Jack & Monica
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2002
I and 15 members of my extended family just returned from a week-long trip to WDW. Most of the people on the trip had never been to Disney World so I volunteered to plan the trip. The 16 of us were broken down into 3 distinct family groups.
Group 1: Myself, wife, and daughter (9)
Group 2: Adult Niece, her husband, daughter (9), daughter (7), daughter (3),
Grandma, and Grandpa (husband's parents).
Group 3: Adult Niece, her husband, daughter (6), son (2), Grandma, Grandpa (husband's parents).
Pre-trip planning steps:
Since this was the first trip for most of my extended family, I wanted to make this trip as perfect as possible. I started about 18 months out.
I am an Army veteran, so the first question was how to best take advantage of the different options open to me to best benefit my family. The first question was quickly decided -- when to go. Since we had a number of school-age children and a few teachers to boot, we decided on the summer month of July which quickly became the last week of July 2014.
I asked my family what type of vacation did they want. Disney on a shoe string or the vacation of a lifetime. They all agreed on the latter. After checking out the Disney Visa program, I advised my family members to apply for the Disney Premium Visa to start saving for the trip. The premium costs $49 a year where the Disney regular card is free. The difference is that for gas, groceries, and all things Disney, you get 2% vice 1%. It did not take me long to figure out that I would make up the $49 in less than 2 months and gas and food alone. I strongly encourage the use of this card. It worked beautifully for us.
Question #2 to tackle: where to stay. I am a firm believer that a family should stay on property. Part of what makes Disney so special is the quality of the experience. I get the "Disney-on-a-budget" vibe, but this was not that kind of vacation; this was a trip of a lifetime kind of deal. This is not to say that money wasn't an issue. If you look above, you will see teachers, that does not conjure up the image of country-club living.
Since I am a veteran, the obvious first place to look was the Shades of Green. I have stayed there numerous times with my wife and daughter so this was the first place I checked out. I immediately saw that I would have problems trying to fit 16 people into 3 rooms (which is the maximum I would be able to reserve since I am the lone vet). This became a show stopper. I next checked out Disney properties. I was blown away to discover that Disney had opened up the military discounts available to all of their properties. Over the summer we would be staying, they offered 40% off their deluxe resorts. When doing the math (breaking down the cost/per person), this quickly became a very affordable option. I next researched several sites to get a feel for the right resort for my family. I will skip the details, but it became obvious that the Kidani Village Resort was the place for us. At about 8 months out from our trip, I booked (2) 2-bedroom villas and (1) 1-bedroom villa. Disney also limited the number of rooms that I could reserve on the discount to 3, but they allowed me to count villas as a room. I had to wait for the 2014 military discounts to be approved before I could book.
Question #3 Where to eat? After doing a lot of research, I recommended that all of my family members use the Disney Dining plan. I am very glad we did.
Again, this is a question of the quality of the experience. If we wanted to save money, we could have stocked up on pizza and mac and cheese and eaten in our kitchen-equipped Villa every night. Read that last sentence again. Doesn't that just sound wrong? Part of the Disney magic is definitely the great restaurants that Disney has to offer. Basically the dining plan came down to $60 a day for adults and $20 a day for the children. To max out the value of what we were spending on meals, I again researched heavily into which restaurants to use. At about the same time frame (7-8 months out), I also worked on the type of tickets we would get (more on that below). We all agreed on a 4 day-Park Hopper, Water Parks and more ticket.
This led me to set up a basic plan of which parks to visit during the week.
At exactly 6 months out I booked 3 events. I booked the Hoop-dee-doo Revue for Wednesday for 4:00. I did the early show because we were a party of 16. I have seen this show a gazillion times, and it never gets old for me. One thing I learned immediately was that the Disney dining reservations folks cannot book parties of more than 12 on their system. After being told that there were no reservations available for several days of the week, I questioned the availability. Even though we were a large party, we were at the first day that reservations could be taken, and I was booking the 4:00 show. That's when I hit upon the idea of two parties of 8. That worked beautifully. We also opted for the best seating option. Even though we got the Disney Dining plan, we opted to pay for this in cash because it would have taken two table service meals per person. I booked it for Wednesday which was our rest day at the resort. My thinking was that we would make an adventure of getting to the Wilderness Fort area since we had to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then take a boat to the Wilderness Fort area.
The next thing I reserved was dinner at the castle. Even though this also took 2 table service meals, I booked it for the dining plan. I also booked the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for 3:30 at MK. This was for Thursday.
We used our table service meals like this:
Saturday -- our arrival day -- at Sanaa at our resort. I booked a 5:00 seating which is when they feed the animals right outside the windows. This was great. I swear they must have trained one ... stork (?). It kept jumping up right outside the window almost like it was trying to talk to us. It was hysterical. But there are giraffes and water buffalo and other animals. The food was excellent. I highly recommend this restaurant. You can get standard American food. I ordered a NY strip steak which was outstanding.
Sunday was the day I planned for Hollywood Studios. I also planned dinner at the 50s Prime Time Café for 5:00. The food was good (not outstanding) but the entire experience was very enjoyable -- 50's kitsch.
Monday I scheduled the Whispering Canyon Café at 5:00. This is in the Wilderness Lodge. I was blown away with the beauty of the Lodge. I had never eaten there, but I had always heard great things about it. Well it was outstanding. The food was very good and the experience was great. The servers are hysterical. Don't ask for ketchup. You have been warned.
Tuesday, I scored the very tough ticket of Be Our Guest. This was available on my first try. I had to book two seatings of 8 for 4:30. The food was great; the service was great; and the Beast's Castle was a fun venue to eat in. The princesses got to have their picture taken with the beast before exiting the castle.
Wednesday -- Hoop-dee-doo Revue -- see above
Thursday -- Dinner at the castle -- was tremendous. This was probably our favorite (tied with the Hoop-dee-doo Revue) meal. There were 5 princesses on hand during the experience. Cinderella welcomes guests and signs autographs and grants pictures before you are seated in the main dining hall.
Dinner, which was great, includes a visit by 4 other princesses, who make the rounds of every table, and they sign autographs and allow time for photos to be taken. This time the princesses were Jasmine, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White. A side note -- my wife had tried in vain to get (what every mother on the planet had been trying to get) -- an Elsa dress. My daughter was satisfied being dressed as Princess Aurora. This paid off hugely because over 60% of the little princesses at dinner that night were either dressed as Anna or Elsa. When Aurora came into the dining hall, she immediately singled out my daughter (who was the lone Aurora) and paid her special attention. This was especially the case when she came to our table. I think the characters really get into their rolls. It almost seemed that Aurora was miffed at all of the attention going to Anna and Elsa. You could almost read her thoughts
"Enough with the Anna and Elsa hoopla; it's just a passing fad!" If you have a princess in your party, you do not want to miss a character meal at the castle. Look at it this way. You get 5 princesses autograph. You can get them here or you can wait 1-2 hours in line to get them or worse yet, cash in a valuable fast pass.
Friday we ate at the California Grill. This restaurant is fabulous. It was not a good experience for my family however. It was not the restaurant's fault. This is not a place where I would bring two toddlers and 4 young princesses. We did not use the dining plan as this would have cost us 2 seatings. The sole reason I planned for this experience was to get the ability to return later to view the fireworks at MK. Since the fireworks do not go until 10:00 we did not opt to stay. I would not choose this restaurant for a large party especially one that had numerous little ones. If you have a small party (kids or not), I would heartily recommend the place. It is expensive -- my meal and that of my wife and daughter came to $180. If you are definitely going to view the fireworks, it would be worth the cost. The view from is breathtakingly awesome.
Saturday -- I always book our flight for the evening to give our vacation one last hurrah. We always go to Downtown Disney to go shopping. I scheduled a noon seating at T-Rex. The food was good and the kids loved the dinosaur trappings of the place. It is a fun place to eat. We have also eaten at the Rainforest Café, but since we have this restaurant at home, we opted for something different.
I scored big hits on every meal save for the California Grill, and as I stated, this was not the fault of the restaurant. It was just not a good match for our family at the time.
I have to go to work -- UGH! I will post part 2 soon.
Group 1: Myself, wife, and daughter (9)
Group 2: Adult Niece, her husband, daughter (9), daughter (7), daughter (3),
Grandma, and Grandpa (husband's parents).
Group 3: Adult Niece, her husband, daughter (6), son (2), Grandma, Grandpa (husband's parents).
Pre-trip planning steps:
Since this was the first trip for most of my extended family, I wanted to make this trip as perfect as possible. I started about 18 months out.
I am an Army veteran, so the first question was how to best take advantage of the different options open to me to best benefit my family. The first question was quickly decided -- when to go. Since we had a number of school-age children and a few teachers to boot, we decided on the summer month of July which quickly became the last week of July 2014.
I asked my family what type of vacation did they want. Disney on a shoe string or the vacation of a lifetime. They all agreed on the latter. After checking out the Disney Visa program, I advised my family members to apply for the Disney Premium Visa to start saving for the trip. The premium costs $49 a year where the Disney regular card is free. The difference is that for gas, groceries, and all things Disney, you get 2% vice 1%. It did not take me long to figure out that I would make up the $49 in less than 2 months and gas and food alone. I strongly encourage the use of this card. It worked beautifully for us.
Question #2 to tackle: where to stay. I am a firm believer that a family should stay on property. Part of what makes Disney so special is the quality of the experience. I get the "Disney-on-a-budget" vibe, but this was not that kind of vacation; this was a trip of a lifetime kind of deal. This is not to say that money wasn't an issue. If you look above, you will see teachers, that does not conjure up the image of country-club living.
Since I am a veteran, the obvious first place to look was the Shades of Green. I have stayed there numerous times with my wife and daughter so this was the first place I checked out. I immediately saw that I would have problems trying to fit 16 people into 3 rooms (which is the maximum I would be able to reserve since I am the lone vet). This became a show stopper. I next checked out Disney properties. I was blown away to discover that Disney had opened up the military discounts available to all of their properties. Over the summer we would be staying, they offered 40% off their deluxe resorts. When doing the math (breaking down the cost/per person), this quickly became a very affordable option. I next researched several sites to get a feel for the right resort for my family. I will skip the details, but it became obvious that the Kidani Village Resort was the place for us. At about 8 months out from our trip, I booked (2) 2-bedroom villas and (1) 1-bedroom villa. Disney also limited the number of rooms that I could reserve on the discount to 3, but they allowed me to count villas as a room. I had to wait for the 2014 military discounts to be approved before I could book.
Question #3 Where to eat? After doing a lot of research, I recommended that all of my family members use the Disney Dining plan. I am very glad we did.
Again, this is a question of the quality of the experience. If we wanted to save money, we could have stocked up on pizza and mac and cheese and eaten in our kitchen-equipped Villa every night. Read that last sentence again. Doesn't that just sound wrong? Part of the Disney magic is definitely the great restaurants that Disney has to offer. Basically the dining plan came down to $60 a day for adults and $20 a day for the children. To max out the value of what we were spending on meals, I again researched heavily into which restaurants to use. At about the same time frame (7-8 months out), I also worked on the type of tickets we would get (more on that below). We all agreed on a 4 day-Park Hopper, Water Parks and more ticket.
This led me to set up a basic plan of which parks to visit during the week.
At exactly 6 months out I booked 3 events. I booked the Hoop-dee-doo Revue for Wednesday for 4:00. I did the early show because we were a party of 16. I have seen this show a gazillion times, and it never gets old for me. One thing I learned immediately was that the Disney dining reservations folks cannot book parties of more than 12 on their system. After being told that there were no reservations available for several days of the week, I questioned the availability. Even though we were a large party, we were at the first day that reservations could be taken, and I was booking the 4:00 show. That's when I hit upon the idea of two parties of 8. That worked beautifully. We also opted for the best seating option. Even though we got the Disney Dining plan, we opted to pay for this in cash because it would have taken two table service meals per person. I booked it for Wednesday which was our rest day at the resort. My thinking was that we would make an adventure of getting to the Wilderness Fort area since we had to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then take a boat to the Wilderness Fort area.
The next thing I reserved was dinner at the castle. Even though this also took 2 table service meals, I booked it for the dining plan. I also booked the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for 3:30 at MK. This was for Thursday.
We used our table service meals like this:
Saturday -- our arrival day -- at Sanaa at our resort. I booked a 5:00 seating which is when they feed the animals right outside the windows. This was great. I swear they must have trained one ... stork (?). It kept jumping up right outside the window almost like it was trying to talk to us. It was hysterical. But there are giraffes and water buffalo and other animals. The food was excellent. I highly recommend this restaurant. You can get standard American food. I ordered a NY strip steak which was outstanding.
Sunday was the day I planned for Hollywood Studios. I also planned dinner at the 50s Prime Time Café for 5:00. The food was good (not outstanding) but the entire experience was very enjoyable -- 50's kitsch.
Monday I scheduled the Whispering Canyon Café at 5:00. This is in the Wilderness Lodge. I was blown away with the beauty of the Lodge. I had never eaten there, but I had always heard great things about it. Well it was outstanding. The food was very good and the experience was great. The servers are hysterical. Don't ask for ketchup. You have been warned.
Tuesday, I scored the very tough ticket of Be Our Guest. This was available on my first try. I had to book two seatings of 8 for 4:30. The food was great; the service was great; and the Beast's Castle was a fun venue to eat in. The princesses got to have their picture taken with the beast before exiting the castle.
Wednesday -- Hoop-dee-doo Revue -- see above
Thursday -- Dinner at the castle -- was tremendous. This was probably our favorite (tied with the Hoop-dee-doo Revue) meal. There were 5 princesses on hand during the experience. Cinderella welcomes guests and signs autographs and grants pictures before you are seated in the main dining hall.
Dinner, which was great, includes a visit by 4 other princesses, who make the rounds of every table, and they sign autographs and allow time for photos to be taken. This time the princesses were Jasmine, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White. A side note -- my wife had tried in vain to get (what every mother on the planet had been trying to get) -- an Elsa dress. My daughter was satisfied being dressed as Princess Aurora. This paid off hugely because over 60% of the little princesses at dinner that night were either dressed as Anna or Elsa. When Aurora came into the dining hall, she immediately singled out my daughter (who was the lone Aurora) and paid her special attention. This was especially the case when she came to our table. I think the characters really get into their rolls. It almost seemed that Aurora was miffed at all of the attention going to Anna and Elsa. You could almost read her thoughts
"Enough with the Anna and Elsa hoopla; it's just a passing fad!" If you have a princess in your party, you do not want to miss a character meal at the castle. Look at it this way. You get 5 princesses autograph. You can get them here or you can wait 1-2 hours in line to get them or worse yet, cash in a valuable fast pass.
Friday we ate at the California Grill. This restaurant is fabulous. It was not a good experience for my family however. It was not the restaurant's fault. This is not a place where I would bring two toddlers and 4 young princesses. We did not use the dining plan as this would have cost us 2 seatings. The sole reason I planned for this experience was to get the ability to return later to view the fireworks at MK. Since the fireworks do not go until 10:00 we did not opt to stay. I would not choose this restaurant for a large party especially one that had numerous little ones. If you have a small party (kids or not), I would heartily recommend the place. It is expensive -- my meal and that of my wife and daughter came to $180. If you are definitely going to view the fireworks, it would be worth the cost. The view from is breathtakingly awesome.
Saturday -- I always book our flight for the evening to give our vacation one last hurrah. We always go to Downtown Disney to go shopping. I scheduled a noon seating at T-Rex. The food was good and the kids loved the dinosaur trappings of the place. It is a fun place to eat. We have also eaten at the Rainforest Café, but since we have this restaurant at home, we opted for something different.
I scored big hits on every meal save for the California Grill, and as I stated, this was not the fault of the restaurant. It was just not a good match for our family at the time.
I have to go to work -- UGH! I will post part 2 soon.
