I’ve got my tentative budget set and I’ve cranked through the “is Free Dining worth it?” math. My DM has banned me from pestering her for restaurant decisions until much closer to our end-of-May ADR date. I find myself in a bit of a planning slump – I’ve done everything I can and I’ve got roughly two months until any more decisions can be made (since DM refuses to join me in falling down the planning rabbit hole 
) . Anyone have Disney book or podcast recommendations to help me get through my planning lull? I’d especially love any related to Disney history!
WDW Radio all the way!!!
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Touring plans podcast of course. WDW prep to go is good too. Lots of YouTube. Disney food blog is great there.
Are Disney food blog’s youtube videos good? I find their website not very useful since (in my opinion, of course!) they seem unwilling to give a negative review to basically anything – everything seems very toned-down and sugar-coated. A reviewer that likes everything isn’t any more helpful than one who hates everything!
I’m not making all my plans (first trip in 3 weeks) just based on what they say, but I (and my kids) really like watching to visualize ahead of time and get ideas. If something looks good, can do more research and/or make ADR until I decide to cancel it. But a few things I became aware of that I hadn’t known about before. Like the cinnamon rolls in fantasyland. Gastons tavern I think? And seeing all the food options in Epcot world showcase, so don’t have to worry about lots of TS there, lots of good QS options to eat along the way. Just another source.
That makes complete sense to me – I’ve never been much of one for videos to ‘visualize’ like that (I don’t ever watch ride-throughs in advance of my trips, for example), and this is an adults-only trip for my foodie mother & I, so I expect that’s coloring my view of what Disney food blog offers. I’m most interested in an honest assessment of which restaurants have the best food, and I get frustrated when it’s hard to tell that from what they say! I’ll have to take a second look at their offerings with an “exploring options” frame-of-mind – we’ve been to Disney 10-ish times before, but there’s always something new to try!
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Podcasts:
I love Disney Travel Secrets (even if it is kind of basic for many of us Liners, it is a fun and professional addition of Disney to my week.)
Radio Harambe
DIS Unplugged
YouTube:
DSNY Newscast
All Aboard TV (this one is done by the couple at DIsney Travel Secrets)
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Try DIS they do a best and worst as well as dining reviews. They don’t hold punches.
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Check out the Imagineering Field Guides. There is one for each park. They walk through the building of each park and all the different theming and engineering decisions they made to immerse us in the magic!
The Disney Dish with Jim Hill and @len is the best! I also enjoy the Backside of Magic for some witty banter.
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I take it you already have the Big Book as you are out here at the web site. Many comments in the book and of coarse UOG gives their opinions. One must take everything with a grain of salt as what someone else sees may not be how you and yours see’s it. Looking at the book, I believe they were a little hard on the dinning portion as my family thought most of the restaurants to be good. Excellent? No. Signiture dinning may be a different story but it is quite expensive and require two dinning credit if you are on the DDP. The best thing to check out resort rooms is also the Unofficial Guide to WDW. Remember that everyone has their own opinion and vary widely. Good luck with your planning.
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