Please review my dining/trip plans!!!

[abacobaby]

Hi, as you can probably tell I am new to this board. We (my husband, our 2 year old DD and myself) are off to Disney World this coming November. We will be staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort and have also included the Disney Dining Plan in our package. We will be there 11 nights, but I was told the most amount of nights I can get the dining package for is 10 nights, which is fine. I have made a rough sketch of what we will be doing each day and have also tried to plan our meals according to where we will be at that day. Since we will be using the Dining Plan, we will be able to go to many restaurants we would normally not be able to afford. I seem to have more than 10 table meals on my list. If anyone has any idea how to be able to utilize the plan for all of them, please tell me. I was thinking if my husband shared two or three meals, would that work out? Can you share at Ohana's Restaurant? If I would have two pay for a few of these meals, which ones on my list would be the cheapest?

Here is my plan for 10 nights:

Day Park/Activity Breakfast Lunch Dinner

1 Epcot Coral Reef Nine Dragons
(2TS) (2TS)

2 Shopping Tour CS at hotel Lunch on Tour Captain Jacks
(2CS) DTD - (2TS)

3 MK/Epcot CS at hotel Liberty TT Canada Rest.
(2CS) (2TS) (2TS)

4 Water Park CS at hotel CS at Waterp. 1900 Park Fare
(2CS) (2CS) (2TS)

5 Shopping Mall CS at hotel Lunch at mall Hotel Restaurant
(2CS) (2TS)

6 Lazy Day Spoodles/Boardwalk Afternoon snack Ohana's - Poly
(2TS) Beaches n' Cream watch " Wishes
on the beach
(2TS)

7 Seaworld CS at hotel Seaworld Citricos
(2CS) Grand Floridian
(2TS)

8 Universal CS at hotel Universal DTD(pay cash)
(2CS)

9 Animal Kingdom CS at hotel Flame Tree BBQ Flying Fish
(2CS) (2CS) Boardwalk
(2TS)

10 Water Park Hotel Sitdown Water Park Fulton's Crab
Breakfast (2CS) House-DTD
(2TS) (pay cash)


So, that's my plan now. As you can see I have 20 CS - Counter Service meals (10 per person) and 24 TS - Table Service meals planned, so that's 2 too may TS meals. Can I share two meals with husband and which restaurants would be good to share food at? If not, which two would be the cheapest to pay for? I would love any and all input. If I have gotten any details of my plan wron, please point it out. This is my first time really planning a trip to DW and I am very confused. Thanks so much for all of your help and input!!!

 

[abacobaby]

Just curious, why is nobody answering me?

 

[kpm76]

HI!! Your plan looks good...I am a little confused on day 6....you mention Spoodles, 'Ohana and Beaches & Cream so are you eating at all three? If so, that may be a bit much for one day but we typically only do one or two big meals a day and the other is very light. I can't really comment on the dining plan because we're AP holders so we don't get it....what resort are you staying at? While you have some good choice, with a 2 year old daughter I would seriously consider a character meal at Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends. Hope this helps!

 

[YesI'mObsessed]

Hello! First, your planning is good, very detailed. My only concern would be that it jumps around alot from place to place. With a 2 year old, I would try and concentrate my choices to the same place so that you don't spend a lot of time trying to get to where you want to go. Does that make sense? As far as for paying out of pocket, I'd pay for the Beaches and Cream. It's pretty inexpensive and not really worth a table service credit in my opinion. Good luck to you, and have a great trip!

 

[foxtrotter]

Did you write this in Excel or some other formatted program and copy it into your post? I'm a little confused as to which credits are going with which meal but I'll see what I can figure out.

Day One: Lunch at Coral Reef (4TS), dinner at Nine Dragons (2TS).

Day Two: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch on Tour, dinner at Cap'n Jack's (2TS).

Day Three: Breakfast at resort, lunch at Liberty Tree (2TS), dinner at Le Cellier (2TS).

Day Four: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch at water park (2CS), dinner at 1900 Park Fare (2TS).

Day Five: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch off-site, dinner at resort (Boatwrights?) (2TS).

Day Six: Breakfast at Spoodles(?)(2TS), lunch at Beaches 'n Cream, dinner at 'Ohana(?)(2TS).

Day Seven: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch offsite, dinner at Citricos (4TS).

Day Eight: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch and dinner off-site.

Day Nine: Breakfast at resort (2CS), lunch at Flame Tree (2CS), dinner at Flying Fish (4TS).

Day Ten: Breakfast at hotel(?), lunch at water park (2CS), dinner at Fulton's (I do not believe this restaurant is on the plan.)

So, you're looking at 28 credits. You'll either need to pare down, or pay for eight of those credits, plus Fulton's. I just looked at the brochure on disneyworld.com and Fulton's is not listed but I could be missing it. Anyway, the cheapest TS restaurants on your list are probably going to be Liberty Tree, 1900 Park Fare, and then maybe 'Ohana or Beaches 'n Cream, depending on what you have planned that day (I'm confused about that one). You could also pay for breakfast at Spoodles which would save some credits. Also, Coral Reef for lunch, at 4TS, seems a bit of a waste so maybe you could pay cash for that one and split something there. I'm not sure about the sharing, I never share. Put food in front of me and it's all mine. Mine mine mine!

 

[abacobaby]

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for your comments. Wow, I was totally unaware that I would need to use 4 TS for Coral Reef. Is there a reason for this. The day you are all confused about goes like this: Breakfast at Spoodles, afternoon ice cream snack at Beaches and Cream (not actually a meal) and then a late dinner. About travelling all of these places with our 2 year old DD - she is one of those kids you can take anywhere and do anything with. She is very content, no matter what and falls asleep and stays asleep for hours in her stroller. Regarding the character meal idea, we went to Crystal Palace for breakfast last year and she was really scared of the characters and cried if they came really close to her. I am aware that we will have to pay for Fultons - that's why it is planned for our last night! Sorry about how my last post was arranged. I didn't type it out like that, but that is what showed up :-( Any more good ideas, let me know!!! Thanks for all of your input.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Abacobaby:
You need to give a little time when expecting answers to posts, especially if there is a lot of other traffic. I woud have responded more directly, but since we don't use the dining plan, I have no idea how all that figures out.
As to your choices tho--looks pretty good. Were it me (which, of course, it isn't!) I think I'd change Cpt Jacks to almost anywhere else, and scrap Fultons--also most anywhere else (except Cpt Jacks!). Wolfgang Puck or the House of Blues are nice. Sounds like Rainforest might scare your 2 year old--.
If you want to remain "upscale" Portobello Yacht Club is a fine alternative to Fultons.

 

[poohluvrs]

Hi, you've put a lot of effort into planning, that's great! THe only suggestion I would make is the addition of another character meal for DD, even if she was scared last year, she may love it now...we have twin 2yr olds & they monopolized the easter bunny last spring ~loved him!~ so our entire trip is planned around character meals, 1 for every day (after all we chose Disney for our kids, if it was up to us we'd be going to Fiji but hey, they are the boss!) Just a suggestion, but if she's fine in a regular restaurant all meals every day then great for you (& we must've done something wrong)! Have fun anyway, cant help w/ the plan, we chose not to do that b/c it would drive me nuts trying to figure out the points, etc!