Our May trip - want your 2 cents on our DDR's

[wdwluv]

Gosh - everyone is so different. But I am so second guessing myself...and my hubby, God love him, couldn't care less. So I need all of your opinions on what I've set up!

We will be in WDW for "only" 5 days, MY VERY FIRST Disney Property stay (only 2nd trip ever as family) ...only one day is a park visit. I love good food of course, but with 3 little ones in tow, we are not here for top notch dining. It's a FAMILY trip.

This is a 40th birthday trip for me and a SURPRISE for our 3 kids. (ages 9, 6 & 3)
We are flying into Orlando and driving to St. Pete's beach for 6 days.
May 13th we drive back to Orlando, sadly as our trip is over(chuckle). Oh, but let's do Disney Mini-golf and trip to DTD before we go. (the kids LOVE mini-golf and nothing better than Disney mini-golf!) After that - SURPRISE - we are staying at a Disney Property for a few days of swimming. (no mention of park visit yet)

So to the dining -

Thursday PM - either Earl of Sandwich at DTD or even just Riverside Mill or Sassagoula for a quick service and then over to the Riverside Lounge to see the Piano Man at 8:30

Friday AM - BOMA breakfast (and we can see some animals there I think?) and to pick up Zebra Domes to go! (per your recommendations! :secret:)


Friday PM - 'Ohana dinner per several of your recommendations.

~OFFICIAL 40TH BIRTHDAY DAY~
Saturday AM - 8:20 Crystal Palace
Saturday lunch/dinner - Columbia house
(last year we were in WDW at this time of the year and it was so hot we ate very little, so this is the only meal planned for the day other than breakfast)

Sunday AM - Cape May breakfast. Booked specifically for my birthday with my favorite character Goofy!

Sunday PM - Chef Mickey dinner - which I may cancel - only booked to see Goofy and then added the Cape May breakfast. Still undecided on this one. I know it's a popular one, and I would LIKE to go...who doesn't love Mickey if you are a Disney fan...but we are running out of dining credits and this one may get cut since I got to see my Goofy at Cape May and will get to see Mickey at MK. (I wonder if I can luck out if I keep trying for a Thursday/arrival night reservation. Might be a nice intro to our Disney stay)

Monday AM - KONA breakfast - heard the Tonga toast is good! :thumbsup:

That's the official reservations. I am thinking of taking a drive over to the Carribean Beach Old Port Royale to get the kids some chicken nuggets in a sand pail. Thought they might get a kick out of that. Maybe not - not high priority. This trip is intended to be a pretty relaxing, not hurried get to everything trip. But as we are visiting a few properties, thought it would be fun to take a peek over here....for future visit considerations too....
(oh and the plan is to have a car at this point - as you may have seen my other questions about this - we MAY turn in and use buses - but sounds like that resort to resort travel is a pain. And we want to maximize our time. AND we are not early risers, so we'd like to relax and not jump out of bed to get to a bus for our breakfast reservations)

SO ANYWAY, thanks for listening (reading) to my schpiel....I would LOVE you pro's opinions! I've never done any dining, except for Princess breakfast at castle and princesses at Akershus. So I'm counting on all recommendations! Thanks in advance for your input! :mickey:

[Mitzie]

Ohhhh your Thurs. PM is a hard call. Just did Earl of Sandwich a week ago and we all loved it. Ate at the POR food court while back and also liked it. Both are good, more options other than just sandwiches/salads/wraps at POR.

[MizMissy]

I haven't tried Earl of Sandwich, but everyone here raves about it. However, we stayed at POR on our last trip and I was not very impressive with the food court. For some reason, I have fonder memories of the POFQ food court.

Also, sounds like a great trip, but I don't know if I could be that close to the parks and not go everyday! That's a big temptation. Although, smart thinking to stay at POR for a mostly pool vacation since you can use both the POR pools and the POFQ pool - my kids loved the sea serpent slide at POFQ better than the POR slide.

[wdwluv]

Oh gosh MizMissy, you are SO RIGHT about it being so tough to not do more park days!

This was going to be a beach only trip to St. Pete's...but I told my hubby I JUST COULDN'T fly into Orlando (cheaper than into Tampa) and not do at least ONE trip to MK. Then we ended up getting a good price at POR and decided to do some days there. I am SO TEMPTED to add more park days...but until you get at least 4 park days it is SO MUCH to add any days.

So I'm being grateful for the one day at MK and trying to ooze as much Disney experience out of the rest of our non park options! :-P (not EVER having stayed at a resort before helps with that. :mickey:)

[wdwluv]

UGH! I am soooo second guessing myself on these reservations.

I know I have read others don't like to "waste" their dining credits on breakfasts.

And it looks like Boma dinner is soooo yummy. (and I'm guessing by my lack of ability to even GET a dinner reservation that it is)