We are here!
I know, I haven't posted much in a while. I have been too stressed out since Hurricane Isaac.
Ok so real quick for this morning....
A is on a semi hunger strike. I knew he would do this, and I am not fighting it or forcing him to eat. He says his tummy hurts, and I see that look in his eye. The look of not knowing where he is and being terrified about it. His moods have been OK. Much better since we got in and he was able to buy his first toy last night. A Star Wars gun. It is really cute to see him and K, my oldest stalking around with their toys gun shooting imaginary dinosaurs and Storm Troopers...
Hopefully he will eat something today.
Oh and as a PS...
We have been here less than 24 hours and already I saw an irate women tell her son that she "really couldn't even stand to look at him right now!" He looked about 10. Now I don't know what happened right before that, but minutes later she told her daughter off for playing with a rock...she might have been 8.
Come on lady you are on vacation at one of the most expensive places on earth...try to have some fun!
Oh and PPS...
We met a women with her mother and two daughters. One of her daughters was in a wheelchair(the kind that looks like a stroller so you know this child has been in it for a long time). After a discussion we learned that her daughter had brain cancer. She said they were having a great time, but some people gave her looks when she and her family used another entrance to get on a ride...a look that reads "must be nice that they get to cut all the lines"...The lady went on to say that she felt like telling them she would gladly trade her daughter's brain cancer for waiting in any line, any day...
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Friday, September 21, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Yes I booked my dining 5 months ago...
You may have heard...I am going to Disney World next month!
In the last Disney post I mentioned that you need to plan ahead for Disney. One of the major planning points is booking dinning reservations (ADRs) 6 months in advance.
Ok, ok I hear you. How do I know what we are going to want to eat on which day for a vacation 6 months from now?! Well that's the tricky part.
What people used to do (I never did this but I have read about it) is make multiple ADRs for mealtimes and go to the one they felt like. Well Disney caught on. Now they don't allow your ADRs to overlap, plus the popular places now charge a no show fee of $10 per person if you don't cancel your ADR at least 24 hours a head of time.
So what to do? Well You can over plan, like we did in 2009. I made an ADR for every meal, for every day of our trip. It was miserable. Especially since one of A's panic attack/fit triggers is noisy crowded restaurants, where he doesn't know what kind of food they serve. Of course we didn't know this at the time.
So I learned from that for this trip. This go round, I planned out my days better. First I checked out touringplans.com for their best park for each day of our trip. It's pretty cool, they compile data from past years, they factor in tour groups or events in the area, plus I think they even factor in the weather that week.
Once I had that info, I planned one sit down meal or dinner show per day. Now we are going during the Free Dining promotion, so we have a meal plan. We upgraded to the Deluxe version of that plan, and we get 3 meal credits per day, and 2 snack credits per day. Most meals cost 1 credit, but the dinner shows cost 2. For sit down meals we get 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, and 1 non alcoholic beverage per person, and for counter service meals (fast food) we get 1 combo meal or 1 entree plus side and a non alcoholic beverage.
The meals I didn't plan for we will wing it. Just grab something at the resort's food court, or if the kids see a restaurant they want to try we will go there.
I prefer the dining plan because it allows us to pre-pay for all of our meals, excluding tip and any alcohol we drink. I prefer to make at least one reservation per day. It makes sure we don't have to wait too long for that meal (walking up to a table service restaurant without an ADR is tricky, sometimes you have to wait 45 minutes and longer, and sometimes they have no availability!).
Some of the places we are going to eat at...
I have made ADRs to eat at Hoop Dee Doo Review- a GREAT dinner show, vaudeville style show and they serve fried chicken, BBQ ribs and fixins'...
Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show-another great show that features fire dancers and such while you feast on traditional Luau foods like roasted chicken and pineapple pork...
Cinderella's Royal Table- Dine in the the castle while Disney Princesses and Princes visit your table!
Liberty Tree Tavern-this restaurant is themed like colonial America, my husband loves this restaurant because the dinner is just like traditional Thanksgiving...
50's Prime Time cafe-Very cool restaurant! Feels like you are dining in Mom's kitchen from the 50s and 60s...they serve the BEST fried chicken!..
Rose and Crown Pub-English food, I love this place for the fruit and cheese plate, the stew and Woodchuck Cider on tap!
See at Walt Disney World eating isn't just something you have to do, it becomes an experience.
Now that we have a plan, what can we do to help A, who doesn't like strange restaurants? Well Disney is very accommodating. I will be able to email and call someone in the dining department and explain our situation. They will contact the chefs at each restaurant and let them know that our child has eating issues due to his Asperger's and they will try to make some of his foods available. For instance at the Hoop Dee Doo, the chefs will make A a pepperoni pizza or a grilled cheese. I would not have known this if it wasn't for planning, and I wouldn't know which restaurants to contact if I didn't make my ADRs back in March!
So it is worth it to book your ADRs 6 months in advance if you can!
In the last Disney post I mentioned that you need to plan ahead for Disney. One of the major planning points is booking dinning reservations (ADRs) 6 months in advance.
Ok, ok I hear you. How do I know what we are going to want to eat on which day for a vacation 6 months from now?! Well that's the tricky part.
What people used to do (I never did this but I have read about it) is make multiple ADRs for mealtimes and go to the one they felt like. Well Disney caught on. Now they don't allow your ADRs to overlap, plus the popular places now charge a no show fee of $10 per person if you don't cancel your ADR at least 24 hours a head of time.
So what to do? Well You can over plan, like we did in 2009. I made an ADR for every meal, for every day of our trip. It was miserable. Especially since one of A's panic attack/fit triggers is noisy crowded restaurants, where he doesn't know what kind of food they serve. Of course we didn't know this at the time.
So I learned from that for this trip. This go round, I planned out my days better. First I checked out touringplans.com for their best park for each day of our trip. It's pretty cool, they compile data from past years, they factor in tour groups or events in the area, plus I think they even factor in the weather that week.
Once I had that info, I planned one sit down meal or dinner show per day. Now we are going during the Free Dining promotion, so we have a meal plan. We upgraded to the Deluxe version of that plan, and we get 3 meal credits per day, and 2 snack credits per day. Most meals cost 1 credit, but the dinner shows cost 2. For sit down meals we get 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, and 1 non alcoholic beverage per person, and for counter service meals (fast food) we get 1 combo meal or 1 entree plus side and a non alcoholic beverage.
The meals I didn't plan for we will wing it. Just grab something at the resort's food court, or if the kids see a restaurant they want to try we will go there.
I prefer the dining plan because it allows us to pre-pay for all of our meals, excluding tip and any alcohol we drink. I prefer to make at least one reservation per day. It makes sure we don't have to wait too long for that meal (walking up to a table service restaurant without an ADR is tricky, sometimes you have to wait 45 minutes and longer, and sometimes they have no availability!).
Some of the places we are going to eat at...
I have made ADRs to eat at Hoop Dee Doo Review- a GREAT dinner show, vaudeville style show and they serve fried chicken, BBQ ribs and fixins'...
Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show-another great show that features fire dancers and such while you feast on traditional Luau foods like roasted chicken and pineapple pork...
Cinderella's Royal Table- Dine in the the castle while Disney Princesses and Princes visit your table!
Liberty Tree Tavern-this restaurant is themed like colonial America, my husband loves this restaurant because the dinner is just like traditional Thanksgiving...
50's Prime Time cafe-Very cool restaurant! Feels like you are dining in Mom's kitchen from the 50s and 60s...they serve the BEST fried chicken!..
Rose and Crown Pub-English food, I love this place for the fruit and cheese plate, the stew and Woodchuck Cider on tap!
See at Walt Disney World eating isn't just something you have to do, it becomes an experience.
Now that we have a plan, what can we do to help A, who doesn't like strange restaurants? Well Disney is very accommodating. I will be able to email and call someone in the dining department and explain our situation. They will contact the chefs at each restaurant and let them know that our child has eating issues due to his Asperger's and they will try to make some of his foods available. For instance at the Hoop Dee Doo, the chefs will make A a pepperoni pizza or a grilled cheese. I would not have known this if it wasn't for planning, and I wouldn't know which restaurants to contact if I didn't make my ADRs back in March!
So it is worth it to book your ADRs 6 months in advance if you can!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Planning a Disney vacation...aka....Universal is not part of Disney World
As you may have heard, we're going to Disney World in less than two months. I have been planning this trip since March.
I heard a statistic that 70% of all people traveling to Walt Disney World (that's the one in Florida) are "Once in a Lifetime" visitors. Meaning that those people go to WDW once and that's it. I have an idea why those people never go back.
Sure the easy answer is money. Disney is freaking expensive...more on that later....
I truly believe the reason most people only go once is because of poor planning.
For instance, if I want to go to the beach...All I have to do is book a hotel room, and pack my swimsuit. Done. No planning, right? Of course that isn't how I would travel to the beach...I would spend hours scouring the inter-webs for the best accommodations for our budget, research the best spots of beach to visit in that area, look into what restaurants they have on the way and nearby, and also plan a day trip to something educational as a back up/when my kids are tired of being at the beach!
Disney is NOT this kind of vacation.
I always hear from people returning from Disney, that it was too hot, too crowded, lines too long, no availability at the restaurants(character meals, dinner shows, and signature restaurants fill up 6 months in advance!!!), and everyone was tired and miserable on the 1 hour drive back to the hotel that claimed to be "minutes" from the main gate! Oh and our ticket to Disney didn't include Universal Studios!
I get it. Walt Disney World is huge, 47 square miles...twice the size of Manhattan! It's confusing! It has 4 theme parks (none of which are Universal Studios), 2 water parks, a huge shopping and dining area, and over 20 resorts (all with different themes and levels of amenities).
Overwhelmed yet? Look at it this way...if you were going to throw down a couple of grand on anything else, you would do your research first! That is the best was to approach a Disney trip.
Now take that into consideration, then add a toddler, a child with Asperger's, and a child with ADHD. Yes it does take me 7 months to plan a Disney vacation for my family.
Over the next few posts I will walk through what I go through to get ready for a vacation like this.
I heard a statistic that 70% of all people traveling to Walt Disney World (that's the one in Florida) are "Once in a Lifetime" visitors. Meaning that those people go to WDW once and that's it. I have an idea why those people never go back.
Sure the easy answer is money. Disney is freaking expensive...more on that later....
I truly believe the reason most people only go once is because of poor planning.
For instance, if I want to go to the beach...All I have to do is book a hotel room, and pack my swimsuit. Done. No planning, right? Of course that isn't how I would travel to the beach...I would spend hours scouring the inter-webs for the best accommodations for our budget, research the best spots of beach to visit in that area, look into what restaurants they have on the way and nearby, and also plan a day trip to something educational as a back up/when my kids are tired of being at the beach!
Disney is NOT this kind of vacation.
I always hear from people returning from Disney, that it was too hot, too crowded, lines too long, no availability at the restaurants(character meals, dinner shows, and signature restaurants fill up 6 months in advance!!!), and everyone was tired and miserable on the 1 hour drive back to the hotel that claimed to be "minutes" from the main gate! Oh and our ticket to Disney didn't include Universal Studios!
I get it. Walt Disney World is huge, 47 square miles...twice the size of Manhattan! It's confusing! It has 4 theme parks (none of which are Universal Studios), 2 water parks, a huge shopping and dining area, and over 20 resorts (all with different themes and levels of amenities).
Overwhelmed yet? Look at it this way...if you were going to throw down a couple of grand on anything else, you would do your research first! That is the best was to approach a Disney trip.
Now take that into consideration, then add a toddler, a child with Asperger's, and a child with ADHD. Yes it does take me 7 months to plan a Disney vacation for my family.
Over the next few posts I will walk through what I go through to get ready for a vacation like this.
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