Another Disney Anniversary Trip w/ A First Ever Ocean Beach Vacation Thrown In PTR

Hi Everyone! Since our next trip is going to include our first time actually staying at an ocean front beach resort, I figured why not take a stab at my first ever pre-trip report?

Here we are in 2008 during our first on-site trip:

I probably have more recent pictures, but I just joined Photo Bucket and I don't have anything else of the two of us at work (yes, I'm doing this at work, but at least I look busy!) Neither of us are big fans of having our picture taken though, so most of our Disney pictures do not include us!

We've been DVC members since right before that 2007 trip (we bought OKW through a resale). Since that 2007 trip we have become just a little obsessed with Disney!

We have been married for 18 years now, and will be celebrating our 19th anniversary during the trip. We originally were planning May 11 - 18, but then DVC announced the great deal on the premium AP. Since our current APs expire May 20 and we can't get the new ones before the old ones expire we changed our dates to May 18 - 24. We'll start the trip with the old APs and then turn in our vouchers for the new ones on May 21, which is our actual anniversary . We also decided since this will be Memorial Day weekend we could add a few days at Vero Beach without having to take any extra time off work!

Here's the breakdown of the trip:

May 18 Arrive at OKW
May 24 Check out of OKW and drive to Vero Beach
May 26 Check out of Vero Beach and head back to MCO

We haven't booked our flights yet, but I'm looking at a return flight to Detroit that doesn't leave until 7:00 PM from MCO to maximize our time at the beach.

We used to purchase the deluxe DP, but on our October 2011 trip we decided it was just too much food and too much planning and coordinating to get from reservation to reservation. On our last trip in September, we decided to do the standard plan and it worked much better, so we'll probably do that again.

We don't really have much planning done yet, other than the dates picked and the reservations made, but we do need to start planning our dining soon!

Thanks for joining me on this planning journey. I'm really excited about the trip, the first time at Vero and my first pre-trip report!

 

[wiigirl]

Sounds like you are going to have a blast....can't wait to hear more!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Yay sounds like you've got a great trip coming up! I hear you about the dining plan-we've never done it because we feel it would be too much and not fit our lifestyle while at disney. I can imagine that the deluxe plan is A LOT!!
Any dining reservations you're thinking about?

 

[djpoore94]

Sounds like you are going to have a blast....can't wait to hear more!

Thanks, we're really looking forward to this trip.

 

[djpoore94]

Yay sounds like you've got a great trip coming up! I hear you about the dining plan-we've never done it because we feel it would be too much and not fit our lifestyle while at disney. I can imagine that the deluxe plan is A LOT!!
Any dining reservations you're thinking about?

We did pretty good with the regular plan on the last trip. We actually like having one good sit down meal per day, and since you don't get an appetizer on the standard plan it's really not too bad food wise. We need to do a cost analysis for the next trip though and figure out if it will be cost effective. We haven't really started thinking about ADR's, but we need to get on that soon!

 

[djpoore94]

So, my trip countdown is at 201 days. I can make ADR's three weeks from today. We haven't even started really thinking about them yet though. I was thinking of trying to schedule Dine W/ an Imagineer as a surprise for DH; I would like to do the lunch at Brown Derby.

We also need to do some cost comparison and figure out if the dining plan is going to be worth it for this trip. On our last trip we had a mixture of early afternoon and some evening table service meals. We decided that the early afternoon meals were nice because we didn't have to worry about scheduling the meals with the nighttime shows. We had a discussion about doing the dining plan again and scheduling our meals so that we share a QS meal somewhere between 11:00 and 12:00, then having a TS meal a little later in the afternoon, and sharing our second QS meal later in the evening. This seems like a good plan, but we would need to make sure that the serving hours at some of our favorites work out to make this possible. I think I remember seeing that some of the resort restaurants actually only serve lunch until 3:00 or 4:00 and then reopen for dinner. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[djpoore94]

One other thing.... does anyone know when the dates for Star Wars Weekends will be announced? We're really hoping that they continue the trend of the past few years and start them mid May so we can go. We went on one of our other trips, but DH was hung up on getting merchandise at that time and we spent most of the day in line for that and missed pretty much everything else . I am not letting that happen again!

 

[djpoore94]

Even though no one seems to be reading, or at least no one is responding, I am going to keep writing because, well, I'm bored and I need to look busy! If they hear me typing it sounds like I am working on a project

We make our ADRs in 17 days. We will need at least 6 table service meals since we will want one good, sit down meal per day even if we don't do the DDP. I probably won't make an ADR for our departure day since we'll most likely want to hit the road fairly early to head to the beach. If we want a good sit down breakfast that day I know we can get at walk up at Olivia's. Here is my list of potential choices:


1900 Park Fare
Biergarten
Chef Mickey’s (breakfast)
Coral Reef
La Hacienda
Liberty Tree Tavern
Maya Grill
Rainforest Café
Sci-Fi Dine in Theater (it's been a few years)
The Crystal Palace
Tokyo Dining
Tony’s Town Square
Trails End
Tuskar House
Via Napoli
Whispering Canyon Cafe (breakfast)

Of these we have been to the places I have typed in bold. I want to try at least a couple of new places so any suggestions would be welcome. We're really going to miss Le Cellier this trip since we go there pretty much every visit, but it is NOT worth paying signature prices or using two TS credits to either of us.

I know that a few of these places do not fit in to our "mid afternoon" sit down meal plan for this trip since they only do breakfast and dinner and La Hacienda only does table service dinner, but we can work around that, especially on our first two days if Star Wars Weekends are going. I won't want to take time in the middle of the day for a TS meal if we're in Star Wars mode!

 

[PixieDust62]

Keep typing, I'm reading. Lol.
I really enjoyed Tokyo Dining last year, the food was good and we had a lovely view. We weren't impressed with Biergarten but that's more because DH has an onion/garlic allergy and he had few choices.

 

[djpoore94]

Thanks PixieDust! We have had reservations at Biergarten in the past, but always ended up changing them last minute. I'm not sure why we're so nervous about trying it, although with those allergies, i can see why your husband didn't enjoy it!

While I have the list of possibilities made, we haven't even discussed them yet. This is a first for us, we usually have filled out our spreadsheet and made changes long before now! We make our ADRs in 13 days and haven't even discussed them yet!

I'm still seriously considering trying for a Dine With An Imagineer seating as DH's birthday gift, but I just can't make up my mind. I'm a little concerned because we're used to having 6 full days in addition to our arrival and departure days which are usually at least half days, but this trip we're only going to have 5 full days and will probably be leaving fairly early on our departure day. On the one hand we've been enough that we know what we want to do and know how to get it done, and we know we'll be back so it's not like we have to worry about missing stuff and not seeing it again.

I feel so unorganized and that is totally not like me!

 

[djpoore94]

We had an incredibly long and chaotic weekend, and today was our ADR day! Luckily DH is on vacation this week and we didn't have any hard to get places on our list so he was able to secure everything we wanted while I was getting ready for work after sleeping a little later than normal.

Our plan:

Saturday May 18 (arrival day) QS lunch and Maya Grill @ 7:00
Monday May 20 Tusker House @ 1:00 and QS dinner
Tuesday May 21 (our actual anniversary) Biergarten @ 1:00, QS dinner
Wednesday May 22 Sci-Fi @ 1:30, QS dinner
Thursday May 23 Crystal Palace @ 1:00, QS dinner
Friday May 24 Olivia's Cafe at 9:10 then depart for Vero Beach.

On Sunday May 19, we're planning on all day at HS for Star Wars Weekends so we'll do QS both meals, we don't want to waste time doing TS during this event. I usually don't mind taking time out of touring the parks for TS meals, but not during a special event!

Also, we may change that Olivia's breakfast to something else. We'll have a car this trip so travel time won't be so bad, but DH thinks parking at the resorts might be a pain (can anyone help me convince him that's not true?) and we're not sure if we want to get caught up in a park before heading out, I want to have as much beach time as possible!