Adventures in Big Family Vacation Planning (part 5)

Disney is so much more than rides - there's all that FOOD! 

Our family loves to eat, and one of our bucket list items is to eat at every single restaurant on property. To that end, we try to pick a few new places each time we go down to the World.

Based on the schedule we created earlier, that helps us decide which places are options for dining while we are there.

I sent an email to the whole group to ask their requests - did they want a special character breakfast or a particular family favorite? I know that we don't necessarily have the most adventurous eaters (cheeseburgers and chicken fingers are usually the norm) but it's sometimes fun to try something new.

Husband and I decided that we were going to splurge and have a date at Victoria and Albert's, the only five star restaurant in Orlando. We cannot wait! 

When I got the requests from the family back, I went to town with the schedule. Since we are in Magic Kingdom on December 30 for the pre-New Year's Eve fireworks, Liberty Tree with the whole family is the perfect option.

Then again, we look to when my family joins us - my cousin loves animals, so we wanted to have a sit down dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge where they are staying. So since Husband and I haven't been to Jiko and my mom loved Sanaa the last time we were there together, we picked Jiko for the six of us for dinner one night. That plus a few other favorites, and our schedule was set! I'm so hungry just looking at this list... 

1. Liberty Tree
2. Via Napoli
3. Crystal Palace
4. 50’s Primetime Cafe
5. Victoria and Albert’s
6. Jiko
7. Rose and Crown for Illuminations
8. Spice Road Table
9. Chef Mickeys
10. Be Our Guest (dinner)
    
    

The next step is the reservations themselves. Dinner allows on-property guests to book ADRs (advance dining reservations) up to 180 days out from the first day of check in. The little known fact is that those reservations open up for your whole trip, up to 10 days. So you can make reservations almost 190 days out from your trip! Since we were hoping for some hard to get reservations like Be Our Guest, we focused on those first.

I got up early on that 180 date and got online. You can make reservations online or on the phone, but online opens up a bit earlier. We had a bit of a hiccup because I can't remember my time zones - it's in Eastern time zone and so I got up extra early. But after a few calls and a hour of work and we had our reservations!

I had to make some additional ADRs when my family decided to join us, but those were relatively easy to get. 

And now I'm crazy hungry...