"Next time, we will..." Dream Vacation Take 2!

[dr&momto2boys]

Last month, we had a wonderful Disney Vacation...BUT it was planned only 3 months in advance and several things didn't go exactly "as planned." So, while I sit here in post Disney vacation depression, I'm actually refining our next trip plans to make it even better!

The exciting differences between this upcoming (end of January/ beginning of February) vacation and the last are...
1. We got to make dining reservations at 180 days and got everything our hearts desired
2. We will get to make Fast Pass reservations at 60 days out for all of our days. (We couldn't last time because we bought 4 day passes and upgraded them to APs while we were there.)
3. We're only hopping to 3 resorts this time instead of 5!
The next two differences are my hopes but of course no guarantee...
4. We won't all get sick
5. We won't be unpleasantly surprised by much higher than expected crowd levels. (This time we'll expect it to be a possibility at least!)

I'll be back in a bit to share one of the things I'm most excited about...our dining plans!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Before the details of our trip. Let's hit on a few of the "Next time, we will/won't..." thoughts from our last trip.

A big one for us is that we will never ever, ever go to Be Our Guest for breakfast again. This was likely the most disappointing meal of our last trip. We booked a pre-park breakfast. We arrived before anyone was let in the park and admittedly didn't rush right over to the restaurant as taking pics in the emptyish park is one of the perks, right? We didn't take too long though, but even though we pre-ordered, we ended up waiting in line for over 20 minutes to confirm and pay for our order. We waited another 15 minutes for our order to come and the food was barely warm. The waitress gave us only one tray of pastries for our table of 7 until I noticed her pushing the cart away with the other tray that should have been given to us. Why did I even have to ask? The food was just okay and it cost us over $109 for 3 adults and 3 children (and one non ordering infant.) Another disappointment was that we rushed to eat to get out before rope drop, but when we exited a few minutes before 9am opening, the rope drop crowds were already lined up for 7 dwarfs mine. Nothing about this breakfast was worth it to us even if it only cost half the price!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Uh, oh! I'm sounding negative and this PTR has only just begun! We did have a great time on our September trip, really! But we're going to have an even better time on our Jan/Feb trip!

Here is our hotel, park plans, and dining line up:
Arrival day:
Check into Beach Club
Dinner (or just dessert) Beaches and Cream
Day 2:
Magic Kingdom
Dinner at bluezoo
Day 3:
Epcot Future World
Early dinner at La Hacienda
Downtime at resort or Boardwalk
Day 4:
Hollywood Studios
Lunch at Sci-Fi Drive-in
Dinner at Boatwright's
See Yeeha Bob
Day 5:
Animal Kingdom
Dinner at Captain's Grill
Day 6:
Hollywood Studios
Check into Bay Lake Tower at Contemporary
Dinner at The Wave
Day 7:
Magic Kingdom
Early lunch at Be Our Guest
Afternoon Tea at Garden View Tea Room
Magic Kingdom for parade and fireworks
Day 8:
Breakfast at 'Ohana
Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table
Day 9:
Magic Kingdom
Early lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Day 10:
Magic Kingdom
Late breakfast at Crystal Palace
Check into Wilderness Lodge
Epcot World Showcase
Dinner at Chefs de France
Day 11:
Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Dinner at 'Ohana
Day 12:
Magic Kingdom
Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Day 13:
Leave for airport early

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Okay, so are you wondering yet who is in our travel group? There are 7 of us. Me and DH and our 5 children. DS 11, DS 9, DD 7 (as of 3 days before this trip, so we'll be celebrating her B-Day), DDD 4, and DS 2. Yes, this is a pretty busy itinerary for our little ones, but they travel well and we are quick to change plans if needed.

Have you also noticed that we have a lot of dining plans, especially for a few days in a row there? Well, let me tell you why. We always analyze what our best dining deal is. We almost always decide to get the Tables in Wonderland card which gives us a 20% discount on most table service restaurants. And we do have the TIW card from our last trip and it's valid this trip too. But in my analysis I discovered that with our desired restaurants, namely CRT and Chef Mickey's...it actually saves us money to get the Deluxe Dining Plan for 2 nights of our trip. That's why our character meals are all smooshed together in there!

So here's why this works, for the detail lovers out there and so you don't worry that I don't know what I am doing! We not only have a split stay at 3 resorts, but we actually have a split stay at BLT too. We used two different contracts' points to book the first two nights and then the second two nights. SO we're getting the DxDDP for the second two nights and using the credits over three days. Using the DDP is not why we did this, but it just happens to add this advantage for us. So our credits will be used like this...
We purposefully planned to eat "lighter"/splitting 3 adult TS credits at the two non-buffet restaurants and adding in whatever extras we might want to, because there is just so much food with DxDDP. (With DxDDP, there is no differentiation between adult and children credits, so we can use all as adult TS credits.)

Day 8:
Breakfast at 'Ohana (6 credits)
Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table (12 credits)
Day 9:
Early lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern (3 credits) We can use 3 adult credits for apps, entrees, drinks, and desserts to feed all of us.
Dinner at Chef Mickey's (6 credits)
Day 10:
Late breakfast at Crystal Palace (6 credits)
Dinner at Chefs de France (3 credits) We can use 3 adult credits for apps, entrees, drinks, and desserts to feed all of us.

We really maximized our savings here by putting in all the character meals of the trip (which are usually more expensive than other meals.) I'm really looking forward to 'Ohana for breakfast because we've always wanted to try it, but never make it a priority.