DxDDP | Halloween in the Wilderness – Disney Pre-Trip Report 2015

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Mickey Waffles

Where We’ll Be Dining!

I know, I know, I’ve fallen behind with both my pre-trip report 2015 and my Dine Around Disney 2014 trip report, I’m going to my very best to get them both finished by the time we got to Orlando in October, I hate leaving things unfinished!

If you’ve read my current trip report, you’ll know that we did the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DxDDP). It worked well for us a family, and we had some fab meals at the Disney restaurants.

We are a bit of a foodie bunch, so being able to not have to worry about cost when dining out was great! To give you an idea, I paid $1,871.10 to upgrade from the free Disney Dining Plan (DDP) that we received with our resort booking to the  DxDDP. After adding up what we spent on meals and snacks, even we were shocked… $4,690.56, so I would say we got our moneys worth!

Since we are staying onsite (again) we have decided (again) to upgrade. Naturally, prices go up, so this year it has cost us $2086.38 to do so. I’m confident we’ll “make our money” back, but that’s not why we do it. We like not having to worry about menu prices, the ability to spend our credits at Signature restaurants, and having 2 snack credits a day – which last year we mainly spent on things to bring home.

Disney Character Cookies

We also happen to be in Orlando for the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, so I imagine we’ll be using snack credits where we can, to eat around the world, and we’ve set aside a couple of days to do just that, with just 1 sit-down meal for that day.

We booked our Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) back in April, but I recently started changing some around to fit in with the pcot Food & Wine Festival. These changes were so that we could Eat to the Beat and see Boyz II Men; the announcement of the dates of the Osborne Lights at Hollywood Studios, meant another swift change so we could be in that park on that day; The Garden Grill at Epcot is now open for breakfast on our last day, so another change there! Oh, and I found out that The Boathouse at Downtown Disney accepts dining plan so I got in there too since it is brand new!

Here is the final list… we’ve gone for a mixture of places we’ve dined before and a couple of new ones. We’ve also not booked as many breakfasts, as we found ourselves getting really tired of breakfast food, which is pretty much the same across the board. Even with everything booked, we still have 24 credits left, but they are likely to end up being used on Counter Service, as last year, we found that some days we were actually hungrier than others!

Enough of the waffle (hehehe) here are The Pumpkin’s dining reservations for Halloween in the Wilderness 2015! The ones marked with an asterisks (*) are places we have eaten in before.

Breakfasts…

Kona Cafe – Polynesian Village Resort
1900 Park Fayre (character breakfast) – Grand Floridian Resort & Spa (and one we cancelled last year)
Boma: Flavors of Africa* – Animal Kingdom Lodge
Trail’s End – Fort Wilderness
Tusker House* (character breakfast) – Animal Kingdom (our favourite!)
The Garden Grill (character breakfast) – Epcot

We picked Liam up and made our way over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our breakfast ADR at Boma - Flavors of Africa. We had dinner here last trip and the food was really good, so we were hoping that it would be the same for breakfast.
Boma: Flavors of Africa
The Boy with Mickey Mouse at Tusker House
The Boy with Mickey Mouse at Tusker House

Lunches…

Biergarten* – Germany Pavilion, Epcot World Showcase
Yak & Yeti – Animal Kingdom
Trail’s End – Fort Wilderness
Via Napoli – Italy Pavilion, Epcot World Showcase – Eat To The Beat
Sci Fi Diner – Hollywood Studios (another one we cancelled last year)
Hollywood Brown Derby* – Hollywood Studios

Biergarten
Biergarten Oompah Band
Dessert Trio at Hollywood Brown Derby
Mini Desserts at Hollywood Brown Derby

Dinners…

Bongos Cuban Café* – Downtown Disney
Le Cellier – Canada Pavilion, Epcot World Showcase
Cape May Cafe* – Disney’s Beach Club Resort
Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue Dinner Show* – Fort Wilderness
California Grill* – Contemporary Resort
Artist Point – Wilderness Lodge
Crystal Palace* – Magic Kingdom
The Boathouse – Downtown Disney
Jiko The Cooking Place* – Animal Kingdom Lodge
Boma: Flavors of Africa* – Animal Kingdom Lodge
Yachtsman Steakhouse* – Disney’s Yacht Club
Whispering Canyon Café* – Wilderness Lodge
Narcoossees* – Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Bongos Cuban Cafe Novelty Glasses
Bongos Cuban Cafe Novelty Glasses
Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue Dinner Show at Fort Wilderness
Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue Dinner Show at Fort Wilderness
Oshizushi - California Grill at Disney's Contemporary Resort
Oshizushi – California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Meeting Tigger at The Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom
Meeting Tigger at The Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom
Sockeye Copper River Salmon at Jiko - The Cooking Place
Sockeye Copper River Salmon
Dinner at Boma Flavours of Africa
Dinner at Boma Flavours of Africa
32oz Porterhouse at Yachtsman Steakhouse
Yachtsmans Steakhouse
Whispering Canyon Cafe - All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Skillet
Whispering Canyon Cafe – All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Skillet
Narcoossees Artisanal Cheese Plate Appetizer
Narcoossees Artisanal Cheese Plate Appetizer

I think we’ve got a good mix of different cuisines and restaurants, and we’ve had the benefit of being able to choose some of our favourite signatures to go back to this year which we are looking forward to!

I should also mention that we have 2 nights where we will be eating off site, as we’re staying at Art of Animation at the start of our hols – a late addition! So we’re likely to go to one of our favourite places – Bahama Breeze (and so I can order their coconut shrimp and their banana nut bread supreme which are both delish!). Not sure about the other meal times we have to fill yet though – we’ll just wing those!

Have you dined in any of the Disney restaurants I’ve listed?

Keep up with our Disney Planning for our Halloween in the Wilderness 2015 trip or read about our last trip to Walt Disney World – Dine Around Disney 2014

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