OH NO! i've created a monster by showing DH the menus!

[gigi1313]

well... i made all our adrs just as i always have... but for some dumb reason tonight, i mentioned that i was considering changing one and would he look at the menus and help me decide... it's all over now... he wants to remake ALL our adrs based on what he's hungry for NOW! LOL?!

so, this is what we had...

Thurs: Dinner at Primetime
Fri: Breakfast at 'Ohana, Dinner at 1900 Park Fair (before MNSSHP)
Sat: Brunch at Donalds, Dinner at Whispering Canyon
Sun: Dinner at Tony's
Mon: F&W Fest Lunch, Dinner at Biergarten
Tue: undecided 'cause we just added an extra night, but probably CS
Wed: Home

anyway, dh thinks that since "we've got TS credits to burn" ('cause we'll be there during free dining) that we should just live high on the hog and go for 2TS meals and such... but i'm the thrifty one, thinking the only way we can afford the trip at all is *because* of free dining!

he wants it to look more like this:
Thurs: Dinner at Brown Derby
Fri: Breakfast at 'Ohana, Dinner at 1900 Park Fair (before MNSSHP)
Sat: Brunch at Donalds, Dinner at Artist Point
Sun: Dinner at Cali Grill
Mon: Norway Princess Breakfast, F&W Fest Lunch, Dinner at Biergarten
Tue: Breakfast at Cape May, Dinner at HDDR
Wed: Home

what's a super-obsessed-planning-wife to do?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, at least your DH doesn't need to go to Buffet-aholics Anonymous! My DH LOVES buffets, and that's all he wants to do! It's an OK deal for us, but for DS who is rapidly approaching age 10 it is a waste of money! And we NEVER get to go during free dining. I think the Disney people get together and say "Look! Jackskellingtonsgirl is going to be here again! Let's start free dining right after she goes home!"

Have a wonderful time! Humor your DH - do a couple of signature places and pay for the less expensive places OOP.

 

[dawnedwards]

In our family everyone got to review the menus' and pick one restaurant each,

DH-O'Hana for Dinner
DS(16) Maya Grill
DD(1 1/2) Chef Mickey, ok I picked for her
Me Le Cellier

We are also going to Sci Fi Diner the day we are at MGM, this way everyone is happy and we are going to have some nice variety

 

[lawyergirl]

At least he didn't take one look at the menus, freak out at the prices and say that you were living on burgers for your entire vacation!!

(There's a reason why I don't let DH see the menus in my house!!)

 

[maggiew]

Well, we are never able to eat 2 sit down meals per day. Usually we are too stuffed!! There is no way we would be able to eat Princess breakfast, F&W Fest lunch and biergarten dinner!! Plus that takes a lot of time out of your day too.

He also has picked many 2 credit places, hasn't he? Do you have enough credits for that? Or do you plan to pay OOP for some?

Maggie

 

[gigi1313]

we used to be buffet-aholics... 'til i pointed out a few dozen times that i always eat COLD FOOD (due to helping kids, rest rooms, characters, etc)...

oh, we're totally paying oop for some... or he's NUTS and we're not eating that much... i'm trying to remind him that this is not ALL ABOUT THE FOOD but he won't listen! LOL!?

oh, and he wants to squeeze in 9 Dragons and Teppanyaki... sigh...

 

[Mamu]

While the free dining is a wonderful addition to a Disney Vacation.

My feelings are it places too much emphasis on eating, and eating and eating.

Disney has some wonderful restaurants and it fun to try different ones, especially when there free. I know when we do an adult trip we love sampling some of the better restaurants, but I also know when traveling with my Grandchildren the last thing they want is to spend so much time in restaurants. They enjoy the parks and the pool the most. Even my older Grandchildren do not like restaurant, after restaurant, after restaurant.

Even with ADR some popular restaurants have a long wait before your seated. You could spend most of you trip in restaurant's. I know after a Disney vacation I've had it with restaurants. Just remember every time you eat at a sit-down restaurant take 2 hour off your park time. Yes it really does take that long between getting there, waiting to be seated, ordering and eating your meal. Two sit down meals, you've probably lost almost 4 hours of park time. Not too bad when the park has extended hours but when the parks have reduced hours you've spent most of your time in restaurants. Not meant as a deterrent, but just a mental note that too many restaurants in different parks will take a big chunk out of your park time.

If this is an adult trip go for the better restaurants.

 

[Microcell]

At least he didn't take one look at the menus, freak out at the prices and say that you were living on burgers for your entire vacation!!

(There's a reason why I don't let DH see the menus in my house!!)

Funny, I plan and I am the hamburger lady usually, but this free dining is so liberating, I feel like a kid in a candy store!

 

[Kaycee]

When we plan our WDW dining, we go through a process.

First is the dreaming stage. This is when we list all the restaurants where we'd like to eat, regardless of how many meals we'll actually be eating that trip. It sounds like your DH is stuck in this stage.

Next comes the reality stage. We have to whittle the dream list down to the number of restaurants that we can realistically visit. When it becomes difficult to cross restaurants off the list, we remind each other that we can save a few restaurants for the next trip.

Except for those days when we're celebrating special occasions, we only do one TS meal a day. Any more than that is just too much - too much time, too much food, too much money.

Remind your DH that you need to take a little break from eating to visit the parks.

 

[Quinn222]

I like his choices! I'd say go for it and make the changes.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I don't usually end up with cold food, but we tend to not see each other during buffet meals because somebody is at the table and somebody is at the buffet and we just keep rotating!

We have 4 days out of 8 that we are doing 2 meals at TS. But on those days we will hit the FIRST breakfast seating before the parks open, then have dinner 10 hours later with maybe a snack in between. We'll end up paying OOP for 4 TS meals and the Imagineer lunch. We're getting an AP & DDE card so that will help a bit after we run out of credits.

 

[gigi1313]

My feelings are it places too much emphasis on eating, and eating and eating.

it does and it doesn't... we try to choose restaurants that are unique to disney and more of an "experience" than just another meal... we also tend to skip lunch (whether we eat TS or CS breakfast) and go for later dinners... so we've got lots of touring time between meals...

plus, when you've been to the parks a few years in a row (and sometimes multiple times per year) it's nice to do some of the "other side of disney" like the fishing excursions, restaurants, etc... which is what this trip is all about... it's our "let's not do anything we've done before" trip! LOL!

 

[gigi1313]

Funny, I plan and I am the hamburger lady usually, but this free dining is so liberating, I feel like a kid in a candy store!

ME TOO!!! and obviously DH TOO!! LOL! (good thing we're making this a surprise trip for the kids or we'd have half a dozen "chef mickey's" meals thrown in too! LOL!

 

[gigi1313]

I don't usually end up with cold food, but we tend to not see each other during buffet meals because somebody is at the table and somebody is at the buffet and we just keep rotating!

We have 4 days out of 8 that we are doing 2 meals at TS. But on those days we will hit the FIRST breakfast seating before the parks open, then have dinner 10 hours later with maybe a snack in between. We'll end up paying OOP for 4 TS meals and the Imagineer lunch. We're getting an AP & DDE card so that will help a bit after we run out of credits.

sounds like we'd vacation perfectly together as we do the same thing, breakfast and then ten hours later dinner... it works for us!

the AP/DDE sounds like a GREAT idea for me... since we're only getting one day tickets to use up some leftovers (hurricane days mostly) which are totally transferrable, maybe i'll get an AP for me, and let dh/kids use the hurricane tickets... that may "save" us money (and give me an excuse for another trip... maybe SOLO!) ooooohhhhh... i like it!