And I am here for the Food...A Disney SOMETIME (AUG '20 mini trip) Report (9/10 update)

kittylady1972

Disneyholic
Joined
Oct 20, 2003
Welcome one and all to my next trip, and my first for 2020! After trying (unsuccessfully) to NOT visit any Disney parks in 2019, I'm now going to attempt to hold off on visiting Walt Disney World parks until fall of 2020 for various reasons. We will see how that goes.

The purpose of this thread is to document my March 2020 trip which is coming up very soon.

Cast of Characters: Me, Hubby, DS 19, DD 17, DS 16 and FIL (77)

Plans: We are spending just THREE nights in Walt Disney World and right now we don't plan to visit ANY Disney parks...as the main purpose of this trip is actually to eat in a few Disney restaurants, mainly Flying Fish (for my DS 19 who is a foodie, and his grandfather/my FIL who is also one) but also Toledo.

Yes this trip came about because the flights to Orlando are cheap on one of the "discount" airlines, we are DVC members so our resort is also free (mostly) and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday a bit late and my son's birthday (20 in March) a bit early.

I just finalized our resort stays this week...we will stay one night at Shades of Green in a Family Suite and then 2 nights in a 2BR Villa at Boulder Ridge at Wilderness Lodge. I'm really looking to a return stay at Wilderness Lodge...we haven't stayed there in about 10 years maybe more. I'm also curious to stay in the Family Suite at SOG...we've done rooms there before but never the suite....and all 6 of us will be in that 1BR suite.

We are still working on the details of how to fill our days since 2 of the evenings are for our dining reservations. Right now it's looking highly likely we will spend a day at BG Tampa and another day at Sea World. We haven't been to either of these parks in several years but we definitely enjoy them, though not as much as Disney. BG Tampa has Cheetah Hunt which is by far one of our FAVORITE coasters ever. We can't wait to ride again and experience the new rides in both parks. The nice thing is that these parks can both be easily done in a morning/afternoon if you aren't concerned about seeing shows or other stuff. I'm looking forward to this trip.

Still up for debate is how we will fill that 3rd day...as I'm tempted to maybe do a 1 day 1 park Disney ticket...but the question is WHICH park to choose? I'm thinking EPCOT simply because Flower and Garden Festival will be happening and it's so lovely. My DD is really pushing for MK...she just loves it so much and that is the ONE Disney park we visited as a family back in August of 2019...only for the Halloween Party. We could do a 1 day hopper, but the parks aren't open very late at all during our days there and I'm not sure it would be worth it since we would have to leave early for dinner anyway.

Stay tuned to see how things work out for us...and I may also use this report to mention my planning for our other BIG trip this year...to Europe where we plan to visit Disneyland Paris (and the Studios park there) which many people have told me I'll be disappointed in but no matter...it's a Disney park right?
 
Last edited:
Just a quick update...I've added a 3rd "foodie" restaurant to my list...Jiko. We had a meal at Jiko MANY years ago...and it was one that my DH still talks about it...and yet we've never returned. I decided since this upcoming trip is really all about the food, I would add a surprise visit to this restaurant.

I shudder to think of what our food bill will be, but it may be that we cut out Toledo and just do Jiko and Flying Fish.

I realized the reason the parks probably aren't open too late during our time there is that there is a Disney Villains event on Wednesday night at MK and an Animal Kingdom After Hours on Thursday. I considered the AK one on Thursday, but with what I would spend for that I could just spend a full day at a Disney park instead (like AK) and do without the free snacks.

So it's looking likely that our schedule will be:


  • WED: Arrival at MCO around 7:15pm, grab our rental and drive to Shades of Green for checkin (probably around 8:30pm) and try to grab some food. The boys want to eat at Evergreens at SOG...a favorite as they insist they have the best wings. DD and I may head over to the Poly instead and grab something there...since she is obsessed with Disney Chicken Noodle Soup and I may need a Mickey bar or Dole Whip...or Lapu Lapu! :)
  • THUR: Most likely we'll head to BG Tampa. Park is open 10am so we'll plan to arrive close to that and stay until early afternoon. Then we'll head back for dinner...at Jiko.
  • FRI: This is an unknown day. Perhaps we'll just hang around Disney Springs, our Resort pool, etc....or perhaps I'll pay for a one day one Disney park ticket. Dinner is at Flying Fish this evening.
  • SAT: Likely a SeaWorld Day. We'll arrive close to park opening, stay until late afternoon, then head to dinner at Toledo...maybe. Or maybe just eat at some other random restaurant in the area. We will head to the airport around 7pm to catch our 10:30pm flight back home.
 


We just ate at Flying Fish for the first time a few weeks ago and LOVED it.

Awesome...but did you get the Octopus? That is a "thing" with the males in my family...they seem to be striving for the best one. DH really enjoyed that add-on during our Flying Fish meal in October...and the other guys had it at Toledo back in August. As for me...no thank you to that one!
 
Awesome...but did you get the Octopus? That is a "thing" with the males in my family...they seem to be striving for the best one. DH really enjoyed that add-on during our Flying Fish meal in October...and the other guys had it at Toledo back in August. As for me...no thank you to that one!
Umm, no. That's one thing Joe and I can't stomach. LOL!
 
Umm, no. That's one thing Joe and I can't stomach. LOL!

:crazy2::thumbsup2 I am with you...I can do calamari (i.e. squid) since it's fried and most other seafood...can't do oysters unless they are also fried. Love seafood overall though...and I think DH got some kind of seafood pasta dish and added this to it...he loved it.

471703

And the dessert we had...OMG:
471705

Definitely on my radar for next visit.

I had this as my meal, which was also very good...but overall it was so much food with apps, main course, drinks and dessert.

471706
 


Well I've been busy planning this summer trip, but I've taken a little bit of time to look into our March trip which is very soon...plus I just spent some time sending a very detailed email off to a friend of one of my cousins who she sent to me to help plan a Disney trip. I always feel like I send people so much information...especially if they have NEVER been to WDW...and I need to give them time to digest it all. I'm going to try to work on a rough schedule for her as well.

Anyway I made one minor change to our plans for March. I was able to snag TWO rooms at Shades of Green...instead of putting us all in one Family Suite for the night where many of us would be sleeping on pull-out couches. Now we have two rooms, 2 beds per room plus a couch, for the 6 of us to use just for that initial night. There are still NO rooms showing up on the site, except the family suite that I just cancelled, for our arrival day.

My kids are really not interested at all in visiting SeaWorld, despite the fact that a ticket to 2 parks (SeaWorld and BG Tampa) only costs about $8 more than a 1-day 1-park ticket right now. I'm starting to wonder if maybe we shouldn't consider doing ONE Disney park...but which one exactly? It would be so hard to choose and I don't really want to pay the money for a hopper, especially since the parks aren't even open that late during our time there. However it could happen that we do visit a Disney park after all...we shall see.
 
So I'm making an executive decision on this trip...and I'll be purchasing 2 day 2 park SW/BG Tampa tickets very soon. Turns out I can get them at work for only 50 cents more than at SOG...so why not? If we don't use the 2nd park/2nd day we aren't really out that much. There is actually a food and wine festival happening at Seaworld Friday/Saturday/Sunday while we are there, so Saturday seems like it would be a good day to go, especially since the dinner plan for that particular night isn't as important as Friday or Saturday night.

But what about the other day you ask? I am seriously thinking...it just may need to be a Disney park day, and the decision will be if we do a hopper or just pick a park and go there. I'm not sure yet and of course you know our FP window is already in full swing. Do I try the Star Wars madness or even Mickey's Railway? Do we stick to EPCOT instead? Do we do Animal Kingdom? It's a tough decision to make, but since I was just at all of those parks in December...I'm good with whatever. My kids though...they haven't been to 3 of those parks since November of 2018, and were only at Magic Kingdom in August 2019 for MNSSHP.

Only time will tell how this all works out...still just over 5 weeks away!
 
Quick update here...just found an open room at AK Kidani Village...well two of them actually...so I have booked them and dropped Shades of Green. I asked the family first...and they mentioned wanting to stay in the "Disney bubble" while we are there so I guess they are okay giving up the wings at Shades of Green. I guess instead we'll have a quick bite at Animal Kingdom...maybe Sanaa should be on the radar for us?
 
It was good and I hope yours was too.


YES!!!!! Bread service!!!

AWESOME! We had a very low key Valentine's Day which was my preference. I don't feel the need to be spending money on gifts and cards and such, but I did get my family some cards and some awesome ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone.

I have Sanaa booked but it's 8:30pm. We fly out around 4:30pm so I know we'll be hungry on arrival, though I hate to eat dinner so late. I'm thinking we can do bread service at least...and maybe a few small dishes as well. That naan is sooooo good and so are the dips and we haven't been to Sanaa in a long time..and we'll be right there!
 
AWESOME! We had a very low key Valentine's Day which was my preference. I don't feel the need to be spending money on gifts and cards and such, but I did get my family some cards and some awesome ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone.

I have Sanaa booked but it's 8:30pm. We fly out around 4:30pm so I know we'll be hungry on arrival, though I hate to eat dinner so late. I'm thinking we can do bread service at least...and maybe a few small dishes as well. That naan is sooooo good and so are the dips and we haven't been to Sanaa in a long time..and we'll be right there!
We stayed in too and Joe picked up salads and noodles and brought me flowers.
I got the kids mini cupcakes and cookies.
So glad u r going hack to Sanaa. I may be a little jelly. Lol!
 
So I guess nobody guessed my quote was from one of my favorite holiday movies: Muppet Christmas Carol:
474929

This is pretty much me.

No real changes to mention for our upcoming March trip thus far. I will mentioned that I did purchase our BG Tampa/SeaWorld 2 day 2 park tickets at work yesterday...for $84 total...a bargain even if we don't do a second park (since for sure we will do BG Tampa). As an added bonus, I realized the tickets include All Day Dining for both parks...awesome! That will save us a fortune for sure, even if it isn't quite as convenient since you do have to use certain restaurants but every hour you can get a meal, drink and dessert so even if we have to stand in a line to get a drink or dessert only...for free...yeah that will work for me. Of course the only problem is that we do have Jiko planned for Thursday after Busch Gardens Tampa and if we get all day free food I'm not sure if we'll be up for a big meal later...we must PACE ourselves I guess!

Last night we took my FIL out for dinner since it was his wedding anniversary...and the 3rd year he is celebrating without his wife. I sent him this by email yesterday:

474931

Then he told me at dinner that he was doing pretty well that day until I sent it...ummmm...sorry???

He did appreciate it though.

During dinner we were discussing the rules regarding our upcoming flight on Spirit...and the fact that he does NOT get to use overhead space at all for his bag. I know I've mentioned it as well as the bag restrictions but I can see we will really have to police him with us so he doesn't get hit with those lovely crazy fees. He is on our reservation so we should be good.

I am pretty sure, as I mentioned before, we will do Disney parks for ONE day only. We probably won't buy the tickets until we get there so that means NO FASTPASSES for us. That's going to be crazy but I think we can manage.

So DH is on day...I don't even know...5 or so of a man cold...and you all know how THAT is going. He hasn't been at work since Thursday. It's so lovely.

I continue to mostly work on plans for Europe...pretty much daily. Our cruise has been booked...if anybody wants to join us let me know...June 28th to July 5th Greek Islands starting and ending in Rome...and I am working on the pre-trip and post-trip pieces as well as flights. Flights may determine my pre and post trip plans though. I know for sure we will spend a few nights on Sardinia and probably do a day tour to San Pietro Island which is where my husband's grandfather originated.

Can't believe we are now 4 weeks away from Florida...can't wait!
 
We're doing one park the day we get back from our cruise in April and Ricky chose AK. First he wanted HS but I knew doing just one day we wouldn't get any tier 1's, and he really likes AK, so he decided he'll wait until our July trip to see SWAG because neither of the boys have seen it yet! It's hard choosing just one park though and my choice (and Steve's too) would have been Epcot for F&G. Oh well, you win some you lose some lol!
Good luck with your dad and Spirit, I know the price can be right but there are so many horror stories about them :scared:
 
We're doing one park the day we get back from our cruise in April and Ricky chose AK. First he wanted HS but I knew doing just one day we wouldn't get any tier 1's, and he really likes AK, so he decided he'll wait until our July trip to see SWAG because neither of the boys have seen it yet! It's hard choosing just one park though and my choice (and Steve's too) would have been Epcot for F&G. Oh well, you win some you lose some lol!
Good luck with your dad and Spirit, I know the price can be right but there are so many horror stories about them :scared:

I did consider just doing the AK After Hours one night, but for the price for those few hours...I would rather have a full day at a park...or pay a little more to do more than one park. If there were some crazy evening or morning hours we could do more...but that's not the case...despite it being 'spring break' time. So I think right now we may try to do early morning at HS, NOT for RoTR but for the "other" ride there...and maybe some of the headliners (Tower, RnRC) and then take the Skyliner (I do LOVE it) over to EPCOT for a few more hours for Flower and Garden...but we can't stay too long since Flying Fish dinner is that night...and that's going to eat up a chunk of time right there. Plus I see just how different EPCOT is right now with all of the construction...can't wait until a lot of that is done.

This will be my 3rd time on Spirit (4th flight overall) and honestly I actually have found them to be quite pleasant overall. At least unlike SW (our other usual go-to) I don't have to do the cattle call...thankfully. I think a lot of the nightmares are for people who don't realize all of those "extra" fees..even though it's stated RIGHT THERE when you book them...and I do realize that as a smaller airline when there are issues with specific flights it can get ugly to try to get on another one. However that does happen with other airlines too...they are just bigger and able to absorb it better and reallocate I think.
 
So the more I read about the current crowd reports, especially at Studios, the more frightened I am becoming about trying to visit the Disney parks for one day...especially without Fastpasses! I've been commucating with Shades of Green to try to pre-order my tickets but it's been painful because I had to ask several times before they finally emailed me the order form and even now they are saying it could take two weeks...but I'll have to try anyway. I think visiting more than two parks will be impossible for us in one day, but I do think we won't be able to stick to just one park. So we'll see what happens.

I've been stalking DVC MS website daily but have had no luck adding the first night of our stay to my current reservation, so it's looking pretty likely we'll still be resort hopping...one night at AK Kidani in two studio rooms and then 2 nights at Boulder Ridge in a 2BR room. That's okay though...really looking forward to staying at Wilderness Lodge again as it has been years since we've stayed there.

And as much as I really wanted to try Tiffins, because we are now in Lent season and my FIL is a practicing Catholic, we are going to keep Flying Fish on the schedule. The dish that my FIL wants to try is the Sardinian Seafood Pasta so it makes sense to go to Flying Fish for that since he can have seafood. If we did Tiffins we may want to try other stuff and he would have to abstain being Catholic.
Our countdown is now almost in the teens!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top