DISNEY BRIDE DIETS - How are we all doing? PART 2

[alkel2730]

Morning all,
Day 1 of the hardest part in any ones diet as its my 'wind down the food day' booo. This basically means that im not going cold turkey in terms of carbs or food - too hard, but it means im pulling it right back in terms of the amount all in prep for our budget anniversary trip next year! Lol. Its so funny weve booked to go again, especially on a non DVC hol but i woke up this morning feeling excited. I still have stuff to 'finish' from the honeymoon, i still have two batches of washing to do - ive done 5 already! And i have to put boarders on our photopass still and i have some more pics to upload to FB, and i still need to sort my DVDs out - label them and such. And for the new holiday i need to get some insurance!

Kim, hope the move went well and you are enjoying being in your new home! Unicycle made me laugh out loud, hehe. I didnt know you were there next year at that time too! Well i prolly did but i forgot - is that your honeymoon? Where are you staying? Youve stayed at SSR before havent you? Any particular area recommendations? We arent having a car this next year as it truly is a budget Disney only holiday, im happy with that as its a bonus holiday in between our next DVC one (hoping for Beach club for next DVC holiday) and this last time going, although i loved US, IoA, SW and DC, my main love is Disney and if its the difference of going and not ill take Disney only! Plus this holiday just gone was hectic, really hectic, unless you count DC we had no rest days and we git up at 5:45 every day and went to bed at 11-12pm every night and i had no time to even swim - we did the pool just twice! When we came home we said next time we'd like a slightly slower pace and by taking out all off site activities we can do that. What did you do about food Kim in terms of bits in your room? I know Alex will miss the car, he loves driving out there but so long as we can get everything we need it will be fine, that means beer! Lol, so i need to get that fridge full of bud lite and need to figure out how to do that, im think walk to cross roads and get taxi back? Or get garden grocer to deliver? Not sure - anyone had experience with that?

Just spotted a new US Biggest Loser on TV! Just catching up, channel 107 Sky Living! Great inspiration to get back to exercise, going to try and do a gym room later.

Natalie - thanks hun, will look forward to me guide! I was looking at the 2011 pdf but i really do need a new one to think about these ADRs. :-)

[Guest]

Go girls, haven't had a chance to post the past day or 2.

Kel can't believe u have booked again! I'm so jealous! We havnt even booked our trip for next year yet lol. I'm thinking we will try and do it all diy once flights are released so il probably need ur help as Im rubbish at that sort of thing! Lol

Nat I'd quite like you guide to ddp as well please as wer considering staying on site for 5 nights if we can get a good price.

Have any of you rented DVC points before? Was looking yesterday and there seemed some good delas but I'm just now sure how they work!

Diet and exercise has been really good for me this week but I don't feel any slimmer infact my stomach looks bigger! Got a night out tonight so need to try and stick to just a few vodka and diet coke!

What time is the new BL on kel? I've been watching old one but I've already seen the final so I know the finalist although can't remember if it was rudy or dan who one! I haven't seen the start so that's good but would like comPletely new one!

Oh a wee heads up for all you bargain hunters out there...
Tesco have a flash sale on until midnight and all womanswear is half price! I saw a dress in store and they didn't hav my size so thought I'd check on line and it was half price! Infant resist a bargain so bought another 4 (yes 4... ) dress to try including a lovely maxi dress! Do t know if it will suit me but was free delivery if you spent over £50 so I can't send it back if it doesn't suit but they have some stunning dresses at half price!

I'm off to do my fake tan for tonight as I'm wearing a dress and my legs are milk bottle White! I really want to go to boxing class but dont have anyone to go with and last time j went myself I got paired up with a blooming martial arts sepcialist who nearly floored me with one punch to a pad so I'm scared now! Lol x

Have a great day xx

[alkel2730]

Morning Yvonne,
I'm sorry to hear you aren't feeling slimmer, you will be getting smaller though as you are doing loads of exercise and eating well, make sure you keep your inches too.
I don't know about the new BL - I tried to find it but could only find Saturday morning repeats so I've series linked that, it was on this morning about 10am, there were two on. There's a new trainer too, not sure I like that! However I have seen her before as shes a celeb trainer. Jillian and Bob are still there.
Great heads up on Tesco, will go have a look ski.

I can't quite believe I've booked too! I've never done that before so quick after but I can't wait. Oh Yvonne, DVC! I'm your woman! What do you need to know?! I'm also very good at DIY holidays too as we've been doing them for years but you just have to do some costings. You see, we could have rented DVC points for next year and used our points from 2013, but with what we spend on food its not worth it. In my opinion the DDP is too expensive to buy - its about $45 each per day for the DDP. It might be worth it if you just want to stay on Disney and you want to eat in expensive places but if you want to go off site, its not, so have a think about where you want to eat. Where do you want to stay?

With DVC, you can rent from fellow dibbers, its about £6 per point. Have a look at wdwinfo.com and on there go to Disney Vaction club and calculator, this will tell you how many points you need for your stay depending on hotel and sometimes view. I'm obviously a member but I also rented some extra for the honeymoon as I didn't quite have enough and its very easy to do. You need to decide when you want to go, where you want to stay and the type of room you want (probably just a studio - but look on wdwinfo) , you then need to find a Dibber willing to rent to you, but advertising here on the Dibb.
Your best chance of getting the room you want is to find a DVC member wo 'owns' at the resort you want as they can book rooms 11 months in advance, whereas other DVC owners can only book 7 months in advance and the chances of getting the room are much lower. I put that in bold as its the key to renting DVC. So for example I own at SSR so if you were to rent off me (I have none so I cant but just as an example) and wanted say, Beach Club, I could only reserve your room 7 months prior to your trip, whereas a DVC owner at the Beach Club could do it 11 months in advance. This doesn't matter for all resorts, SSR, OKW are all easy to get into, Beach Club, Board Walk, Bay Lake, some Animal Kingdom Lodge rooms, are harder so you should really look for an owner.
When you find someone to rent to, normally the way it works is that you pay them and they book it for you. Once its booked they will forward a copy of the reservation to you to prove they've booked it. SOme owners ask for a deposit, then they book, then they send the reservation to you and then you pay the balance, some ask for money up front, some let you pay after booking, but once you have that reservation you will probably have to pay. In terms of the reservation, when we book a DVC reservation we call our own dedicated travel agents, called Member services to make the booking. Once booked our online DVC account is updated with the booking showing the reservation and the names its booked in (this would be your name), the owner will take a screen print of this and email it to you to show you the booking. In about 4 weeks you'll get a paper copy of this through the post direct from Disney. And thats it. There is trust on both sides as you have to pay something before booking and you are peying a person rather than a travel agent, but at the same time the owner risks losing their points if you dont pay or you cancel so its a reasonably even deal. If you pay via Pay Pal then you also have added peace of mind. Hope that helps! Anything else, just ask - if you find the points confusing, tell me what you want and I'll tell you the points.

Just doing my trip report!

[NatsyNoo]

OK guys, here goes

I have travelled to DDP with free DDP twice and have a 3rd visit booked so I think I more or less have it down now

I don't understand why people would do counter service DDP but that's because it just wouldn't suit us, we like our sit down meals in the evening

Here's the provisional DDP guide that will be added to between now and December:
disneyworld.disney.go/med...2012Dining.pdf

So, for the full DDP, the 2012 plan includes:
1 x QS meal - includes 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 drink
1 x TS meal - includes 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 drink
1 x snack - more or less any snack item before $6
1 x resort refillable mug valid for length of stay

You can't do a split stay with DDP

When you check in you'll get your KTTW card which will have something like DDP 2a printed on it, meaning standard DDP for 2 adults in the party. The credits are pooled to the room so we don't have to pay for our own so to speak. 1 card the whole trip will be fine.

Everytime you make a DDP purchase, your total remaining credits will be listed at the bottom of the receipt.
So for you Kel, when you arrive, you and Alex will have 28 QS 28 TS 28 snacks

At most restaurants, your server will ask you to show them your card. This is so he/she can tell which dining plan you are on as your entitlements differ from plan to plan, i.e. he's trying to determine if you can have an appetiser

You can spend your credits as you wish, i.e. you don't have to spend 1 per day. If you want to spend all your snacks on day 1, that's fine, but you won't have any more the rest of the trip. Also, credits can be used at any time of day, e.g. TS do not only have to be used at night, it's just that's our preference, you can eat your main meal at lunch every day or a mixture of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, whichever you prefer

We like to have a TS meal every night of our trip and we normally do at least 1 character breakfast so we spend our DDP credits on the best value meals by comparing menus and working out what will be the more expensive places to eat on average (my job of course) and then we pay OOP for the cheaper ones, e.g. breakfasts, Beaches and Cream, Via Napoli, buffets, tend to be cheaper than a la carte places, signatures, dinner shows. Whatever works best for you.

I'll talk about each segment separately so I don't miss anything, some of this will just be my tips through experience

Refillable mug
This being included is new this year for DDP, it's worth about $15 each so it's pretty good, pretty self explanatory but I will just remind you it's valid in your resort only not in the parks

Counter service
Includes entree, dessert and drink
They are listed on the PDF (above) but it's more or less any QS restaurant in the 4 main parks and the big places in the water parks, and I think all the QS places in DTD are included too, except Pollo Campero maybe
The best value is Wolfgang Puck Express as most mains are about $15 each and it's like a table service restaurant as it's waiter service. Same with Pepper Market at Coronado Springs. If you haven't eaten at WPE it's really yummy. Earl of Sandwich is included too Kel!
There's no restrictions on the menus, so you can pick from burgers, chicken tenders, pizza, or one of my favourites, chicken and ribs combo at Cosmic Rays in MK ($15ish). All entrees come with chips, crisps, side salad etc but what's offered differs at each restaurant
Dessert wise really differs a lot. Some people have little dessert pots, e.g. chocolate cake, carrot cake. I find them way too rich but most of the time we're too full for dessert that we just pick at it anyway. Some places do cookies, brownies etc which are good to take away and snack on later in the day. Some places do frozen lemonade or ice cream.
And my special tip, when you order your drink and if you choose a fountain drink, order a large one and ask for light ice, you get more! But you can get bottled water or fruit juice if you'd prefer.
We also used our leftover QS credits for a few Earl of Sandwiches to take on the plane, with cookies/brownies for desserts, and took some bottles of water to go and we drunk them between DTD and security.

Table Service Meals
My favourite! And ADRs are a must!
Our favourite thing to do is check out the receipts/bills when they come to the tables and see how much 'we got for free', so if that means choosing the most expensive thing on the menu, if we fancy it, we do! We love it!
You can order an appetiser, but it's OOP
You cannot change dessert for appetiser
When the bill comes out, the recommended tip will be at the bottom, you can either charge the tip to your room or pay cash but make sure your receipt is clear as otherwise there's a risk they'll do both
Your drink can often include a non-alcoholic speciality but your server will tell you, e.g. milkshakes, smoothies. If I do order a speciality drink I order some water on the side but some of the specialities are refillable, e.g. Whispering Canyon. Otherwise, my favourite drink is Minute Maid Lemonade as otherwise the bubbles fill my tummy!
If your restaurant is on the DDP list, you can pretty much have your pick of what's on the menu, the only thing you can't have is a sharing dish, e.g. Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream
If you don't like something on the menu, e.g. CRT has a set menu, they'll try and substitute it with something else, e.g. at CRT Matt doesn't like the appetisers so they bring him chicken noodle soup instead. Whilst talking about CRT, gratuities are included, and they also are at the dinner shows but these are all 2 credits each (as are the signatures). CRT also includes a photo package that they will bring to you table during your meal. Akershus in Norway also includes photo package (only 1 credit) but all other photos in restaurants cost about $30
All the credit requirements are listed in the PDF, e.g. Le Cellier dinner is 2 but lunch is 1

Snacks
As I said before, most items costing less than $6 can be bought with a snack credit, e.g. bakery items, frozen lemonade, smoothies, ice creams from carts, ice creams from parlours, popcorn, fruit, drinks bottles or cups, Dole Whips, funnel cakes, fudge pieces etc...there's so much choice! Chips at the Harry Ramsdens in England are a snack credit! As are jacket potatoes in Liberty Square at MK. There's some great deals! We tend to pay OOP for our drinks and use credits for ice creams etc in the afternoon or a bakery item for breakfast. We also sometimes find that the snacks are so big we can definitely share! e.g. the cakes. Any snacks left at the end of the trip can be used to buy gifts, last time we bought tonnes of fudge from Goofy's Candy Co, and some boxes of sweets and biscuits. It was nice to bring a taste of Disney home.
Snack credits can't easily be used at water parks, only fixed stations can use them, the ones that look like they can move around are cash only, e.g. the donuts stand

I think that's about all really

The only warning I would make is again about ADRs and trying to fix your plans a bit more Kel as otherwise you may struggle to spend your TS credits. When we first went on DDP in 2007, we didn't know about ADRs as WDW was never like that before so for 3 nights we didn't eat at a TS place and we ate a Planet Hollywood 4 times as we struggled to get ADRs elsewhere!

Also if you have an iphone/ipod there's a couple of good apps...WDW Dining has the most up to date menus IMO and is worth a look when determining prices and choosing ADRs. Mouse Memo is also good, it's like a planner on the go and you can save ADRs and confirmation numbers too, it's only 59p so good value if you prefer not to have paper plans.

If I think of anything else I'll let you know and if there's anything you don't know about just let me know as I probably know it but just forgot to write it down

Hope that helps and enjoy all the food

[alkel2730]

Brilliant. Thank you. The refillable mug is an ace addition, we always buy one so to get it for free is awesome. I know ill have to do and stick to ADRs, should be easier as Sept is way quieter and we dont have US and so on, i really do enjoy my table meals so im excited about that. Just gonna pass this to Alex now for a read, cheer for thos Natalie. X

[NatsyNoo]

You're welcome my dear, hope it was of some use to you!

[alkel2730]

It was and ive saved your post to my ipod notes headed DDP. How do you get on the internet in Orlando? We get it free as DVC members but i dont think we will this time. :-(

[NatsyNoo]

We don't normally bother, not only because we are away from the norm and everything is different; but because we just don't have time!
Disney are piloting free wifi in a couple of resorts but it's not yet got the go ahead resort wide
But you can buy internet from Disney in the resorts for $10 or so per day, that's for 24 hours' access
It's not a deal breaker for us but will be nice when Disney do start to provide it
We also don't call home often so not a problem

[alkel2730]

I call home every other day but get a phone card from publix usually but Alex reckons we'll be able to buy from UK. I think we are gonna do Garden grocer too.
I think well give internet a miss then, im not paying $10! Lol. I suppose they might allow it to us for free as we are DVC members and annual dues! Bet they dont tho. Hehe.
You know at Yactsmans, i know its 2TS, but can you pick anything off menu? We spent an arm and a leg there last time so its deffo on our radar, that and CRT but aside from that no other 2TS's. Thing is when we got there this time our appetite was tiny, like proper tiny so we are thinking that to start with we'll go easy on the food and share a lot. This way well save credits for the 2nd week when our appetite is huge! Lol

[alkel2730]

Ive lowered my food intake today but still eaten crap really but its all gone now so diet tomorrow!
B: bagel with lite philly (we had this each day in Orlando!)
L: tomato soup and 3 slices of wholemeal
S: dark choc with almonds - 6 squares
D: two slices of multigrain bread with salt and vinegar crisps.
Just water to drink.