Oh wow... I fell waaaay behind. So sorry!
Here we go...
I have changed this many times, and I am sure it will change again once the hours and entertainment schedules are announced.
Thursday, August 22nd - Arrive at MCO at 6:18PM. I am not making any ADRs for this evening or planning on any parks. We will just wait and see how much time we have. We might go to DTD, but not sure. Depends on ME and check in.
I think it is a perfect idea that you don't do ADRs on your arrival day. We usually arrive much earlier in the day (we try to get the earliest flight possible), and then we bum around MK that first evening. We try to get back to the resort and into bed at a reasonable hour, so we are ready to tackle our first park the next day.
[Friday, the 23rd - I know I am going to shock people, and I am torn to do this, but we aren't going to start off with MK. The crowd levels have me convinced to wait til the middle of my vacation. Hopefully the kids will understand. I don't want them to be disappointed in the other parks, so I want to do them before MK. So, we are either going to do DHS (with 50's Prime Time Cafe) or Animal Kingdom with Rainforest Cafe. I have read tons of reviews and these restaurants actually have food my kids will eat. They aren't picky but they aren't foofoo eaters either. If they can't pronounce it, they won't order it. We don't have a Rainforest so they may get a kick out of it. We happen to like chain restaurants, so it is worth a shot.
Both of those restaurants are good ones... 50's used to be a must do for us - until our bad experience last trip, we've decided to try something new this time.
And we never do RFC when we go to WDW... We live near the MOA, and there's an RFC there... Good food, great atmosphere -but since we can do it at home, we avoid it there. 
[Saturday, the 24th, whichever park we didn't do on Friday. If Animal Kingdom doesn't take us all day (we aren't big into animals), I would like to try to do miniature golf this day as well. We have 6 day hopper passes with water parks, so trying to fit it all in is a challenge. If not miniature golf, then maybe to MK for the electrical parade (I think they don't change it from happening every night until Sunday the 25th).
I just wanted to chime in here... I hope you don't go to AK thinking it's a zoo or that it's loaded with animals... It is so much more than that. I realize that some people love it and some people hate it... We are lovers of AK, and it's a 2 day park for us. If you'd like to see more pictures... I have tons of them in my March TR from AK. 
[Sunday, the 25th - Epcot day. My DD16 is super excited to see all the face characters. That would be her dream job. So, we will do a late breakfast for Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus. Dinner will be at Rose & Crown. Did I mention she is also addicted to England and BBC and everything british. Well, throw Scotland, Ireland and Canada in there too. She goes to Ireland this Spring Break for 10 days. Maybe she will be past it by the trip, but it hasn't diminished at all in the last 2 years. DS17, well he likes it too. I started making Bangers and Mash a few months ago, so they are excited to try someone else's but they love mine.
Sounds like your entire family is really going to enjoy Epcot!
[Monday, the 26th - this is where I am torn. I show Tuesday and Wednesday being the best MK days for our vacation, but Monday's crowd level is still below a 4, so I am thinking of trying MK. Otherwise, it will be a water park day (not sure which one) and then to DTD for DisneyQuest and Raglan Road, of course. Our highschool's mascot are the fighting Irish and we are Irish descent, so we have to do Raglan Road. In fact, we are doing it twice.
4s really aren't bad for MK... We did it with 9+ last year over spring break, and we managed to do everything we wanted to do, and then some.
[Tuesday, the 27th - Magic Kingdom finally. Breakfast at Crystal Palace. I am hoping to get ADR before opening. No other table service restaurants this day.
Yay!!! CP is a must do for us every single trip - seriously. And it's a must do before park opens.
[Wednesday, the 28th - Magic Kingdom again. After looking at the menus, we will do Be Our Guest for lunch instead of dinner. The kids weren't too excited over the dinner menu. DD16 is very unhappy with the dessert choices here. She hates filling in everything, so she is disgusted that their cupcakes are filled. She is a solid cake person. Doesn't like mousse between the layers. You better never try to put a fruit layer...straight cake. That goes for donuts too. Good thing is she never liked hostess snacks. Dinner will be Cinderella's Happily Ever After at 1900 Park Fare (fingers crossed).
I will have to go double check the menu - we are hoping for dinner here.
[Thursday and Friday are Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Orlando.
Haven't been yet... Hoping to go someday.
[Saturday, the 31st - we leave at 5, but will have to be on bus around 2, I expect. We will be going to try to do Ohana for breakfast and then to Ragland Road. They do a Irish type festival this weekend and we don't want to miss that. Then we fly back home, arriving at the airport at midnight. Long day.
What do you think?
Sounds like a really long and fun last day!
Happy New Year! I stayed up way too late waiting for the Disney announcement during Rocking Eve. I entered the sweepstakes for today. I will be taking the DDs to see Wreck It Ralph in a couple of hours. They both have seen it, but I haven't, and I want to see it.
Morning started late, but I got up and went to the gym and worked out. Five days in a row. I didn't lose all the weight I wanted to last year, but I am starting this year 22 pounds lighter than last year and I have been working on it the entire year. I would like to be another 20 pounds lighter by vacation, which is under my goal weight, but I want to enjoy being able to eat and not worry about all the pounds I will be putting on. I will still work out with trainer 2 days a week. I will try to add more cardio during the weeks. I want to be in good Disney shape when I get there. I have to figure out if there is something else I want to do for a "resolution". I gave up all soda and caffeine last year. August 11th was my last taste of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi. I loved it. I drank over 2 litres a day. Not good for me. So, I stopped cold turkey and haven't had a sip since. My friend always teased me that I would put Pepsi out of business when I quit, but they are still hanging in there. So not really a resolution, just a keep doing what you have been doing. The last times I went to DL I felt bad about my weight and was uncomfortable in shorts, not only because of my very white legs in a sea of tan. This year will be the first time that I will be comfortable with myself. Adds a bit of excitement instead of the dread I usually feel.
I should get ready for the movie. Hopefully it will be better than The Hobbit and Les Miserables. I liked them both, but they were too long for me.
Great job for sticking to your goals last year!
I am working on being healthy too... I gave up soda last year - cold turkey... I did snitch some (Ok, a lot) during the holidays (um, from Halloween to Christmas.. LOL)... But I am back to avoiding it at all costs. It's so hard. It's not the flavor I love, but the carbonation. I've just recently discovered H2Oh and Club Soda... Both of which are really cutting my crave for the bubbly soda all together. I also love my water with lemon and I love to experiment with other fruits as well (my fav is strawberries and rhubarb).
Anyways, I am hoping to be much more comfortable on this trip to Disney - because I was sooooo miserable on our last one... Never wanna feel like that again.
I read on another thread that the discount for late summer/fall might be free dining, but with a change. Since he predicted the current discounts, I will tend to expect what he says. He said that instead of free dining, that there will be no free dining at the Values and only free QSDP for the Moderates / Deluxe. So, I did all of the number crunching yesterday and we would still be ahead of the game to take that and upgrade it to the regular DDP. I went through all the menus and restaurants we had talked about and created a list of prices that each person would most likely order. Not including drinks or desserts or snacks, it was still well over $1K. Add in drinks and snacks (still no desserts) it came to $1,300. So, the savings with going for the dining plan (if it is free QSDP with upgrade) was more than a discount on the room. I would need a 50% room discount to have the same savings and I don't see Disney selling rooms at half off.
I am still of course budgeting for the full price rack rate and full price dining plan. Just in case. At least the proposed discount gave me something to do. I have been redoing the food over and over and over the last couple of days.
The main change is to pay OOP for the last Raglan Road day so that we can do the Cape May Cafe Clam Bake. I know my son would really enjoy that. I have read some reviews and most seem to think it is ok. Oh, and I also added a Kona breakfast. Each family member has a character breakfast they want to go to.
Princess Storybook Dining - Chelsea - Princesses of course.
1900 Park Fare for Dinner - Marissa (she would have done breakfast too, but she had to choose one and she chose dinner).
Ohana Breakfast - Jacob - favorite character is Stitch.
Crystal Palace - me. I want in the park early for photos. We don't care about Pooh, but the older two kids like him.
I read the same thread you did. And I am planning the same thing.
I do need to rework my #s though and figure out which discount is better.
Right now, we are booked at POR with a military disount (35%) on the room only, and I just added on DDP... I will also have to add on tickets at some point.
I need to sit down and figure out which savings is the best for us. I have a feeling that the free QSDP with the paid upgrade to DDP will be better... BUt, you just never know until you run the #s... So, I will work on that in the coming weeks, so I am prepared.
My DBF and I plan a trip to Washington every February. This will be our 5th year. So, it was time to decide which weekend. It depends on when my aunt can take the kids and other factors. I told him I was pretty open to whichever weekend. Then I realized that one weekend would NOT work. I could not go on February 23rd. He looked at me with a puzzled look. I then changed it to, I could go but that is my ADR date and if the hotel's wifi is not working at 3 am 
or some other thing doesn't go right with my ADR's, it might not be an enjoyable weekend 
. Then I had to explain what an ADR is. He rolled his eyes and said to pick a weekend, he didn't really care. I talked him into President's weekend because we were there last year at that time and Cabela's had a great sale. So, we are both happy. 
So, what are the must ADRs? It has really been hard to decide, because I have never been to any of them. When we went to DL, we always did the eat as cheaply as possible. You walk 3 miles to McDonalds, or we will all share a basket of fries and that is it. So, I really wanted to eat. I read one trip report that was all about food yesterday and I gained 5 pounds without having to eat a bite. I am determined to eat, but with three kids I am not going to get fine dining, so I have been reading menus and reviews still. Most haven't changed, but I have added and changed many times. We are not big lunch or dinner people. If we have a big breakfast, we are usually happy. So, that is why most of the ADRs are for breakfast.
Character dining:
Ohana breakfast
1900 Park Fare dinner
Crystal Palace breakfast
Akershus breakfast
Chef Mickeys breakfast (newly added). Was going to try Kona for the tonga toast but I don't think the kids would like it.
Other table service:
Rose & Crown
Cape May Cafe Clam bake
Raglan Road X 2 (one will be oop but I have to go to the Great Irish Hooley!)
50's Prime Time
I also would love to go to these, but don't know when to fit them in:
Kona
Beaches and Cream
Landscapes of Flavor (I really want to try here, but I mostly just want to explore the resort and get pictures with the kids)
Biergarten
Rainforest Cafe
Sci-Fi
Wolfgang Puck Express
Earl of Sandwich
I think that is why I need to plan another trip.
Your ADRs sound wonderful... There are some one here that we have tried, some that we haven't... Some we'd do again, and some we won't.
We also have a lot of breakfasts. I know the Dis gurus say that DDP isn't worth the $$ if you use it for breakfast... But I love the convenience of DDP - and there are Character meals that I would rather do at breakfast than any other time of the day. So, that is where I use it. I am sure we could plan better, but oh well.
Wow!!! Hopefully, I don't fall so far behind again.
D~
Oh, and DD 16 couldn't possibly be in Orlando without seeing Harry, so we are squeezing 2 days in at Universal too!
I think it may have been on the list for DTD but not AK, or perhaps the other way around. The last time we were in WDW was in 2010 (wow, I can't believe it's been that long....we were always one a year goers), so I am sure a lot of things have changed! I don't think we've eaten at the RFC though since probably a trip or two before that so maybe 2008 or 09. But as long as it's on the list, you will be fine.
but at least I may be able to make some shorts for DD9 to wear.
