Some Plan Their Vacations...We Plan Our Food-Aug 9-18 PTR!

[bzzelady]

Hello all! First time I have ever done a Disney dining review so bear with me.

Just a little background-every vacation, I look at the park hours, special events, and then try to tailor the ADR's around that information. I was making trip itineraries long before it was fashionable. Right before leaving, I print out a clean copy of that document and pin it up in the room/villa at WDW. I even have a special Mickey magnet to use when I will be posting it on a DVC refrigerator!

I completed the initial plan earlier this week. Yes, I know what all you planaholics are thinking...what a novice we have on our hands
This was a rather last minute idea we had to take this trip. Planning this trip was bittersweet-it will be the first family trip since my father passed away earlier this month. Disney was not his favorite place, but he did go along a couple of times to humor us. The last time he agreed to come to our happy place was back in 2005 during Hurricane Wilma.

I texted DM and let her know that the itinerary was in her email. Her response..."Some people plan their vacations...we plan our food!" A title for a dining review was born

The cast for this trip includes:

Bzzelady
DH
DM
DD12 (she will turn 13 during this vacation)

We will be occupying two garden view rooms at POFQ, saving our DVC points for a potential trip to Aulani next summer when Bzzelady finishes her master's degree in nursing. I also didn't think it was fair to make DH and DM cohabitate in the same room.

Next up...the dining itinerary

 

[bzzelady]

August 2012 Girls (and Boy) Week out at Disney!!

Thursday, August 9th

Flight due in to MCO around 1800
Pick up rental car
Check in at POFQ around 2000
CS Supper at POFQ or Earl of Sandwich at DTD

Friday, August 10th

Early CS lunch in Epcot or Blizzard/Typhoon
Supper at Turf Club at SSR (DM is dreaming of lamb chops and goat cheese polenta!)


Saturday, August 11th

Lunch at Coral Reef in Epcot
CS supper wherever we happen to be

Sunday, August 12th

Breakfast at Boma
Supper at Olivia’s at OKW (DM is hoping for meatloaf special!)

Monday, August 13th

CS lunch
Supper at O’Hana

Tuesday, August 14th

CS early lunch
Cape May Cafe Supper


Wednesday, August 15th
CS lunch
DD's birthday dinner at House of Blues (DD loves their ribs)

Thursday, August 16th

CS lunch
Supper at Tony’s in MK

Friday, August 17th

Breakfast at the Wave
CS lunch/supper

Saturday, August 18th

Trip Home

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi there! Sorry about your dad... It sounds like you have a lovely family trip planned and it is awesome that you are taking your mom. How cool that your DS will be having a milestone bday while at WDW!

I don't think I've seen an Olivia's dining review so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

You totally speak my language.... planner and all. Just so my family knows where we will be and when, I've already created a "master touring itinerary" and I plan to magnet that sucker to the fridge as well!

Enjoy your trip!

 

[bzzelady]

Some people find Olivia's to be a hit or miss, but we have never had a bad meal there. They have changed to an all day menu format there, so we will have to see how it is.

 

[vettegirl]

I love the title to your review. Can't wait to hear all about it

 

[bzzelady]

I love the title to your review. Can't wait to hear all about it

Thanks for joining the ride Vettegirl! I know that we are doing some restaurants that others have not had the best experience at, but we had to be a bit creative on last minute ADR's. Breakfast at Boma will be a new one for us, we generally have really good luck at Olivia's, and it looks like from the menus on AllEars that the chef from Mama Melrose's may have migrated to Tony's...that's why we decided to include that one despite other bad reviews. We may change the Cape May reservation because Teena (the greeter at the BC) has said that they have changed the menu and it was not very good a couple of weeks ago.

We have no idea what CS restaurants we will do-we thought we would just do that part spontaneously.

I informed the travel team yesterday that we were doing a dining review. Their responses....

DM-"Oh goody...I get to use my home economics degree!

DD12-"Oh no...this means we have to wait to start eating until you have used your camera!"

DH-"You're kidding, right??? Why do we even need reservations?" (sounds like some other DH's on this board...doesn't it?)

 

[skriegerjr]

..."Some people plan their vacations...we plan our food!"

We are totally the same way! To us, eating at the awesome restaurants, and the variety of food, and snacks are just as much a part of the vacation as all the rest of it! We love it, and like you, we plan it all out, with a spreadsheet that we print & take with us.

DW & I both have smartphones, so our "basic" itinerary is uploaded to Google Calendar that syncs with our phones, so I have ADR #s, etc with me and don't have to worry about forgetting the paper!

Enjoy your trip! We love POFQ, it's our "home" resort! Garden view, try and request Building 5 facing the grass courtyard...it's great, central location with quick walk to main building and the bus stops...our fav building!

We'll be at POR August 25-Sept 2 this year, as our FD offer wasn't applicable to POFQ. First trip away from FQ since we started going there...very excited to try POR and the newly refurb rooms!

 

[bzzelady]

Wow skriegerjr...you have just solved a question for me. I have been trying to figure out how to more easily manage my smartphone calendar-I never even considered the online Google calendar and the interface between the two. I guess the phone is smarter than me
Thank you very much! I uploaded everything for my trip plan last night and it works nicely.

 

[jabead]

I'm looking forward to reading your reviews, especially the one for HOB. I don't recall ever seeing one here before. We haven't been there in more than 10 years (when we went to their Sunday Gospel Brunch) so I'd kind of forgotten about it. Not because it wasn't good though, it was actually quite good!

Have a great trip!

 

[bzzelady]

I'm looking forward to reading your reviews, especially the one for HOB. I don't recall ever seeing one here before. We haven't been there in more than 10 years (to their Sunday Gospel Brunch) so I'd kind of forgotten about it. Not because it wasn't good though, it was actually quite good!

Have a great trip!

Thank you for joining in and for the well wishes. I really like HOB and I rarely see a review either. My DD loves the ribs...they are always meaty and so tender they just fall off the bone. I have never been disappointed with the jambalaya...I always end up with two meals out of the platter they bring to the table

 

[DisneyMom5]

We also are all about the food. Probably because we eat better at WDW than at home! LOL

Looking forward to your report!

 

[smile4stamps]

Completely agree!! In fact I had to plan WHEN to go based on the Swan & Dolphin Food & Wine classic! I would have preferred later in the month personally but I think that will be a great experience so I chose to take vacation to include that!

Right now I actually have my tentative schedule up on my wall with post-its! (I got this idea from another DIS'r who had done it on her closet!) I then use an app called trip-it that you can forward all your reservation e-mails to and it keeps track of all the info for me!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. We also plan our trips around our favorite places to eat. After 30 + trips we really just plan our trips around where we want to eat.

 

[skriegerjr]

Thank you for joining in and for the well wishes. I really like HOB and I rarely see a review either. My DD loves the ribs...they are always meaty and so tender they just fall off the bone. I have never been disappointed with the jambalaya...I always end up with two meals out of the platter they bring to the table

We love HOB, especially the jalapeno corn bread with maple butter, and also catfish fingers...on our list for our upcoming POR trip!

Sent from my HTC HERO CM7.1 using the DISBoards App

 

[bzzelady]

We also are all about the food. Probably because we eat better at WDW than at home! LOL

Looking forward to your report!

I cannot think of a single time at home that I look at a menu six months in advance and decide what I will eat...not even for holiday meals!

Completely agree!! In fact I had to plan WHEN to go based on the Swan & Dolphin Food & Wine classic! I would have preferred later in the month personally but I think that will be a great experience so I chose to take vacation to include that!

Right now I actually have my tentative schedule up on my wall with post-its! (I got this idea from another DIS'r who had done it on her closet!) I then use an app called trip-it that you can forward all your reservation e-mails to and it keeps track of all the info for me!

I like the post-it idea! I have to look more into trip apps before we go.

I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. We also plan our trips around our favorite places to eat. After 30 + trips we really just plan our trips around where we want to eat.

Thank you Ron. The past month has been difficult but we are thankful that he is no longer in misery. ALS is a horrible disease and it was so hard to watch someone who was very active become dependent. His last gift to my mom was building her a sunroom on the back of the house-he did more after he was diagnosed than some do in their entire retirements.

And yes...we have been to WDW plenty of times so we take it much easier than we used on earlier visits.

We love HOB, especially the jalapeno corn bread with maple butter, and also catfish fingers...on our list for our POR trip Aug 25-Sept 2

Sent from my HTC HERO CM7.1 using the DISBoards App

Catfish fingers...yummy! I see HOB now has an all day menu with some new items as well as the old favorites. This is my DD12's favorite meal!

 

[bzzelady]

Well folks...we are home and soon the reviews will be posted. Not all went according to plan, so be prepared for a couple of surprises along the way

 

[deenbrad]

Looking forward to it!

 

[doitforlove]

Excited for your review Hope you had a good trip!

 

[nanienamou]

Can't wait to read your reviews!

 

[ILikeWaffles]

Joining in for your reviews! I'm looking forward to reading about how things went for you.