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
