Hey there Hi there ho there...
Well, we're booked up for our vacation, a week with a Lake View at BLT. It will be a hard vacation - our first one with Slapperina Numero Duo, and driving 1100 miles each way with a 3 year old and a 6 month old is a tad daunting - but Slapperina is an excited little kid, and I always wanted to stay at a monorail resort, so cool beans in general...
Because the kids are so little, we're not expecting to be park commandos - maybe some early morning EMH once in a while, but probably no late ones - so rather than take that time waiting on line for character sightings, we opted to spring for the Deluxe Dining Plan and do a lot of character meals, taking our time and enjoying the ambiance and themes of the respective restaurants. Based on where we're eating and knowing the sorts of things my wife and I like to eat, even skipping an appetizer or dessert once in a while here or there, the Deluxe Plan pays for itself with a bunch of credits to spare.
Because we're staying at BLT, most of our ADRs are either in the parks, or in the Contemporary, or in resorts accessible from the Contemporary by monorail or boat, just to make life a little easier. Even though we'll have our car, one less trip in the car will probably make life easier. And at the moment, we're not planning on getting park-hoppers (that may change, at least I might get one because I might not nap when everyone else is, so I'll walk to MK and ride the rides Slapperina is too young and/or small to ride some afternoons). We're also visiting a few restaurants twice, just because I think our oldest will like them most.
So here's what I got...
Arrival day, Sunday, probably just a counter service lunch (we'll be arriving, fingers crossed, around noon). Dinner at 6 at Chef Mickey's (character), hopefully followed by a chance to get to Top of the World lounge for fireworks, but if not, we'll find a poa
Monday - MK
8:05 breakfast at Crystal Palace (character)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are
5:30 dinner (after an afternoon break back at the hotel), boating or driving over to Whispering Canyon Cafe.
Tuesday - AK
9:05 breakfast at Tusker House (character)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are, probably back at the hotel before a nap or swim.
5:15 dinner ADRs, driving to Boma in AKL (a must every trip since our first)
Wednesday - Epcot
8:30 Breakfast at Akershus in Epcot (character, and one Slappette & Slapperina are REALLY looking forward to)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are. This day, because dinner reservations are later, probably lunch back at the Contemporary, but perhaps we'll see if a walk up is available at San Angel Inn in WS Mexico
7:50 reservations at Rose & Crown. This is our latest reservation, in hopes the kids will make it for Illuminations.
Thursday - Studios
light breakfast, maybe even using snacks, probably at the resort since last night was a late one
early-for-us lunch at 11 at Sci-Fi
dinner @ 6:20 at 50s Primetime
Friday - MK
8:30 breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table
No definite plans for lunch
5:35 dinner at 1900 Park Fare in the GF (character)
Saturday - Maybe a water park during the day, MK at night
8:35 breakfast, driving to Beach Club for Cape May Buffet (character)
no definite lunch plans
5:50, back to dinner at Crystal Palace. Slapperina likes her Winnie the Pooh
Sunday - departure day, not sure which park, if any
8:05 breakfast back at Chef Mickey's. I was kinda thinking, since this restaurant will be the first one Slapperina will have visited to see characters, she'll want to go back anyway.
Where we go for lunch will depend, largely, on which park we choose to visit. Or we may drive to Beaches and Cream, and while there, go to the Beach Club marketplace and use our leftover snack credits for some pre-made sandwiches we can throw in our cooler and eat for dinner on the road.
At this point, we'll have only, definitely used 15 of our 21 credits, and that will still be a ton of food. Sure, we can still have a lot of counter service lunches, though I'm not sure we'll need them, I think we'll be able to get by, a lot of the time, on the 2-credit snacks portion of the plan for a lighter meal. Not necessarily ice cream or candy, but a pretzel and a piece of fruit...ok, probably ice cream and candy. And with the extra credits, if there are days where we have to cancel ADRs (which we'll do, promise) and make it an early night, BLT/Contemporary has a pretty nice room service menu which will cost us 2 credits each. Or just hit the food court or one of the monorail restaurants where there's a fighting chance for last-minute seatings, like The Wave (less likely as reviews seem awesome, but it's still apparently a "hidden gem" for now), or Kona Cafe at the Poly or the Grand Floridian Cafe at GF.
What think you?
Well, we're booked up for our vacation, a week with a Lake View at BLT. It will be a hard vacation - our first one with Slapperina Numero Duo, and driving 1100 miles each way with a 3 year old and a 6 month old is a tad daunting - but Slapperina is an excited little kid, and I always wanted to stay at a monorail resort, so cool beans in general...
Because the kids are so little, we're not expecting to be park commandos - maybe some early morning EMH once in a while, but probably no late ones - so rather than take that time waiting on line for character sightings, we opted to spring for the Deluxe Dining Plan and do a lot of character meals, taking our time and enjoying the ambiance and themes of the respective restaurants. Based on where we're eating and knowing the sorts of things my wife and I like to eat, even skipping an appetizer or dessert once in a while here or there, the Deluxe Plan pays for itself with a bunch of credits to spare.
Because we're staying at BLT, most of our ADRs are either in the parks, or in the Contemporary, or in resorts accessible from the Contemporary by monorail or boat, just to make life a little easier. Even though we'll have our car, one less trip in the car will probably make life easier. And at the moment, we're not planning on getting park-hoppers (that may change, at least I might get one because I might not nap when everyone else is, so I'll walk to MK and ride the rides Slapperina is too young and/or small to ride some afternoons). We're also visiting a few restaurants twice, just because I think our oldest will like them most.
So here's what I got...
Arrival day, Sunday, probably just a counter service lunch (we'll be arriving, fingers crossed, around noon). Dinner at 6 at Chef Mickey's (character), hopefully followed by a chance to get to Top of the World lounge for fireworks, but if not, we'll find a poa
Monday - MK
8:05 breakfast at Crystal Palace (character)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are
5:30 dinner (after an afternoon break back at the hotel), boating or driving over to Whispering Canyon Cafe.
Tuesday - AK
9:05 breakfast at Tusker House (character)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are, probably back at the hotel before a nap or swim.
5:15 dinner ADRs, driving to Boma in AKL (a must every trip since our first)
Wednesday - Epcot
8:30 Breakfast at Akershus in Epcot (character, and one Slappette & Slapperina are REALLY looking forward to)
Open-ended Lunch, maybe using snack credits, depending on how hungry we are. This day, because dinner reservations are later, probably lunch back at the Contemporary, but perhaps we'll see if a walk up is available at San Angel Inn in WS Mexico
7:50 reservations at Rose & Crown. This is our latest reservation, in hopes the kids will make it for Illuminations.
Thursday - Studios
light breakfast, maybe even using snacks, probably at the resort since last night was a late one
early-for-us lunch at 11 at Sci-Fi
dinner @ 6:20 at 50s Primetime
Friday - MK
8:30 breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table
No definite plans for lunch
5:35 dinner at 1900 Park Fare in the GF (character)
Saturday - Maybe a water park during the day, MK at night
8:35 breakfast, driving to Beach Club for Cape May Buffet (character)
no definite lunch plans
5:50, back to dinner at Crystal Palace. Slapperina likes her Winnie the Pooh
Sunday - departure day, not sure which park, if any
8:05 breakfast back at Chef Mickey's. I was kinda thinking, since this restaurant will be the first one Slapperina will have visited to see characters, she'll want to go back anyway.
Where we go for lunch will depend, largely, on which park we choose to visit. Or we may drive to Beaches and Cream, and while there, go to the Beach Club marketplace and use our leftover snack credits for some pre-made sandwiches we can throw in our cooler and eat for dinner on the road.
At this point, we'll have only, definitely used 15 of our 21 credits, and that will still be a ton of food. Sure, we can still have a lot of counter service lunches, though I'm not sure we'll need them, I think we'll be able to get by, a lot of the time, on the 2-credit snacks portion of the plan for a lighter meal. Not necessarily ice cream or candy, but a pretzel and a piece of fruit...ok, probably ice cream and candy. And with the extra credits, if there are days where we have to cancel ADRs (which we'll do, promise) and make it an early night, BLT/Contemporary has a pretty nice room service menu which will cost us 2 credits each. Or just hit the food court or one of the monorail restaurants where there's a fighting chance for last-minute seatings, like The Wave (less likely as reviews seem awesome, but it's still apparently a "hidden gem" for now), or Kona Cafe at the Poly or the Grand Floridian Cafe at GF.
What think you?
I'm a loud guy and I tried to acclimate Slapperina to the noise. Ironically, now that we have a second daughter, she has to get used to me telling her to be quiet, a thing we never had to worry about before. But it's also one of the more-inconvenient restaurants to get to, so there's always a chance we'll nix it.
