PTR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family does DLR (new October 9th)

TheMaxRebo · Mar 6, 2015

Part 5 - More food and initial schedule

First off - I really want to thank everyone for their thoughts and input - All of this newness is very exciting but a bit overwhelming!

By now you may have realized my Disney planning is a bit governed by food - to that end, I think I have a current plan for where we want to hit up to eat (and yest, we may gain a few pounds on this trip):

For breakfast, I want to hit:

Steakhouse 55
Plaza Inn - for Minnie and Friends

For Lunch:

Pacific Wharf
Paradise Garden Grill
Ariel's Grotto
Littel Red Wagon
Bengal Barbecue
Café Orleans

Dinner:

Blue Bayou
Tortilla Jo's
Carthay Circle

Booze/snacks

Trader Sam's
Uva Bar and Grill

Yes, I know I have a lot of lunch location selected but a) we can split up and just try things and b) I am making the executive decision that on at least one day we will have 1st lunch and 2nd lunch

Also, as a heads up new to my [P]TR - I am a bit of a nerd and enjoy my spreadsheets - so I give you the first take at my plans:

(and why yes, in the spreadsheet if you click on the little menu icons it takes you to the menu for the respective restaurant/meal)

The park times and shows, etc. are based off the park times I could find for the corresponding dates from last October. What has become apparent is that I am totally used to planning for Disney World, for which I would be about 1 month out from being able to book my ADRs, vs. Disneyland where I still have about 5 months.

Ok, ok, I'll relax a bit. Guess I just enjoy the planning process and not being able to fully do so is stressing me a bit.

Any thoughts on the schedule are appreciated - I am thinking of moving the Steakhouse 55 breakfast to our last day depending on when the flight is.

TTFN

GrandCalifornian · Mar 6, 2015

I think it looks great. Much like WDW you can't hit all the good stuff in a single trip, but your choices look good. I think in general you'll find that DL takes a lot less pre-planing than WDW does because everything is so close together and most ADRs aren't as big of a deal. You also aren't stuck eating in a particular park because that's where you are, so since you'll have park hoppers you could easily eat in one park than head to the other one. Stuff really is close.
Either way for the Steakhouse 55 breakfast sounds good, although the last morning might be nice as long as you aren't in a rush to get anywhere. If you do move it you can have a quicker breakfast on your way to CA Adv to race for Cars Land.
As far as hitting the essentials I think you have it. The Blue Bayou Fantasmic package will be great, and so will getting to see World of Color. We haven't eaten at Carthay Circle yet, but it has to be worth doing. You should be able to hit most of your lunch places, especially since you can treat Bengal BBQ and the Little Red Wagon as snacks. At CA Adventure Pacific Wharf and Paradise Garden Grill are in two different areas with QS options, and we might also add Fidler, Fife, and Practical Cafe (which is the Starbucks Location on the main street) to the potential list, and would consider jumping over to the Grand Californian if the park is busy. You definitely won't go hungry.
A possible dinner swap would be to change out Tortilla Joe's for something a little more special, but it isn't bad by any means. You could fit Storytellers in there, but it would be more expensive. For Mexican food we usually prefer Rancho Del Zocalo, but I can see just hanging out in DTD too.
It looks like fun, and you should have a great trip (with less work planning than for WDW).

DisneyKid4Life · Mar 6, 2015

Just for the record Phil... You had me at Ariel's Grotto.

As it is for WDW, I can't offer much help in regards to restaurants (but again.... Ariel's Grotto), but Fantasmic is so worth seeing there. Just enough differences to make it unique.

Li Li · Mar 6, 2015

Total bonus points for the gif from The Landlord!!! Lol!

whitneyebz · Mar 6, 2015

A Ron Swanson gif? You are officially awesome!

Leshaface · Mar 6, 2015

(whistle) Quite the spreadsheet! Hey you know who likes spreadsheets?! @afwdwfan :cool:

Love the Will Ferrell - "I'm not doing so good Pearl" :rotfl:

I'd move that breakfast too, if you have a later flight and take advantage of the early entry to DCA.

And you're doing WoC dining package and F! dining too?! Awesome! :banana:

Dugette · Mar 6, 2015

TheMaxRebo said:
I am making the executive decision that on at least one day we will have 1st lunch and 2nd lunch

You know, because it's very important to eat regularly to sustain your energy for Disneyland touring. ::yes::

Or because there are too darn many tasty things. :rotfl2:

TheMaxRebo said:
I am a bit of a nerd and enjoy my spreadsheets

Plans are looking good. None of it is really my area of expertise yet, but I'll be taking notes on what works for you! :goodvibes

cstorm65 · Mar 7, 2015

I have no basis for making any suggestions as we are trying to figure out when we can take our first Disneyland trip ourselves. But I can say the plan looks good to me and I think I am going to steal your idea of having 1st lunch and 2nd lunch! I could really go for some Columbia Harbour House on this next trip for 1st lunch and then a chicken/waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hollow at about 1 as we leave the park for a break. I think you are on to a great idea!!

SimplyGoofy · Mar 7, 2015

As someone who also plans their Disney vacations around food (I may have an ADR problem... :rolleyes1

), I think your plans look great! It appears you'll be hitting all the highlights and your must-dos.

Also, coming from someone who once had four ADRs in a single day (Kona Cafe, Rose and Crown, Le Cellier, and the Wishes Dessert Party), I can totally stand behind multiple lunches! :thumbsup2

Finally, I adore your spreadsheet! Along with many on the DIS, I'm a big fan of my spreadsheets! :goodvibes

ashw100 · Mar 8, 2015

Hi joining in :wave2:

. Its exciting to be going to a new Disney park. I love how everything goes back to food. The food is sooo good there. Also, love to see another person who loves spreadsheets, they're my favorite. Very cool how you have a link to the menus :thumbsup2

. Interested to see how your planning goes.

Uruguayo21 · Mar 8, 2015

That's awesome that you guys brought your 1-month old!!! We were in Orlando when our son was almost 2-months, but we just went to Downtown Disney with him.
We are planning to go to Disney in April, when our son will be 9-months. Any tips on rides that you guys were able to bring the little one?

annie170 · Mar 8, 2015

All caught up!

Belated happpy birthdays to you and Olivia. My oldest granddaughter will be six in April. I know it's cliche, but time certainly flies, doesn't it?

Spreadsheets and researching restaurants! I can relate! That's definitely my thing in trip planning.

I've never been to DL, but there seems to be plenty of great food options. Any day that has Lunch 1 and Lunch 2 sounds like my kind of day!

Imagineer5 · Mar 9, 2015

1st lunch and 2nd lunch sounds amazing to me!! Love your spreadsheet

I also have some spreadsheets for each upcoming trip, plus some planned out ones for the far future like south Africa, Australia, Greece...lol! I think it is helpful to work on food choices first so you can have an idea of which park you need to be in on specific days. Helps narrow things down a bit.

afwdwfan · Mar 9, 2015

TheMaxRebo said:
Yes, I know I have a lot of lunch location selected but a) we can split up and just try things and b) I am making the executive decision that on at least one day we will have 1st lunch and 2nd lunch

I approve! :thumbsup2

TheMaxRebo said:
(and why yes, in the spreadsheet if you click on the little menu icons it takes you to the menu for the respective restaurant/meal)

I'm impressed. That's some hardcore planning, right there!

TheMaxRebo said:
Any thoughts on the schedule are appreciated - I am thinking of moving the Steakhouse 55 breakfast to our last day depending on when the flight is.

Looks great!

The only one on your list that we did was Ariel's Grotto. Our focus was extremely heavy on rides/shows for our DL trip and food was not much more than an afterthought. We booked Ariel's Grotto just because DD loved CRT so much and we thought it would be a good way to see the princesses. But I have to say, I thought the food was great. I'm not even a big seafood fan so I ordered the beef and it was very good.

Leshaface said:
(whistle) Quite the spreadsheet! Hey you know who likes spreadsheets?! @afwdwfan

missangelalexis · Mar 9, 2015

As a fellow spreadsheeter, I approve of your laid out plans!!

I totally undersdtand stressing about not being able to plan things fully yet. Disneyland certainly is very different!

KatMark · Mar 9, 2015

Plans sound like they are coming along. As we all know, food is a very important part of our vacation experience. I am loving your spreadsheet. I'm thinking by the time you go that you will be one of my go-to people when I start planning our trip in 2017.

princessbelle2015 · Mar 10, 2015

Your dining plans look great. :flower1:

horse11 · Mar 10, 2015

I have to agree. A big part of our trip was the food!!! Looking forward to hearing about your choices when you go.

schmass · Mar 10, 2015

Wow, I am really impressed with your spreadsheet!! Your plans look great!

TheMaxRebo · Mar 10, 2015

GrandCalifornian said:
I think it looks great. Much like WDW you can't hit all the good stuff in a single trip, but your choices look good. I think in general you'll find that DL takes a lot less pre-planing than WDW does because everything is so close together and most ADRs aren't as big of a deal. You also aren't stuck eating in a particular park because that's where you are, so since you'll have park hoppers you could easily eat in one park than head to the other one. Stuff really is close.

Yes, definitely coming to grips with the fact we won't be able to do everything - or even eat everything we want :rotfl:

I think the think I am realizing is that I need to do a lot of research but not as much planning - which I am still figuring out how to do. Definitely hoping with the park hopers it will make it easier to get on all the main attractions we want at some point during the trip and can adjust if the kids are needing breaks, etc.

GrandCalifornian said:
Either way for the Steakhouse 55 breakfast sounds good, although the last morning might be nice as long as you aren't in a rush to get anywhere. If you do move it you can have a quicker breakfast on your way to CA Adv to race for Cars Land.
As far as hitting the essentials I think you have it. The Blue Bayou Fantasmic package will be great, and so will getting to see World of Color. We haven't eaten at Carthay Circle yet, but it has to be worth doing. You should be able to hit most of your lunch places, especially since you can treat Bengal BBQ and the Little Red Wagon as snacks. At CA Adventure Pacific Wharf and Paradise Garden Grill are in two different areas with QS options, and we might also add Fidler, Fife, and Practical Cafe (which is the Starbucks Location on the main street) to the potential list, and would consider jumping over to the Grand Californian if the park is busy. You definitely won't go hungry.

I think I will try to make it work for Steakhouse 55 on our leaving day - definitely want the one early morning in CA Adventure (though, if Peter doesn't grow some he won't be tall enough for the Racers so we might want to avoid that area :rotfl2:

)

Good to know that Pacific Wharf and Paradise Garden Grill aren't in the same area - that is what I still need to do is look at the park maps and get more detailed location information

GrandCalifornian said:
A possible dinner swap would be to change out Tortilla Joe's for something a little more special, but it isn't bad by any means. You could fit Storytellers in there, but it would be more expensive. For Mexican food we usually prefer Rancho Del Zocalo, but I can see just hanging out in DTD too.
It looks like fun, and you should have a great trip (with less work planning than for WDW).

I had read other really positive things about Tortilla Jo's and thought doing something else at DTD would be nice - but that is probably the one that is least "must do" for me, but we shall see. Thanks for all the other recomendations!

DisneyKid4Life said:
Just for the record Phil... You had me at Ariel's Grotto.

As it is for WDW, I can't offer much help in regards to restaurants (but again.... Ariel's Grotto), but Fantasmic is so worth seeing there. Just enough differences to make it unique.

I figure with Olivia still in Princess mode and Emma getting into it herself doing the princess meal made sense. Plus, the food looks/sounds pretty good to. If they had the characters for dinner I definitely would have done that as our WoC meal, but oh well. I mean, still, Ariel's Grotto

Li Li said:
Total bonus points for the gif from The Landlord!!! Lol!

I'm a grown man! :rotfl:

whitneyebz said:
A Ron Swanson gif? You are officially awesome!

Huge fan of The Swanson

Leshaface said:
(whistle) Quite the spreadsheet! Hey you know who likes spreadsheets?! @afwdwfan

Love the Will Ferrell - "I'm not doing so good Pearl"

I'd move that breakfast too, if you have a later flight and take advantage of the early entry to DCA.
And you're doing WoC dining package and F! dining too?! Awesome!

To be fair - who doesn't like spreadsheets? :confused3

Haven't booked the flights yet but will try to work it so we can do that breakfast at S55 on that last day - definitely would like to have one early morning at DCA

Figure with the 3 kids anything we can do to make seeing Fantasmic! and WoC with less wiating will be for the best

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PTR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family does DLR (new October 9th)