3/4 Disney

[ssmjlm]

FP is booked!

I pretty much got what I wanted.  The only one I'm worried about is we got the safari around lunchtime and I'm not sure how many animals will be out vs early morning.

Now just to figure out food and if we should get something delivered.

We also haven't decided on the dining plan, but I think we're leaning toward skipping it since we're doing 3 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 2 dinners.  If anyone has any advice on that, please share!

[lishie]

Doing breakfasts and lunches I'd definitely skip the dining plan.

I'm not a dining plan fan though. I like it for people who want to be prepaid and not worry about costs once they're at Disney, but I don't see it being cheaper. With what we order on the menus, we don't make out on the plan, and it comes with things we'd never order on our own. We don't need four desserts at dinner each night.

[acr]

Dining plan not that great IMO. We went a few weeks ago & for my mom, me, and my 5 yo, I think my mom said she spent about $350 for 5 days without the dining plan. For most breakfasts, we ate granola bars & yogurt we had delivered via grocery service. The majority of our meals were quick service and we had a few nicer full service meals as well.

[countthestars]

I would skip the dining plan.

We had good luck switching around FP between booking them and the day of so you may be able to move the safari earlier. If it's possible, I would. If it's not, I'm sure you'll see lots of good animals anyway!

[kittycatlove]

I probably would skip the dining plan in your case. We only did it because we went during "free dining". I probably wouldn't get the dining plan any other time.

[countthestars]

Mar 4, 2015 10:48:56 GMT -5 @starry said:

countthestars normally at okw it is a short walk from parking to your room right? We are highly considering as mil has mobility issues (she has a handicapped sticker)

Yes, every section of rooms has it's own parking spaces . Everything that's a funny shape in the light green color in this picture is parking:

It's not as fun theme-wise as many of the other hotels, but we like it there. It's our "home". Not a ton of food options at OKW (one sit down, one snack bar type place with burgers, chicken fingers). The rooms are huge though and there are quite a few pools with playgrounds for J.

[lishie]

Mar 4, 2015 11:01:13 GMT -5 @starry said:

Awesome. We just need to find out if MIL prefers Disney vs beach vacation. We will pay for her regardless.

Are you considering Vero Beach if you don't do Disney?

[DarcyLongfellow]

You should have no trouble moving safari around. I usually don't book our fastpasses until a couple weeks in advance, and the only thing I've never been able to get is Anna and Elsa. Keep checking back and you can probably find what you want. If not, there will be plenty of animals out. I think we did safari around 11am or noon a month or so ago, and we saw tons of animals.

The only way I'd do the dining plan was if I wanted to have as many character meals as I could possibly fit in. Otherwise, I don't think we'd ever actually save money with it.

[lishie]

Mar 4, 2015 12:30:59 GMT -5 @starry said:

Mar 4, 2015 12:04:59 GMT -5 lishie said:

Are you considering Vero Beach if you don't do Disney?

Maybe. Have you been?

Not yet, but it's on my to-visit list. I've heard it's very nice.

[bronxgirl]

We did the dining plan on our last trip and definitely saved money, but we're not doing it this time b/c our plans are a little different. On our last trip we went to a character meal every day, usually dinner so that shouldered a lot of the cost. I also found that at most of the CS places my preferred item happened to be the most expensive so I felt like I was getting a good deal there, too. I normally don't order dessert, but I was happy to have the opportunity to have one with each meal (I guess that's why I'm fat  ) and I also liked the free cup that was refillable at the resort so I got coffee every morning, which I wouldn't have paid for OOP. I added up the menu costs of all our meals/ snacks and we came out about $200 ahead than paying OOP for the same stuff. That being said, for this trip we're not doing the dining plan b/c we only want to do one character meal and don't want to spend too much time in TS restaurants, which ate up a lot of time. Since the portions tend to be big, we also are hoping to share a few meals and save money that way. I'll probably still order the more expensive entrees, but I'm fine with drinking water and my fatass doesn't need to be purchasing twice daily desserts.