Y'all, Big News

No I'm not pregnant, not getting divorced, I didn't win the lottery nor did Jake Owen propose...my family and I just planned our dream Disney vacation!

Have we been to Disney before? Absolutely, in fact we went this past March. However, we have never been for longer than a weekend trip (2 days), did character dining or actually planned out the trip to the best that it could be. Tarl and I actually sat down, like grown ups, along with a pen and paper and wrote down dates that worked for us and financial management for it (because a trip to see the Mouse ain't cheap!). I did the rest of the work, planning the hotel, where and when to eat, the dining plan, and what to do on each day, because it does make a huge difference! When we went this past March we spent almost $600 in food for only two days. All Disney restaurants are pricey, even the quick ones that sell chicken nuggets, the dining plan we purchased was $800. For only $200 more than we spent last year I have all of our meals covered for the entire six day stay, this includes dessert! SOLD! We have never done the dining plan before. There was no need to do the dining plan before because we've only stayed for the weekend, but if you're going for 4 or more days, trust me when I tell you it's the way to go! Here is our itinerary and hopefully some tips to share with you.

Day One: Magic Kindom

Lunch at Be Our Guest, Character Dinner at Crystal Palace

Be Our Guest is something Cadence and I are looking so forward to. Her favorite Disney Princess is Belle and this is Belle/Beasts castle. They offer quick service for lunch or table service for dinner. We are choosing the quick service lunch instead of using one of our table service meals because Be Our Guest does not have character dining and we are utilizing all our table service meals for that.

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Day Two: Hollywood Studios

 Lunch at Pizza Planet (remember Toy Story?).

Cinderella's Happily Ever After Character Dinner at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort

Day Three: Epcot

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's

Lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

Both of these are character dining...I'll explain more below (keep reading, this post gets more interesting, I hope ;) )

Day Four: Open Day

I chose the Park Hopper/Water Park Fun and More Option. This is the deluxe option but well worth the extra money spent. We aren't ones to do a lot of parks in one day, but I also know that we will not spend all day in Epcot or Hollywood Studios, so if we get tired of roaming the parks, we can go relax at a waterpark, let Cadence have fun at DisneyQuest at Downtown Disney, or even go putt-putting. That is all included with this option! Tarl, Cadence and I are all suckers for parades and fireworks shows. It's another reason I got this option, because even if we spend all day at Animal Kingdom, we can hop on over to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks at night. The restaurants in Disney are so themed and fun that you don't even have to leave the park itself to go into Orlando to have dinner. Quick service lunch wherever we choose to go on this day, Dinner at the Rainforest Café.

Day Five: Animal Kingdom

Character Breakfast at Cape May Café at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort

Lunch at Pizzafari

Day Six: Magic Kingdom

Lunch at Tomorrowland Terrace (beautiful landscape and great view of Cinderella's castle)

Character Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table (this is the restaurant inside Cinderella's castle), one of the most elite, expensive, and hard to get into restaurants at Disney. If you are planning a trip, the earliest you can make dinner reservations is 180 days prior to your trip, make this reservation that day!

We chose the Disney Dining Plan. This gives each of us one snack, one quick service and one table service per day for our trip. This means all those super pricey restaurants, including Cinderella's Royal Table, are covered under the dining plan. All character meals are considered table service, and as you noticed there are certain days where we have two table services per day, which is fine, you can pick and choose the days. In total we have 6 days of snacks, 6 days of quick service, and 6 days of table service per person. If we choose to do 2 character dinners in one day, that leaves us with 4 left to use. Cinderella's Royal Table costs 2 table service tickets.

So out of the entire six days in Orlando, the only food we need to purchase is breakfast for 3 days, which is when we will go to Cracker Barrel and IHOP, it's just not vacation if you don't eat breakfast at those two. Breakfast at Chef Mickey's (I chose to pay for this out of pocket, to make up for the additional table service for Cinderella's Royal Table...just remember, breakfast is cheaper than lunch or dinner!) Also, our dinner at the Rainforest Café and for those two additional nights where we chose to do breakfast and lunch instead of lunch and dinner. These are the nights that we wind down from our long day in the park, enjoy the warm Florida weather by swimming in our resort pool and ordering a pizza. Everything else is covered! How amazing that we can dine at these 4 star restaurants, have my daughter enjoy herself with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Mickey, Minnie, etc, for nothing, because I purchased the dining plan!

Dessert at Cinderella's Royal Table

Another Dessert Option

And Another...

See what I mean...I cannot wait!

We chose Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. As much as our family would love to enjoy one of the deluxe hotels, like the Grand Floridian, it's just not in our budget this year, however we are fortunate enough to stay in a moderate hotel option. If you are looking for a more cost effective option for you and your family, Disney has some great value resorts with themed rooms, such as the Little Mermaid.

If you never spend any time at your resort, go for the value resorts. If you spend a lot of time at your hotel (which I don't see why you would) that is when you need to splurge and get those deluxe resorts. I assume these are for the vacationers who book spa packages and go golfing, not for our family. We are right in between. Cadence is only 5. After going all day, girlfriend needs a nap, and so does mom and dad. Most every day, but the Magic Kingdom days, we will go back and take a nap. Wake up rest and relaxed, go for a swim at the resort and walk the grounds. This is why I chose Coronado Springs. They have a beautiful man made beach with hammocks throughout. A pool with a water slide and we adore the latin theme of the resort.

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The only other major expense we have is a definite splurge and that is Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. This is where your little princess goes and gets all fancied up dependent upon the package you choose, the highest of course being hair, tiara, sparkles, manicure, and the princess gown of her choice along with all of it's accessories. For our budget, it's a splurge, but we are choosing to do this because I know Cadence is just going to love it. She is a girly girl and cannot wait to have this done. We are choosing the highest package and we are doing this on our final day, this way when go to dinner at Cinderella's castle, she will be all dolled up in her dress :)


To say I am beyond excited is an understatement!


Here's to counting down the days...