks with any thing you may need before heading to the BWV.

I did a chat with at Disney CM to find out about that and they said I had to physically check in at BWV to get my DDP entitlements. Is that true? Or will my entitlements automatically show up in MDE if I do online checkin?

Right now I am playing with doing DxDDP for first two nights giving me 12 credits
Saturday night: 2TS Ohana
Sunday Morning: 2TS Tusker House Breakfast
Sunday Night: 4TS California Grill dinner before MVMCP, 5pm is our preferred time at signatures
Monday Morning: 2TS CP breakfast
Monday Night: 2TS RoL dinner package at Yak n Yeti


or alternately if Yak n Yeti is not an option but Tiffin is:
Saturday night: 2TS Ohana
Sunday Morning: 2TS Tusker House Breakfast
Sunday Night: 2TS California Grill dinner before MVMCP, pay OOP for kid, 5pm is our preferred time at signatures
Monday Morning: 2TS CP breakfast
Monday Night: 4TS RoL dinner package at Tiffin

it makes the beginning of my trip a little meal heavy but since I am doing the split stay I can do that and it gets me my signature in early on. I figure with a 5pm reservation at CA Grill we should be at MK by 6:30 - in time for the party. A friend of mine thinks I'm nuts not to show up there at 4pm but we are doing parkhoppers so park admission doesn't come into play.

Still playing with the remaining 5 days though. But with scenario 1, assuming dinner package at YnY at same prices as Mama Melrose in Fantasmic, I come out about $75 ahead for the two days and get a lovely meal at CA grill I was not previously planning on with regular dining plan. honestly scenario 2 sounds best if the new restaurant is half decent and has anything my child will eat on the menu, I assume I will do even better at maximizing credits that way as well and I get another signature in the mix.

 

[hookedonears]

I have never done it myself, though was told by a friend who did a split stay at the Poly and Wilderness that that's how it worked. I would discuss with someone directly with the Resort for a second opinion.

 

[hookedonears]

There could possibly be a difference in the rules for DVC properties.

 

[smiths02]

Could you do quick service Monday night instead of Garden Grill since you have H&V and Ohana already...and drop Friday BoG lunch since you are already eating there another day (a snack will probably be enough that day for lunch)

 

[smiths02]

We are doing a split stay, and I kept toying with the idea of doing DxDP our last 3 nights...then I found myself adding food we didn't need to eat and spending too much time at restaurants.

 

[Lisa F]

We are doing a split stay, and I kept toying with the idea of doing DxDP our last 3 nights...then I found myself adding food we didn't need to eat and spending too much time at restaurants.

I have a whole new plan that uses DxDDP for the first 3 nights and it actually works out pretty well, with the "not good TS values on DDP" stuff falling toward the end of the trip and more flexibility toward the end of the trip as well. Last 3 nights might be harder than first 3 I think.

I basically put in snacks we'd be likely to use and no more than 2 meals a day (heavy on TS first 3 days, lighter on TS later into the trip) and I come out about $150 ahead. I also get to fit in a couple of meals I didn't think I could fit because I needed to use all of those counter service. I think a buffet breakfast, snack and then TS dinner (sometimes buffet sometimes not) is not a bad way to go, and because it would be at the beginning of my stay and I am planning to move to BWV I can use any unused snack credits at the boardwalk bakery end of switchover day to use for snacks/breakfast while at the boardwalk.

it would leave the end of my week with an earlyish ADR for lunch at BoG and then Hoop De Doo both OOP.

 

[Lisa F]

Now I am looking at the following:
arrival Saturday Dinner : Ohana 2TS
Sunday Breakfast : Tusker House 2TS
Sunday Dinner : CA Grill 4TS (early pre-xmas party dinner)
Monday Breakfast : Crystal Palace
Monday Dinner : Tiffin Rivers of Light package 4TS - this is obviously conjecture
Tuesday Breakfast : Ohana 2TS
Tuesday Dinner : Hollywood and Vine Holiday Dine w/Fantasmic 2TS

so basically 3 days of buffet character breakfast and 4 expensive dinners. For snacks I threw a few things in but Tuesday will be disney springs day so my little guy can make his own krispie treat as a snack and any snack credits left over we will just get croissants and pastries from the boardwalk bakery for the next day or two breakfast (we will be moving from Poly villas to BWV Tuesday, so I have til end of Tuesday to use the credits up - which is better than scrambling to take snacks home at the end of a trip I think). All remaining days will be breakfast at the BWV either belle vue lounge or boardwalk bakery. We can still use refillable mugs as well there so that is a bonus.

Then Wednesday we'd do Sci Fi dine in for early lunch but rather than making it a bigger meal to make it a value on the regular DDP (it was my big meal of the day before) I'd pay OOP and get an appetizer for me, kid meal for my kid, and a shake for each of us. It is really not a whole lot more than a good value CS even with an expensive appetizer like the wings/onion rings/pickle chips combo. Maybe $10 more than a CS with tip.

Wednesday for dinner we'd do Coral Reef and it's a better value to pay OOP for this meal than to do it as part of the package. So Wednesday is also a little bit food heavy too but hopefully an early and lighter sci fi lunch will not be too much with dinner.

Thursday I will do the candlelight processional package with Garden Grill lunch and then Tangierine Cafe QS for dinner.

Friday I will do BoG for an early lunch and then 6:30 HDDR for dinner.

flexible about breakfast on the last day.

 

[nkereina]

My only advice would be that if you do QS during MVMCP, try to eat before 7pm when the party actually starts. Once the party is on, there are only a select few QS locations open and they get crowded very quickly. We made the mistake of trying to eat a late dinner at Cosmic Ray's during MNSSHP one year and it was a mad house. Ate up an hour of party time, which is valuable! Now we always make sure to eat before.

My other piece of advice is for any days you are doing TS lunches and TS dinners in the same day. Schedule the times further apart than you think you might need to. While a 12pm lunch and 5:30pm dinner sounds reasonable, we've learned that with the large portions, we just aren't hungry by that time. We'll now do a light breakfast, 11:30-12pm lunch, and a 7pm dinner (when they're both TS).

Have fun!

 

[Lisa F]

I think for first 3 days I am going to do TS breakfast and TS dinner with snacks for lunch. I think I will be in AK around lunchtime for 2 of those days and they have awesome savory lunchlike snacks there. The only day I have TS lunch and TS dinner I will do Sci Fi for lunch and do an appetizer and shake rather than a full meal and yes I will schedule them kind of far apart, like 11am lunch (or whenever they open) and 6pm dinner. Might dump Coral Reef though even though it is an old favorite of mine.

 

[DIS_MERI]

I did a chat with at Disney CM to find out about that and they said I had to physically check in at BWV to get my DDP entitlements. Is that true? Or will my entitlements automatically show up in MDE if I do online checkin?

In my experience (Nov '15), yes, you have to physically check in to use DDP. However, at BLT they told me that I could have paid for the meal OOP and they would have fixed it (refunded the $ and used credits instead).

 

[Lisa F]

In my experience (Nov '15), yes, you have to physically check in to use DDP. However, at BLT they told me that I could have paid for the meal OOP and they would have fixed it (refunded the $ and used credits instead).

Oh interesting. Right now I am looking at using DxDDP first half of my trip and going OOP second half so that won't matter but it is good to know for split stays that both use the DDP in some form!