Ugh, what were we thinking?! 9 days Deluxe Dining with pics! MY Number 2! 7/21!

[jakenjess]

Great Photopass pictures! You two are adorable and you look like you're having so much fun!!

 

[princessallegra]

Omg loooooove your photopass pics!!! I especially love the balloon pics!!! Those are great! I know I've said it already, but you guys are just TOO cute!!

 

[Joshua_me]

These have been really enjoyable reviews !

I know it takes a long time to post everything. Thanks for taking the time to do such a great job !

 

[bangzoom6877]

Haha! Thanks!!! I love them too which is why I wanted to share them with my dis family!!

BTW, I checked out Chalean Extreme....it really does look amazing! Now i'm just kind of stuck in between the "Heavier weights to burn fat" from Chalean and "light weight, high reps to burn fat!" I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

I get confused myself with the working out and what is the best thing to do. Honestly though, I had been doing lots of cardio, light weights, high reps for a long time and while it worked to keep me in good shape and get some muscle definition, my muscles have never been as defined as they are right now with lifting heavy. There are some weeks when I will gain a pound or even 2 and I'm frustrated, and I'm like, "maybe I should just go back to doing lots of cardio and light weights, high reps and then my weight will go back down"...but then the following week the pound or 2 comes off! Believe it or not, I still let myself get crazy and I am still not totally used to maintenance as opposed to weightloss-mode. I became a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers in November 2007 (when my little one was 5 months old...I joined 4 days after giving birth! ), so it has been 2 and a half years maintaining and I am still not used to it and still get freaked out every time the scale goes up a little.

For now at least, I am sticking to Chalean Extreme. I love the program. She also has Turbo Jam, a great cardio-kickboxing program. I use those workouts as my cardio sometimes, to mix things up. And she is coming out with a new program, Turbo Fire, at the end of June, which is supposed to burn 9 times more fat than traditional cardio. I may have to check that one out when I return from WDW and my pants don't fit! See, I told you I get obsessive!

7 weeks from tomorrow we leave for our big Florida road trip! 5 days after that we arrive at WDW! It's so close now!!! 16 teaching days left, including a half-day this Friday!!!!

 

[Leshaface]

Great Photopass pictures! You two are adorable and you look like you're having so much fun!!

Thank you! We did! We had a blast!

Omg loooooove your photopass pics!!! I especially love the balloon pics!!! Those are great! I know I've said it already, but you guys are just TOO cute!!

Haha! I know they turned out good! We probably looked so weird to others...I mean, here's DH holding his arms straight up, and here I am hanging off him! Have you updated lately???

These have been really enjoyable reviews !

I know it takes a long time to post everything. Thanks for taking the time to do such a great job !

Took a bit, but I loved it!!

Btw, congrats on your 1000 posts!!! I'm ALMOST there!!!

I get confused myself with the working out and what is the best thing to do. Honestly though, I had been doing lots of cardio, light weights, high reps for a long time and while it worked to keep me in good shape and get some muscle definition, my muscles have never been as defined as they are right now with lifting heavy. There are some weeks when I will gain a pound or even 2 and I'm frustrated, and I'm like, "maybe I should just go back to doing lots of cardio and light weights, high reps and then my weight will go back down"...but then the following week the pound or 2 comes off! Believe it or not, I still let myself get crazy and I am still not totally used to maintenance as opposed to weightloss-mode. I became a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers in November 2007 (when my little one was 5 months old...I joined 4 days after giving birth! ), so it has been 2 and a half years maintaining and I am still not used to it and still get freaked out every time the scale goes up a little.

I threw away our scale a loooong time ago...I hated seeing the number go up one week and down the next, then back up...so I just went by how my clothes fit instead of worrying about the number...it really is a whole psychological process seeing numbers and it used to take a toll on me....no mas though!

For now at least, I am sticking to Chalean Extreme. I love the program. She also has Turbo Jam, a great cardio-kickboxing program. I use those workouts as my cardio sometimes, to mix things up. And she is coming out with a new program, Turbo Fire, at the end of June, which is supposed to burn 9 times more fat than traditional cardio. I may have to check that one out when I return from WDW and my pants don't fit! See, I told you I get obsessive!

Holy moly!!! 9 times more! That's insane... girl, i'm the SAME WAY! As a matter a fact, I was freakin out about posting my PP pics, because you can see us exponentially growing, cuz the pics are in order of our trip!

7 weeks from tomorrow we leave for our big Florida road trip! 5 days after that we arrive at WDW! It's so close now!!! 16 teaching days left, including a half-day this Friday!!!!

Ooh yay! 16 days till vacation, the 7 weeks till OFFICIAL vacation!!! Do you have any more updates for your PreTR? Like have you started buying things for the trip, etc...gotta update that stuff pretty soon, since your trip will come up in NO TIME!!!

 

[Marshay]

Awesome photopass pics!! You guys truly are adorable and you are particularly very photogenic!

I hadn't seen the new Princess and the Frog one or the one with the balloons trying to pull you up and away! How fun!

I can't wait to see your cost comparisons either!

 

[podsnel]

You are just too cute, both of you!! Great pics!

 

[Leshaface]

Awesome photopass pics!! You guys truly are adorable and you are particularly very photogenic!

I hadn't seen the new Princess and the Frog one or the one with the balloons trying to pull you up and away! How fun!

I can't wait to see your cost comparisons either!

Thanks Marshay!

I know, I was so stoked to have gotten both of those!! With the Princess and the frog one, I was supposed to be making kissy faces at the frog but didn't really get what the heck was going on...I thought it was going to be tink, and I got to thinking, I don't want to kiss tink! Then he said what it was and I finally understood, but those pics didn't turn out! DRAT! Guess i'm gonna have to make that 5 1/2 hour trip to the World for a re-do...how unfortunate!

 

[FloridaFarmer]

Lesha,

I just want to say that out of all of the dining reviews I have read, yours is the BEST. Not just for the restaurants you chose (great selections!), or the wonderful photos (I LOVE YOUR CAMERA)...but just your general peppiness and upbeat attitude.

We are getting married on 10/10/10 and flying down to the mouse the day after to spend a week down there, and are doing the DxDP as well....a lot of the restaurants you chose we are doing as well, so your review really caters to our tastes. Not to mention, the two of you are so cute and are our ages as well....so I'm thinking a lot of your tastes and observations will match what we are looking for!

Thank you for a wonderful review...no no, an AMAZING review. Best wishes to the two of you

 

[vitamingirl]

The pics are so adorable. I love the balloon pics. Was that in WS? I only found one really good photopass photographer in AK that did different types of pics. I will definitely be on the lookout for different pics next time.

Saw your post about the exercise.... i think that is a beachbody program.
I just did (dont laugh at the name) the brazillian butt lift beachbody tape for the first time about an hour a go. It was 25 minutes of crazy but it was amazing. I am looking forward to doing all of the tapes. If I can walk tomorrow. Did the p90x last year this time and loved it. Was not able to do all of the tapes but did it with DH and we both loved it. They have some good programs.

 

[Leshaface]

You are just too cute, both of you!! Great pics!

Thank you!!

Lesha,

I just want to say that out of all of the dining reviews I have read, yours is the BEST. Not just for the restaurants you chose (great selections!), or the wonderful photos (I LOVE YOUR CAMERA)...but just your general peppiness and upbeat attitude.

We are getting married on 10/10/10 and flying down to the mouse the day after to spend a week down there, and are doing the DxDP as well....a lot of the restaurants you chose we are doing as well, so your review really caters to our tastes. Not to mention, the two of you are so cute and are our ages as well....so I'm thinking a lot of your tastes and observations will match what we are looking for!

Thank you for a wonderful review...no no, an AMAZING review. Best wishes to the two of you

Omgoodness thank you so much! Doesn't peppiness add so much more to a review, compared to a downer attitude?!?! I just think WDW is so much fun and it deserves all the praise in the world, which is what i'm trying to convey.

PERFECT date! 10/10/10!! There is no excuse to forget this date! You're gonna love all the restaurants! You're gonna have a blast! Make sure you pick up the "Just Married" buttons!

Will you be doing a Dining TR?? if you do let me know, I'd love to jump on that!

The pics are so adorable. I love the balloon pics. Was that in WS? I only found one really good photopass photographer in AK that did different types of pics. I will definitely be on the lookout for different pics next time.

Saw your post about the exercise.... i think that is a beachbody program.
I just did (dont laugh at the name) the brazillian butt lift beachbody tape for the first time about an hour a go. It was 25 minutes of crazy but it was amazing. I am looking forward to doing all of the tapes. If I can walk tomorrow. Did the p90x last year this time and loved it. Was not able to do all of the tapes but did it with DH and we both loved it. They have some good programs.

Yeah that was on the bridge leading over into France! It was a lot of fun and she took TONS of pictures!! She even got one of us where the balloon ride at DTD was coming into the air! It was really neat!

We also had a great photographer in AK too!! I love it when the photographers like to have fun and make us do silly things and take LOTS of pics...unlike some ppl out there who take 2 pictures...oh well...

The brazilian butt lift! Sounds harsh...those brazilians are psycho about their butts! 25 minutes of crazy, i'm sure it was!!!

Wow you did the P90x??? Goodness, my DH was doing that for a sec and he said it was ROUGH! Like he might as well have died, he was in such pain the next day! But I hear it works miracles, so whatever works!

 

[Leshaface]

So I walked into my room about 15 minutes ago where my DH was...he looks at me real quick, then looks at his computer and closes something on it...I'm like, "What the HECK are you looking at?!?!?" ...or is it He's like, uhh can't tell you...whatever, so I leave and he yells out to me about 5 minutes later, "come here I wanna show you.."

Turns out he was planning a quick trip to DISNEYLAND before our passports expire on the 4th of June!!! And there's really NO WAY I wanna be there during Memorial Day weekend, thanks but no thanks...

So I get to go to Disneyland this weekend! Just thought I'd let you guys know, since you would care more than my other friends!! Sad, but true...

So this means for SURE, I'll have my update tomorrow for you folks!

 

[Linda67]

Love your photopass pics
Have a wonderful trip this weekend

 

[bangzoom6877]

Ooh yay! 16 days till vacation, the 7 weeks till OFFICIAL vacation!!! Do you have any more updates for your PreTR? Like have you started buying things for the trip, etc...gotta update that stuff pretty soon, since your trip will come up in NO TIME!!!

OK, so we have been super busy every weekend this month. This coming weekend I have Saturday "free"...I say that because I have to clean the house, go to Weight Watchers for my May weigh-in, and we want to maybe take the kids to the park, if the weather is good and no rain. But...I am planning to order our free customized Disney maps, so I will update on that if I get around to it. I am also planning to finally start my official packing list. I will also list whatever I have bought so far, and whatever I plan to buy in the near future (because the trip is in the near future! ).

Have a wonderful time on your trip to Disneyland! What a great husband you have...give him a pat on the back for being so thoughtful and so sweet to you!

Have you thought any more about Chalean? The P90X program looks crazy, and I don't do pull-ups or power yoga so I refuse to do that program! Chalean is manageable for me, especially considering the time factor and that most workouts are 45 minutes or less. That works for me. The Brazilian Butt Lift looks crazy. So does Turbo Fire, but a good kind of crazy. We'll see!!

 

[princessallegra]

OK, so we have been super busy every weekend this month. This coming weekend I have Saturday "free"...I say that because I have to clean the house, go to Weight Watchers for my May weigh-in, and we want to maybe take the kids to the park, if the weather is good and no rain. But...I am planning to order our free customized Disney maps, so I will update on that if I get around to it. I am also planning to finally start my official packing list. I will also list whatever I have bought so far, and whatever I plan to buy in the near future (because the trip is in the near future! ).

Have a wonderful time on your trip to Disneyland! What a great husband you have...give him a pat on the back for being so thoughtful and so sweet to you!

Have you thought any more about Chalean? The P90X program looks crazy, and I don't do pull-ups or power yoga so I refuse to do that program! Chalean is manageable for me, especially considering the time factor and that most workouts are 45 minutes or less. That works for me. The Brazilian Butt Lift looks crazy. So does Turbo Fire, but a good kind of crazy. We'll see!!

Omggggg the P90X guy Tony makes me laugh so hard it's not even funny! DH did this for our wedding and I did some of the workouts with him, and that guy is INTENSE!! He also has a thing for Shauna.

 

[princessallegra]

YAY FOR DISNEYLAND THIS WEEKEND LIL LESHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh so exciting!! Can't wait to hear about it!!!

 

[Leshaface]

Love your photopass pics
Have a wonderful trip this weekend

Thanks Linda! I have to make this trip really count, since I have NO idea when we'll be able to make it back!

Oh well, I'm just thankful that we can make this two day trip!

OK, so we have been super busy every weekend this month. This coming weekend I have Saturday "free"...I say that because I have to clean the house, go to Weight Watchers for my May weigh-in, and we want to maybe take the kids to the park, if the weather is good and no rain. But...I am planning to order our free customized Disney maps, so I will update on that if I get around to it. I am also planning to finally start my official packing list. I will also list whatever I have bought so far, and whatever I plan to buy in the near future (because the trip is in the near future! ).

Have a wonderful time on your trip to Disneyland! What a great husband you have...give him a pat on the back for being so thoughtful and so sweet to you!

Have you thought any more about Chalean? The P90X program looks crazy, and I don't do pull-ups or power yoga so I refuse to do that program! Chalean is manageable for me, especially considering the time factor and that most workouts are 45 minutes or less. That works for me. The Brazilian Butt Lift looks crazy. So does Turbo Fire, but a good kind of crazy. We'll see!!

Yeah, there's really never any "Free" time for a working mom, but I'm sure you enjoy it all the same!

OH my gosh, speaking of the customized maps, I NEVER received them! I had the WORST time trying to get them mailed to me! I was on the website at least once a day trying to make it work! I even tried printing them out myself once (but come on, who really wants to print them out at home when you can have more Disney mail), but even that didn't work, so I never received my free souvie...hopefully it works for you! I can't wait for your update on you pre TR!

I know! Seriously, he's awesome! I found out that he even called my mom at work for her to make the ressies on her card, so that it wouldn't come up on our bank account and ruin the surprise!

Yeah, I'm not even THINKING about that P90x...no thank you! I really am considering the Chalean Program though, but it probably won't be until after summer...a month ago, I enrolled at our gym(I was already a member at another gym that closed down, so I waited a few months for this gym to get settled with the new influx of members), so I want to be able to get a good routine down at this gym (have great classes!) To switch it up, I'll get the Chalean Program...

YAY FOR DISNEYLAND THIS WEEKEND LIL LESHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh so exciting!! Can't wait to hear about it!!!

I KNOW!!! I'M thrilled! I've been buggin to go back for a while now...even though I just went at the beginning of March...

I have a must do list since this will be our last trip for a while and we won't be renewing our AP's:

-Must get a dole whip
-Must get a corn dog
-Must ride Star Tours (they'll be re-vamping it in July so it will be closed for a year and a half)
-Must watch It's Tough to be a Bug
-Must watch Wishes
-Indy...duh

The first three MUST be done! No exceptions!!!

 

[Leshaface]

Final Thoughts…Part One!

Just to reiterate, I do NOT watch Jerry Springer, I just happen to find the phrase necessary!

At first I was going to make it one huge post, but thought I should just break it up into two parts…makes for easier reading I think.

So let's get right in to it...

The Cost: We did 2 TS breakfasts, 7 TS lunches, and 7 Sig Restaurants (would have been 8 SR, but remember our little mishap with Yachtsman?? ) So we had to use 2 of those credits towards dinner later that night back at CSR after we slept off the alcohol and then the final 2 credits we used back at CSR towards sandwich meals at the Pepper Market for the flight home! That worked out perfectly for us! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the receipts for those meals, so this total is going to be without those two meals so keep that in mind that the total would be a little bit higher if I added those in.

Kona Café (B) – $37.64
Artist Point (D) - $149.10
Flame Tree BBQ (L) – $24.78
Hollywood Brown Derby (D) - $130.20
Tony’s Town Square (L) - $68.51
Narcoossee’s (D) - $193.04
Le Cellier (L) - $87.81
Flying Fish (D) - $144.16
Cape May Café (B) - $40.45
Chefs de France (L) - $60.02
California Grill (D) - $157.08
Teppan Edo (L) - $84.89
Citricos (D) – 146.21
Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater (L) - $68.51
Jiko (D) - $143.72
The Wave (L) – 69.58

Total = $1, 605.70

Also keep in mind, this total is without the tip (we tipped every meal between 15-20%)…and without those two meals that we didn’t include, I would add about $40-50 towards the total.

ALSO, this is NOT including the 32 eek snacks that we had to use up, so if we averaged about $2.50 a snack, that would be around $80.00. But even that’s pretty low, considering DH wanted to make sure he got the most out of his money, so if it was close to $4.00, he got it!

Now the Deluxe Dining plan is $79.99 per person, per night of your stay.

$79.99 X 2 ppl = $159.98 X 8 nights = $1,279.84 – TEACHERS, do you like how I worked out my math?!?! I’m not sure if the 79.99 is including tax???

OOP → $1,605.70
DxDP → - $1,279.84

$325.86 Total Saved(add about $40-$50 from the other 2 meals and add about $80 for snacks = $445.86)

So is the Deluxe Dining plan a good deal???

1.) Do you love food? If you answered heck-to-the-yes, then this is your BEST option! You’ll be in food heaven if you go this route. The Basic Plan is good, in that it also allows variety between CS and TS, but this goes above and beyond The Basic Dining Plan and permits you to try some of the best food that’s offered at the Walt Disney World Resort! Remember that you get 2 snacks per person per day, which also means MORE food! We found ourselves having lots of snack credits left over at the end of the trip, so we just used those credits towards packaged food that we could take home and give out to family, if we wanted to….I didn’t I ate it…I’m stingy when it comes to WDW snacks!

2.) What is your ultimate goal: Rides or Food? Keep in mind that if you want to make the most out of the DxDP, you should be using your credits towards TS and Signature Restaurants, otherwise it will be a big money waster. So if you’ll be doing TS and/or SR, you’ll more than likely be making ADR’s, which means you’ll probably have 2 or 3 ADR’s per day. This means you’re going to have to find a way to tour the parks efficiently if you want to see/do a lot of the attractions. We couldn’t do some things that we wanted to do, because of time constraints. Which leads me into my next point..

3.) What time of the year are you visiting? We visited the World during the Off-Season, in which the parks closed early everyday. Soooo that means whatever was on our “to do attractions” list, had to be scrunched into a specific time period in order to make our ADR’s on time. For some reason I never took that into consideration when making ADR’s or my touring plans.

I would honestly recommend the Basic Plan during the off season if your main goal is to do and see everything, but still have some great food options.

The Deluxe Plan I would recommend for the regular/peak season when the parks open earlier and close much later. This allows you to do BOTH the attractions/resort hopping/DTD, etc AND eat at some fabulous places!

4.) Are you willing to travel? I say this because it seemed like we were always on that DANG bus! We would leave our resort, get to a park and stay at the park for 2 hours, get back on the bus to make our ADR, be back on the bus to go to a park for a few more hours, then be back on the bus again to make our dinner ADR, etc etc EVERYDAY! Phew, that was exhausting to even write that, let alone think we did that! If your answer is “Yes”, then make sure your ADR’s are somewhat close in proximity to you what you’ll be doing around that time, whether it be at your resort pool swimming, at DTD shopping, etc.



I’m actually VERY glad that we went with the Deluxe Dining Plan. When I was making our plans for that trip, I had actually had the Basic Dining Plan down…my DH looked it over and wanted to upgrade to the Deluxe, since there were a lot of SR’s that he wanted to do. I’m really glad that he changed that part of our trip. I probably would have been to scared to make those plans on my own! I do believe that everyone should try this plan once, just to expand your dining horizon…

In the real world, would I have ordered an appetizer? No, I would have opted for dessert. Would DH have ordered a dessert? No, he would have gone for the appetizer. Even though this was a lot of food for one person, we were able to try things on the menu that we maybe would have glanced over, if we only had to get one appetizer. TIDBIT: Our server was telling me that Disney was thinking about modifying the Deluxe Plan so that each person had an option of either doing the Appetizer or the Dessert and not both. If this was the case, it would work out perfectly for DH and I! I also wouldn't feel so obligated to get both the app and dessert even though I wasn't hungry. Have you guys heard of this??

Anyways, YES, there was a lot of food, yes there was a lot of running around, but it was fun and adventurous! We only did one repeat restaurant on this trip, which was Chefs de France, so all the other restaurants were very next and exciting to us! Which is what Disney is all about….Disney gives you the opportunity to be bold and daring, where perhaps, you may not be in the real world!

Will we be doing the Deluxe Dining Plan again?


YES! But only during the peak/regular season...if you went back and looked at our ADR times, you’ll see we had to eat dinner early pretty much everynight. That was because we wanted to be able to go back to the parks after dinner. However, we would have preferred later dinner slots like 7-730 everynight. If we were to do that during this past trip, we would have never made it to the parks because they all closed by 10pm. Had we gone with the Basic Dining, we would have had a more open appointment book. But I’m so thrilled I was able to do the DxDP, because how else was I going to report back to you with some amazing food?!




So that was A LOT of talking and critical thinking….although Part 2 will be even harder for me to do because I’ll be choosing my fav 3 restaurants and for the first time EVER, DH will be making an APPEARANCE and choosing his favorite three!!! So stick around!


P.s. if there’s something specific you would like to know for my last update, let me know!!!

 

[franandaj]

Great summary! You are the first person whose report I have read on DxDDP who actually finished and summed everything up to find that dollarwise it worked to your advantage.

We could never do the DxDDP because we are happy sharing one meal between the two of us, but maybe adding an extra course or two. I can't finish an entree by myself much less with appetizer and dessert. I don't know how you two put it all away and stay so thin, but I suppose with you working out so much and so often that does it for you. I was skinny when I was your age!

When is your trip to Disneyland? Hopefully you'll be there while F&W is still going on. You should try the beer walk, and all the great snacks at the Marketplace. My F&W journey is coming to an end, only two events left and two celebrity chefs to try and catch.

Thanks for persevering and following through to the end!

 

[flickchick313]

I just wanted to say that I really loved your review, it is getting that much more excited fro our trip!!!