June 2011 PT: Keeping the sanity on the long drive! (6/6 update, single digit dance)

[kittylady1972]

So as of December of 2010, it has been more than a YEAR since our last Disney trip...but we made two of them in 2009. So how have we survived? It wasn't easy!!

Plans are already in motion for a HAIL HAIL the Gang's ALL HERE return to Walt Disney World in June of 2011. So far we have booked our little family of five in a 1BR at Bay Lake Towers in a Lakeview room...but are still contemplating a MK View upgrade.

Definitely coming along with us this time are the in-laws...a bunch of them! My FIL and MIL who always join us and my SIL and her hubby and our 6yo nephew...they last joined us on our Jan 2006 trip. The FIL and MIL come with us on almost EVERY trip but my BIL has a hard and fast rule that their family of 3 can only do WDW every FIVE YEARS.

Not sure if other relatives will join us...like possibly my parents or my brother and his wife. So stay tuned to see what we have in store so far.

Right now the cast members are:

Dina (me): 38-year-old Disneyfan for LIFE, wife to Frank and mommy to three kiddos

Frank (DH): 40-year-old Disney convert...got his first taste of WDW thanks to me back in Feb of 1997...and he's now hooked too!

Nicolas (DS): 10-year-old Disney expert...loves to search the World for Hidden Mickey's; had his first Disney trip at age 17 months

Noelle (DD): 8-year-old Princess wannabe; she's in it for the thrill rides and each trip just has her asking "can I ride that?" as she hasn't yet reached the height to ride EVERYTHING in WDW. Last trip was her first ride on Space Mountain, Mission: Space and Expedition Everest and she LOVED them; hoping she can stretch up another 2 inches by June to be able to tackle Rockin' Rollercoaster

Noah (DS): 6-year-old love of anything Cars related as well as trains; we always make sure we get a ride on the train in just for him; he also loves any rides...though he's not quite the thrill seeker as his older sister, he's also not afraid to try new stuff; last time I did have to bribe him to ride TOT more than once...but he was okay with that!

FIL: Won't mention his age here...but let's say next to me I think he MIGHT be the next biggest Walt Disney World fan in our family! He and MIL also ride anything and everything!

MIL: While she and FIL spent their honeymoon in Disneyland, she has also been an easy Disney convert and she and FIL love the thrill rides as much as any of us!

SIL: Frank's older sister; this is only trip number two for her with the whole family, though she and BIL did Honeymoon and do the Disney cruise for their 2001 Wedding

BIL: Husband of above; definitely not a big Disney fan, thus his credo of Disney ONLY every five years...no more than that!

Nephew: He's six and this will be only his second WDW trip...far from the veteran that our kids are of course. He is VERY hesistant to ride anything new so this is going to be interesting to see how much he will truly ride on this trip.

Next installment: Dining Ressies are DONE!!!


QUICK LINKS BELOW:

It's all about the FOOD of course!
You snooze you lose...ARGH!
Planning ANOTHER trip before the June trip is done? YEP it's possible!
Waitlisted no more! Plus budget talk
Deluxe Dining Plan? That is the question!
The Touring Plan (for now)
MISSION: Locate 2011 Tickets SUCCESS!!
Dining plan changes already...shocking (not)
2/1 Dining Plan Revisions - yes AGAIN!
Touring plan revisions - thanks to dining plan revisions!
Flashback to five years ago!
ALL ABOARD!!! Another update...Autotrain or not?
SURELY you can't be SERIOUS about the SNOW??!!
Touring Plan 2.0
NON-Theme Park Adventures at Disney
Making Room ofr the Food: My Personal Weight Loss Challenge
THIRTEEN is a magic number!
More Camera talk and MORE train talk!
Touring Plan 3.0
Tools for Surviving the June Heat and more trip planning
Booked for 2012 ALREADY!!
Cat is PARTIALLY let out of the bag...sorta!
It's an EXPERIENCE right? Amtrak's NON-Customer Service!
SEVEN WEEKS TO GO - time to get in shape for Disney!
SIX WEEKS TO GO - how's that weight loss going? Don't ask!
5 Weeks to go - Did I say no more changes? Yeah about that....
Touring Plan 4.0 - Final (Seriously...stop laughing!)
The numbers are getting smaller!
Keeping the sanity on a long drive

 

[kittylady1972]

So one of our favorite things about our Disney trips has always been the food. Yes it's expensive but we've always enjoyed our meals there and when you travel with people who have Italian in their blood you know they are going to want to eat some good food!

Admittedly, we've definitely seen a decline in the food over the last few years. We miss Alfredo's in EPCOT...it was a favorite but we miss the Concourse Steakhouse even more...it was a gem we discovered and loved returning to visit. Now that the kids are older, we don't worry too much about getting in all of the character meals...with the exception of Chef Mickey's because we visit there EVERY trip for at least one meal...it's a tradition.

We LOVE the Cobb Salad at the Hollywood Brown Derby so we try to make a return trip there now. We also LOVE the atmosphere and ambiance of the California Grill. It took me MANY years and MANY cancelled ADRs to finally decide to give the Cali Grill a try...but once we did (I'm a very picky eater) we were hooked. We look forward to introducing the other family members to this gem on our upcoming trip and even better...my FIL has agreed to pay so even better!

Ok, so without further delay, here are the restaurants I've added for our upcoming June 2011 trip. Since there are 10 of us in the travel party, I have a dining reservation for each night in case we want to eat dinner together, and some days I've made lunch ressies since I didn't want to pay dinner prices!

Cape May Cafe (Dinner): We ate at the Cape May Cafe last back in I THINK Sept/Oct of 2003. Coming from a seafood state, I wasn't impressed. Give me steamed MD Blue Crab over crab legs anyday...and back then I also didn't really enjoy clams or mussels, which I do today. So I've read good things about it as of late and we'll give it another try.

Tusker House (Breakfast): Really this is pretty much brunch. We don't usually spend a lot of time at the Animal Kingdom, and I'm sure even less in the heat of June, but hopefully we can make through to this reservation without a heavy breakfast and use it as more of a brunch since the ressie is at 10:20am. We've never eaten here but read good things about the food.

Hollywood Brown Derby (Lunch): Cobb Salad...'nuff said. Unfortunately this ressie is on the same day as the above...since I can't decide what park to visit. It's an EE day for AK so I think AK would be the preference. I have another Brown Derby lunch scheduled later in the week...but it's a late lunch which I'm hoping will coast us beyond dinner.

California Grill (Dinner): Had to get a late ressie here...only choice for our party of 10 but that's okay as we can probably stretch this out through Wishes and dessert.

LeCellier (lunch): We've done dinner here before...never lunch. Lunch is cheaper, the respite of a cool place in the heat of the afternoon will probably be good. It's another late lunch...2:30pm...hoping to coast through to dinner.

The Wave (dinner): Never tried this, sorta consider it the Concourse Steakhouse replacement but it has never sounded as good to us. Sadly this is on the same day as the above lunch and at 6:15pm...if we make our LeCellier lunch, then we could never do dinner so soon which is why we have the next ressie below

Rose & Crown Pub (dinner): May as well make this day our EPCOT day! This is a 7:45pm dinner, which would work out great with our 2:30pm lunch at LeCellier the same day. We are hoping to snag a table outside for Illuminations viewing. We did this for Nicolas' first trip back in Sept of 2001 and it was awesome...my in-laws still talk about it. I can never get the family to stick around to watch Illuminations...and I enjoy it. So this will assure they stay for it! Usually I'm happy to just hit the Yorkshire Fish carry-out window and eat my Fish-N-Chips on the side near the water...guess this time I'll have to pay more for them!

Chef Mickey's (breakfast): Tradition...'nuff said...and easy walk from our room at Bay Lake Towers so it's an early one...7:30am!

Hollywood Brown Derby: Just in case we stick with the plan of AK for EE on Monday and don't make the lunch I already have scheduled for the Brown Derby on that day...this is another late lunch at 2:10pm though...which is going to make it difficult to want to make our next ressie this same day which is below

50s Prime Time Cafe (Dinner): Ok so we last visited this one as a family of three...two adults and one 8-year-old back in June of 2008. We enjoyed it and we were on the dining plan so that made it better. Our usual eating spot for dinner at HS is the Sci-Fi Dine-In but with such a large party we would never fit into one car, so I thought this might be better. Don't know if the rest of our party has ever eaten here.

LeCellier Steakhouse (lunch): Ok if we don't make the earlier planned lunch here, this is another ressie but it's an earlier lunch

Coral Reef Restaurant (l&d?? ): I just noticed I have this booked on the same day as the above...for both lunch and dinner. Clearly I need to make a decision. We can't do a 12:55pm lunch at LeCellier and then a 2:30pm lunch at Coral Reef and then a 6:50pm dinner at Coral Reef. So perhaps we can do either lunch or dinner here this day...lunch is cheaper. We have also never eaten at Coral Reef so it's another first-time for us, though I think BIL & SIL ate here back in the Jan 2006 trip.

Kona Cafe (dinner): Kona is another favorite...and used to be easier to snag a ressie here than it is now it seems. We love it. Plus it's the Friday night before we leave to go home...so it makes sense since we can take a quick monorail ride from our resort to eat here and then come back. That is unless we just decide to make the most of our last full day and stay all night at a park.

So there you have it...would love to hear opinions on what we have here...though I'll most likely change them one or a dozen times between now and our trip!

 

[DisneyAsh32]

HI! I'm subscribing. We're going in June too! When in June are you going (If you don't mind me asking)?

Unfortunately, I haven't tried any of the restaurants that you're eating at, but We will be eating at 50's Prime Time and Coral Reef for this first time in June!

Great Start!

 

[kittylady1972]

HI! I'm subscribing. We're going in June too! When in June are you going (If you don't mind me asking)?

Unfortunately, I haven't tried any of the restaurants that you're eating at, but We will be eating at 50's Prime Time and Coral Reef for this first time in June!

Great Start!

Thanks for reading...sorry it took me so long to reply. So much going on here...crazy!

Our dates are June 16th through the 25th...nine glorious nights, our longest trip ever. I am beyond excited...can't wait for it to get here but then again don't want it to get here too quickly because I know it will be over too quickly.

 

[kittylady1972]

So as of late last week, I had contacted DVC member services to verify options for the rest of our travel party for our trip. Right now our family of five is booked in a one bedroom villa at Bay Lake Towers...we are beyond excited about staying there!

Our plan was to use some of our remaining points to book two more rooms at Bay Lake Towers...one for my in-laws and one room for my sister-in-law and family. Last week I had a few options for them which included us booking some of the nights using our remaining DVC points and then getting them a discounted DVC rate on the remaining nights. It was going to cost them about $2000 total...not bad considering the rooms are about $480 a night rack rate.

Then I starting thinking about finding the points from another DVC member to have them transferred to our account. This way I could control the reservation easily and it would be cheaper for them. This week I found a DVC member with points to transfer and I spoke to the family about the costs...it would save them about $500 each to pay for the transerred points. It was going to be perfect.

I called DVC member services first thing this morning...and they no longer had the studio rooms for the dates we needed. Now what to do?

We decided to still go ahead with the transfer...and we'd just hope for the best with the reservation. The transfer was done this morning...I now had the points to work with for the reservations for the other family members.

I called this afternoon to check on availability...at the time they had ONE Lakeview BLT studio for all of my dates...but not two. In the seconds it took me to verify the dates NOT available for the other rooms...and I decided to book the one they had...it was GONE! ARGH AGAIN!!!

Explored other room availability and finally settled on two Savannah View studio rooms at Kidani Village. Points value is the same as a lakeview studio at BLT so I also have each one on a hold list. I plan to call Member Services tomorrow morning just to check on availability again...maybe I'll get lucky and a room will be open again. I know the family is disappointed because we had so hoped to get them all at Bay Lake Towers, but the Savannah View room will still be nice. We'll see what happens.

 

[DisneyAsh32]

Thanks for reading...sorry it took me so long to reply. So much going on here...crazy!

Our dates are June 16th through the 25th...nine glorious nights, our longest trip ever. I am beyond excited...can't wait for it to get here but then again don't want it to get here too quickly because I know it will be over too quickly.

I know exactly what you mean. The anticipation is the worst and the best part. You hate waiting but once the trip is here its over before you know it.

I hope you get lucky and are able to get those rooms at BLT. I would LOVE to stay there one day.

 

[kittylady1972]

I know exactly what you mean. The anticipation is the worst and the best part. You hate waiting but once the trip is here its over before you know it.

I hope you get lucky and are able to get those rooms at BLT. I would LOVE to stay there one day.

Thanks and an update from this morning. I decided to call Member Services first thing this morning...and got lucky! I snagged a BLT Lakeview Studio for ONE of our travel party. There was another one available for all nights except for ONE...a Wednesday of all nights! I moved that group also and waitlisted them for the one remaining night. I feel pretty good that the one night will probably convert and if not...I told them to consider just packing an overnight bag for that night and leaving the rest of the stuff with us. They could go on "safari" for one night...and return to Bay Lake for the last two nights. No biggie...but I honestly don't think it will come to that.

My DH told me this morning he was considering moving us all over to a different resort so we could all be together, but I told him there was NO WAY I was giving up Bay Lake Towers! I think everybody will be much happier now.

 

[teachermommy78]

We are going in June as well! We will be there June 23rd to July 4th. A long one for us too! We have 30 people in our group. I think I may throw up. It is a bunch of my husband's cousins and their families. The good thing is that we have several days at the beginning where it is just us. And we're all going into it flexible with only about 4 ADRs together. We'll split up a bunch, I think, which will be good for the kids and their cousin. Also, grandmas can take the grandkids and let the moms and dads get out together!!!

 

[DisneyAsh32]

Thanks and an update from this morning. I decided to call Member Services first thing this morning...and got lucky! I snagged a BLT Lakeview Studio for ONE of our travel party. There was another one available for all nights except for ONE...a Wednesday of all nights! I moved that group also and waitlisted them for the one remaining night. I feel pretty good that the one night will probably convert and if not...I told them to consider just packing an overnight bag for that night and leaving the rest of the stuff with us. They could go on "safari" for one night...and return to Bay Lake for the last two nights. No biggie...but I honestly don't think it will come to that.

My DH told me this morning he was considering moving us all over to a different resort so we could all be together, but I told him there was NO WAY I was giving up Bay Lake Towers! I think everybody will be much happier now.

Yay! Congratulations. I'm so glad everything worked out for you. Of course we all knew that Disney magic would prevail

 

[kittylady1972]

We are going in June as well! We will be there June 23rd to July 4th. A long one for us too! We have 30 people in our group. I think I may throw up. It is a bunch of my husband's cousins and their families. The good thing is that we have several days at the beginning where it is just us. And we're all going into it flexible with only about 4 ADRs together. We'll split up a bunch, I think, which will be good for the kids and their cousin. Also, grandmas can take the grandkids and let the moms and dads get out together!!!

WOW....30 people! That sounds like fun...and at the same time crazy! At least you get a few days by yourself.

So far there are only 10 of us...but I might be able to convince some of my side of the family to go for a few nights...so that would be only four more. We have some friends who we are also trying to convince to go, but they are waiting to make sure their daughter, who is recovering from several surgeries and a long hospital stay in the summer and fall, will be up for the trip. Since she (their daughter) missed out on MOST of her summer last year due to the emergency hospitalization, we think they need to make this summer a great one for her and what better way to do that than Disney! I'm hoping they do figure out a way to go, even for a few days.

We do have all of our ADRs as a party of 10, but I've told the rest of the group if they can't or don't want to join us that's fine. It will be easier for us so show up with LESS people for an ADR than to add more later.

 

[kittylady1972]

Yay! Congratulations. I'm so glad everything worked out for you. Of course we all knew that Disney magic would prevail

Thanks...yes I am thrilled with the outcome. My SIL is not thrilled with the idea of possibly having to change rooms towards the end of the trip but the rest of us think it would be like getting another mini-vacation within the vacation. We have even said they could take OUR room for that one night and we'd take the room at Kidani Village for a night...our kids would LOVE that.

 

[kittylady1972]

So as it turns out, our current reservation for June includes an additional night at the beginning that has NOT been included for everybody else. We have ourselves arriving on a Wednesday night, but the rest of the family is booked beginning Thursday night. My rationale at the time was that I was HOPING maybe the kids would get out of school earlier this year, and we could actually travel the weekend BEFORE our planned Thursday...so if I already had a Wed night booked, I'd just need to maybe book the previous weekend. However we may not really need that Wednesday night.

That means those DVC points would return to their current use year...and we'd have to use them before the end of 2011...what a predicament? Another Disney trip? How HORRIBLE!

Part of me was thinking about maybe a few nights at Vero Beach...alone during my spring break. No kids, me and a book near the beach...but a friend who lives in Florida says the resort is very kid-oriented so maybe not quite the relaxing me-time I need there.

So we are already discussing an adult-only trip back to WDW maybe in the fall for the Food and Wine Festival instead. Just me and DH and a few nights at an EPCOT resort.

Nothing is set in stone yet though. The kids final school days won't be official until late March or so and that gives us plenty of time to decide what to do. We may just go down earlier ourselves if the kids are out of school. We shall see.

Am I the only one here who is CONSTANTLY planning out the next Disney trip even before the current planned trip hasn't even happened???

 

[kittylady1972]

Waitlisted no more, no more! Yippee!!

On Saturday I got an email notification regarding my DVC reservation. Since I hadn't made any recent changes to it, I figured the only thing that could have happened was that the ONE night we had to waitlist for Bay Lake Towers for my BIL and SIL and family had come through...and I was correct! So now we are ALL in Bay Lake Towers for all nine nights of our June trip.

The exception is that we still have 10 nights booked ourselves.

So the kids have four snow days worked into the end of their school year. Each day they don't use gets taken away at the end of the year. Turns out TODAY they used ONE of those snow days...because we had sleet and freezing rain overnight. That leaves three more.

Turns out our planned first night is actually June 15th...which is actually the last day of school for the kids as of right now. So if they use all four school snow days...then we really don't have a chance of making it to WDW for that first night. However if they use all but ONE of the snow days (which means they get two more) then we could leave Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning and arrive in WDW for that first night. Right now we do plan to drive the entire time...leaving VERY early one morning (like in the 3am hour or so) and driving the whole time, with DH and I trading off on the drive.

We feel pretty good about doing this drive considering that we regularly drive 7.5 to 8 hours one-way to visit my parents a few times a year in NC. So the MD to FL drive is about twice that drive and the kids, with their multitude of entertainment options, should be okay with the drive.

For a brief history, we have done the MD to FL trek with all three kids ONE other time...back in November of 2007. For that trip we left in the afternoon, but by about 10pm the kids were getting really tired and cranky and so we ended up stopping overnight at a hotel in SC. We did, however, make the entire drive back about a week later. For that one, we left around 7:30am and arrived home close to 1am, but we made a few stops including a long dinner at Cracker Barrel, to help break up our trip.

Kids are actually looking forward to the drive and not complaining too much about it. We are looking forward to saving the money on airfare...and using our money for park tickets instead.

Right now my estimate is that we'll have to shell about about $1500 in park tickets...and that's with getting approximately TWO adult Disney tickets for free using either Disney Visa Reward dollars or other reward dollars from another credit card. Then we will have to buy on more adult Disney park hopper and two child park hoppers. In addition, we'd really like to spend two days at the Universal parks. The kids have never been there and they are tall enough to do most of the rides now with the exception of the bigger coasters. So we'd need 2-day park-to-park tickets for that part of our adventure.

We are still on the fence about shelling out so much money in tickets...and considering not doing Universal. However if the kids can reach the 48-inch mark by next spring (our two youngest are 1 inch and 2 inches shy respectively) then we will definitely have to do Universal. Actually I think my MIL and FIL are looking forward to trying Universal as well, so I honestly can't see us NOT making that a part of this trip.

 

[kittylady1972]

So not that the resort reservations are all set in stone for everybody, it's time for me to start obsessing over something else...the FOOD!

Now I mentioned in an earlier post all of my current dining reservations. These were thrown together fairly quickly so they are ALWAYS subject to change. I am still trying to piece together which parks we'll visit on which day based on things like the EMH for the parks. While we always TRY to make those early EMH and we have kids that are always up early anyway, I still find that it's rare for us to make it to a park opening. It's happened...but not often. However there are a few I think might be worth it to make this time around.

Anyway, back to the dining plans. So the great thing I learned recently was that as DVC members we are not longer required to get the dining night for ALL nights of our reservation. This is great...especially since we are staying for NINE nights and the first few days probably won't even be spend in the Disney parks.

Then I started looking at our dining reservations and realized that the plan that would make the most sense for us, since we have a few signature dining reservations, would be the Deluxe Dining Plan. This would also allow us to get appetizers, which is a big plus as I always love to try an app or two with a meal.

My only real issue regarding getting our money's worth on Deluxe Dining is the fact that I have a 10-year-old....which means he's considered an adult. The problem is that he is the PICKIEST eater ever and he would eat NOTHING on the adult menu...I know he'll want a kids meal! However my two younger kids (age 6 and 8) are not NEARLY as picky...and my 8yo daughter loves STEAK...so I'm thinking we'd just order the kids meal for her, an adults meal for my daughter, and then they would just SWITCH plates! I don't think that will be a problem, right?

Looking at our plans, I think I may be able to get the Deluxe Dining Plan for just the last FIVE nights of our trip. That would cover the majority of the meals I already have planned. However, like a good Disney planner, I really need to sit down and calculate it all out based on our most likely meals, looking at the menu, and deciding what we'd most likely spend. I really do think we'll end up coming out ahead doing it that way though.

Once I have a plan, I'll mention it to the other members of our group to see if they want to add the dining plan into their reservation. We have PLENTY of time so it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, since my FIL has already talked about paying for our California Grill Meal, this will make it much easier on him...because we'd just use our credits for it instead!

Tune in later to see what I decide.....

 

[teachermommy78]

Great plans!!! I'm so glad things are starting to work out for you! When we were there, they let my niece order from the kids menu all the time. They just won't let you go the other way around (kid ordering from adult). Although, I'm sure switching would be just fine! So if both kids wanted to order from the kids menu, just ask. In 2008, it worked!

 

[kittylady1972]

Great plans!!! I'm so glad things are starting to work out for you! When we were there, they let my niece order from the kids menu all the time. They just won't let you go the other way around (kid ordering from adult). Although, I'm sure switching would be just fine! So if both kids wanted to order from the kids menu, just ask. In 2008, it worked!

Thanks for the info! I'm sure I'm not the only one to visit WDW with a 10-year-old picky eater. I'm sure switching wouldn't be a problem too and certainly a better use of the dining credits than to order kids meals with adult credits. We are so looking forward to this trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

We all know plans are subject to change, especially with just about 6 months to go (wow) but here is the current plan so far:

DAY 1 (THUR): Travel day; plan is to depart Maryland sometime between 3am and 4am and be on the road, stopping for breakfast and lunch but only at fast food joints; there is even talk of saving more $$$ by packing lunches with us...a good possibility; with any luck we'll arrive at Bay Lake Towers sometime in the early evening hours, check-in and relax in the room

DAY 2 & DAY 3 (FRI & SAT): Universal Studios parks; kids have never been to either of these parks so they should enjoy it; it might be strange to come back to our room each night overlooking the Magic Kingdom park, but we know we'll get there eventually! Perhaps we can even wander over to the Magic Kingdom in the evenings if we are up for it...for dessert...DOLE WHIPS!

DAY 4 (SUN): Early morning breakfast with Chef Mickey with the whole gang and spend the day exploring Magic Kingdom; we may end up back at the room for a pool/lunch break...easy enough since we can walk right over; it's an extra evening day for Magic Kingdom so we can always go back later that night if we've had a break in the afternoon

DAY 5 (MON): This is an early entry day for Animal Kingdom, so I'm hoping we can be there close to rope drop since that park gets SO hot so quickly; we have a 10:20am breakfast at Tusker House...which will be more like a brunch since lunch starts at 10:30am there; back to the room in the afternoon for cooling off time and then we have a 7:25pm dinner at California Grill

DAY 6 (TUE): Early morning at Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, RnRC are the big ones to hit and anything else is a bonus; 11:45am lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby; back to our room in early afternoon for a break; head to EPCOT later where we have a 7:45pm dinner at Rose and Crown Pub and hopefully will view Illuminations there; it's an extra evening day for EPCOT so we can stay as long as the kids will tolerate

DAY 7 (WED): Possibly a morning at Magic Kingdom again then back to the hotel for a swim and lunch; heading to Hollywood Studios that evening for a 5:15pm dinner at the Prime Time Cafe

DAY 8 (THUR): Morning is pretty open...so we can hit a park or just chill; this is an early morning day at Magic Kingdom I have a lunch at Coral Reef planned as well as a dinner, so I'd like to hit one of those

DAY 9 (FRI): Our last full day...so plan is to spend it at Magic Kingdom again since it's close, then of course the packing and stuff to be ready for out trip home the next day; it's also an early morning at EPCOT so if we want to do a few things there first thing in the morning, we may do that

DAY 10 (SAT): Another travel day; probably leave early in the morning after a nice breakfast at our hotel for the long drive home

 

[kittylady1972]

In September of 2001, we took our oldest son Nicolas to Walt Disney World for the very first time. We stayed in the Contemporary Resort and bought our park hoppers through Disney - they were 5-day tickets that included 2 Options for either the waterparks or Disneyquest...and they NEVER expire!

Why is this important now you may ask? Because we used the tickets for the parks but we NEVER used the waterpark options...which means each of those 3 tickets contained TWO options on them for waterparks.

We realized this during our May 2009 trip and I decided to take the tickets with me to see if it was really true...that they could still be used. A quick stop at guest services confirmed it...we were holding basically 4 adult entries to waterparks and 2 child entries.

It was during that trip that we decided to use those options. We took all three kids to Typhoon Lagoon and only had to pay for TWO kid entries to the waterpark. It was GREAT!

Now that we are returning again in June this year, another waterpark trip might be in order. We honestly haven't taken too many trips during the time of year where waterparks would even sound that great...which is saying a lot for the many trips we've taken since that 2001 trip. However my mission over the weekend was to find those valuable tickets...hadn't seen them since that May 2009 trip!

Mission was successful as you may have guessed. I am now holding another 3 FREE entries to a waterpark, so if we want to do another waterpark visit for our upcoming trip, we can do that. AWESEOME!

 

[kittylady1972]

New thoughts on dining...this is what happens when you start frequenting the Disney boards more often I guess!

I realized tonight that it might make more sense, given my picky 10-year-old and the fact that he won't eat off the adult menus, to maybe work on pooling his credits so that we can use them. This isn't illegal at all...and then I started wondering if maybe instead of doing Deluxe Dining we could back off to the standard dining plan, and just add another night with that instead.

The draw of the deluxe plan was the appetizers and the 2 snacks...and while we might use the snacks, we may not really use or need the appetizers. Why not just save room for dessert instead?

So we can save $200-$300 by backing off to the regular dining plan and adding one night to it. Sure we may get appetizers at a few places but we'd just pay out of pocket for those and honestly there are only one or two places I see us getting appetizers. Three of our dining ressies are buffets...so no appetizers there. We'll have to use the adult credits there of course, but that still leaves plenty of extra adult credits to use at other meals.

I think this may work out better for us. We'll use DS extra dining credits to fill in with some and honestly there are some places where I might just stick to appetizers anyway...so no need to use credits for that.

Of course, just tonight I sent out an email to our travel party regarding our plan to do the Deluxe Dining for four nights. I will wait a while before I send out another email regarding my change in plans!

 

[kittylady1972]

In the course of trying to maximize dining credits and perhaps limit the out of pocket spending, I've made a ton of revisions to our dining reservations this week. I still need to calculate the changes but basically I decided to cancel any of my "backup" reservations...and we'll chance if we don't make one reservation we'll just have to do counter service again. Today I looked over a bunch of the counter service options and realized it might be neat to just try out a few different counter service places. This means sticking to the regular dining plan after all.

So here is our orginal plan and the reservations I've removed are in red:


Cape May Cafe (Dinner): We ate at the Cape May Cafe last back in I THINK Sept/Oct of 2003. Coming from a seafood state, I wasn't impressed. Give me steamed MD Blue Crab over crab legs anyday...and back then I also didn't really enjoy clams or mussels, which I do today. So I've read good things about it as of late and we'll give it another try.

Tusker House (Breakfast): Really this is pretty much brunch. We don't usually spend a lot of time at the Animal Kingdom, and I'm sure even less in the heat of June, but hopefully we can make through to this reservation without a heavy breakfast and use it as more of a brunch since the ressie is at 10:20am. We've never eaten here but read good things about the food.

Hollywood Brown Derby (Lunch): Cobb Salad...'nuff said. Unfortunately this ressie is on the same day as the above...since I can't decide what park to visit. It's an EE day for AK so I think AK would be the preference. I have another Brown Derby lunch scheduled later in the week...but it's a late lunch which I'm hoping will coast us beyond dinner.

California Grill (Dinner): Had to get a late ressie here...only choice for our party of 10 but that's okay as we can probably stretch this out through Wishes and dessert.

LeCellier (lunch): We've done dinner here before...never lunch. Lunch is cheaper, the respite of a cool place in the heat of the afternoon will probably be good. It's another late lunch...2:30pm...hoping to coast through to dinner.

REMOVED this one: decided that with it being TWO credits...we didn't need to do it.


The Wave (dinner): Never tried this, sorta consider it the Concourse Steakhouse replacement but it has never sounded as good to us. Sadly this is on the same day as the above lunch and at 6:15pm...if we make our LeCellier lunch, then we could never do dinner so soon which is why we have the next ressie below

REMOVED this one: It's still an option to check when we are down there if we need a table service, but I have replaced it.


Rose & Crown Pub (dinner): May as well make this day our EPCOT day! This is a 7:45pm dinner, which would work out great with our 2:30pm lunch at LeCellier the same day. We are hoping to snag a table outside for Illuminations viewing. We did this for Nicolas' first trip back in Sept of 2001 and it was awesome...my in-laws still talk about it. I can never get the family to stick around to watch Illuminations...and I enjoy it. So this will assure they stay for it! Usually I'm happy to just hit the Yorkshire Fish carry-out window and eat my Fish-N-Chips on the side near the water...guess this time I'll have to pay more for them!

Chef Mickey's (breakfast): Tradition...'nuff said...and easy walk from our room at Bay Lake Towers so it's an early one...7:30am!

Hollywood Brown Derby: Just in case we stick with the plan of AK for EE on Monday and don't make the lunch I already have scheduled for the Brown Derby on that day...this is another late lunch at 2:10pm though...which is going to make it difficult to want to make our next ressie this same day which is below


50s Prime Time Cafe (Dinner): Ok so we last visited this one as a family of three...two adults and one 8-year-old back in June of 2008. We enjoyed it and we were on the dining plan so that made it better. Our usual eating spot for dinner at HS is the Sci-Fi Dine-In but with such a large party we would never fit into one car, so I thought this might be better. Don't know if the rest of our party has ever eaten here.

Removed this one...and replaced it with Mama Melrose.


Coral Reef Restaurant (l&d?? ): I just noticed I have this booked on the same day as the above...for both lunch and dinner. Clearly I need to make a decision. We can't do a 12:55pm lunch at LeCellier and then a 2:30pm lunch at Coral Reef and then a 6:50pm dinner at Coral Reef. So perhaps we can do either lunch or dinner here this day...lunch is cheaper. We have also never eaten at Coral Reef so it's another first-time for us, though I think BIL & SIL ate here back in the Jan 2006 trip.

Removed this one...just didn't feel it was a MUST do for us this time.

Kona Cafe (dinner): Kona is another favorite...and used to be easier to snag a ressie here than it is now it seems. We love it. Plus it's the Friday night before we leave to go home...so it makes sense since we can take a quick monorail ride from our resort to eat here and then come back. That is unless we just decide to make the most of our last full day and stay all night at a park.



NEW ADDITIONS:
Grand Floridian Cafe (Dinner): This one is NEW to us...have never eaten here. I liked that it was on the monorail, so easy for us to get to it all together without having to drive. It will NOT be on a night that we have the dining plan, so we'd pay OOP for it.

Crystal Palace (Breakfast): Ok, so I was looking for a great way to start off our first morning visit to a WDW park and especially to Magic Kingdom. Since we can walk over, CP seemed like a great option...and I got a reservation at 8:05am on a day the park opens at 9am...so we could have Main Street to ourselves!

Chef de France (Dinner):I got this early enough that we could hopefully catch the last visit with Remy for the day. Another reason was that we had lunch here on our last trip and I really enjoyed the food. Dinner sounded good, and with the regular dining plan we could choose the Prix-Fixe dinner which sounded really good too.

Captain's Grill (Dinner):Ok, so this is a backup for Chef de France above in case we don't want to travel or stay in the park that day. We've eaten here a few times and really enjoyed it. Plus they also have a Prix-Fixe dinner and being able to get appetizers and be on the regular dining plan is a bonus.

Mama Melrose (Lunch):This is actually the Fantasmic! Dinner package. I thought it would be GREAT to see Fantasmic! again as we haven't seen in in a few years. So skipping the lines is a bonus. Another bonus for this one...uses one table service credit AND we get appetizers. Have I mentioned I LOVE appetizers?


So there you have it...the new and improved dining reservations, which means there will be a slight change in our touring plan as well. Off to modify that next!