Disney Technology: The Fails and the Fantastic

As I think back over our mid June Disney trip: there was some frustration caused by technology I was excited about, when it didn't work as I expected.

The Fails?

Breakfast Reservations

    We had made reservations for breakfast at Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom. Which, by the way I highly recommend. Breakfast reservations at any park restaurant gets you in early and there's nothing quite like being in the park with so few people.

I had even ordered the food in advance so that we didn't have to wait in that long line to order at the kiosks.

 

When we arrived we were told there was no food order associated with our reservation. It had been lost. I let myself get frustrated over this. Looking back, Disney Cast Members were great. Seeing my frustration and watching me try to open the, My Disney Experience, website they allowed us to skip the line and walk right up to the reservation check in where they asked if we remembered what we ordered and ordered it for us.





Mobil Order

   Several times we attempted to use mobile order at quick service dining locations. At least twice when we arrived and I clicked the pickup option the app just spun and never submitted the order. Again the cast members were great in these situations. Upon showing them the app and explaining the situation they found the order in the system and pushed it through. I think I just let my expectations over-ride the reality of the situation and get frustrated with these things. Calling tech support was surprisingly a good experience too. They suggested that I re-install the MyDisneyExperience App, in order to get the newest version and gave the family free fast passes to use anywhere in the park to apologize for the problems. The reinstall of the app did seem to fix the problems

The Fantastic!

   With the frustration of the times technology didn't work, I had a tendency to forget all the great things it did for us.

Early Check in: 

We drove from St Louis to Disney and we knew that we would be there early. I did two things on the My Disney Experience Website.

1. I opted for online check-in. Answered some questions, gave my credit card info, put in any special requests, a month in advance. This promised I would not have to stop by the front desk and we would get a text when the room was ready. 
2. I clicked on the checkbox for  "early check-in if available." This didn't promise early check in and most of what I had read said that you probably wouldn't get it, but if there was an early room available you might get it. 

We pulled onto the Disney property at around 12:30pm. We expected to have to wait for a room and planned to stop by the front desk and ask if we could change into swimsuits and hang by the pool, or walk around the resort until the room was ready. As we were pulling into a parking space my phone buzzed. The text was from Disney Resorts and said our room was ready. It gave us the the building and the room number and wished us a magical day. 

We all looked at one another in disbelief, I pulled up a map of the resort to find our building and We left the car parked in the check-in lot while we walked to our building to see if this was true. Sure enough we put our Magic Band on the door lock, it turned green and we were in. No stopping by the desk, 2 and a half hours early and with absolutely no hassle we had a room. 

Fast Passes: 

We love the fast pass system at Disney.  It can be a challenge to work with and there is some planning involved but it allowed us to get on every ride we wanted to see and always worked just the way it was supposed to. My only caution when booking rides is not to overbook or over extend yourself. We make the mistake once or twice of having those fastpass reservations be a long way apart. Remember that you have an hour to make it, you don't have to be there right at the beginning of your time and there is usually a 5-10 minute grace period allowed. 

Even with some of the glitches the Disney Tech worked well, made the trip easier and when it didn't work, Disney Cast Members were great. 

Let's talk about our Disney Trip and Expectations

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this Blog about Vacations and Disney. I actually needed some time to decompress because after our latest trip to Disney World I felt like it was kind of a failure. With the time of a few months though, I think I can speak to some of the great things that happened on the trip and some of the places I made mistakes that allowed me to feel like it wasn't good.

First of all let's talk about expectations. We need to be careful with expectations. I spent so much time planning the trip and learning how things worked that when it didn't go the way I had planned I let that part bother me rather than enjoying all the great parts of what Disney did.

I figure I'll do a few posts talking about the disappointments and the way I should not have let it bother me so much.

First off: Rain!

A lot, and I mean a lot of rain again this trip. I watched a morning newscast on Thursday and the meteorologists said that there had been more rain in Orlando in the past 5 days than they had gotten the rest of the entire month. We were wet a lot, but thinking back now what did it affect?
Except for our planned Epcot World Showcase day the rain mainly happened from noon or 1 till around 4 or 5. A lot longer than you normally expect for those Florida afternoon showers but it was during the time we had slotted for rest. The disappointing part was that because it usually was accompanied with a thunderstorm we could not spend time by the pool. Most afternoons the family slept and rested. Some days I hung out down in the quick service restaurant and read.
The rain actually caused one really good evening. On Monday we had planned to claim a seat in front of the Castle early and wait for the fireworks. With the rain coming in, Mallory decided it wasn't worth sitting and waiting and we should try doing some indoor rides, skipping the fireworks. We went and rode The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, then put our ponchos on and hiked over to Tommorowland. In Tomorrowland, with the rain coming down we rode Buzz Lightyear,s Space Ranger Spin, then Space Mountain. After Space Mountain with a bit of drizzle falling (the downpour had stopped) We were trying to decide what to do next when we heard an announcement that Happily Ever After, the nighttime Castle and Fireworks show, would start in 15 minutes. We looked around and realized the park was practically empty, the rain had chased most people away. We walked to the Castle and found it very thinly crowded and ended up watching the fireworks, with our ponchos on, in a light drizzle, closer that we could ever imagine we would see them.  It really was great.

Honestly the rain presented different issues throughout the week but this moment was one we should remember, and with the right mindset could make up for them all. 

Modifying Your Disney Package

It's been a while since I've posted anything about trip planning. The Thomson family has reached that phase where we've run out of things to do. In a couple of weeks we'll be able to do advanced ordering for our, Be Out Guests, Lunch and Breakfast reservations, which I suggest doing. We'll receive our Magic Bands soon, which will be an exciting day, but for now we are in a holding pattern, except for one thing. 

I want to make sure you understand that even after your reservation is made you can pick up new discounts that occur. 

I follow several Disney News sites on Facebook and YouTube. Part of the reason is because I just enjoy seeing people having fun at Disney but this is also so that I am best prepared for our trips. Those sites keep us up to date on construction that might be happening; rides that might be temporarily closed, menu changes and new menu items that might be available. In short I think they make sure I don't miss anything when we go.  They also get you information on new discounts and pricing as Disney institutes it. 

Recently I saw an article on one of the sites I follow about new Summer Discounts for 2019. I looked through the discounts and found one that actually applied to my trip. Some were outside of when we would travel. Some only applied to Deluxe resort stays. Some didn't make sense for us. One though matched dates, and made good sense. We were able to contact Disney and Modify our package to include the discount. This particular discount included a room discount and a Disney gift card at check in based on your resort level and length of stay. It wasn't a whole lot for us, in a value resort, but hey $70 bucks will be helpful on the trip. 

There was a little glitch but Disney handled it well. 

After making the modification to the package, which didn't actually change anything; Same dates, same resort, same tickets, I got an email saying modifications had been made and needed to be fixed or we could lose our FastPassses.  I immediately opened the MyDisneyExperience Website and noticed that everything there was exactly the same except there were no resort tickets attached to our reservations. The wonderful thing is that Disney has a "chat" option on the website. I clicked and was almost immediately connected with a cast member. When I explained the issue, I was told this was a problem they were seeing with some modifications to reservations recently and I'd need to call web support to report the problem. I called the 800 number and the first person I talked to told me that when they looked at my package and reservations they saw park passes attached. I told them that they didn't show up on mydisneyexperience and I was told it was a known issue. She transferred me to Web Support. There was a long wait. I'm guessing a lot of people were modifying their reservations and experiencing the same problem. When I got on the phone with Web Support, He took my information told me he saw the problem and that since I had reported it the programming specialists team would fix it within a day or so. Late in the day the next day I got an email from Disney saying that they had applied the park passes and reserved my Fastpasses, They also suggested I open MyDisneyExperience to check and make sure. I did, it was fixed. 

We are all ready to go now. Just waiting for our Magicbands to show up and begin our drive to Orlando. 

Fast Pass Follow - How it worked.

My Daughter Mallory and I took a lot of time planning our days for the Disney Trip. I went so far as to create a spreadsheet so that we could look at Dining Reservations and Extra Magic Hours to plan what parks we would visit each day then plan our FastPasses around that. Looking at the picture above, Blue is Hollywood Studios, Purple is Magic Kingdom, Green is Animal Kingdom and Yellow is Epcot. Many people who looked at our plans thought we had gone over the edge but these plans came in really handy this morning when FastPass request time came and everything fell apart. Let me tell the story.

I was up and waiting at 6am when the gates for everyone who had reservations at a Disney Resort in 60 days opened. I logged in and started looking for passes. I tried first for the Flight of Passage passes. On Monday there were none available. (yes gone already) We had a second day in, Animal Kingdom, on Thursday so I switched to Thursday and got them on Thursday. Next I tried going to our, Hollywood Studios, day to get the Slinky Dog Dash Fastpasses. There were none available. I chose Toy Story Midway Mania instead and decided I'd better try to get the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Fastpasses. I got one on the first day we wanted and was headed towards the second day in the Magic Kingdom when I noticed my phone buzzing multiple times. Glancing at it I saw a picture from work. I couldn't really make out what it was and while I was trying to figure it out I accidently backed out of the Fastpass selection screen and had to log back in. When I logged back in I forgot about the second Mine Train pass and went back to Sunday to finish selections for Animal Kingdom. The other passes we wanted were easy enough to get.
Texting with Scott about problems at the studio it became apparent I was going to need to go into the station. I told Scott I would need a few minutes to get dressed and wake someone up to move the car that was parked behind me. As I was doing this I was calling Mallory at College. I woke her up and told her I couldn't finish FastPass selection. She got logged on and asked me how far I had gotten. Honestly, by this point,  I was pretty confused. I told her I thought I got all the good ones except the Monday Flight of Passage, but I had to go.
Mallory was able to log on and with our plans, shared as a Google Sheet, finish the Fast Pass selections.

After all was said and done the only FastPass we couldn't get was Slinky Dog Dash. I'm pretty sure we could have if we would have been willing to go to Hollywood Studios with FastPasses later in the week. Our plan now is just to RopeDrop that ride and enjoy everything else.

Our planning may have seemed over the top and a little obsessive but I am glad we had it there.  Also shows that with all the planning and hope for FastPasses be ready to adjust on the fly.

Feel free to comment with any questions about how the morning worked.

Disney Fast Passes

Six years ago, in 2013, my family visited Disney World for the first time since 1998.  We were visiting Kristy's Dad for thanksgiving in Orlando and decided to buy two days worth of park tickets. We spent Thanksgiving Day at the Magic Kingdom and Black Friday at Hollywood studios. (Two of the busiest days of the year) As we wandered around the park, Mallory kept asking me why we didn't stop at one of those fast pass kiosks and get fast passes. I assumed the Disney Fast Pass worked like any other theme park and you had to pay a fee that would get you to the front of line. I kept saying, "No we're not doing that." I could not have been more wrong. Mallory still reminds me of my mistaken insistence not to use a fast pass to this day. 

Disney's FastPass+ service is complimentary to anyone with a park ticket but there are perks for guests who are staying at a Disney Resort.

Here's how it works. 

Through the MyDisneyExperience Website or on the MyDisneyExperience App you can choose up to 3 FastPasses per day. (note - all your advanced scheduled FastPasses have to be in the same park) Once you use those up you can add additional FastPasses one at a time, in any park for the rest of the day with the MyDisneyExperience App.  The FastPasses get you into a shorter line and are good for 1 hour. For example, you might book a FastPass that could be used for Haunted Mansion between 12pm and 1pm. (We found that Disney seems to add about 5 minutes of grace time. We showed up for one FP a few minutes late and decided to try to swipe our magic bands just to see.  It let us in.) 

Your FastPass reservations are assigned to the RFID chip in your Magicband, if you have one, or your, credit card style, theme park ticket. You simply hold those up to the Mickey FastPass entrance and as long as it turns green you get the shorter line. Remember FastPass doesn't mean, no wait, it means substantially shorter wait. 

If you have park tickets and link those tickets to your MyDisneyExperience account you can book FastPasses 30 days in advance of your trip. 

If you are staying on Disney Property you can book FastPasses sixty days ahead of your trip and you get to book for your whole trip on the first day they are available. For example our next trip begins on June 9 so we can book FastPasses on April 9 but on April 9 I can book all our FastPasses not just 60 days out but the 9th, 10th, 11th 12th 13th 14th and 15th. So really I get to book FastPasses 66 days ahead. 

Fast Pass selection opens for the day at 7am Orlando time so I will be at the computer 6am Central time trying to get FastPasses as fast as possible. This is why there almost has to be some planning for your trip to Disney World. You've already made dining reservations at the 180 day mark, now you are trying to get FastPasses. By this point you should have a good idea what park or parks you're going to be in each day. 

There are a few strategies I have seen in scheduling FastPasses. 

1. Schedule FastPasses Early in the day. When you do it this way you can use them up early and try to get more. As soon as you swipe your Magicband for that final FastPass you can be on your MyDisneyExperience App looking for more. You do not have to wait until you are finished with the ride you can be looking while you are in line. This is what we did last time were were at Disney and Mallory was our FastPass Wizard. She found so many good extra ones for us.
2. Go to the parks early (rope drop) and since the crowds are smaller you can get on a few rides quickly without FastPasses then Use your FastPasses later in the day when things are crowded and lines are longer. We plan to try this a little on our next trip. 
3. I've also heard that, since you cannot book two FastPasses within the same hour that once you check into your first FastPass ride you could try to change one of your later FastPasses to be within the hour of the ride you are in line for. This would allow you to push FastPasses closer together but I haven't been able to confirm this. 

Finally, My Fast Pass Suggestions for each Park

I am a roller coaster guy so my Fast Pass choices in the Magic Kingdom are always going to lean to the mountains: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and now the little mountain that the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is inside.  You only get three Fast Passes though so how do you do all of them. We found on Thanksgiving that if you are at the park for Rope drop and head straight back to Big Thunder Mountain you can get on fairly quickly. Save your FastPasses for the others. I would suggest making that Splash Mountain Fast Pass later in the day so you don't have to walk around wet all day. 

If you don't want to Fast Pass all the Roller Coasters other choices in the Magic Kingdom include: 

• Peter Pan, the line here is always long, 
• Haunted Mansion, It's a classic and again the line is long, 
• Jungle cruise, this is a favorite and the line can be intense. 

Do Not Fast Pass: 

• It's a Small world 
• Pirates of the Caribbean 

You can find time during the day with shorter lines for both of these rides. Plus most of Pirates line is inside, spend some time in the AC. 

Epcot is a little different story. Like Hollywood studios and Animal Kingdom Epcots FastPasses are tiered. You get to choose one FastPass from Tier 1 and two from Tier 2 

Tier 1 Attractions include 

• Frozen Ever After
• Test Track
• Soarin' 
• Illuminations Reflections of Earth, nighttime show and fireworks. 
• Epcot Character Greeting

Everything else at Epcot is a Tier 2 Attraction. Honestly We had trouble finding Tier 2 attractions we were interested in at Epcot. Nemo would be fun with kids. Journey into imagination isn't nearly as good as it originally was.  Mission space was not open when we went a few years ago so that holds promise if you like thrill rides. 

My Favorite of the Tier 1 rides is Soarin. We waited in line for Test Track and it wasn't too long and fairly fun. If you have a little one though you'd better get that Frozen Ever After Fast Pass. 

Animal Kingdom is also Tiered but the Tier is a little simpler: Pandora is Tier 1, Everything else is Tier 2 

Pandora's Rides include Flight of Passage and the Navi River Journey. In My Opinion. Flight of Passage is the best and most immersive ride I have ever been on but don't waste a fast pass on the Navi River Journey. 

In the rest of Animal Kingdom, if you are a coaster fan, you have to Fast Pass Expedition Everest. If you've never been on the Safari at Animal Kingdom, Fast Pass Kilimanjaro Safari, the wait can get a little long. Dinosaur is a fun ride but not sure it's worth the FastPass. 

Here is my suggestion for a Fast Pass strategy in Animal Kingdom. 

Be there extra early so that you are up near the front at Rope Drop. (There will actually be Disney Cast Members with a rope that will lead you back) At rope Drop head straight to Flight of Passage. If you get there early enough you can be on and off flight of passage by 9:30 if the park is open at 9. You might even be able to get to another ride or two before it gets too busy. Fast Pass Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest and Flight of Passage. (you'll want to ride it again) Wait in line for Dinosaur and Festival of the Lion King. 

I saved Hollywood Studios for last because in the Fall, all this will change. Right now all three of the Toy Story Land Rides are Tier 1 

• Slinky Dog Dash
• Space Ranger Spin
• Midway Mania

Feel like out of the three you have to Fast Pass Slinky Dog, if you like coasters. It's a family coaster and not a real thrill ride but just to experience it. Midway Mania is a lot of fun and was really hard to get a FastPass for before everything else opened. 

Among the Tier 2 Fast Pass Choices. 

• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (I love this ride) 
• Rockin' Roller Coaster (The only Disney Coaster with loops) 
• Star Tours (Star Wars themed Ride) 

and shows 

• Beauty and Beast 
• Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
• Frozen Sing along

On August 29th Star Wars Galaxy's Edge will open in Disney world. In addition to that Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway will open. This is predicted to make Hollywood studios the busiest place in Orlando and throw Fast Pass choices into complete Disarray. My guess is that All of the newest Rides: Millennium Falcon, Smugglers Run - Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway will be added to the Tier one list. Meaning you'll have 6 Tier one rides and only one FastPass for them. Maybe they'll move the Toy Story stuff to Tier 2, hoping to move some of the crowds out of Galaxies Edge. 

For now my plan for Hollywood studios. 

• Rope Drop to Rockin Roller Coaster
• Fastpass Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Fastpass SlinkyDog Dash
• Fastpass Beauty and the Beast (because the family loves it) 

I hope these thoughts and explanations about Fast Passes help you out. If you have any questions feel free to comment. 

As I type this it is almost April 5th. There are 4 more days until I have my chance to get FastPasses for our trip. I'll let you know how it goes after I finish. 

Disney Go

I just realized in talking about planning your Disney Trip, I never  covered investigating and picking out your Hotel. Disney has made this experience so easy and, in my opinion, fun. When thinking about a trip I've found everyone in my family checking out the Disney Go Website. At this site you can enter the dates of your trip, compare resorts, check out descriptions and pictures of resorts. Add theme Park Tickets, meal plans and other upgrades. to see what the total price of your trip would be. Then you can make your reservations directly from the website. Call a travel agent with the details you've picked out or call Disney. 

Let's run  through how it works.

The First thing you will do on the opening page, (above) is choose the dates, number in your party and type of resort you might be look at. Deluxe Resorts are the most expensive, Biggest Rooms, Biggest Beds and Close to the parks. They will have transportation that stops closest to the entrance and the best restaurants. Moderate Resorts are Nice but usually very expansive with a lot of rooms and many buildings. Room size is about that of a regular hotel room with Queen Beds. They normally have nice restaurants, plenty of amenities and nice pools. The Size of the resort usually means multiple bus stops for Disney Transportation but some will have other transportation options, boats and soon skyliner available. Value Resorts are the cheapest, rooms are smallest and most have Full size beds rather than Queens. (the Pop Century was just remodeled. Rooms have a queen size bed and a queen size murphy bed that can be pulled down from the wall). The bus stops for these resorts will be farthest from the resort entrance and several of these resorts share busses (Again the Pop Century is different, it is so big that it doesn't share it's bus with any other resort) Pools here are nice and large but no water slides or other theming you might find in other resorts. The Value resorts are some of the most "Disney" themed resorts.

Once you've put in all your information and clicked Find Resorts another screen will open with all the resort choices for you.

Notice that near the top of this screen you can filter your results. Any of these filters you change will change the results you've received so if you'd rather check out different resorts before moving forward just change the resort category. Initially you will see results listing the per night cost of the resort. We'll change that on the next screen. When you see a resort you think might work for you click the forward arrow for that resort.

Once you move forward here the only rooms that will show up on your offers are those that are available during your dates. Here I always switch to package view. With the package view you will see the full price for your stay. At this point it is the price for the room for the dates you have chosen. For the trip we are working through it is a 6 night (Saturday to Saturday) Stay. On this screen you can look at a picture gallery of the resort you have selected and look at more resort and room details. You can also select to change, if you don't like the room choices or what you are seeing and it will take you back to a place where you can resubmit your resort choices. Notice the bottom of the screen has some other suggestions based on what you are currently looking at. If you like one of these rooms click on select.

Once you select your room you are taken to a screen to add your park tickets. Disney will always default to a ticket package that equals the number of days of your stay. For example, with this package the website defaulted to a 7 day base park ticket, 1 park per day. I never stick with that choice and  here is why. We know that we will not arrive at Disney until late after noon or early evening on that first day. Why waste a park ticket on a half or a quarter of a day. We can get dinner, explore the resort, do Disney Springs when we arrive. We'll try to rest up for the rest of the week. Also Check out time is 11am so we know that we won't be in the parks on our final day there. Our 7 day default pass becomes a 5 day pass in order to not waste park admission on days we won't go. There are two things you can add at the bottom of the page. 

The Park Hopper option allows you to visit multiple parks per day. I highly suggest this option. being able to bounce back and forth between parks makes things so much better than being stuck in one park each day. 

The Park Hopper plus option allows you to jump back and forth between parks and do the water parks. I've never been to a Disney Water Park. I figure that there are Water Parks I can go to at home I want to enjoy everything else Disney has to offer. If you or the family loves water parks though, this may be a great option. Your subtotal in the Top Right Corner of the page will change with any choices you make. When you finish picking your Park tickets, Click Continue. 

Food decision time now. Do you want to add a Dining plan? The Disney Dining Plan is Disney's way of trying to make your resort stay more all inclusive. A lot of people will ask, Is it worth it? I don't believe it really saves you any money but it may save you some stress and hassle. Instead of pulling out a credit card or cash for each meal your swipe your Disney Magic Band. I did a post here on the Dining plan, what it includes and what to expect. My family has done the Quick service plan because it is the least expensive and I didn't want to be tied to finding a table service reservation at least once a day. Once you choose what you want to do with the Dining plan click continue again. 

And there it is: For 2 adults at a value resort, Saturday to Saturday mid June. 5 Day park hopper passes and a quick service dining plan you have a price. There are some things you could add here. The Memory Maker allows you to purchase, in advance, all ride pictures and any pictures you have taken by Disney Photographers in the park. We'll talk about that in a later post. You could let Disney help you find a flight and add the complimentary ground transportation from the airport. You could also go back and start over with different dates and/or resorts to see how the pricing changes. Disney also offers a "comparison" tool here. The comparison tool will save up to 3 vacation offers and list them side by side so you can compare. 

Kristy and I have never actually purchased the trip here but you could click check out and reserve with Disney. You could save your details and call Disney. We have a friend who is a travel agent and have done all of our research with Disney's tools then called April and asked her to make the reservations for us. 

Hope that helps and if you have any questions please feel free to comment. 

Myrtle Beach's New South Brewing

One of the favorite things we did during our trip to the Myrtle Beach area was the tour at New South Brewing. Kristy and I have done the tours, here in St Louis of both Anheuser Busch and Schlafly. both of those tours are interesting and offer their own great bits of information. New South Brewing was a bit different though because the Brewery is so small but puts out such a great product.

We learned a lot about brewing and South Carolina at the tour. New South has been in business since 1988 because it was illegal to brew beer in S.C. before 1987. The owner of the company learned to brew in Colorado and when it became legal in his home state returned home to begin his brewery there. He still works daily in this small brewery. New South does not sell their product anywhere except the greater Myrtle Beach area. For a long time they only distributed Keg beer to local restaurants and bars but recently started canning some of their product. They do all the canning by hand That's actually the canner in the picture above. Most you can do is 4 at a time but with hard work they manage to can a lot of beer.

They actually only distribute 2 of their canned beers to local stores, their Nut Brown Ale and their White Ale. Other canning is limited and may be available for purchase at the brewery itself. The tour also taught about beer ingredients; types of yeast, types of hops, and how the roasting and milling of grain affects the sugar content and flavor.

Of course no brewery tour would be complete without being able to sample some of the product. New South Brewery allowed 5, 4oz pours of different styles of beer during the tour. tasting each style as the brewing process for that beer was being described. The other cool thing was they gave you your samples in these nice pilsner glasses then cleaned them and let you take your glass home at the end of the tour.

I'm fairly sure the nut brown ale is pictured above. My favorite was actually the "Java Nut" which is basically the Nut Brown Ale, allowed to age in a vat filled with coffee beans. It really was good. 

This place is a little off the beaten path but if you appreciate the art, science and flavor of good beer brewing I would suggest a stop by New South Brewery when you are in the Myrtle Beach Area.  

Disney Dining - The real planning begins.

Last year, as we were planning our one day excursion to Animal Kingdom, my oldest daughter asked me, "Is there anything to eat there besides burgers and hotdogs?" A lot of people believe that going to a theme park you are going to be stuck with theme park food, that couldn't be further from the truth. There are so many great restaurants to choose from at Disney World you're only limited by your imagination, how much you want to spend and getting a reservation. Advanced Dining reservations come available 6 months from the date of the visit. there are several restaurants that you will want to make your reservation that far out. Things like Cinderella's Royal Table, Ohana and Be Our Guest all fill up fast. I list those because they are among our favorites. Chef Mickeys and other signature restaurants will need to be looked at early too. 

Before we talk about Advanced Dining Reservations though lets discuss another thing you need to consider when making your Disney plans: The Disney Dining Plan!
the Disney Dining Plan at Disney World is Disney's way of trying to make your trip more "all inclusive" There are three levels to choose from

1. Quick Service Dining Plan: Includes two quick service and two snacks a day. This plan runs $52.50 a night for adults and $23.50 a night for kids. 
2. Regular Dining plan: One quick Service meal, One table service meal and two snacks a day. Same rules apply, meals include the entree and sides but not dessert. dessert would be considered a snack. $75.49 for adults, $27.98 for kids. 
3. Deluxe Dining Plan: 3 meals a day, any combination. $116.25 a night for adults and $43.49 for kids. 

A couple of other quick notes about the dining plan's. Only Disney Resort guests can use the Disney Dining plan. If you are staying off property it is not available. Your party's reservation is assigned a number of credits for your dining plan. Your dining plan is based on the number of nights of your stay not the number of days. A party of 4 on a 4 night stay using the quick service plan would get 32 quick service meal credits and 32 snack credits. Your credits can be divided and used however and whenever you want. Meals include Entree (combo plate in quick service) and a drink. Desserts would use a snack credit. Starting in 2019 all Dining plans allowed a specialty drink, like a shake or smoothie or an alcoholic drink as your beverage with a meal.  Each Dining Plan also comes with a refillable drink mug that can be used for your entire stay at any resort. (This are not refillable inside the parks). Table service meal credits do not include tip. If you purchase a regular or deluxe dining plan make sure you budget for tipping on those table service meals. 

I don't believe the Dining Plan saves any money and I am sure there are ways to do food at Disney cheaper than any of these Dining plans. For me though, it is convenience. The food is already paid for and I don't have to freak out about the price of each meal as we are eating, because I will.  I also look for the most expensive thing on each menu, to make sure I'm getting the most money for my Dining Plan Dollars.  

Two Tips:

• Don't use snack credits for drinks or water. Every quick service location will give you free water. You get a beverage with your meal. Stay Hydrated this way not by wasting a snack credit on a bottle of water. 
• Use all your snack credits. On our last trip I was so worried about wasting or running out of snack credits that on our second to last day we had 20 snack credits left or something like that. We wasted snack credits on candy and boxed mickey mouse animal crackers to bring home. Use these up. 

Deciding whether or not to use a Dining Plan may affect your Decisions on Advanced Dining reservations. If you choose a Regular Dining Plan you are choosing at least one Table Service meal a day. You will need to make reservations for those. meals We have always done the Quick Service Plan; it is cheaper and we aren't tied to as many dining reservations. 

As a last note about Disney Dining I wanted to tell you about two of our favorites.

Be Our Guest, is the, Beauty and the Beast, Themed restaurant where you get to eat in Beast's Castle. Not only is the theming fantastic, the food is great. This is the only restaurant that is Table Service, Signature Dining for Dinner but Quick Service for breakfast and lunch. You have to make reservations though and they are tough to get. Make sure you are making them six months in advance.

Ohana, 

is located at the Polynesian resort and is our favorite. It is all you can eat, family style. Hawaiian bread is served, then Salad and a plate of appetizers: wings, noodles, vegetables, dumplings. You can ask for more of any of this. After the apps are finished servers will begin to bring by skewers of meat: Grilled Shrimp, Chicken and Beef. They will keep bringing it by and sliding it off the skewers onto you plate until you tell them to stop. Finally a huge Bread Pudding with a Spiced Rum Banana's Foster sauce and Ice Cream on top will be brought out. This, in my opinion, is a cannot be missed experience and you will need to make those reservations 180 days out.

There are so many other places to choose from. You can use Disney's site to explore all the restaurant choices and filter searches by food type, cost, park. Then you can make your reservations there too.  https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/ 

Hope that helps with any questions you may have about Disney Dining. If I can answer any more or you have any thoughts, feel free to comment. 

Myrtle Beach Food

For Kristy and I, one of our favorite things to do on Vacation is eat. We try to find restaurants and food we can't get at home. When we travel to a coastal town a lot of our time is spent looking for seafood.  On this trip we ate lunch at the condo a lot but went out looking for places that had Happy Hour food specials for dinner. My Goal in this post is to remember and tell you about some of the places we visited in Myrtle Beach.

First a quick look at the places we visited within the areas we found them followed by a quick review of each in order from least Favorite to Favorite.

Barefoot Boardwalk in North Myrtle Beach

• Flying Fish
• Lulu's 

Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach

• Paula Deen's Family Kitchen
• Key West Grill
• Margaritaville

Other

• Captain Jacks - North Myrtle Beach
• Filets - North Myrtle Beach. 

I've included a link to each of the restaurants web pages if you want to find out any more about them. 

7) Captain Jacks: In trips to Virginia the family has visited Captain Georges Seafood Buffet several times. On this trip we wanted to try someplace local. It was an OK meal but I would've been much happier at Captain Georges. I will give Jack's credit, we were there in the off season and it was very slow. The Buffet was still completely full and kept up. I've been places where slow times mean some stuff is missing on the buffet. The problem was that the Crab, the Shrimp even the Prime Rib just wasn't that good. both the crab and the shrimp were soggy and old. The CrabCakes tasted fishy Maybe it would have been better if busier and fresher but we weren't impressed. 

6) Paula Deen's Family Kitchen: located in the, Broadway At The Beach, Shopping and entertainment area in Myrtle Beach. We decided to go here for lunch one afternoon just so we could say we had eaten at Paula Deen's. Honestly I really liked the food and it was an OK place but it wasn't among my favorites. The restaurant is upstairs above the Paula Deen Store. Floor to Ceiling Windows give you great views of, Broadway At The Beach. The Food is served Family Style. Our server was wonderful.  At lunch we choose the two entrée meal. $17.99 per person and you choose, two entree's and four sides. They will bring you all you want and each person gets to choose a dessert. Our Choices: Chicken and Dumplings, Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans and Black Eyed Peas. I loved the Meat Loaf and the Black Eyed Peas. The Chicken and Dumplings were OK, I honestly like Kristy's better. Green Beans were good with lots of Bacon in them and I didn't taste the Mac&Cheese. For Dessert we had Ooey Gooey Butter Cake and Peach Cobbler. Both very good.

5) Key West Grill: Another location at Broadway At The Beach. We stopped by here for some food after doing the tour at Myrtle Beach's local brewery, New South Brewing, which I'll do another post about. The idea was to sit at the bar and get some Happy Hour Food. The restaurant looked like it would be great and a lot of fun, themed well and a nice menu during the season for us at around 6pm we were about the only ones in there. We ordered, Beef Tacos, Fried Pickles and Jalapenos, and a plate of Nachos from the Happy Hour Menu. I have to admit that I was surprised a place called Key West Grill had so little seafood and so much Mexican style food on the HH menu. It was all really good and I was surprised by home much I liked the Fried Jalapenos.

4) Margaritaville: Again we stopped by here to see if there were any Happy Hour Specials. It is located in the Broadway at the Beach area. We were told they had tried Happy Hour for a while but it didn't seem to work so they stopped it. It was Margaritaville though so we sat at the bar for a bit talked with the bartender, who was a really great guy, and shared a Cuban Sandwich. What can you say about this, It's Margaritaville. The Theming was fantastic, the atmosphere was fun, The drinks were good and the sandwich was nice. 

3) LuLu's:  We ended up at LuLu's on our last Night in North Myrtle. I didn't realize that it was owned by Jimmy Buffets Sister. This place would be great during the summer. Located in North Myrtle Beach's, Barefoot Landing, shopping area. Wide Open with doors that open to the outside and a patio with plenty of tables. Kristy had, She Crab Soup and a Crab Melt. I had a cup of Gumbo and a LuLu's Burger. All was really good. We liked LuLu's and I'd love to see it during he season when it's all open and completely hopping. 

2) Filet's on the water: Gotta admit we almost missed this one and I'm so glad we didn't. It was a bit out of the way and difficult to find but worth it. We got there between 5 and 6 and it was already packed. The restaurant had a wait but there were a few tables open on the patio/deck bar area and that's where the Happy Hour specials were anyway. Nothing about the food here disappointed us. The list we tried included: Caribbean Tuna, Fish Bites, Crab Cakes and Clams Casino. The tuna was seared perfectly with a rare center and a nice blackened spice rub.  The Fish bites were our favorite and the spicy sauce they came with was great. I enjoyed the Crab Cakes and Kristy liked the Clams but was hoping for a bit more. Just a really nice place on the inland waterway with great outdoor seating. 

1) Flying Fish Public Market and Grill:  This was the first restaurant we visited in North Myrtle Beach it is in the Barefoot Landing shopping area and was GREAT! Again we stopped in for Happy Hour. We always figure this is a way to try great local food at a little lower price. We tried, Buffalo shrimp, Oysters on the half shell and all three of their HH sushi offerings: California Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll and Spicy Crab Roll. Happy Hour is only offered at the bar, and as we sat down the Bartender also offered us a plate of crackers with a sample of their Fish dip. We ate all of that too. We loved this place and would highly recommend checking it out. 

We also went to the oldest locally owned brewery in SC while we were in Myrtle Beach for a tour and to learn a little about brewing beer. I'll tell you all about New South Brewing in my Next Myrtle Beach post. 

Disney World: Trip Planning

I grew up with a Mom that loved Disney World. The first time I remember going we stayed at The Contemporary Resort. It was one of only two resorts in the area, The Contemporary and The Polynesian. I also remember trips with the whole extended family staying in condos near a golf course so the guys (My Dad, uncles and Grandpa) could go play golf. The ladies shopped and the kids went to the parks. Of course there were only two parks then. 

My family will now be taking our Fifth Trip to the Disney Parks this summer. 2 of the trips were just day trips to Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom while we were in Florida. This will be my 3rd, stay on property for a week trip with Kristy and the kids. (ok for one of the trips our oldest, Madison, was the only kid) 

I have come to love planning the trip and the anticipation that comes along with it as much as the trip itself.  

The first big decision is when to go. We have to go when the kids are out of school so it's always going to be summer which is busier. I try to make sure it's a trip that is mostly weekdays in the parks they will be a little slower than weekends. We usually go in early summer because school starts to early to go in late summer. So early June for our trip arriving and leaving on Saturday. 

The next big decision is where you are going to stay. There are so many choices. Staying on property is always going to be more expensive but I think the perks are worth it: Transportation, Extra Magic Hours, Disney amenities. When choosing where to stay the first thing to consider is price. The more expensive resorts are all closer to the Magic Kingdom. They have easier transportation, better pools and bigger rooms. The Value resorts are further away and they don't have all the theming and water slides at their pools. Most Value resorts have 2 full beds in the rooms. We found out this year though that the Pop Century Resort has replaced the full beds with Queens so we picked Pop Century as the place to stay. We found that we could add an extra day to our stay and still not spend as much as we would spend for a day less at a moderate resort. 

I also like the theming of the value resorts more than the moderate or deluxe resorts. The Value resorts are just more "Disney" 

You have to do this early though and plan months in advance. Advantages are the ability to make advanced dining reservations six months out and getting fast passes 60 days in advance of the trip. People not staying on Disney Property have to wait till 30 days to get Fast Passes. 

When you make your resort reservations you can link them to your MyDisneyExperience Page and pick out your magic bands, do early check in and room requests. I'll cover all of this in the next few weeks as we continue our planning for this June trip. 

Let me know if you have any questions about planning for Disney. 

Myrtle Beach

Sunrise at North Myrtle Beach

Decided it was time to start Blogging again. I will have two Blogs going. One that is about my life as a diabetic and the stuff we deal with there. The other is going to be about our travels as a family. I think it will contain reviews and discussions about our travels as well as some fun stuff about the way we plan the trips. 

Recently Kristy and I traveled to North Myrtle Beach for a week long stay at the PepperTree Ocean Club Resort. The picture above is from our little deck there. I'll tell you more about the resort in just a bit. First I'd like to tell you about the Myrtle Beach area in General and then about the resort. In later posts I explain, Broadway at the Beach, Barefoot Landing, and what we thought of the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk. I may also do some thoughts and reviews of the different restaurants we ate in. First though, Myrtle Beach. 

This was our first trip to the Myrtle Beach area and whenever we are going someplace I try to educate myself as much as possible before we go. Looking at maps, reading reviews, watching YouTube videos about the area. In one video I was watching Myrtle Beach was described as being a lot like the host would imagine Branson with an Ocean. I have to admit I found that to be a very apt description. If you like Branson you'll love Myrtle Beach. Kristy and I though were a left a little disappointed by it. Admittedly we did not have a great week weather wise and were not able to enjoy the beach at all, other than going for an occasional walk.  There have been other northern beach towns we've gone to in November though, and enjoyed ourselves a lot more. I think it has something to do with the Layout of the area. 

We stayed in North Myrtle Beach which is a lot more residential. There were really no restaurants along the beach, no Boardwalk and nothing to do unless you got in your car and drove out 17. Hwy 17 runs from Myrtle to North Myrtle and really is that Branson style road. All of your souvenir shops, restaurants and attractions are along 17.  Don't get me wrong there is plenty to do and plenty eat, Kristy and I just love the other beach towns we've been to where we can walk to places along the beach and not have to spend so much time in the car. 

If you like shelling you will love North Myrtle Beach. There were many people out looking for shells and plenty of shells to pick up and take with you. I even saw a sand dollar laying out on the beach on one of my walks. North Myrtle Beach also seemed to be very dog friendly. Many people walking on the beach with their pets and the local entertainment center, Barefoot Landing, had many dog friendly businesses. 

Here is a link to a FB video I did of one of my walks Walk to CherryGrove Pier.

As far as the PepperTree Ocean Club. It was, in my opinion, serviceable. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible. The room was small but clean. It was an ocean view. The pool was great and I saw guys out there working on it and keeping it clean each morning, even while it was 40 degrees and the high was only expected to be 60. We stayed in a one bedroom unit that was tiny. The bed was low to the floor and a bit uncomfortable and we both believed the Kitchen should have been described as limited. When the resort got busier towards the weekend we realized very quickly how noisy the rooms could end up during the busy season. All in all a serviceable resort. Not one I would say, "Wow you gotta check this out!" but not one that I would say, "Don't go there," either. 

I did love the sunrises North Myrtle Beach Sunrise Video

At the end of the day I guess We left Myrtle Beach with the idea that if that was our one choice for a beach town we wouldn't complain but if there are others we would go there.