Planning for Disney: Dining

 

 Sixty days out from your trip, if you're staying in a Disney resort, you can begin booking dining reservations. This is a really big deal. I literally stayed up until 4 am, 7am eastern, when reservations opened for our trip so that I could get us into the places I really wanted to take everyone. In order to be able to do this, though, I had to know where we were wanting to eat. You see, there are 264 restaurants in Disney World, and we will only be there for 10 days. Choices had to be made. I poured over websites and YouTube FOR MONTHS. Not kidding. I had things playing in the background while I worked on other stuff, I filled out spreadsheets of ideas, I literally thought about what we would eat at Disney World for months. Much of this research was done via the DisneyFoodBlog, both their website, their paid package, and their YouTube videos.

 Part of this is planning out at least a basic itinerary of where you want to be each day of your trip because you can't be in Hollywood Studios and plan to eat in the Magic Kingdom. So yes, dining made up the bulk of the planning. After looking at the crowd calendars I mentioned in the last post, I determined which park we would like to visit on which day, accounting for a rest day in between each:

 Now that I knew where we were going to be each day, I could start planning out some special experiences! Again, the challenge about this with Disney World is that special experiences abound. Just being there is special, but this is not average family trip. I really wanted to make this one count, for it to stay in my family's memories forever. I am a Treky, my daughter is a Treky, my other kids tolerate it in me, but they know it's a big part of who I am. When I saw this restaurant in Epcot, I knew it had to be on the list!

 It's essentially like dining in 10-Forward, if that means anything to you. You head up an elevator to a space station and dine among the stars. I can't wait! 

In addition to dining, experiences can be booked 60 days out. There are lots of fun looking things, but being Disney, nothing is cheap and when you multiply it by 10 people there wasn't much I could see that was worth it to me for this trip. The exception to this was the experience that got cheaper per person when you had a bunch, a Fireworks cruise. This is a flat rate and you can bring up to 10 people, so it worked perfect for us! The cruise comes with a captain to drive you around as well as snacks and drinks. When it's time for the fireworks, the music will be synced on the boat for us as we watch them. I thought this was a much nicer way to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks than fighting for a spot and standing and trying to watch the show in the park. Also, this gives us the freedom to go ride rides while everyone else is watching them on our park day.

 For our Magic Kingdom day, I decided on a lunch at the Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen, a restaurant themed after the Jungle Cruise ride. It looks like a lot of fun and should have lots of options to please everyone in our group! I'm looking forward to the, "'Tastes like Chicken' Because it is!" 

 Our Hollywood Studios day will be capped off with reserved seating for Fantasmic thanks to the dining package we were able to get at Hollywood and Vine. We'll get to enjoy a buffet dinner with Minnie, Mickey and friends earlier in the evening as well! 

 On Animal Kingdom day, the park closes earlier than the other parks at 6pm. Because of this, I didn't plan a dinner or lunch in the park because I wanted us to be able to have as much time to explore as possible. I'm hoping we'll be able to take a break in the Nomad Lounge that day, but it has a walk-up waitlist and you can't make reservations in advance. What I did want to do for a special meal on this day was visit the Animal Kingdom Lodge and eat at Sanaa. The Animal Kingdom Lodge is super cool and has savannah animals - including ZEBRAS - right in the middle of the hotel. The buildings are shaped in a U with the animals outside in a central courtyard. When you visit the resort you can visit the animals too. Sanaa is an African/Indian smash up restaurant. Their bread service is incredible and they have a gluten free option. I'm so excited to take my family here after a long week in the parks.

To wrap up our fabulous Disney adventure, on our last evening, we'll be enjoying the Storybook Dining at Artist Point in Disney's Wilderness Lodge. Here not only will the cast of Snow White entertain us, including the Evil Queen herself, but the meal is themed after the story as well!

Here's the Thing: A few of these reservations are difficult, if not impossible, to get for ten people. The great news is that, after staying up until 4am, I did get all the reservations I wanted! I just had to split a few of them into two groups of five to make it work. We'll be having a fabulous culinary adventure!