In the earlier parts of this Trip Planning series, we talked about: Choosing When to Visit, How Long to Visit, Where to Stay, and now it is time to plan Where to Eat.

Believe it or not, there are many Walt Disney World restaurants that you need to make reservations nearly 6 months in advance in order to get to eat there. So, instead of complaining about that fact, let’s just incorporate deciding where we want to eat into our planning process.

Where to Start
The first decision to make is whether or not you will be purchasing the Disney Dining Plan. The Dining Plan has many features that make it great for some, but not worth while for others. The simple rule of thumb to determine if the Disney Dining Plan is right for you is this: Will you eat at one sit down restaurant each day of your trip? If the answer is yes, then it is in your best interest to investigate further. If not, then the Disney Dining Plan may not be for you.

Even if you are not using the Dining plan, I would strongly recommend eating at least a couple meals during your stay at one of the Disney sit-down restaurants. Why, you may ask? The reason is that these restaurants are part of the Disney experience and skipping them means that you will be passing up memorable opportunities.

So the first task is to choose how many sit down restaurants you will visit during your trip. If this is your first visit I would recommend not choosing more than one per day. The reason is that you can end up turning your trip into an over scheduled mess where you feel that you are always rushing to get to your next dining reservation. One per day gives you one definite time that you need to be somewhere, but doesn’t over do it.

Next, you need to determine your basic plan of which park you will visit on which day. If you do this before choosing your restaurants, it can help by narrowing down your restaurant selection for each day. It will also help minimize travel time and stress levels.

Then you can choose restaurants based upon where you will be spending the bulk of your day. These steps are very important, especially if you are trying to save money and purchase the tickets that only allow you to visit one park per day.

Where Should I Eat?
The list of choices, of where to eat, are plentiful, so choosing can be a difficult task. The ages of your group can help you decide which restaurants will work best.

If you have younger children, you will definitely want to choose at least one Character Dining Experience. Not only will the children be impressed with the characters, these restaurants are typically either buffets or limited menu family style places which keeps the waiting down to a minimum.

If your group is a little bit older, you can branch out to the more upscale sit down restaurants. Each of the parks have sit down restaurants, as well, as most of the resorts, Disney’s Boardwalk, and Downtown Disney. You can get to any of these locations using the free Disney Transportation system.

There are websites available, such as: http://www.allears.net/ where you can see the complete list of Disney World restaurants and up to date menus with prices for each one. I will often use one of these sites to determine a new restaurant to try for my next trip.

How Do I Make Reservations?
Once you have decided where you would like to eat each day, make your list with alternates and call Disney World at 1-407-WDW-DINE to make your reservations. You may make them up to 180 days in advance. The closer you make them to that 180 day mark, the more likely you will get your first choices. Remember to write the information along with your confirmation numbers down since they will not send you anything through the mail to confirm.

Summary
Planning your sit down restaurant dining well in advance is an important part of your Disney Vacation planning process. Remember to not to over do it. One per day is typically enough for most groups. Stick to that level until you have visited a few times and decide if you really want to schedule more than that. The ability to be flexible and spontaneous is part of the fun at Walt Disney World and if you are too fully scheduled that disappears.

The Disney World restaurants definitely add to the overall vacation experience and should not be missed. A goal should be to try at least one new restaurant per trip and revisit some old favorites.

Each evening the Streets of America section of Disney's Hollywood Studios is transformed into a walk down an unbelievable display of dazzling Christmas lights. The lights started as a display from the Osborne family in Arkansas that just outgrew their neighborhood. Disney World gave the display a new home at the Hollywood Studios and has grown it even more each year.

Last year they added the effect of making the lights dance in harmony with music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This added to an already amazing display of holiday lighting magic.

The display is truly awe inspiring. Even though the weather may still be Florida warm, they create snow flakes to fall on you as you walk the streets to admire the incredible lights. This helps complete the illusion that you are strolling through light snow flurries taking in all of this incredible winter splendor.

This is definitely a must see attraction if you are visiting during the Holiday season. The pictures don't do the multi-million light display justice. This is something you really need to be there to experience first hand.

Enjoy the pictures and book that trip!

With the start of the Food and Wine Festival Today at Epcot, I thought I would take the time to write about all of the eating opportunities that exist there year round.

Epcot is certainly my favorite Walt Disney World place to eat. The variety and quality of the food that you can get throughout the World Showcase keep me coming back again and again.

Instead of talking about all of the options that exist at Epcot (which would be a very long list), I will mentioned some of my favorites in both the Counter Service (CS) and Table Service (TS) categories.

Counter Service Locations:
Tangierine Café – Morocco: This is certainly my wife’s favorite CS location in Epcot. If you are on the Disney Dining plan, it is one of your best values. We enjoy the lamb and chicken Shawarma platter, and my children like the Mediterranean Specialty Meatball platter.

Sunshine Seasons – The Land: The menu is a wonderful departure from typical theme park food. This cafeteria style CS is located in The Land (Soarin’) building. Several podlike stations exist from which to choose from. Personal favorites include: Half Rotisserie Chicken and the Grilled Salmon.

Yorkshire County Fish Shop – Great Britain: My daughter loves to get the traditional English Fish & Chips. Nothing fancy, but never a complaint.

Others that we eat at depending upon our mood for different types of food include: Cantina de San Angel – Mexico, Yakitori House – Japan, and the Liberty Inn – America.

Table Service Locations:
Le Cellier Steakhouse – Canada: This is definitely our favorite restaurant. We have enjoyed the ambiance, service, and definitely the food. Word has gotten out on this place and reservations are definitely difficult to come by. During busy seasons you need to make reservations as close to 180 days out as you can, in order to get the day and time that you want.

Coral Reef – Living Seas: We have had some excellent meals here. The service has been more hit or miss here - one night wonderful, another not so good. We have had excellent food and have not been disappointed on that end. This restaurant sometimes gets poor reviews, but I enjoy it and will continue to go back. The views of the sea life swimming by make for a unique dining experience.

Chefs de France – France: The service and food is excellent here. The ambiance is also very nice as you get the feeling that you are in a fine French café. The only drawback is that the menu is somewhat limited and picky eaters may have few options.

Biergarten – Germany: This is the only buffet on the Walt Disney World property that my family consistently enjoys. We all can find plenty of food that we like and the atmosphere and entertainment make it a fun evening.

Others we have tried include: Restaurant Marrakesh – Morocco, Tepan Edo – Japan, we used to enjoy the old restaurant (Alfredo’s ) in Italy, but have not tried the new one Tutto Italia yet.

Summary:
Our Disney World Vacations would not be complete without the Epcot Dining experiences. Often we will plan these meals months in advance and make reservations at 180 days out, so that we can eat at our favorites. This is certainly a part of our trips that we look forward to.

In earlier posts we talked about choosing When you will visit Walt Disney World and How Long you will stay during your trip. Now it is time to look at Choosing the resort you will stay at.

The Walt Disney World Resort has certainly added a variety of options over the years to help find an on site option that can fit almost everyone’s tastes and budget. Each resort offers unique theming and special touches that makes it different from the others. By understanding what each offers, you can make the best choice for you and your family.

The Value Resorts
This group includes: Pop Century, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, & All-Star Movies. These resorts offer an attractive price point and can get down to as low as $59/night with seasonal specials. The rooms are the size of standard hotel rooms, but they have special decorations and theming to fit the resort. Food Courts are available in the main building to get reasonable priced meals. Full Disney World transportation privileges are available to take you to all of the Parks and Downtown Disney. I think that these resorts work best if you are spending a lot of time in the parks and not a lot in the rooms. The smaller room sizes also work best if you have younger children.

The Moderate Resorts
Here we have Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter, Coronado Springs, & Caribbean Beach Resorts. These resorts offer larger rooms and increased resort theming. These resorts are the type that you could spend days without going to the parks if you were so inclined. My favorite from this group is the Port Orleans Riverside at which I have stayed several times. There is a peaceful quality as you walk through the wonderful landscaping of the Alligator Bayou section that really makes you feel that you are on vacation. The resorts are spread out and are huge. Expect to do a fair amount of walking, but the several bus stops keep it reasonable. Each resort has a themed main pool area with water slide and separate quiet pools.

The Deluxe Resorts
This group includes the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, The Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Yacht Club, & Boardwalk Inn. As you would expect with the increase in price you add larger room sizes, more theming, and increase in resort amenities. Each of these resorts can be considered a vacation destination unto themselves. Each also has excellent dining options located within or adjacent to the resort. Themed Pools with slides are also part of these resorts. A stay at any of these resorts will add many special moments to your vacation, but if you only visit your room to sleep, then the added expense of these resorts may not be the best option.

The Deluxe Villas (DVC resorts)
The DVC (Disney vacation Club) resorts currently include: Old Key West, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Saratoga Springs, Wilderness Lodge, & Animal Kingdom Villas (with more beings added). These Disney Timeshares can also be reserved for cash reservations on a limited basis. They provide larger rooms with kitchens and room for 4 – 12 people depending upon the room category. These resorts also have wonderful theming and large themed pools with slides. They are excellent for longer trips, since you have the option to cook some meals in your room. They also have extra space to unwind and relax.

As you can see there are lots of choices to choose from. I have found a lot of fun over the years in trying different resorts to see what you like and to experience the different themes and atmospheres. It is hard to go wrong choosing any of them. They all give you the same Disney Resort Guest Privileges: Magic Express Service, Access to Free Disney Transportation to all of the Parks, and special Extra Magic Hours in the parks.

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority first opened in Disney World's Magic Kingdom in July of 1975. Back then it was called the WEDway PeopleMover and it was a tireless version of the Disneyland attraction, instead operating with linear synchronous motors to propel the vehicles around the track.

This ride has never gotten the fanfare of the other rides. Even when it was renamed the Tomorrowland Transit Authority in June of 1994 as part of the transformation of Tomorrowland into the "Tomorrow that Never Was".

Does your family enjoy spending part of your Disney World Vacation by the resort pool? Then do I have the place for you!

Stormalong Bay, the resort pool shared by Disney’s Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts almost qualifies to be a separate admission water park. This is certainly no ordinary pool.

The theming of the pool complex is based upon the legend of the gigantic sailor named Stormalong who ran his ship ashore where Stormalong Bay now stands. His ship plowed into the shoreline creating the pools and waterways that exist today. The ship still exists today with its mast projecting 150 feet into the sky.

The ship now is home to the complex’s twisty and thrilling water slide. There are three acres of pools in all, including a snorkeling lagoon, an area with a whirlpool current, and a relaxing lagoon.

One unique feature is that the pool has a sand bottom. This helps complete the theming that you are off on some shipwrecked island.

The excellent cast members who work there host a variety of recreational activities each day.

Stormalong Bay is certainly an attraction all to itself and a great reason to book a stay at either the Yacht Club or Beach Club Resort.