To Dine or not To Dine

So the latest and greatest offer out for Walt Disney World has several opportunities to take advantage of their free dining offer when you book a package at a Disney Resort now through October 29, 2011.  The valid dates for this offer are between October and May.  So what if your stay dates are beyond those valid dates?  Well the good news is that as long as you arrive on one of the valid dates, even if you stay beyond the date timeframe the offer will carry through for your entire stay.

The question many people ask is "is this a good deal?" and the answers will vary from family to family or person to person.  First you have to understand that this is not an open-ended all-you-can-eat offer.  With the Disney Dining Plans you are given a bank of dining credits that can be used however you decide during the course of your stay.  The good news is that there is plenty of flexibility in doing it this way.  For example, if two adults are dining at a Disney restaurant, but one adult just wants to order an appetizer and a salad while the other wants a full meal the adult with the meal can use their dining credits to cover that portion and the other adult can pay out of pocked for the salad and appetizer, thus saving their table service meal credit to use at another time.

Many people find that the dining plan is way too much food and they feel like they are obligated to eat more on this plan, since each table service credits includes a drink, a main course and a dessert.  The counter service credits also include a dessert option, where most people ordering at a counter service would not even bother to order dessert.  A great tip regarding this is that if you have the option, package the dessert and save it for another time.  If it's a brownie or cupcake in the park at a counter service, have it wrapped up and eat it later for a snack.  Table service restaurant diners can just get their dessert to go and take it back to their room and store it in their refrigerator for a late-night snack or, even better, BREAKFAST the next day!  Who wouldn't want to eat cake for breakfast, right?

In all of our Disney trips, we have taken advantage of the dining plan only two times.  Back then, it was a little bit different and it included an appetizer as well.  Both of these trips were shorter trips, so it was more a little more affordable for us at the time.  While we enjoyed it I can't say that we have really missed having it for our other trips.  We do tend to do most of our eating on Disney property but we tend to get an annual pass and purchase the Tables in Wonderland card instead.  This gives us a 20% discounts on all of our table service restaurants, and includes any alcoholic drink purchases as well.  We find that we easily recoup the value of the card on a few table service meals and we don't feel restricted on what we eat using it.

Currently I am contemplating a few upcoming Walt Disney World trips, as usual.  While the free dining options is once again available for my dates, I've decided instead to hold off and wait for a discount on my room rate instead.  With a decent room rate discount and my Tables in Wonderland card, I think I'll do even better on my trip than to book a package with the dining plan.

Getting in shape for Disney

I was reading online recently that the average person walks anywhere from five to ten miles a day at Walt Disney World.  Of course, that's not continuous...you are spending a lot of time just on your feet waiting in lines or checking out exhibits and then there is a little bit of time actually riding the rides.  Still all that time on your feet can take a lot of of you if you aren't prepared.

Obviously we've taken plenty of trips to the parks and not once have we done any preparation for the walking and we've been okay.  I think the last two trips we even completed without strollers when I thought for sure we'd need them.  I recall renting one one day in EPCOT only to spend more time trying to prevent the kids from running each other over with it or fighting over who would push it.  I'm sure if I thought it would hold me, I would have easily let them push me around!

Kids are used to be active and on their feet and it really doesn't seem to phase them as much.  They wake up the morning after spending all day at a park and on their feet just ready to hit the pavement some more.  They are ready for the next adventure!  The adults...not so much most of the time...but we trudge on anyway.  After all, there will be plenty of time for sitting and relaxing when we're back home!

This upcoming June trip will be one of the longest breaks we've had between Disney trips in several years.  It will also be the longest Disney trip we've ever taken as we will be spending 10 days on Disney property.  Yes there are a few days set aside for those other parks as we want to introduce our kids to them for the first time as well.  However I'm really looking forward to having more time in the Disney parks.  I always feel like there's never enough time and we still have yet to do it ALL. 

The only way we'll be able to get a little more done this trip will be if we are not exhausted.  Therefore at home we've started our own program to get in shape for all of that Disney walking.  We are almost finished with our second week of taking daily 2 to 3 mile walks.  We get home and we aren't exhausted...which is a good thing.  Nobody complains the next day when it's time to hit the pavement again for another walk.  It's really going well and with any luck we'll start adding a little more distance to our walks pretty soon.  Our goal is to be able to do a 5 mile walk easily every day.

And the other thing we are getting in shape for at Disney...is eating!  We know we'll be indulging in some great meals and even better desserts.  There are Dole Whips to be had, Mickey Bars to be eaten and the Main Street Bakery has too many scrumptious items that it will require more than one trip for sure!  So my husband and I are also working on a weight loss plan to go along with our daily walking plan.  We are only a few days in on that, so we'll see how it goes, but it helps to have the support of each other to challenge us to do our best.

The Disneyholic planner

Some people go to Walt Disney World and imagine it as one big amusement park...or four big amusement parks.  They think they can go there and just play it by ear and just ride what they want to ride and eat where they want to eat without any previous planning.

Those of us who are true Disneyholics laugh at those people. 

Disneyholics do research, plan meals, have a schedule...at least SIX MONTHS in advance!  People think we are crazy...but the people that are travelling with us know that we will deliver them as many opportunities as possible to see the things they want to see, ride the things they want to ride and eat the foods they want to eat.

It begins as much as 11 months in advance.  That's the earliest a Disney Vacation Club member can make a reservation at their home resort.  Ours is Saratoga Spings and if we want to travel during peak travel times we WILL call EXACTLY 11 months before we plan to arrive...and have our room booked. 

Four months later we may call again...because seven months before our trip we can book ANY Walt Disney World Resort room and if we know we want to stay someplace else ON DISNEY PROPERTY, we will once again be on that phone EXACTLY 7 months before our trip.  At this point we'll either get the new resort we want or put ourselves on a hold list...and wait oh-so-impatiently, checking the website daily to see if we got our hold list reservation.

One month later...6 months in advance of our trip...we'll be on the computer or on the phone.  We'll have a list of restaurants where we want to eat and we'll be booking our advance dining reservations (ADRs), especially if we want to eat with Chef Mickey or in Cinderella's Castle or at Le Cellier.  These are the big ones and we know you if we don't call 6 months in advance we have almost no chance of scoring a meal at either of these places at a decent time.

The months following...they are the time for changes.  We all suffer from it...just ask any longtime Disneyholic.  We'll check park schedules to find out the opening and closing time for each park on each day.  We'll find out which days we can utilize Extra Magic Hours (or EMHs for those in the know).  We will review crowd trend numbers to see which parks we should avoid on which days and which parks will have  the lowest crowds.  We'll check our dining plans and make a few (hundred?) changes, adding and cancelling reservations as we plan out our days.

Three months before our trip we'll decide if we want to do any extra tours or excursions.  Do we want to plan a special boating cruise for ourselves or for the kids?  Do we want to plan a fishing excursion?  Do we want to do any of the other fun activities (at an extra cost of course) that Disney has to offer? Then we'll be on the phone making those arrangements.

And if the new arrangements mean a cancellation of some dining plans?  Then we start the planning again, we revise our schedule and we make some new ADRs and cancel old ones.

As for me...I'm beyond most of that right now.  I'm feeling pretty comfortable with all of my ADRs, I have the EMH parks memorized, I have booked a few special excursions for some members of our group.  I had to give up some restaurants I really wanted to try...but there will always be another Disney trip in my future. 

Right now I'm quite happy with our new touring plan for June.  Some of those days are a little more hectic than others but there are still plenty of free blocks of time for relaxing at the pool or just relaxing in the room.  I know June is going to be hot and I know our touring plan needs to be a little more agressive than usual because the crowd levels will be some of the highest we've ever seen there.  However I'm happy with the plans and I can relax for now.  I have some of our park passes purchased already, I have a card loaded up with Disney Reward Dollars that we can spend on the trip, I'll purchase an annual pass and my Tables in Wonderland Discount Dining card next month and I've already started putting away some of our travel items. 

While I'm anxious for June to arrive, part of me is okay with it taking it's time because I know once it gets here the trip will be over way too soon.

31 Days to Go - Disney Planning Spreadsheet

I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world when it comes to most things EXCEPT travel. I always plan trips way in advance, and Disney is no exception. Disney trips made with me are planned out quite a bit. See below:



This is my typical Disney spreadsheet. At the top, you'll notice the dates of travel. The next row, in light orange, are each Disney parks operating hours during that day. Park hours in the darker bold font are the parks operating under Extra Magic Hours, which means they are open earlier or closing later than normal.

The next row in the purple and yellow background are the resorts information. For this trip, we are splitting our stay between Old Key West and Saratoga Springs. We haven't had the opportunity to stay at either one of these resorts in the past, though we've visited both before.

The next row with the light green background shows the planned parks for that day. These are always subject to change depending on weather and other factors, so it's just a guideline and some of these are due to restaurant dining reservations.

The next few rows are just open places for different information. The yellow background in these rows are planned tours. For this trip we have planned a Family Magic Tour one morning and Frank will dive at EPCOT on another day. The light blue background indicates our dining reservations. These are restaurants where we have secured ADRs - Advanced Dining Reservations. I indicate in these blocks the time of the reservation, the restaurant, it's location, the number of people as well as the ADR number that was assigned when I made the reservation. This comes in handy if I ever have to call back Disney for any changes as sometimes they have trouble looking it up by name or phone number. I have a green background block do indicate the day that we plan to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party this year also, and a gray block to indicate the day other people will arrive to join us, specifically my brother and his girlfriend on this trip. The last row contains times for other special evening events, such as nighttime parades, fireworks, etc. including the Wishes fireworks show at the Magic Kingdrom and Fantasmic! at MGM Studios. There is also Illuminations at EPCOT in the evening but that is usually run at the same time every night, where Wishes and Spectromagic can change times depending on the park hours.

I'll make several copies of this in a final version and distribute them to be used during our trip to make sure everyone knows our gameplan. I don't expect everyone in our group (which will be 11 people at it's maximum) to have to follow this exactly. Dining reservations are there if they want to join us on some dates, but they certainly don't have to if they want to try something else.