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Old 7 Jun 18, 09:04 PM  
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Thing1thing2
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😂😂 loving the dance off!
Can’t wait for all these food pics! 😋😋
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Old 7 Jun 18, 10:18 PM  
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Originally Posted by Thing1thing2 View Post
😂😂 loving the dance off!
Can’t wait for all these food pics! 😋😋
thanks, good to know more than two of us enjoyed Hope you love the trip
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Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it
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Old 7 Jun 18, 11:02 PM  
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Pre-Trip Update:
- Why go Deluxe?
- 27 ADRs! In a row?


So why pay for Deluxe Dining?

Believe me I’ve asked myself this (although the real answer is because DW told me to). You may have gathered from the first post that my family are fans of table service and restaurant reservations (what gave it away ). I’ll focus here on the Disney plans because while we also have an idea on the Orlando and Universal stuff almost none of that is booked and we have much looser plans there with mostly walk-ups so we can switch on the fly if we want to.

Disney dining of course is a different matter where crazy-early planning and organisation is rewarded with getting the experiences that everyone is after. An on-site stay gives a little extra edge too for those reservations that EVERYBODY goes for.



So we ended up with Disney ADRs over 10 nights/11 days on the Deluxe Dining Plan. 90 Table Service credits to use in total (3x3x10) plus 60 Snacks. The TS credits can be used for a QS meal too and we will I’m sure do that here and there. If I add up the total TS credits reserved we’re at 93. We’ll cancel or rearrange one or two and there will be times when we prefer to eat light and pay out of pocket. Beaches and Cream on the first day is a great example, I can’t see us all having 3 or even 2 courses. With a number of credits freed up we’ll then be able to drop in the QS meals.

Here’s the thing. We don’t all stick together the whole holiday. DW is just not a park commando like DD and I. Her idea of a holiday is basking in the sun, eating and shopping. We’ll push her to spend maybe half the time in the parks with us and the rest she will be chilling by the pool or hanging out in the World Showcase (which should explain why we're staying at the Yacht Club).

DD and I rope drop. Our ideal day is breakfast on the fly, bash out the big rides when it's quiet and then use Fastpasses. We break for an early lunch then do anytime attractions/smell the roses and aim to be in the pool by mid-afternoon. We would happily stay later in the parks, all day in fact but we both really hate queuing (another good reason for the TS lunches) and don’t want to leave DW on her own all day. The shopping bills would be disastrous and she might find the spa

But how did we end up with 27 ADRs? The planning meetings were long and tense. Requirements were gathered from the 3 of us including us each having a couple of red lines for must do’s and must not do’s. So in came Hoop de doo Revue, lobster and Biergarten and out went any thought of Tony’s, Cinderella’s or the Hollywood Brown Derby.


While we’re not trying to maximise the value of the Deluxe Dining Plan - which we paid for as an upgrade from the regular DDP which came ‘free’ with the Yacht Club booking, TS is generally a better use of those credits than QS. I’ll do a load of stats at the end but for now noting that a Deluxe credit gets 3 courses at lunch or dinner (1-2 at breakfast depending on the menu) plus you get the drink which is more likely to be a high value alcoholic drink in TS than QS. On the downside you should generally pay the service charges on TS, adding say $18-20 on a $100 meal. With the QS it’s 2 courses per meal, generally the entree and the dessert plus alcoholic drinks where they’re available.

As I said we’re not trying to optimise the value, it was more so we could get the all-inclusive style experience. Our only rule on Snack Credits is no water, we bring in bottles and pick up free iced water or use the fountains when we run out. Soda in the parks, coffee, breakfast items etc. fill your boots family or we’ll be wasting them at the end.



The DIBB and other online resources were consulted extensively. Menus were studied and we ended up with a lot of ADRs:

1 Beaches and Cream
Diner/soda and ice-cream shop in the Beach and Yacht Club. DD and I had epic sundaes in there last time and we’re all 3 in there for lunch while we check-in/wait for our room to be ready. If we have a big offsite breakfast this may well turn into an ice-cream lunch paid out of pocket
mmmm


2 Chefs de France
This one is new to us. A nice short walk from the hotel and we’ll probably use it after a first session in EPCOT/before Illuminations. Gets good reviews and has French classics like Onion Soup and Creme Brulee. As long as the service isn’t authentic too…


3 Be Our Guest
Also a first, last time we visited it was relatively new and I didn’t really think about it. DD and I visit for lunch. We’re there for the theming TBH as the food is supposed to be iffy.


4 Spice Road Table
DW on her own for lunch, the Morocco restaurants may be the archetypal hidden gems, presumably because Americans aren’t that familiar with North African food. I need a picture of a DW kebab order for my EPCOT t-shirt challenge and the chances are slim to none which makes it an early candidate for silliest family squabble of the holiday.


5 The Boathouse
Saturday night at DS will be busy, we’ll try to sit outside. Not been before but this sounds like our kind of place. DW will enjoy the seafood and the menu generally looks good


6 California Grill
Another new one for us. All 3 along for what I’m sure will be great. I’ve always wanted to go into the Contemporary too, something about that monorail through the building is still ridiculously cool.


7 Biergarten
This was on the list for last time, moved several times and then cancelled. One of my must dos. The others are not too excited but I love Bavaria and German food and beer so they will have to put up with it. Expect DD to eat ten pretzel rolls and DW to start dancing to the oompah band.


8 Kona Cafe
Yet another new one, here for breakfast before a water park and the menu looks amazing. Last time we did the character breakfast at Ohana and the other two weren’t keen on the food. This time they can pick what they fancy which should work out better.
Ohana Pineapple and Coconut Bread. If you like Pina Colada

9 Coral Reef
DW has two separate ADRs for solo visits to Coral Reef but will almost certainly do one and cancel the other. This place has a hit and miss reputation but she’s a seafood lover so it’s a good one to try when no-one else is around to complain.


10 Tiffins
Early evening signature dinner at the Animal Kingdom with the Rivers of Light package so comes with the extra fastpass for seating. Looks an exciting menu, at one stage we had Jiko booked too but that has apparently slipped a little recently so we switched it out. Want to try the Nomad Lounge for drinks before the meal too, it’s just next door.


11 Trails End
Solo breakfast for me while the other two horse ride at Fort Wilderness. The riding was the only extra we bought aside from the dining plan upgrade. A good breakfast buffet is more my style


12 Art Smith’s Homecomin’
3 of us for lunch. This place has become legendary in its first few years. High expectations and really hope it delivers! Love southern style comfort food.


13 Teppan Edo
Looking forward to the hibachi cooking on the table/food theatre element and Japan is a favourite pavilion generally (DD will go into a frenzy when she sees the new cuteness exhibition!). Can’t go far wrong with steak and noodles either.


14 Morimoto Asia
Back to back Asian meals is a bit of a scheduling error. I’d balanced out cuisines and locations but at some point I shifted these around and didn’t notice this. It’s too late to change but don’t see it as a problem the menus are very different. We will probably be sharing the duck here I imagine, note that this is a one credit lunch (costs 2 credits for dinner).


15 Hoop de doo Revue
This is a repeat from last time. I would have preferred to skip it and maybe do on a future trip but this was a DD must do and it’s nice to have the credits. Great show and good food just don’t pick me for the stage please.


16 Via Napoli
Gets mixed reviews but it was brilliant last time we went. DW speaks to the servers in Italian and TBH I think that improves the service 100%. Loved the pizza but other dishes decent too.
Mon Calamari


17 Le Cellier
Dinner in O’Canada. Considered overpriced but advantage of the deluxe is you can forget about that to an extent. Supposed to be a high quality steakhouse with a nice atmosphere. Let’s see!


18 Nine Dragons
Lunch in China after a morning at MK (obviously?). Used to be panned, is supposedly decent now and the menu looks solid. Another new one for us.


19 Narcoossee
Signature dinner is a repeat of last time when I erred in booking it too late too early in the holiday (made worse by waiting extra for a window table). It was a great meal albeit 9 year old DD ate some calamari then face-planted her burger and slept through the fireworks. Hopefully not this time!


20 Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre
I’ve eaten here every time I’ve been to WDW and could have passed on it but everyone else wants to go so we’re there. Like the new burgers on the menu and there’s a hefty BBQ plate that could be hard to resist (maybe a bad idea in the August heat).
The All-American Picnic Burger. Gone but not forgotten


21 Akershus
Princess breakfast a late addition, think the food is standard family style breakfast skillet. Hopefully DD won't look quite so embarrassed in the photos this time


22 Yachtsman Steakhouse
This is supposed to be an amazing signature and is in our hotel. I’ve been a bit sneaky sticking this near the end of the Disney days because I know if it’s good there will be a campaign to eat there at least once more and I prefer to try more new places. Hey there have to be some benefits to being chief planner and MDE admin clerk.


23 Cape May Cafe
Breakfast was the only character meal of our holiday until the late addition of Akershus. DD prefers costumed characters generally. I’m sure this will be hellish sorry magical


24 Yak and Yeti
Me and DD for lunch. Loved this place last time, great meal and looking forward to returning.
Refreshing Yak and Yeti sorbet trio

25 Tutto Italia
DW will probably take lunch here while we’re at Y&Y. I wanted us all to go but it didn’t quite fit so she may as well reccy it for us to see if we might return in future and I bet she loves it.


26 Flying Fish
Signature dinner across the way at the Boardwalk. Menu looks amazing although mixed messages on if it has declined recently or not. High hopes and it’s our last night at Disney so needs to be good.


27 Ale and Compass (Restaurant)
Never sure exactly what this one’s called. Early breakfast just before we check out and scoot over to Universal for Hard Rock Hotel and a park day. Menu looks like posh hotel food.

Enjoy

Edited at 03:22 PM.
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Old 8 Jun 18, 02:48 PM  
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Originally Posted by theCMG View Post
Your memes are lolol.
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Old 8 Jun 18, 03:05 PM  
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Thay all sound Fab!

Your post did make me laugh! 😂👍🏻

Kat
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Old 8 Jun 18, 03:26 PM  
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Loving all the ADR's and of course the memes!

Quick question, can you just walk up to Beaches and Cream for a table or must you book? I want to do the kitchen sink but can't get a reservation x
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Old 8 Jun 18, 04:32 PM  
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Thanks MissFortune, Kat11 and caitlinsmummy for nice words. I've been like a kid in a sweet shop since I discovered how to generate memes quickly and there will be plenty more I'm sure

What I've heard is that you can't get the full kitchen sink without a B&C table (which means a reservation or a very long wait). Double check this but from the take-out window you can apparently get the smaller version aka the Mickey Pants sundae that people often take home as a souvenir (minus the ice cream!)


An alternative would be to try The Fountain ice cream shop at the Dolphin hotel a short walk away. This is supposed to be at least as good as B&C (whisper it, maybe better) and is a lot easier to book. Swan and Dolphin are kind of semi-Disney hotels don't think its on the dining plan though: disneyworld.disney.go/en...ountain/menus/

Edited at 04:44 PM.
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Old 8 Jun 18, 04:46 PM  
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Originally Posted by theCMG View Post
Thanks MissFortune, Kat11 and caitlinsmummy for nice words. I've been like a kid in a sweet shop since I discovered how to generate memes quickly and there will be plenty more I'm sure

What I've heard is that you can't get the full kitchen sink without a B&C table (which means a reservation or a very long wait). Double check this but from the take-out window you can apparently get the smaller version aka the Mickey Pants sundae that people often take home as a souvenir (minus the ice cream!)


An alternative would be to try The Fountain ice cream shop at the Dolphin hotel a short walk away. This is supposed to be at least as good as B&C (whisper it, maybe better) and is a lot easier to book. Swan and Dolphin are kind of semi-Disney hotels don't think its on the dining plan though: disneyworld.disney.go/en...ountain/menus/
Thank you! I did think about just getting the Mickey pants in MK one day instead ... might just do this x
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Old 10 Jun 18, 02:04 PM  
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Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
Thank you! I did think about just getting the Mickey pants in MK one day instead ... might just do this x
sounds good, I had no idea you could get this in the MK too. You'll have to report back on what it's like
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it

Edited at 02:05 PM.
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Old 13 Jun 18, 08:29 AM  
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Pre-Trip Update:
- Drinking Around the World Cup
- Holiday Food Challenges
- ADR/Dining Plan news



Drinking Around the World Cup

Over Christmas the local Tesco Extra had a tonne of great 4/3 and 3/2 offers on beers from around the world and I came back with a lot of beer A whole world of beer in fact.

Inspired by this great thread from DIBB poster RT’s World Showcase Feast Fridays - Around the world in 11 weeks (til Disney!) I decided to perform my own much lazier, slightly tipsier version and buy a beer or cider representing each of the World Showcase countries.

These had a vague link in my head with enjoying the beers during the football World Cup (which finishes the day before we fly out) and thereby get me through the final month of countdown with something to enjoy.

Can you sense a theme here


That was before I realised the curse of the World Showcase had struck meaning that only 6 of the countries qualified (if we take England for UK - sorry everyone else but I did pick a Welsh beer, think of it as calling in Gareth...Ale ). And I mean Italy not qualifying, come on No USA either! Here’s the line-up in approximate order of how much I like the pavilions:

Country - Name (type/style)
1 Japan - Hitachino Nest (white beer)
2 Mexico - Modelo (lager)
3 Morocco - Casablanca (lager)
4 Germany - Franziskaner (Hefe weissbier)
5 France - 6 Somewhere (semi-sweet cider)
6 China - Tsingtao (lager)
7 Italy - Angioletti (medium-dry cider)
8 Norway - Nogne (saison)
9 United Kingdom - Cwtch (red ale)
10 O’Canada - Moosehead (lager)
11 USA - Founders Rubaeus (fruit beer)

8/11 came from Tesco, none were too pricey. The UK’s Cwtch is a favourite of mine that I can only find online currently (stock it somebody it’s incredible!) and I had to shop around for the Moroccan and surprisingly for the Canadian beer. I’ll review them all a few matches in including experiments to recreate the much loved EPCOT Schofferhoffer grapefruit using the Weissbier

11 Countries, 11 Players, 11 Beers. Where am I going with this?


Food Challenges

We can be competitive at times as a family and generally require a fair bit of entertainment. Sometimes it’s food based, sometimes not (like Horrible Suitcase Challenge which I’ll share at a later date). If you’ve heard of the ‘eat it or wear it challenge’ DW once came home to find me sat on the patio with DD pouring a tin of out of date hot dogs over me. You would not believe the smell of old hot dog water poured over your head Even after two showers the dog followed me round for 24 hours.

Obviously we’ve grown up since then but just in case we do get bored here’s some dining related challenges we’re thinking of that might make the report:

The Instagram Buffet Challenge - Food photography standards have risen a lot since 2015. Not in my family We all aspire to beautiful pics like the one below (not one of ours!) So who can come back from a buffet with the most beautiful plate of food? Credit only received if the full plate is then eaten to avoid arty but inedible combinations. Note we are not actually on Instagram.

Pure Filth. Try assembling this at the Premier Inn breakfast bar

Club Cool Remix - The club cool flavours haven’t changed since I last reviewed them This time I’ll take suggestions for pairs of flavours to try. I’m sure no-one will try to create anything vile!

Love Club Cool!


Turkey Legging - photography challenge to take a picture of a family member with a turkey leg(s) in shot. Loser is the one caught (turkey legged) the most over the course of the holiday.



Are you brighter than the President? (dining edition) - Formerly the beige meal game, updated for a post-beige World to a game of eating the holiday’s most Trumpian meal. Points for overall orangeness and for textural/visual similarity of individual items to the Presidential barnet.

This picture will be used as the reference point



ADR/Dining Update

I have updated one of our early Orlando breakfasts from ihop to ihob

Edited at 10:04 AM.
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