To Dine or Not To Dine...
We don't have current AP's, but we USUALLY book everything a la carte and do a room only reservation--saving the money.... and making sure that we get to use our AP's for at least another week's vacation before the passes expire.
We were GOING to do that this year before the free dining came out... and staying at a moderate...the savings were not equal to the cost of having free dining for the three of us that qualify.... I have 3 children...but only one of them is over the age of three (my daughter will turn three the week after we are there--we will celebrate her birthday while there)... he's 5... and doesn't eat very much... so between the three meals and appetizers and deserts....we'll be sharing food with our 1 and almost 3 year old... so we probably won't have to buy many extra kids meals for them... so that is also a huge savings... also, when we go to buffet character meals, like Chef Mickey's, my two younger children can have whatever and eat free.
So that works well for us.
Although we enjoy sit down meals at so many restaurants in the world... we opted to stay at Coronado Springs which has a fabulous counter service restaurant that has amazing food--much more upscale then your normal counterservice... so we will likely eat some of our dinners at the hotel...and use more of our sit down meals for lunch at the parks... that way we will really maximize our counter service options several times....
As for the signature dining experience... we are GOING to use two of our vouchers for Narcooses on our 11th anniversary... there is the day we will spend at Typhoon Lagoon...so that will be a counter service day... and that evening we are going to MNSSHP (so we aren't wasting a park admission that day---we paid for the non expiring passes) so we will eat at the hotel c/s that afternoon after getting back from TL. So we'll have NOT used a sit down meal that day which we can easily apply to Narcooses.
Works fabulously for my way of thinking.
(We'll need to by my daughter a meal at Typhoon Lagoon so she can get her pail and shovel! LOL...my 1 year old probalby won't care about that THIS trip....).
We've already got all of our ADRs set up....so I'm very excited. We do have Le Cellier...I've never eaten there, but DH says it's great. We are not going crazy trying to eat at all of the most expensive options... we are mainly going to our favorites.... like San Angel Inn, Sci Fi Dine In, Chef Mickey's...whenever we went to MK we'd do one lunch over at Kona Cafe' anyway to avoid the heat and crowds inside the park--we'd dine in air conditioned comfort while we were waited on...the difference in price wasn't that great save for the cost of the tip...and it would give the kids and their accompanying grandmas a chance to rest and recharge their batteries in a way that you can not do inside the parks... this year we are going to try Concourse Steakhouse in the same veing.
NOw all I need to do is figure out our airfare.... Oh....I forgot to add that we are staying for 9 nights... we are going Oct. 1-10....since the plan is available up until Oct. 4th....they extend it through your stay as long as you are checking in while it is still in effect.
Interesting thought about the upgrading to AP.... if you DON'T already have an AP....you could conceivably do that in person upon arrival, could you not???
Belle
