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<p>My sister laughs and says that when we took our kids to WDW, I had it planned down to the detail of when we were supposed to inhale and exhale. lol. It was worth it.</p>
<p>I will also say that years ago when my 5-year-old son met Cinderella in the castle, he got an enraptured look on his face that I have never seen before or since. She hugged him and I thought he was going to faint.</p>
<p>A primer on the dining plans:</p>
<p>1) QSDP (quick service dining plan). Entitles you to 2 counter service meals and, for 2012, one snack per person per night of your stay. A meal is an entree, dessert and non-alcoholic drink.</p>
<p>2) DDP (Disney dining plan). Entitles you to 1 counter service meal, 1 table service meal (restaurants that take advanced dining reservations, also known as ADRs), and 1 snack per person per night of your stay. A meal is an entree, dessert and non-alcoholic drink.</p>
<p>3) DxDP (Deluxe dining plan). Entitles you to 3 meals, split any way you wish between counter service and table service, and 2 snacks. A meal is an appetizer, entree, dessert and non-alcoholic drink.</p>
<p>Under all these plans, you also get a travel mug that is refillable with coffee, tea and soft drinks from your resort’s quick service location. (In 2011, the DDP didn’t come with the mug.) </p>
<p>You also get all of your credits at check-in, and you can use them any time and any way you want. For example, if you have 2 adults staying for 7 nights with the dining plan, you will receive 14 counter service credits, 14 table service credits and 14 snacks on your room key when you check in. These credits will be repeated on each room key, so either of you can use them. Tips are not included in any dining plan.</p>
<p>Note also that some restaurants, like Bistro de Paris, do not take the dining plan. Neither do the restaurants at the Swan or Dolphin (and you can’t get the dining plan if you stay at those resorts) - since you specifically mentioned Blue Zoo and Shula’s as reasons to buy the plan, don’t. They don’t take it.</p>
<p>Also, some table service restaurants, like Jiko, Brown Derby, California Grill, take 2 credits per person for one meal.</p>
<p>Saratoga Springs is one of the Disney Vacation Club resorts, but they offer a number of rooms for cash customers. It’s on the Lake Buena Vista golf course, which spoke to my husband so he played a round - nice course. It has studios (queen bed, double sofa bed, kitchenette), 1 bedroom (king bed, double sofa bed in LR, full kitchen), and 2 bedroom (king bed in master, queen beds in second bedroom, and sofa bed in living room, 2 baths). It’s a large but beautiful resort and you can walk to Downtown Disney (Pleasure Island, while still on signs, has been closed for several years).</p>
<p>Feel free to PM with other questions if you’d like.</p>
<p>My goodness, you guys have been so helpful! I was doing this on the hush hush behind my husband, but since I need to make a deposit on Thursday, I showed him the quotes.</p>
<p>He wants to go for it, putting money aside every week toward the trip, since we did get a reservation at a MK view in the main tower at the Contemporary, his dream location.</p>
<p>Now, any help on cutting back on the extras would be greatly appreciated, especially the meal plans.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the heads up on restaurants not taking the meal plan. We will save those for another time.</p>
<p>I’m undecided still on meal plan, thinking the deluxe is the way to go, but would be happy to hear from anyone that did the premium or platinum. We won’t be golfing or boating or going to Cirque du Soleil, but my husband loves fireworks, so tips on any special shows we should catch would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend a book to read that’s in depth, detailed, that helps plan the trip and describes what rides and restaurants, etc, are at each part of the park?</p>
<p>I will have a lot of long driving trips in the coming months, and I’d love to do some Disney reading while on the road.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your help!</p>
<p>The unofficial guide to WDW. The bible of Walt Disney World lol! <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-World-Guides/dp/111801233X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319975923&sr=8-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-World-Guides/dp/111801233X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319975923&sr=8-1</a></p>
<p>Passporter’s Walt Disney World.</p>
<p>[PassPorter.com</a> - Walt Disney World, Cruise, Disneyland travel guidebooks, tips, planning, articles, photos, and information](<a href=“PassPorter.com | Disney Travel Guides and Trip Tools”>PassPorter.com | Disney Travel Guides and Trip Tools)</p>
<p>Among other things, Passporter has really good maps. I like maps, so I can more easily picture getting from Point A to Point B. </p>
<p>For dining plans, just think about how you and your H will want to eat. Do you want to slow down and have a table service meal every day or night? Or will you want to go go go and just have a few sit down meals? We have found that we like a sit down meal per day but only want one course…waiting for appetizers and desserts makes us anxious…all that Dinsey fun out there and we are stuck waiting for our creme brulee.</p>
<p>At a MK, we like Liberty Tree Tavern. I actually think it’s becauses we love seeing Mickey and Minnie in colonial costumes. For a splurge, we like Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We have made an effort to eat at a lot of the resort hotels as an excuse to see the resort (always planning that next trip.) I was not impressed with the Brown Derby (was actually quoted in one of the Fodor’s Guides saying that.) We do like Mama Melrose.</p>
<p>Aren’t some pkgs offering the meal plan for free if you book in advance?</p>
<p>Two of our favorite restaurants are in EPCOT: Le Cellier and Coral Reef. Our last visit was a little too spur of the moment, so we didn’t get into either one. We tried Tony’s in the Magic Kingdom (dh couldn’t believe there was a restaurant we hadn’t yet been to) and had a great meal. It was such a pleasant surprise. Dd’s favorite is Mitsukoshi Tokyo Dining, and I managed to get ADRs there for her birthday dinner. </p>
<p>One suggestion I don’t think I’ve read here is to consider wearing a jacket with lots of pockets, and maybe cargo pants (at least for your dh), too. It can save a great deal of time if you don’t carry a bag, purse or anything else that requires inspection each time you enter a park. Often there would be numerous turnstiles with dozens of people in each line waiting for stuff to be inspected while the entry for people without bags, strollers, purses, etc., would have no more than a couple of people passing through ahead of us. Even on warmer days, I wore a light windbreaker that could fold into a wristlet bag just to carry my glasses, wallet, lipbalm, etc. Dh is good humored about being a pack mule with his cargo pants pockets loaded each morning as long as he has a sturdy belt.</p>
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They discontinued the character meal at Liberty Tree two years ago. No more Mickey and Minnie. Just a regular restaurant.</p>
<p>^^^ This is one of the small touches Disney has dispensed with over the years that used to make the place so special, imho. It used to seem as if Disney wanted to give you as much as it possibly could for your dollar; now it seems to want to give you as little as it can. You can still have a wonderful time there, of course. The sea change in company attitude is disappointing to this once-fervent fan.</p>
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<p>Aww…so sad. Well, at least I won’t have to pay for that meal again.</p>