Pre Trip and ADR questions

[NJDISMOM]

Hi everyone, love these boards !!

I’ve tried to write this post twice and gotten timed out, so finally wised up and did it offline first , then put in all the smilies, etc ! I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone else’s trip reports, so thought I’d start my own Pretrip and that would give me incentive to write a trip report too!! OK, here goes!

Here’s the Cast :

Me – avid over planner, never satisfied unless at least one vacation is mostly booked and 1 or 2 more in the back of my mind (OK, sometimes the front). Adventurous eater, likes to try new things. In love with WDW since my first trip in 99. Favorite character is Sorcerer Mickey. Looking forward to getting a pic with him on this trip and trying lots of new restaurants.

DH – leaves the vacation planning up to me for the most part (smart man! ) Went to WDW when it was only MK with his family, then didn’t get back until our first family trip . Occasionally has business in Orlando and has stayed at most of the values since they’re cheaper than offsite. Loves to use the 2 hour shopping pass to call me from Main Street and say “OK, what can I get you while I’m here ?? “ Goal is to retire to FL and be a boat captain for one of the boats to the MK. Will eat most anything, but can’t eat fish (go figure, the man has a boat and lots of fishing equipment, but can’t eat it! ) Looking forward to not worrying about prices for meals, not driving all the time.

DS13 – Loves roller coasters, rides, etc. Adventurous eater. Still likes being with Mom and Dad (as long as we don’t hug him or anything in public !) Looking forward to sushi at WPC, twin lobster tails at Capt Jacks and all the buffets. Disney will definitely lose money feeding him ….

DS12 – Loves WDW almost as much as I do…will have WDW movie marathons at home.. Collects Mickey plush figures (Jedi Mickey, Indiana Jones Mickey, etc. I think we’re up to about 30 now , !) Picky eater (pizza and chicken nuggets are OK, but has never eaten a hamburger in his life!). Recently has expanded menu to include tacos, buffalo wings and spaghetti sauce. Luckily, will eat salad so he doesn’t starve to death! Looking forward to buffets, Pizza planet and finding new Mickey’s for his collection. Will probably pay OOP for kids meals for him at some TS meals since he won’t like the food!

We’ve been to WDW and DL multiple times since our first trip in 99. I don’t even have listed all of DH’s business trips where he popped into the world to buy mugs, Pirates shirts, and call to gloat that he was there .. We love Disney! In 2005, we did an Easter trip to Orlando and also did an Aug trip to southern CA and hit DL !! That was a good year! Last year, we had booked a trip of a lifetime to Hawaii . We had to book in January for August so we could get the tickets with our frequent flyer miles. So we missed free dining last year. I was bummed, but we went to Hawaii, which had always been a dream of mine. We had an awesome vacation, but I knew that we had to get back to the World this year!

I spent the first few months of the year checking Mousesavers and Allears daily. I hadn’t even discovered these boards yet! When I saw the offer come up for Free Dining, I jumped ! We had to do a split reservation since it didn’t start until Aug 26. My DS13 starts high school this fall and we needed to be back by Aug 30th for orientation. So only 3 days of Free dining for us! We usually stay at moderates or split a stay with the Hilton in DD and AKL. I think all our previous trips had been before DME started, so we decided to take advantage of it this time and just stay on property. I knew we wanted to stay at least a week, so I booked at POP. My DH has stayed there before and we don’t spend much time in the room, so I knew we’d be OK even in the small room. The Hilton was running around $159 per night, so it wasn’t worth the extra money to get the free bfast (we’re both Hilton Gold members).

Our final (or so I thought) ressies were 5 days at POP with 8 day MYW PH, then 3 days at POP with a 1 day Base ticket.

We used all our FF miles last year to go to Hawaii, so had to pay for plane tix this year since we didn’t want to drive from NJ. I kept watching fares on SW and USAIR, SW was cheaper (around $49 each way), but weren’t booking through the end of our trip. I was unsure about booking 2 one way fares, so I kept waiting. Then SW went up to $99 each way! And so was USAIR! At this point, my DH was saying, “Are you sure we want to do this ?”…. I ignored him and kept looking…Finally, one Friday, I was at work and DH had just gotten home on the red eye from LA, so he was at home. I checked fares (like I did at least twice a day!! ) and USAIR was only $59 each way !!! WOO HOO !!! Called DH at home and he booked right away !!! We are booked on the earliest flight out of PHL to go to MCO, then booked on a 730 pm flight coming home. We love coming home late that last day !!

Meanwhile, during all the airfare chaos, I had finally discovered these boards and started planning my ADRs for our 3 days of Free dining. After looking at all the menus and choices, how was I going to narrow it down to 3 TS meals with our Free dining package ? DH is very thrifty and we’d typically do CS meals, order pizza or go offsite to do dinner to save money. I’m thrifty too, so I started adding up everything and comparing to what we would pay if we actually paid for dining for the first 3 days…hmm…if we have to rent a car to go offsite,,,then be out of the parks longer,,plus DS12 is an adult now, so if we want to go to BOMA, we have to pay adult prices for him…Long story short, my exhaustive research convinced DH that we should buy the DDP for the first 5 days too !!!

By this time, I had already booked some ADRs for the last 3 days of our trip and booked BOMA for our first night so we could get back to our fav, AKL! Love this place…I booked ADRs for the first few days of our trip as well and added the dining plan to our trip. I did this mid May, but I wasn’t able to get LeCellier for dinner . Got a lunch and kept trying. Finally, toward the end of May, I make the typical call to ask about Le Cellier and almost fell off my chair when she said there was an opening for dinner . I quickly cancelled my Spoodles for that night and we were booked!

My luck only got better from there. I came home from work on June 7th…In our snail mail, we got one of those scam letters from someone in Spain who wanted us to go in with them to get money from someone’s accounts that were frozen, we could split the money with her, yada yada….right in the shredder.. Then I opened my email. I have this unbelievable email from Disney Destinations saying I could upgrade from POP to either OKW or SSR for my 2nd ressie! My scam radar is already on high alert, so I checked the DIS boards and it was for real !!! Of course, it’s 6pm, one kid has Civil Air Patrol, one has something else and my DH is saying “ why are you on the phone with Disney?, there’s other things to do! “ Hey, my priorities are in the right place….I’m going to get us a free upgrade !!!! I called and spoke to a wonderful CM (Sanford) who said, sure I can get you an upgrade…Let me see where we have availability. He offered me a SSR studio at our current rate minus about $2.00 (tax difference maybe? ) then said I could get a SSR 1BR Villa for the same price. WOO HOO!! You can bet I was all over that ! I don’t think I stopped smiling until maybe next Tues. I spent lots of time looking on the boards about our second “home” of the week and I’m really excited.

I’ve put together some final plans, but also have some questions (what, you think you get to read a report and not have something to do at the end????? ).

OK, here’s the final plan for dining…I’ve planned out TS meals, but just looked at lots of menus for the CS places. We’ll hit some of our favs like Cosmic Rays in MK and Pizza Planet in MGM. We’ll probably do the Pepper Market as well. We loved it during our first trip.

8/21 PHL – MCO , catch DME and check in at POP . CS either at POP or one of the parks. 5:30 pm at BOMA . Finish the night either at the pool or maybe Epcot for EHM (depends on how tired we are )

8/22 AK EMH, CS at AK, then maybe back to the pool for awhile. 4pm ADR at Le Cellier. Maybe MGM EMH that evening.

8/23 MK EMH, then probably TL or BB (using leftover tix from a previous trip) . 6:10pm at CP for dinner with Pooh and Tigger ! Stay at MK until closing

8/24 – offsite at Seaworld. No ADRs planned, might hit Pepper Market on the way back

8/25 – 8:05am ADR at CP ( DH is really excited about photo ops on this one!!). Spend some time at MK, then back to POP or maybe do BB or TL for awhile. 4:10 ADR for Fantasmic package at MM .

8/26 - Switching to SSR today ! 1:10pm ADR for LeCellier (before the dinner one was avail! ) 6:55pm ADR for Cap’t Jacks . Not sure what parks for today.

8/27 – probably do AK EMH (we love AK !) 6:45pm ADR at Kona, then finish in the MK

8/28 last full day at WDW …probably hit EMH at Epcot in the AM, then hit as many parks as possible (it is our last day !!). 5pm ADR at WPC.

8/29 No ADRs this day…probably do some shopping, maybe hit a park or 2. MCO-PHL around 730pm.

Please let me know what you think and help me with some questions!

1. Is the MM Fantasmic package worth it ? We’ve seen Fantasmic before and definitely want to see it again this trip, but I’ve heard mixed reviews about the food and about the seating…I’m thinking of canceling that and putting WPC earlier in the trip (or doing it twice, the menu looks great! )

2. We had done CM and WC on earlier trips, so I’ve left them out on this one to try some new places. Anything great that I’ve missed ? We left off CR in Epcot because we’ve done some great aquariums like Monterey Bay , so this wouldn’t hold as much fascination for us.

3.Should I keep my lunch ADR at Le Cellier as well as the dinner one ?


Thanks so much everyone for all your help and tips! We’ve always had great trips to WDW before, but with all the info I’ve found here, I’m sure this will be our best one!