My Favorite Disney Planning Sites (and a few new favorites).

Part of the fun for me has always been the actual planning of a trip to WDW. Some of my all time favorite planning sites still include Deb Willis All Ears (especially her Menu database). My favorite planning board by Pete Warner Walt Disney World Info. And the best place to learn about deals has to be hands down Mousesavers .

In the last few weeks I have stumbled onto two new Youtuber's who I love to watch, including the BookishPrincess and Natasha Rooney . These girls have some really great videos and their style appeals to my Disney side. LOL

I also recently found a new Food blog to drool over. No, seriously if you are looking for a great source of what's available food wise at the parks (including some great pics) you should check out the The Disney Food Blog (which I learned about while watching a zillion of Natasha Rooney's videos).

Another great blog to explore is the Disney Tourist Blog .

Lastly some of the coolest Disney Instagrammer's (is that really a title) to keep an eye out for include Tom Bricker (who has the most gorgeous photos of the parks) and Touring Plans (who seems to know everything about everything related to Disney. Of course it helps that they are part of one of the best planning books around ).

Which brings me to my final favorites. Planning books have come a long way!!1 This year for the first time I purchased my copy of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and had it put on my Kindle. This has always been my go to book when planning for Disney (especially for the touring plans in the back of the book). But they are long with the Passporter Guide have now gone digital, and I must say I am looking forward to not having to bring a bunch of heavy books).

Since I am kind of into YouTube I have decided that some of my updates will be in video form. I already filmed a Disney Mug Collection video and hopefully soon I will have a What's in my Disney bag video (along with Disney Hauls before and after our trip). And of course I will have lots of pics during the trip and a hopefully a few videos from the trip to share as well. Boy, have trip reports come a long way...not to mention all the new social media outlets and YouTube channels out there!

Disney Mug Collection

Update on Disney Trip: Dining Plans

Since my last update we have confirmed the three special dining reservations for our trip in August. I have a "tentative" plan laid out for the days we will be there and a list of blog/video post I would like to do before and after our trip.

First up, I did not realize we were within the 180 day mark of our trip (which meant we could make dining reservations), but thankfully our Disney Agent did and after a couple of back and forth emails between her and my daughter, and myself we narrowed it down to one Disney dinner, one Disney lunch and one Disney breakfast. Surprisingly none of these are character meals. I would love to take advantage of free dining one year (I don't see that happening any time soon though, with two adult kids in college and a hubby going back to get his doctoral degree). Without that free option I don't see us being able to afford to many "Disney park" meals. I personally would love to be able to go during the off season (or at least during cooler weather lol). Anyway, back to planning!

Ohana is a must for our family, and is usually the one dining experience we try not to miss. Even though our younger daughter and her husband will not be coming with us to the parks, they will be in Orlando the same time as us for a few days and I wanted to give my son in law a "taste" of Disney since he has never been. So we have reservations for the whole family the first night that we arrive. We also plan to show him around the MK resorts and hopefully ride the monorail pass Magic Kingdom and Epcot...just because (its also another tradition we have done over the years the day before we start using our park tickets).

My daughter and I decided we would try Boma's for breakfast since she had not actually ever been ( Hubby and I have did the dinner many years ago). So we will be doing that this time around just before we leave for home on the last day in Florida.

Other then a one time visit to Chrystal Palace, and the Princess Breakfast at Epcot's World Showcase we try to avoid eating in the parks. But after seeing a few videos I really wanted to "experience" The Be Our Guest restaurant at least once. I heard it was hard to get dinner reservations so we tried for lunch and surprise, surprise we got it! Granted, our Travel agent actually got the reservations not us. Another reason I love, love, love using Dreams Unlimited. We have used the same agent for years and she always come through for us. Also this helps take the stress off of me when it comes to the planning. Especially making reservations for dining. Needless to say I am excited!

We probably will skip eating at the Sports resort in the mornings just because my daughter and I plan to get into the parks as early as possible. So we will pick up several snacks to keep in our room (including yogurt, fruit, breakfast bars, water/juice, etc). My husband really likes to shop at the local outlets and flee markets ( I know, unusual behavior for a man lol) so usually mid afternoon we leave the parks anyway and head outside of Disney to eat lunch and shop. DD and I have already discussed letting him go on his own a few times and just the two of us staying in the parks or resting back at the hotel (which I highly doubt will actually happen).

If we get a snack in the morning and eat a good size meal mid day we are usually ok for the rest of the day (especially when it is hot). With a park hopper we can be a bit more flexible with our day and head to another park if the one we start at in the morning begins to get to crowded. Of course big on the list of places to eat outside of the park is Giordano's the chicago style pizza place (which will be another first for my daughter). Marc and I ate there for the first time in 2013 during an anniversary trip.

I have this crazy idea of trying out a few snacks in different areas of the park. I'm in the process of making up a list (I am a big list maker) and may share in a later blog post. The plan at the moment is to get a different "snack" each day (which should take care of any hunger pains I may have with only eating one full meal a day and a light fare for breakfast.Time will tell (especially in the heat of the sun in Orlando in August) if I will actually want to do that much eating anyway. LOL

Update of Pre-Planning for WDW 2017

Well its official!! We are heading to WDW in August!!!

Our group has gotten much smaller. Cast of Characters include my daughter Quisha (32 year old case worker), my hubby Marc (53 year old Pastor) and myself (52 year old retired SAHM and Disney fanatic) . My daughter Nicki and her husband who were originally scheduled to tag along will not be coming (at least not to the parks).

I am disappointed, but I am trying to not let it get me down since I am extremely excited to be heading through these gates in a few months! Once again we are using my favorite Travel Agency, Dreams Unlimited to help us with the planning.

So let the planning and the memories begin!

We are still staying at a Value Resort. This time we have reservations at The Sports Resort. A first for us, but I do believe this is the last of the value resorts we have not had a chance to stay at.

It's been nearly six years since I last official trip to WDW if you don't count our anniversary trip which did not include any parks. So much has changed since that visit that it will be interesting to see what new rides/shows will become new favorites.

As of right now our only dining plans include dinner at Ohana's (a must for my family since our first ever trip).

We are leaning towards adding Boma's to the list only because my daughter has never been.

Another must for us is Turkey legs!

Not a Disney restaurant, but Giordano's is at the top of the list of places that have become a favorite of ours.

Also a favorite for us now is ice cream on the boardwalk as well as the nightly entertainment.

A lot has changed since the last time I was at Downtown Disney (including the name), so I am curious to see all of the new shops but more then likely will only shop at the Disney store. If I want name brand items there are plenty of outlets to keep us happy outside of the resort area.

I am looking forward to seeing all of the new stuff that have been built since our last visit, But the one thing that hasn't changed that I am looking forward to is a run around to all of the monorail resorts hopefully on the monorail ( I hear they are going through some changes as well, hopefully not during the same time we are there).

I will share more updates as they occur.