She's Staying DVC, a September 2018 PTR

[Wood Nymph]

We both agree that one of the biggest and best parts of Disney trips for us is the Food. Seriously, we enjoy it more than the rides, the parks, and maybe even the resorts, although that last one is subject to debate. We have always had the dining plan, and it has allowed us to eat at some great restaurants that I otherwise might not have spent the money on.

This time we are going without the dining plan which is kinda scary. I’m worried Paul is going to worry about how much everything costs on the menu and that his angst could negatively impact his trip. Does anyone know if you can request menus with no prices?

We really look forward to the food, too. And with our upcoming trip at Wilderness Lodge we will be eating at two of our favorites, Artist Point and the Trail's End breakfast buffet. Do you get a 10% discount on certain restaurants as DVC members? Every little bit helps.

There were several restaurants we tried because we had the dining plan that we never would have tried without it. One of them was Ohana, which we have gone to without the dining plan twice since then. But I get too stressed out about getting my money's worth with the dining plan to ever do it again.

I am crazy excited about this restaurant. The cheese soup was delicious at Food and Wine last year, I'm looking forward to my own bowl this time.

I enjoyed the steak samples at Food and Wine, and the atmosphere looks pretty neat too. Is this one where they will even cut it for you?

We always get the cheese soup and steak at Food and Wine and can't wait to go back there again in September.

Next we have Jon's pick, Boathouse.

The food looks very good there. We need to add that to our list.

Finally, that fourth "new to us" meal will be Sci Fi Drive in.

We ate lunch there with our two grandson, age 12 and 14, our son and my sister last month and really enjoyed it. We had a great waiter, which made it fun.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We really look forward to the food, too. And with our upcoming trip at Wilderness Lodge we will be eating at two of our favorites, Artist Point and the Trail's End breakfast buffet. Do you get a 10% discount on certain restaurants as DVC members? Every little bit helps.

We do get a DVC discount at quite a few restaurants, and while it is similar to AP discounts, the list of restaurants is slightly different. It all does help though.
That’s great that you will get to do your favorites in the WL neighborhood. It will be interesting to see what happens with Artist Point at the end of the year.

There were several restaurants we tried because we had the dining plan that we never would have tried without it. One of them was Ohana, which we have gone to without the dining plan twice since then. But I get too stressed out about getting my money's worth with the dining plan to ever do it again.

It is neat to discover new restaurants, especially ones you might not try otherwise. I guess the key either way is to not be too worried about the cost, whether you are on the plan or not. Food is much better when not thinking about money.

We always get the cheese soup and steak at Food and Wine and can't wait to go back there again in September.

That’s one of the neat things about a September trip. We missed getting to enjoy Food and Wine when we went in August last year.

We ate lunch there our two grandson, age 12 and 14, our son and my sister last month and really enjoyed it. We had a great waiter, which made it fun.

Having a good waiter really helps anywhere. On our honeymoon we had the same waiter a few times at the old Cap’nJack’s at Downtown Disney, and we had fun coming back. (It was also something we could do without ADRs, since we had not made many reservations ahead of time.) We’ll let you know what we think of Boathouse, we have seen some good reviews and there is plenty of variety. We will see.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We have come to have some real favorite meals at WDW, and there are quite a few that we feel are must-do experiences each trip. One of these is Yak and Yeti, where we will again have lunch on our first Animal Kingdom day.

I always struggle with what to order here but the food is always delicious and it's a good break from the heat in the middle of the day.

I'm not sure what I'll order either, but I know it'll be good.
Another repeat that I loved last year was Teppan Edo, where I know that I will be ordering the filet. That was excellent meat.

Teppan Edo is really fun. I think Marsh is going to love it this year. I'm also getting him his own noodles. I also want to try some sushi here this year, I hope someone else will help eat it.

With 8 of us we'll have our own table too, which is fun.

We are also headed back to Crystal Palace for breakfast. This has turned into an absolute must for us. We love breakfast here, the breakfast lasagna is my favorite.

I love the made to order omelettes, and the character interaction is always great. It is a pretty good value for a character meal too.

My personal favorite, and the one meal we have done every single WDW trip is Trail's End. We are going for dinner, and instead of doing it our first night of the trip we are doing it our first night in the cabin, so we just have a quick boat ride (or walk) over.

Dinner here has never disappointed, I think my favorite thing here are the baked potatoes and the cobbler.

I love the ribs here, and the desserts, where you can cover anything in soft serve. It's just great comfort food while on vacation and out trying lots of different meals.
Allie's pick for a returning favorite was Garden Grill. This is our preferred choice for dining with Mickey, and this time we are going to try it for lunch. The food is always excellent here, and everyone loves the spinning restaurant.

I really like the food here, it's nothing exciting or exotic but it's just solidly delcious and simple.
Plus Mickey is so cute in his farmer overalls and who can say no to chip and Dale.

Another ADR we have is Be Our Guest, but we are going back to doing it for lunch this year. Last year it was a great dinner, but with the changes it is less appealing and more expensive now, so we'll skip it this time.

It was a big debate but I think doing lunch again there will be fun. I'm still ordering a dessert though.

I think that covers all of our ADRs! I'm also looking forward to going back to D-Luxe Burger and having some meals at Roaring Fork and Geyser Point, but that's a given. We will also try for breakfast at WCC on our last day again.

We are also talking about cooking breakfast one day, waffles, bacon, and eggs but that's a line I'm kinda scared to cross. I really like our disney vacations because I don't have to cook.

Ahh, yeah, DVC says it makes it just like home, but that's not always a good thing...
We do think we are going to want to hang out in the cabin though, so perhaps some easy group breakfast in there won't be too bad.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Yak and Yeti serves our favorite pot stickers but I have trouble finding something that I like now that they no longer serve the Mandarin Chicken salad that I loved. I think we need to plan some longer trips in order to fit this one back into our plans.

Trail's End is a great choice for dinner when staying at the WL/CCV. We tried to get there from the Beach Club once and that was a transportation disaster. My favorites are the cold shrimp and the fried chicken. It is also nice to have all the fresh salad choices, too.

We always get dessert with our lunch at Be Our Guest. It is the only place we ever order dessert at lunch time.

We've always had breakfast in the villa. It was so much easier to make a pot of coffee and throw some toast in the toaster or some cereal in a bowl than to go through all the trouble of going down to the counter service, waiting in line, and then bringing it back up again. Everyone could be lazy and we could sit and enjoy the morning with a cup of real coffee which I brought from home.

They sell milk, eggs, orange juice, etc, in the Marketplace. DVC members can order groceries from a service that will deliver the food right into your villa. We used it for our stay at OKW in 2015, even though we aren't DVC owners. It only cost $10 at that time and was well worth it. We mostly used it for breakfast but also had a few snacks, too. I even brought some packages of pre-cooked bacon from home which was less messy to cook than raw bacon is.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Love your ADR's.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Yak and Yeti serves our favorite pot stickers but I have trouble finding something that I like now that they no longer serve the Mandarin Chicken salad that I loved. I think we need to plan some longer trips in order to fit this one back into our plans.

Our problem here is we like all the food options. The ribs are exceptional, the Asian dishes are great, and I even really liked the Kobe burger last time. It is a nice cool break in an often hot park, so it has become a staple for us.

Trail's End is a great choice for dinner when staying at the WL/CCV. We tried to get there from the Beach Club once and that was a transportation disaster. My favorites are the cold shrimp and the fried chicken. It is also nice to have all the fresh salad choices, too.

I totally agree about transportation being a pain of you’re not already close. We have found ourselves at Epcot and headed here multiple times, and there’s always at least two modes of transportation, and if we take the bus it stops at WL first so we figure we might as well stop by the room if there is time. We discovered dinner here on our honeymoon when we didn’t have ADRs and it was a place we could get into easier.

We always get dessert with our lunch at Be Our Guest. It is the only place we ever order dessert at lunch time.

That’s great, we will join you in having dessert there. It probably won’t be our only lunch dessert though...

We've always had breakfast in the villa. It was so much easier to make a pot of coffee and throw some toast in the toaster or some cereal in a bowl than to go through all the trouble of going down to the counter service, waiting in line, and then bringing it back up again.

That is a really good point, and one we hadn’t considered. With the nice kitchen it might be easier to cook than go get food. We’ll bring coffee too.

Love your ADR's.

Thanks! So do we. We are already thinking about where we want to go next time, but we love so many restaurants that it is tough to make room for new ones.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Thanks! So do we. We are already thinking about where we want to go next time, but we love so many restaurants that it is tough to make room for new ones.

I was just saying the same thing in my PTR/TR. There are so many old favs that it's hard to fit in new places you may love even more...

 

[shairpdrh]

Food is such a fun thing to plan! I think we are settled for Sept, but who knows! I am also attached to all of our favorites.

My personal favorite, and the one meal we have done every single WDW trip is Trail's End. We are going for dinner, and instead of doing it our first night of the trip we are doing it our first night in the cabin, so we just have a quick boat ride (or walk) over.

Dinner here has never disappointed, I think my favorite thing here are the baked potatoes and the cobbler.

I love the ribs here, and the desserts, where you can cover anything in soft serve. It's just great comfort food while on vacation and out trying lots of different meals.

We have had reservations for this for the last two trips but haven't made it yet. I think this trip will finally be the one! I love that we can take the boat or walk over. This should be a good start to our break day.

We are also talking about cooking breakfast one day, waffles, bacon, and eggs but that's a line I'm kinda scared to cross. I really like our disney vacations because I don't have to cook.

Ahh, yeah, DVC says it makes it just like home, but that's not always a good thing...
We do think we are going to want to hang out in the cabin though, so perhaps some easy group breakfast in there won't be too bad.

I had this same feeling on our last trip when we stayed in a 2BR. I went to the QS at VGF almost every morning, but the rest of the group made eggs, toast, or cereal. I think if we were staying in a cabin we would want to stay in as much as possible, so I don't think it would bother me as much. I will be interested to hear what you decide and how you feel about it.

 

[Nakkira]

Onboard!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Onboard!

Thanks for joining in. We should have some more posts soon!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hello everyone! We have been gone from the internet for 11 days as we were on vacation in Utah.




We take this trip to Utah every year and after we get home we get so excited for Disney.

We had a great time during our 24th annual visit to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, but now we're back and that means that the Disney vacation is very close. Actually 41 days, 20 hours, and 14 minutes, but who's counting...

There hasn't been much Disney stuff going on for us, other than making two days of Fastpass+ reservations. It turns out that we found the flaw in our plan to use and upgrade our 2 day park hoppers we have leftover from a few years ago. Since they are only currently 2 day passes, and we can only upgrade them in person, we can only make two days of advance Fastpass+ reservations. We were able to get some for Pandora and Toy Story Land, but beyond that it looks like we'll be making them just a few days in advance once we upgrade our tickets on site. Oh well, it will be good to use up our leftover tickets before Marshall is old enough to need them too..

We are disappointed that we can’t complete our fast passes but I think we made smart decisions with what we did get.

Hopefully there will still be some of the things we want available after we do our ticket upgrade the first night.

On the work front we’ve hired another person in my office so hopefully I’ll have to work even less on this Disney trip too!

That really will be nice. One of the pluses of our Utah trip is being out of cell phone range so we get away from work. We aren’t so lucky at Disney, but the new girl is great and has already been a huge help.

In other Disney related news I found a Magic Band puck holder that can go on my watch band. I’m oddly sensitive to the rubber bands so I’m excited to see if this might work better for me.

That should be neat. I am excited to get to use my Cars band I bought last year. Our countdown chain is down to 41 now, so it is getting nice and short.


I love the countdown chain. I’m glad we finally got around to putting it together this year.

It is a super fun tradition, and everyone gets excited about it. I think that’s about all for now. In our next post we’ll look in my typical extreme detail at our room requests and where we might end up.

It’s going to be a great post so stay tuned...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Your Utah vacation looks like a lot of fun. I bet you took some great pictures.

That’s too bad about the fps. At least you got the two hardest to get ones it should be easy to get most of the other rides except maybe Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and Peter Pan.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Your Utah vacation looks like a lot of fun. I bet you took some great pictures.

That’s too bad about the fps. At least you got the two hardest to get ones it should be easy to get most of the other rides except maybe Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and Peter Pan.

We had a lot of fun, and took a lot of pictures. We are hoping we can get something for 7DMT since Allie actually enjoys it now, but we'll see. The standby wait for Peter Pan always surprises us, and unless we have a fastpass we just don't think it's worth it. Time will tell.

 

[rdkeim]

I've followed along on your last few TR's. Anxious to hear about your first DVC experience! I love the atmosphere at the WL and it's my sentimental favorite. Yikes on the airline customer service. Sometimes I just have to end the conversation and call back hoping I get someone who actually gets it. I LOL'd at the "non stop" flight You got some good ADR's - good luck on getting the FP's that you want!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I've followed along on your last few TR's. Anxious to hear about your first DVC experience! I love the atmosphere at the WL and it's my sentimental favorite. Yikes on the airline customer service. Sometimes I just have to end the conversation and call back hoping I get someone who actually gets it. I LOL'd at the "non stop" flight You got some good ADR's - good luck on getting the FP's that you want!

Welcome and thanks for joining in. WL is our favorite too, since we picked it for our honeymoon. After lots of exploring other resorts, we are so excited to have Copper Creek as our home resort. It just feels so comfortable and peaceful, while being located so close to MK for quick access by boat or bus. We really like Bay Lake, and it is the perfect backdrop for our favorite resort.
Now with DVC we are considering branching out somewhat on future trips, but I expect that at least a portion of our trips for some time to come will be at WL. We'll see how the "split stay" goes this time with switching between the 2 bedroom and the cabin, since that will be the first time we have switched rooms mid-trip. In this case it should definitely be worth it though.
Unfortunately not all customer service is "Disney perfect" but at least it provides up with something to laugh at. I still giggle when thinking about switching planes without stopping...

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I love the countdown for Disney...It makes the trip seem sooooo real and sooooo close!!!!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I love the countdown for Disney...It makes the trip seem sooooo real and sooooo close!!!!

Yes, we have done the countdown chain every year, and it was one of our favorite Disboard finds. If anyone is looking for the file, it is the one from this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/countdown-chain-want-one.1606287.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We are super excited to have our first stay at Copper Creek. With my obsessive compulsion to figure out the floorplan layout, we have determined which room numbers are which type at Copper Creek, and based on walking the halls last trip I came up with the following floorplan maps:

This significantly narrows down the possible options for which room we’ll be in. There are 56 possible 2 bedrooms, so the basic odds are 1:56. With our room requests, the likely candidates become even fewer and the odds are better for rooms in locations that meet our requests. The combined odds of all the room options should still add to 1, since we will wind up with one of the room options. Here’s my unscientific handicapping of the odds of each room assignment:

7108 1:16 This exactly meets both our “high floor” and “near lobby” requests.
7113 1:25 A little further from the lobby, but the inner courtyard view would be great.
7114 1:33 Further from lobby and with a Boulder Ridge Cove Pool View.
6108 1:21 Near the lobby and almost the highest floor.
6113 1:29 A little further from the lobby, down one floor, but a great view.
6114 1:37 Further still, and the Boulder Ridge Cove Pool View.
6120 1:37 Not near the lobby, but the nearest in the far portion of the wing.
6126 1:58 Still high floor, Boulder Ridge View.
6127 1:58 Still high floor, Copper Creek Springs View.
6129 1:66 A little further from lobby, still high floor, Copper Creek Springs View.
6131 1:75 Not near lobby, Copper Creek Springs Pool View.
6132 1:75 Not near lobby, Boulder Ridge Cove Pool View.
6134 1:83 Furthest from lobby, but on high floor.
5100 1:21 Open to the lobby, but not super high. We love this location above the registration desk.
5102 1:21 Open to the lobby, but not super high. We love this location above the registration desk.
5104 1:21 Open to the lobby, but not super high. We love this location above the registration desk.
5108 1:33 Third highest floor with this same location, near but not open to lobby.
5113 1:37 Third highest floor, third closest 1 bedroom to lobby.
5114 1:42 Third highest floor, getting a little far from lobby.
5120 1:54 Not near lobby, but closest in this section.
5126 1:66 Moderate Lobby distance, Boulder Ridge Pool View.
5127 1:66 Moderate Lobby Distance, Copper Creek Springs Pool View.
5129 1:75 Moderate to High lobby distance, Copper Creek Springs Pool View.
5131 1:83 Far from Lobby, 5th floor, Copper Creek Springs Pool View.
5132 1:83 Far from lobby, 5th floor, Boulder Ridge Pool View
5134 1:100 Furthest from lobby on 5th floor, Boulder Ridge Pool View.
4108 1:42 Mid to low floor, but near lobby
4113 1:91
4114 1:50
4120 1:58
4126 1:66
4127 1:66
4129 1:75
4131 1:91
4132 1:91
4134 1:108
3108 1:66
3113 1:75
3114 1:83
3120 1:91
3126 1:100
3127 1:100
3129 1:108
3131 1:116
3132 1:116
3134 1:125
2113 1:100
2114 1:108
2120 1:116
2126 1:125
2127 1:125
2129 1:133
2131 1:150
2132 1:150
2134 1:158
1141 1:166 First floor, far from lobby, and we're not certain of the room type. Definitely the least likely room...

You are a lunatic...

Perhaps, yes.

I would like it to be known I was totally joking when I challenged him to this...

Lol, now you tell me.

Also I had a dream about a room that ended in 08 so that's the odds on favorite room both by the numbers and my premonition which means absolutely nothing.

Now you're dreaming about Copper Creek Room numbers and I'm the lunatic?

I was dreaming about being on vacation, nothing crazy about that.

Either way, we'll know in 36 days and then the next question is where the cabin will be... Let's see, there are 26 cabins, with 14 on the South side that we requested... Actually we know it will be on Bay Lake, which is awesome and all we need to know.

 

[Wood Nymph]

That is quite a mapping job you have there. It is really nice to have this detail. Are you guaranteed a dedicated two bedroom villa rather than a lock off?

Either way, we'll know in 36 days and then the next question is where the cabin will be... Let's see, there are 26 cabins, with 14 on the South side that we requested... Actually we know it will be on Bay Lake, which is awesome and all we need to know.

Are the south side cabins the ones that are closest to Fort Wilderness? Those are the ones that I would want. The view would be fabulous.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

That is quite a mapping job you have there. It is really nice to have this detail. Are you guaranteed a dedicated two bedroom villa rather than a lock off?

Yes, the lockoffs and dedicated 2 bedrooms are booked separately. We had a bit of a hard time deciding which to book, since both are nice. The lockoffs have an extra entry door and give you a chance at a “Bear Face” room (which I think would be the ultimate location), but we went with the dedicated since it has two real beds in the second bedroom instead of a sleeer sofa.

Are the south side cabins the ones that are closest to Fort Wilderness? Those are the ones that I would want. The view would be fabulous.

Yes, that’s what we requested. One of the ones along the shore between Geyser Point and the trail towards Fort Wilderness. The Sunrise view from there out onto Bay Lake is spectacular. The ones on the North side wouldn’t be bad either, and we’d have a chance at seeing some MK fireworks, but the location is more secluded than we’d prefer. Either way though it will be great.