"Can we go somewhere with food?" - Aug '17 - 10th Birthday Surprise Trip with DxDDP (3/10 - ADRs)

[Mocharilla]

7 days at Disney. DxDDP. A month long road trip. Universal Studios. Busch Gardens. Dollywood. Michigan's Adventure. Six Flags Great America, Over Georgia, AND Over St. Louis. Are we crazy? Well... yeah, definitely, but that just means you're interested, right?

I suppose we should start with first things first, an introduction to our family (I'm sure you can tell which of us is which).


First of all, there's me (Summer). I'm 26 now but 27 at the time of the trip. I work as a Sports Editor and I'm also back in school for a degree in sports journalism. Next up, there's my husband, Nic. He's 27 and a structural engineer. We've been together for 11 years now, and we got engaged and went on our honeymoon at WDW. Then there's the little one, our 9-year-old, Jacques. He works hard as a third grader.

Other than Disney, our family has three loves: hockey, roller coasters, and food. After a hockey season we'd rather put behind us (we're Dallas Stars season ticket holders after growing up as a Blackhawks fan and a Nordiques fan and they have been, um, not good this year ), we're glad to spend this trip focusing on the other two. I asked DS what he'd want out of a surprise vacation and he said two things: roller coasters and "can we go somewhere with food?" He's a very adventurous eater, which is what he means, not just generally somewhere to eat.

Skip this next little bit if you only care about the Disney part :
We've got a pretty crazy road trip planned for this summer, filled with surprises for the little one all leading up to a week at All-Star Sports. DH only gets 3 weeks of vacation a year and we're only using 2 on this trip, so it's going to start with 2 weeks of just DS and I, then he's flying to meet us for the real fun. To start with, DS and I are going to drive up from Dallas (where we live) to Michigan (where a lot of our family lives), stopping at Six Flags Over St. Louis on the way. Side note: we have Six Flags season passes + dining passes since we have one here in the metroplex, so we like to stop when we pass one and ride a few coasters and grab lunch. We've been to SFSL, SFGAm, SFFT, and of course, SFOT. We'll be having lunch with some friends in Chicago on the way as well, but SFGAm is a ways out of town, so we'll be saving that for later. Once we're in Michigan, we're going to spend the rest of that week and all of the next driving around Michigan and visiting family, including a stop at Michigan's Adventure (where we used to have season passes) and popping back over to Chicago for a few days to visit family and friends. DH will fly up for the last weekend, which is the same weekend as our yearly family reunion.

DS knows most of those details, but once DH joins us, we move onto the surprise portion of the trip. Originally, we started with just a Disney trip, then decided to hit Universal, then Busch Gardens, and somewhere along the way, it sort of spiraled out of control... Whoops!

The plan is as follows (Note: I know the driving seems crazy, particularly with theme parks involved as well, but we're do this sort of driving shenanigans often and it's actually far from the craziest driving/sightseeing combo we've done):
Sun, 8/6: Brunch with family, head out on the road to drive overnight
Mon, 8/7: Dollywood
Tue, 8/8: Six Flags Over Georgia
Wed, 8/9: Georgia Aquarium, Olympic Sightseeing (one of my obsessions), drive overnight
Thur, 8/10: Busch Gardens
Fri, 8/11: Universal Studios Florida
Sat, 8/12: Islands of Adventure
Sun, 8/13: Magic Kingdom
Mon, 8/14: Hollywood Studios
Tue, 8/15: Animal Kingdom
Wed, 8/16: Epcot
Thur, 8/17: Magic Kingdom
Fri, 8/18: Epcot
Sat, 8/19: Magic Kingdom
Sun, 8/20: Driving back home

Future posts to keep an eye out for:
Dining Reservations
Fastpasses
Daily Plans
Packing Lists
Binder
Must-See/Do
Must-Eat

 

[Mocharilla]

Dining Reservations and Notes​

We really worked to try new places wherever possible, except for a few favorite standbys. 6 nights on the DxDDP works out to 18 credits, which we'll use as follows. Missing breakfasts are ones we plan to just eat in the room, particularly because both DH and DS don't eat eggs (one of the only foods they don't eat) and aren't big breakfast people.

Sun, 8/13: Magic Kingdom

• Breakfast - Kona Cafe
  • DH and I have done KC on both of our trips together, including twice on our last trip, and Poly is our favorite resort, so it was the logical place to start for us
• Lunch - Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen
  • First time. I can't help myself - Jungle Cruise is my favorite ride at MK because I have a terrible sense of humor.
• Dinner - Tony's Town Square Restaurant
  • First time. We're running out of new MK places that sound appealing, and this is probably the ADR we're least excited for.

Mon, 8/14: Hollywood Studios

• Lunch - Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
  • First time. We've had this scheduled both trips, but ended up changing things early on the first and day of on the second because of heat stroke. Third time's a charm!
• Dinner - 50's Prime Time Cafe
  • We've done this both trips and know our son will love it, so it's our second repeat.

Tue, 8/15: Animal Kingdom

• Lunch - Yak & Yeti
  • We did this on our honeymoon, but enjoyed it enough to go back for our third repeat of the trip. We may switch it up when we see the full menus for the new spots in Pandora.
• Dinner - Boma
  • First time. We did Jiko on our honeymoon and absolutely adored it, but the idea of a buffet environment (plus only one credit) sounded perfect for bringing DS.

Wed, 8/16: Epcot

• Lunch - Nine Dragons
  • First time. This was high on Nic's list of Epcot restaurants and Jacques loves Chinese food, so on the list it goes!
• Linner* - Tokyo Dining
  • First time. Jacques' absolute favorite food is sushi, so this was a no-brainer for us.
• Dinner - Biergarten
  • First time. We've discussed this on both of our last trips, but we're finally getting to it this time.

Thur, 8/17: Magic Kingdom

• Breakfast - Crystal Palace
  • First time. Jacques isn't a big character fan, so character meals weren't a high priority for us, but I always hear good things about CP, so I figure this is a good choice for him to experience a character breakfast.
• Lunch - Liberty Tree Tavern
  • We did this on our honeymoon and we haven't stopped thinking about the toffee cake, so even with the menu changes, we're going back for our fourth and final repeat of the trip.
• Dinner - Be Out Guest
  • First time. Another no-brainer that we have to try this.

Fri, 8/18: Epcot

• Lunch - Rose & Crown
  • First time. The menu here looked delish, so it's on the list.
• Linner* - Chefs de France
  • First time. This has been on my list every time and gotten shot down, so this time, it's happening!
• Dinner - Spice Road Table
  • First time. The food here is very similar to what we make at home on a regular basis plus the atmosphere seemed great.

Sat, 8/19: Magic Kingdom

• Lunch - Grand Floridian Cafe
  • First time. We're feeling out of TS at MK that we haven't tried and actually want to, so we figured we'd use the opportunity to hop out of the park for a minute.
• Dinner - 'Ohana
  • First time. We got engaged at Poly, honeymooned at Poly, and we'll end this trip at the Poly.

* Note: On our Epcot days, we originally had breakfasts planned at Garden Grill and Cape May, both of which we'd been to already. We also couldn't narrow down our options for lunch/dinner at Epcot and debated 3 days at Epcot and 2 at MK instead. We decided to compromise by doing the first lunch seatings and last dinner seatings with a linner meal in between. Ridiculous? Yes. Exactly what will make us happy? Yup!