Sanity is in the Eye of the Beholder

[FairestOfThemAll]

More on the title later... I have a feeling many of you are in the same boat I'm in.

As if going to Disney World weren't exciting enough, I'll be going with an entire branch on my extended family. There will be ten of us, which is by far the biggest group I've ever vacationed with. The only drawback is that it means we have to plan around school schedules, so we'll be there August 18 - 25. From what I've read, it might be a bit busier and warmer than our usual times of late September or first week of December.

We'll be staying at Port Orleans - Riverside. As my family & I have always stayed offsite or at a Value before, I'm pretty excited. My mom, sister & I checked it out last year after eating at Boatwright's and it was decidedly up to our standards.

As for the characters, there will be:
me, Kelly - I'm 31 years old and my first trip was at the age of three.
My 33 year-old sister, Terri, who was five on that first trip.
My mom, Nancy - she visited Mickey in 1972 and again for her honeymoon.
For the three of us, this will be our twelfth trip to WDW! It was my dad's favorite place in the world, so he was always lobbying for another trip (he passed away four years ago but will be with us in spirit).

And the new additions to our merry little band: Rick & Cheryl (my uncle and aunt), JR (my 32 year-old cousin), Steve (my 30 year-old cousin), Jenna (Steve's wife), Autumn (Steve & Jenna's 13 year-old daughter), and Breanna (Steve & Jenna's 3 year-old). My uncle, aunt and cousins have been twice, but not in the past 15 years... it'll be the first trip for Jenna and the girls. I'm really looking forward to seeing their reactions!


Next up: The stressful excitement that is known as ADRs.

 

[FairestOfThemAll]

ADRs. It really is pretty silly when you think about it... I mean, what are you going to make for dinner six months from today? If you haven't thought about it yet, maybe you should. But, being one of the few things to plan in its entirety beforehand (it's not like we can book ride times this far ahead... yet), it becomes one of the topics to obsess over.

The wonderful thing is that I'm travelling with extended family that I don't see much and don't know very well. The problem is that I'm travelling with extended family that I don't see much and don't know very well. Any person reading this post has as much idea as I do regarding what kind of food they like to eat. Luckily, they gave my mom, sister & I free rein and told us that they just want as many character meals as possible for the little beeper.

Like everyone else who has been to Disney, we have our usual list of favorites, but they include places like Kona and Big River Grille - neither of which seem like they'd be terribly fun for a youngun. Kona's themeing is very similar to a coffee shop but the food is outstanding. And Big River was pretty good, but the great part was sitting outside on the boardwalk and waving to surrey bikers & watching IllumiNations from our table. While I'd love to go back to both places, I don't think they'd be memorable experiences for a four-year-old (or her parents/grandparents that are excited to see her reactions).

We've been through several plans. Our first, Plan Huey, was planning for eating at what we thought were the very best kid-friendly restaurants on property. Including several of the ones inside resorts, as opposed to inside the parks themselves. The idea here was to get the best food available.

Plan Duey eliminated some of the harder-get-to resorts (yes, Animal Kindgom Lodge, I'm talking about you). The motivation for this was to make it easier and lower stress, so we wouldn't have to up and leave a park just for a meal.

Plan Luey shuffled the days around because of what easywdw recommended. We always visit WDW during low season and realized we would probably have to plan around the crowds.

And Plan Yen Sid is the current plan - using the days easywdw recommends visiting, staying at the park we plan to be at for the day (or a monorail/boat ride from Magic Kingdom for the last days we don't know where we'll be), and what we consider to be uber-kid-awesome restaurants. We decided to split up for our dinner on Animal Kingdom day, so that most of the group could stay in the park at the most kid-friendly restaurant while my mom, sister, a cousin and I head off to Boma.


Without further ado, I present our confirmed ressies:

Saturday, 8/18
counter service (since we don't know what time we'll arrive yet)

Sunday - Animal Kingdom day
Tusker House - 10 @ 8:20am
Rainforest Cafe - 6 @ 5pm
Boma - 4 @ 5:45pm

Monday - Epcot day
Akershus - 10 @ 5pm

Tuesday - Hollywood Studios day
50's Prime Time - 10 @ 5:20pm

Wednesday - Magic Kingdom day
Crystal Palace - 10 @ 8:30am

Thursday - hopping day
Chef Mickeys - 10 @ 5pm

Friday - continue hopping
Whispering Canyon Cafe - 10 @ 5pm

Saturday - still hopping
counter service


Next up: Confirmation that the title means what you think it does.