All the ADRs
Less than 60 days to our August trip, which means dining is booked! Unlike our big trip with the dining plan, I mostly booked restaurants where we can split a few apps and entrees to keep the food budget down. There are a couple of splurge character meals for the kids, but the rest of the dining was more about having a guaranteed, air-conditioned seat than a specific meal. Plus, with restaurants still not running fully schedules (Garden Grill breakfast, Chef Mickey brunch) or dining experiences (Bon Voyage at Trattoria al Forno) we had to settle for what was available.
Here's where things landed:
8/25 (Thurs)- Flight lands at 2:30pm, 6:25pm Beaches and Cream: this is a new restaurant for all of us and I know the kids will get a kick out of the Kitchen Sink
8/26 (Fri)- MK rope drop, The Plaza Restaurant 12:30pm ADR. Epcot evening to see Harmonious, Space 220 Lounge ADRs 6:30pm and 6:35pm: Plaza is just to have a guaranteed cool meal in MK. Space 220 is so we can experience the atmosphere without the expensive restaurant pricing. We have to split up to fit 5 in the lounge, but I’m ready to take one for the team and have a quiet drink by myself if need be.
8/27 (Sat)- AK rope drop, Yak & Yeti 12:00pm ADR. HS evening, Oga’s ADRs at 5:30pm and 7:00pm: lunch is another guaranteed seat meal. I’m not sure about the Oga’s timing as it looks like Fantasmic might be up and running by the end of the summer. I’ll cancel one of those closer to the trip when I know if we need to fit night entertainment into one of our HS evenings.
8/28 (Sun)- EP rope drop, Garden Grill 12:00pm ADR. Planned AK evening, no ADRs: Garden Grill is a particular request of the children. If breakfast gets announced by our return, we’ll bump it to the latest breakfast slot available.
8/29 (Mon)- HS rope drop, Sci Fi 12:30pm ADR. EP deluxe evening hours, Biergarten 6:30pm ADR: None of us have eaten at Sci Fi before, so that’s as much the experience as the guaranteed seat meal. I’m pretty sure we’re cancelling Biergarten but I haven’t done it just yet. In theory, I like the idea of filling up before a late night in Epcot but, in practice, I’m not sure we’ll be hungry after having had a lunch ADR. Also, my kids would *adore* the full atmosphere of this restaurant, but they still aren’t letting kids come dance with the band. I’m holding this mostly to see if things change any further before our visit.
8/30 (Tues)- Down morning,
MNSSHP, Steakhouse 71 1:55pm ADR: I wish Chef Mickey were back to normal! In 2019, we did a 2pm reservation there before a MNSSHP and it was perfect timing, fun for the kids, and enough food that we didn’t have to stop and eat during the party. My girls really want to go there again, but they specifically want the buffet and the napkin twirling, neither of which is back yet. Plus, without the brunch, the latest I can book is an 11:55am breakfast, which is too much downtime on the monorail loop before we can get into MK at 4pm for the party. I’m sure the food at Steakhouse 71 will be lovely, but Goofy won’t be there to make my girls belly laugh.
8/31 (Weds)- Down morning, Topolino’s 10:00am ADR, MK Enchantment and deluxe evening hours, Skipper’s 6:05pm ADR: Now, this breakfast I’m genuinely excited about! After our late party night, we should have plenty of time for us to roll out of bed at our leisure and skyliner over for breakfast. The Skipper’s dinner will likely be just be a light dinner but enough to fortify us before our third late evening of touring in a row.
09/01 (Thurs)- Nadda!: I’m thinking a waterpark day whenever we manage to roll out of bed. Then, we have our park reservation at HS to hopefully enjoy short evening lines. No dining planned as I want this day to be flexible based on how exhausted the kids are and what they want to do.
09/02 (Fri)- MK rope drop, Plaza 12:05pm ADR and Grand Floridian Café 12:30pm ADR, four park hop day: I wanted Kona for lunch before hopping to Epcot, but of course it’s closed for refurbishment during our visit. I’m not sure which of these I’m going to keep, maybe neither and just do monorail loop quick service. I’m likely holding both of these until mid-trip when we see how touring has gone and whether we want to try the quad hop.
09/03 (Sat)- EP rope drop, Chef Mickey 5:00pm ADR, MK evening (backup Enchantment night): I thought we’d do our last full day exclusively at MK, but the girls wanted to start at Epcot. The Chef Mickey here is just a long shot ADR that maybe it returns to the version that my kids really want to do again. I would have liked it earlier in the day, but no lunch/brunch options yet so 5:00pm is the earliest dinner they do. I’m also fine not having a meal on this day so we can once again be flexible about how we want to finish out our trip.
09/04 (Sun)- Flight leaves at 10:00am so no time for a last breakfast before we hit the road.
On the November front, just when I thought we were going to be left without APs, the world insists on giving me hope. Hubby said he’s seeing chatter that they’ll resume sales soon from reliable sources, whatever that means. And, the IT mistake where they opened some of the passes certainly makes it seem like they’re planning to offer more soon but someone jumped the gun. At least I’ve only got two more months of wondering before we get our definitive answer.
Personally, the end of the school year really beat me up. Three weeks after our covid lockdown for the kids, Hubby tested positive. It was the same day that my co-worker left for his wedding and honeymoon, meaning I had 2.5 weeks where I was working extra hours/days to back him up. What a great time to be down a man! To add insult to injury, Hubby remained contagious for a full 10 days so he was isolated quite a while. I somehow managed to sneak by without my own infection once again, but it was still incredibly stressful. So much got put on the “later” list that I’m just now coming up for air. Things will resume a new, summer normal for a few weeks but then Hubby is in South Korea for another nearly three-week trip. All of that is to say, by the time we get to this vacation, I’m really going to need it!