The Happyfingers Family are on Holiday

[HappyFingers]

so im a bit confused

we get 3 sit down meals a day yeh ?

so each person gets 3 sit down credits per day ?
however charecter meals cost 2 credits ?

so for example if we did 3 character meals we would still have to buy 3 other meals ?

its all very confusing

 

[Travel Mum]

I'm fairly sure that the only character meal that costs two credits is CRT. All the rest are only one credit

 

[HappyFingers]

ive just been reading the plan

if you get a pizza delivered to your room its 2 credits
must be a big pizza

i think ill just end up stealing someone elses plan and then book that

 

[aussietravellers]

so im a bit confused

we get 3 sit down meals a day yeh ?

so each person gets 3 sit down credits per day ?
however charecter meals cost 2 credits ?

so for example if we did 3 character meals we would still have to buy 3 other meals ?

its all very confusing

You get three dining credits a day, so you can use them for sit down (TS restaurants, includes buffets and menu restaurants) or the counter service (CS) restaurants that are like food courts or fast food places. You would get better value by eating at as many TS restaurants as you can to certainly get your money's worth

I think you also get the refillable mugs on the Deluxe dining plan. They can be used for free refills of soft drink, tea and coffee and hot chocolate at your resort only (you can walk around the parks with them, but can only refill them at your resort), for the whole time you are at WDW

Travelmum is correct. The only character meal that is two dining credits is Cinderellas Royal Table (CRT) in the castle. There are other meals that are two credits and they are the signature restaurants at various resorts. Also there are other two credit meals... Spirit of Aloha luau at the Polynesian (this is a fantastic show!), Hoop de doo review (dinner and show), Mickey's Backyard BBQ.

Yes Pizza (and other room service) is two dining credits. And I think you would have a heart attack at the size of the american pizzas! They are MASSIVE. Like one piece of pizza there is often the size of one of our regular pizzas here. My son (DS) had a pizza at Via Napoli, one of the italian restaurants in Epcot (which was just fabulous by the way, can recommend it) and his child pizza was the size of a regular pizza here!

Oh I forgot to mention. When you get your dining credits, they will be calculated out as three dining credits per person for each night you have booked. Now you don't have to use just three a day. You could use say two each for a breakfast at Cinderellas Royal Table, then one for lunch somewhere, then do a dinner show at night for two credits each, so use 5 credits each in one day (you will just have not as many another day).

So your credits are given to you in one big lump when you check in. If you are there for 7 nights for example, you will get 21 dining credits each for your 7 night stay. Those 21 credits can be used any time during your stay, not just three a day.

You also get two snack credits a day, which can be used for so many things! Drinks, popcorn, fairyfloss, fruit, the list goes on, when you go to a snack stand or a CS restaurant you will see the little dining snack credit symbol beside that item, that means you can use a snack credit to buy that item. Again even though you are given two each per night, you can use 10 each in one day if you wish.

 

[HappyFingers]

This is my jetski (or pwc as we call them)

is it obvious ?

 

[ehsmum]

We paid $1600 for our Dec trip. We're flying Delta SYD-LAX-MCO, then MCO-LGA, and LAX-SYD all on the 1 international ticket. I was too paranoid about flight connections as we're travelling with 6 little children, and I didn't want to get stuck trying to get 11 people on the plane!

As for the wizard and atm withdrawal, be careful that they don't charge a cash advance fee/interest as it is a credit card. You can get around it by "pre-loading" your wizard masatercard ie using it almost like a debit card. We've always used our travel cards to get cash.

I'm imagining you running through the airport like in Home Alone 2. I hope one of the children isn't named Kevin!

Happyfingers - I've been on here for around about a year and the dining packages still confuse me! Hopefully you will have it all figured out by the time you get there though .

Definitely book all of your flights before you go. You don't want to get stuck somewhere without a flight.

 

[shushh]

aussietravellers, excellent run-down as always!

I'm imagining you running through the airport like in Home Alone 2. I hope one of the children isn't named Kevin!
.

Yes I have that nightmare occasionally! I have been known to have nearly left a child behind...

 

[HappyFingers]

so far the resturants we have selected based on our taste's are the following

some we will visit twice (like planet hollywood)
as to how we arrange this in any order i havnt worked that out yet

1900 park fare for breakfast
cape may cafe for breakfast
chef mickey for breakfast
cinderellas royal table for breakfast
tusker house for breakfast
crystal palace for breakfast
boma for breakfast

biegarien for lunch (yuk) (wifes choice)
espn
kona cafe
la hacienda
liberty tree tavern
mama melrose tavern
ohana for breakfast
olivias
planet holywood
san angle inn
sci fi theatre
tonys town square
trex
wisper canyon cafe
wolfgang puck
pepper market

now somehow i have to put that in some sort of order

maybe if i print out a map i can plot where they are and that may help

 

[aussietravellers]

so far the resturants we have selected based on our taste's are the following

some we will visit twice (like planet hollywood)
as to how we arrange this in any order i havnt worked that out yet

1900 park fare for breakfast
cape may cafe for breakfast
chef mickey for breakfast
cinderellas royal table for breakfast
tusker house for breakfast
crystal palace for breakfast
boma for breakfast

biegarien for lunch (yuk) (wifes choice)
espn
kona cafe
la hacienda
liberty tree tavern
mama melrose tavern
ohana for breakfast
olivias
planet holywood
san angle inn
sci fi theatre
tonys town square
trex
wisper canyon cafe
wolfgang puck
pepper market

now somehow i have to put that in some sort of order

maybe if i print out a map i can plot where they are and that may help

Great list of restaurants! I do have a couple of recommendations. Tonys town square is really very average. If you like italian, Via Napoli at Epcot park is SO much better and also one dining credit

Another really fun place is 50's Prime Time Cafe at Hollywood Studios park. This is not somewhere that you go for the fabulous food (but the food isn't bad), but the entertainment is fabulous! It is such a fun restaurant and really somewhere you will not experience anywhere else.

You don't have any signature restaurants either and you are on the deluxe. Yachtmans steak house (which is at Yacht Club, so just a walk from Boardwalk) is really really good. Being a signature don't think it's like some upmarket silver service restaurant. Like I wore shorts (knee length) and my crocs! They are not somewhere that you have to dress up for That would use two of your dining credits.

Now to work out where you are going to book, it's best to start doing some research on what days in which parks you will spend. Like you would be best to book say breakfast at Ohana's or Chef Mickeys on a Magic Kingdom day. On your Tusker House and CRT breakfasts, book those before park opening, so usually at 8am That way you are in the park for rope drop and you are well in the park. Tusker House for example is right at the back of the park near killamjaro safari, which is a very busy ride. It's great to eat there at 8am and then you get to the front of the line at killimjaro if you leave just before 9am, because you are at the park before opening and are well inside the park. So you kind of need to do a round itinerary of which park you will go to on which day, so that you know where to book your lunch.

You wouldn't for example want to book Tusker House breakfast (at Animal Kingdom Park) and then lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern at MK park or Mama Melrose (at DHS park).

 

[HappyFingers]

yes thankyou for that

tonys is out napoli is in

we are rather picky eaters and i couldnt find a signiture resturant that had a menu that i or my kids would enjoy
the wife would eat the $#se out of a dead horse (its true she would)
she like her steaks to be still bleading

so we didnt go for any signiture resturants
but i understand what you mean
we need to find a way to burn through some dining credits because i dont think we are gonna be able to eat all this food

i once went to a buffet breakfast in tasmania and wasnt able to eat anything again until 7pm
physically could not eat anything

on the deluxe plan you get 3 table service credits per day and 2 snacks yeh ?
how on earth can anyone consume that much food in one day ?

 

[HappyFingers]

no just looked through every one of them again

maybe and i mean maybe artist point
and maybe calafornian grille

so i think we will just start working on a itinerary and then load the restuarnats into that

anyone got one of those spreadsheets ?

 

[Kalice]

We enjoyed the hoop-de-doo review which was two credits per person. We loved the show. The food was good, not great, but we all left full. The kids loved the show too.

 

[aussietravellers]

Have you looked at the Spirit of Aloha luau? It is two dining credits and was fantastic. I am about to do a trip report on it. When you see me update my TR for day 25 (I have just written 24, so it won't be long before I do day 25) and I have some photos of the food and the show so you can see what it's like

 

[HappyFingers]

ok here is the plan so far

arrive sunday check in
dinner at espn

monday go to magic kingdom
breakfast at : cinderellas royal table
lunch at :the crystal palace
dinner at :Liberty Tree

tuesday go to epcot
breakfast at :cape may
lunch at :biergart
dinner at :san angel

wednesday go to blizzard beach
breakfast go to :1900 park fare
lunch got to :any snack joint (this lunch credit covers the extra one for cinderella)
dinner go to lanet holywood

thursday go to animal kingdom
breakfast go to :donalds safari
lunch go to :tusker house
dinner go to :espn

friday go to hollywood studios
breakfast go to :chef mickeys
lunch go to :sci fi theatre
dinner go to :mama melrobe

saturday go to typhoon
breakfast go to :boma
lunch go to :t rex
dinner go to :wolfgang puck

sunday go where ever we want (perhaps a very good massage will be in order )
breakfast at epper market
lunch at : wispering canyon

at that my friends should just about cover it
then catch a taxi to universal, check in

lay down

 

[HappyFingers]

ok feeling a lot more relaxed now
we done some research on the net today
we now know where we will be hiring our car, what company, where we are going and what hotels we will stay in on our way down to ft lauderdale

we google mapped to the departure port for the ship
that was pretty cool

also where will will pick the car up and drive back up to disneyworld after the ship

now its just a countdown to 300 days after which we will start the 200 day countdown and so on and so forth

 

[kylieh]

now its just a countdown to 300 days after which we will start the 200 day countdown and so on and so forth

We're a couple of weeks behind you in terms of counting down. I'll know when you're 300 days is close I'm not far behind!

 

[HappyFingers]

i just purchased the walt disney world 2011 calendar

my wife always gets a calendar to hang on the wall so i beat her to it

she doesnt know i brought it and im goping to suprise her

it was about $45 delivered

im hey
why not ?

 

[Travel Mum]

Gosh, I'm envious of you getting stuck into all that fine detail planning. I daren't because, although our cruise and WDW Magic Your Way package are all booked, I've only paid the refundable deposits at this stage because, until the airfares come put, we won't know if we can afford to go

 

[Jade+3]

We brought the calendar last year. I was going to order one, but have a friend going who is going to grab it for me.

 

[DVCAustralia]

Originally Posted by HappyFingers

ok here is the plan so far

arrive sunday check in
dinner at espn

monday go to magic kingdom
breakfast at : cinderellas royal table (make sure ADR is within 15 min of opening, usually 8am)
lunch at :the crystal palace
dinner at :Liberty Tree (ADR about 1 hour prior to closing)

tuesday go to epcot
breakfast at :cape may (ADR for opening, 7:30am)
lunch at :biergarten (make ADR that allows you to be seated for a show time)
dinner at :san angel (make it latish but try not to miss Illuminations)

wednesday go to blizzard beach
breakfast go to :1900 park fare (ADR for opening, 8am)
lunch got to :any snack joint (this lunch credit covers the extra one for cinderella) (probably best to use snack credits)
dinner go to planet holywood

thursday go to animal kingdom
breakfast go to :donalds safari
lunch go to :tusker house (this is where donald's safari is, try Yak & Yeti instead with ADR 1.5 hours before parade)
dinner go to :espn

friday go to hollywood studios
breakfast go to :chef mickeys (probably not a great time for this since you are staying so close to HS and NEED to enter on time for Toy Story Mania, better on Sunday for example)
lunch go to :sci fi theatre
dinner go to :mama melrose

saturday go to typhoon
breakfast go to :boma
lunch go to :t rex (just be aware that this is not on the dining plan)
dinner go to :wolfgang puck

sunday go where ever we want (perhaps a very good massage will be in order )
breakfast at epper market
lunch at : wispering canyon

at that my friends should just about cover it
then catch a taxi to universal, check in

lay down

Fantastic effort 300 days out, I have just included a few suggestions above.