Short trip report!

Hey guys!

First I want to say thank you: touring plans is the best! And also, all the people in this forum who helped me out when I had questions, you are awesome and made my trip better! Thank you!

Well, I went to WDW from Dec. 29th to January 10th, with my DH who had never been! We stayed at Pop Century and got the dining plan because this trip was heavily focused on FOOD (hello disneyfoodblog lovers!)! So this trip report will be focused on that!

I’m gonna do this trip report on bullet points just to make it easier, sorry about that! It’s worth noting that I am brazilian, so forgive the grammar mistakes :slight_smile:

- New years: we went on December 30th to Magic Kingdom to watch the NYE fireworks and on Dec 31st we went to epcot. We did rope drop at both parks, and it was totally worth it, in MK we got 6 rides done in the first hour and a half (Space mountain, stitch, buzz lightyear, small world, pirates and haunted mansion) and at Epcot we pretty much just went to test track and then to Akershus to have breakfast. I gotta say that our strategy to stay sane during these days was to book breakfast, lunch and dinner on both parks to avoid the quick service lines and find some quiet time. It totally worked! I recommend it.

About the restaurants:

MK

  • Breakfast at Crystal Palace: I had been to 1900 Fare and I gotta say I enjoyed Crystal Palace a lot more! It was just fun to be at the park having breakfast with the characters, it’s a magical experience! Would totally come back.
  • Lunch at LibertyTree: The food was good, but it was a LOT of food, I couldn’t handle it! To me it wasn’t worth the price, but if you like to eat a lot of meat, they definitely deliver!
  • Dinner at Be Our Guest - LOVED the experience, cuz I’m a huge Beauty and the Beast fan! But the food was just ok, I wouldn’t be back!
  • Dinner at Cinderella’s - we went another night just to have dinner at Cinderella’s royal table. I LOVED the experience, we watched the fireworks from there and it was awesome (it’s worth noting that we had seen the castle fireworks before, and it was fun seeing it from a different perspective). I wouldn`t return because for me it’s a once in a lifetime thing, but it’s total disney magic and I’d recommend it to anyone!

Epcot:

Breakfast at Akershus: it was fun to meet the princesses and the breakfast was good, but if it wasn’t for the dining plan, I don’t think the price tag is worth it!
Lunch at Rose and Crown: loved it, we had a table at the patio and it was beautiful!
Dinner at Le Cellier: I’m torn about this one, we really liked the food, but I think it’s too expensive. Still would recommend it!
Lunch at Biergarten: we went another day to epcot and it was fun to have lunch at Germany, but we both liked Rose and Crown better! :slight_smile:

Hollywood Studios:

Lunch at Brown Derby: SO GOOD, srsly, I had never been and now I’m going to always have lunch there whenever I go to hollywood studios. We did the Fantasmic package and it was totally worth it!

Animal Kingdom:

Breakfast at Tusker House: we had an ADR pre-park opening and it was totally worth it <3 loved it!

Contemporary:

California Grill Brunch at the top: someone here recommended it for me because I asked about where I could get eggs benedict. Dear person: thank you! This was an awesome experience! And now I want to go back for dinner!

Polynesian:

Ohana: I love ohana, the food is good and I love the atmosphere at the Polynesian!
Trader Sams: This bar is awesome! I regretted not being able to go again and spend more time there, it’s really great atmosphere and the drinks were really good.

Disney Springs:

Frontera cocina: Loooved this place! I would go back in a heartbeat, the guacamole with bacon is amazing.
Raglan Road: Such a fun place, with good food! Highly recommend it!

A few things I tried because they were on my Disney food bucket list:

  • Pineapple Dole Whip: I feel I’m gonna make some enemies with this one, but I didn’t love it :frowning: I liked it, but thought it was too sweet for my taste.
  • Mickey’s chocolate covered apple - I loved it! <3
  • Macaron ice cream sandwich from France in Epcot: love it, it was really good!

About pop century: I really liked pop century!! I had stayed at all stars movies, coronado, saratoga springs and I gotta say that I would totally stay at pop century next time. The location is great, the buses worked out great, and the price was good. We got a room at building 6, which is close to the food court, and it was excellent. At first we were deciding between French Quarter and Pop century, but decided to go with pop century + dining plan, which was the smartest choice considering we wanted to eat in a lot of different places and I think we made the right choice! :slight_smile:

Anyway, I guess that’s all I had to say, hope I helped someone :slight_smile: And thanks again everybody!

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You ate at some great places! Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for the report! I love HBD too! Was LeCellier more expensive than HBD or was HBD just a higher level meal?

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I was on the dining plan, and they were both 2 credit meals! But, if I was paying cash, considering I had the Fantasmic Dining package, HBD would be a lot cheaper than Le Cellier. And I also thought the food was better at HBD - le cellier felt a little like an overpriced steakhouse, it was good to try once, but I don’t know if I go again!

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Thanks for sharing, it’s a really well set out report! Love hearing about the restaurants you tried :grinning:

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing! So do you think purchasing the dining plan actually saved you money or did it just ensure that you’d be eating at Disney restaurants the entire trip? Still trying to decide if it’s worth purchasing for my husband and I we are foodies but I don’t see how it saves money?

It depends on how you eat- foodies sometimes save money with the deluxe plan (includes apps and you can do a lot of signature meals). I like this dining calculator .

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I had been to Disney 4 times before and I had never tried the dining plan. From now on, I will def use it in all my trips! Here’s why:

  1. I tried many more restaurants and foods than I would have if I wasn’t on the dining plan. For example, if I was paying out of pocket, I would have never splurged on an 80 dollar brunch at the California Grill. But honestly, it was one of the best food experiences I have ever had, ever! It was totally worth it! So since I had the dining plan, I felt more freedom to go to any restaurant I wanted to go :slight_smile:

  2. It felt like an all inclusive resort. It was awesome not to have to think about how much everything costs, I didn’t have to budget for food.

There are savings if you “maximize” the value, like, ordering always the most expensive dish on the restaurant, or only getting snacks that are 5 dollars or more. Honestly, I didn’t follow those rules because I wanted to order whatever I wanted, lol. I didn’t want to think about if I was making the dining plan really worth it money wise. I felt like there were savings in a bunch of meals (like California Grill and akershus), but that is not the main reason I would use it again. It really is about the freedom to not think too much about money during the vacation! I had never dined in any of the restaurantes I dined on this trip, because I didn’t feel I could afford them, or I didn’t know if the money was worth it. With the dining plan, you don’t need to think about that!

For me, it was totally worth it, I recommend it being a foodie myself! :slight_smile:

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Oh, also, I got the regular dining plan, which is 1 quick service, 1 table service and 1 snack. For me, it was more than enough food and I still had 2 quick service credits left on the last day of my trip - which I exchanged for 6 snacks, lol.

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In 2017 the regular plan is now 1 QS (entree and drink only- no dessert) 1 TS and 2 snacks. I actually think that would work much better for me and I never really cared for QS dessert.

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yes! This new version is even better! :slight_smile: Unfortunately, since my plan started on December 29th, I still had the old plan, but having 1 extra snack instead of the dessert on the QS is great!

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Awesome thank you both for all the good info! So what happens if I’m planning on going to Uni for one day? Will I just end up paying for a whole day of credits for nothing?

You can use your credits any day you want, so you’ll just use more credits on a different day! For example, I used 4 table services in one day (akershus, rose and crown and le cellier - this last one is 2 credits), so my table services credits were gone fast!

When I went to universal, I used my quick service for breakfast at my hotel, had lunch at Universal and dinner at Ohana around 9:30pm. I went to universal for 2 days, but the second day was only half a day, I didn’t even have lunch there because it was so empty we did everything in 4 hours lol. What’s important: plan all the restaurants you want to go to and check if you’ll be able to go to all of them in this one trip and when would you be going, and if you would use all your credits. Reservations and planning for the restaurants were a major part of our trip planning because there were so many we wanted to go to! :slight_smile:

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