We have 2 pirates & 3 princesses to feed!: Our March 2017 trip with the QSDP *FINAL UPDATE 4/25*

2Pirates2Princesses

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Hello :wave2: and welcome :welcome:

This is my first ever attempt at writing a trip report. I wanted to share our experience doing primarily counter service dining during our glorious Disney World vacation :sunny:. Our trip was March 1st-March 8th. This was our family's third WDW trip but our second time doing the quick service dining plan (QSDP). We were booked under the play, stay, and dine promotion this time around and stayed in two connecting rooms at Pop Century resort, so the QSDP was a part of the deal. I strongly considered upgrading us to the regular dining plan where we would get one table service meal, one counter service meal, and two snacks per day (particularly since we had some character meals we wanted to do); but I really didn't want to commit to an ADR everyday, especially since it would cost us $70 in cancellation fees if for some reason we had to cancel or change plans after that 24 hour cancellation window (with five kids you just never know :laughing:). So we decided to stick with the QSDP (2 counter service meals and two snacks per day) and have three separate table service ADRs which ended up working out great since there were a few days we were able to have three meals a day. Prior to our trip I ordered some things from Garden Grocer (milk, juice, yogurt, cases of water, Mountain Dew for DH - Disney needs Pepsi products!) and I also packed boxes of cereal and oatmeal packets for in room breakfasts. I can honestly say I really didn't have to order and pack as much as I did because we made out pretty well with all our meal and snack credits (it's been awhile since we've had the dining plan) and we didn't leave one credit unused (thank Starbucks and the fact that my kids eat like grown men for that!) :thumbsup2.

So who's in and ready to get this party started? Because my family of seven is pretty much a walking party! party:



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Cast of Characters:

Me (37 years old) and DH (40 years old)


I'm primarily an at home mom to our five amazing kids (who have schedules all over the place) and I manage to work part time outside the home a few nights a week in the health information dept for a major regional medical center. This was my fourth trip to WDW (once as a child and three times with DH and our kids), I went to DL several times as a child living in Southern California, and I can say I've been a Disney fan since I was a little girl :lovestruc. I can't say that I have a favorite WDW restaurant yet because I haven't been to Disney World enough to have Golden Spoon status, but I appreciate a good meal, the variety and experience of Disney dining, and Disney has the best snacks ever! DH - my teenage sweetheart and amazing hubby of nearly 16 years works full time as a telecommunications engineer and is the ultimate hands on dad as he holds down the fort during my part time shifts. Our family's very first WDW trip in 2011 was DH's first trip and he has become a big Disney fan! He also appreciates a good, hearty meal, and prefers having the dining plan for the convenience and not having to pull out his wallet after every meal and then have to digest the sticker shock of feeding a family of seven at Disney :laughing:.


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DS(15 yrs old)-twin#1
This is DS15's third trip. He loves Disney so much, it is truly his happy place. He is on the autism spectrum and really enjoyed the dining experience on this trip as he no longer has the dietary restrictions or feeding sensitivities he had on our last two trips, so he was able to eat like everyone else on this trip! He is a big fan of the character buffets!
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DD (15 yrs old) - twin#2:

This is DD15's third trip and she loves Disney. She keeps busy with dance lessons, high school marching band dance team, choir, writing, and volunteering. She is proficient in sign language and wants to study special education in college but says she wants to also dance for Disney either as one of the FOF parade dancers or in the FOTLK show :goodvibes. Although she could survive off of macaroni and cheese and French fries if you let her :rolleyes:, she says her favorite meal of this trip was eating breakfast at Be Our Guest.

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DD(10 yrs old):
This is also DD10's third trip. She is my free spirited wild child and there is no ride she won't get on! She keeps busy with karate lessons, tennis lessons, and started playing the trumpet this year. She is my meat and potatoes meal loving child and her favorite meal on this trip was dinner at Whispering Canyon.

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DS(8 yrs old)
This was DS8's third trip. He was a little guy on our first two WDW trips (at two and four years old), so this trip was a really big deal for him. He plays in soccer and basketball leagues and is an avid Lego and Minecraft enthusiast :laughing: . In spite of being tooth compromised on this trip, his favorite meal of the trip was breakfast at Chef Mickey's. :thumbsup2

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DD(3 yrs old):

This was the very first WDW trip for our youngest princess and she had a blast. She went from being a little timid of the characters at the beginning of the trip to running up to them at the end of the trip :laughing:. She enjoyed eating at the Pop food court because they always had the Disney Jr. channel on! :laughing:

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Now that the introductions are done, let's get on with the food! Please bear with me, I am old school and still use Photobucket :sad2:
 
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Gorgeous family. If photobucket is old school, then someone needs to chime in with how the heck else we're meant to upload photos here. LOL!

I know, lol! DD15 said I should use Google photos and I heard there are a couple other more popular and faster photo hosting sites but I guess I'll try something new in the near future when I get a chance to set it up and everything. :laughing:
 
Day 1: Everything Pop

Magical Express dropped us off at Pop Century around 8pm Wed March 1st. We had a 2.5 hour flight from Pittsburgh, PA and didn't really have dinner since we had a 4:30 pm departure. So after getting settled in our rooms (50's building 3, 3rd floor lake view) we headed down to Everything Pop food court to eat.


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DH and I had the salmon dinner meals which were pretty good. I like my salmon to be moist and flaky and I thought it was prepared well. DD15 had ziti with marinara sauce and a breadstick and the other kids had pizza and fries. We also had some yummy desserts - Pop Century's famous tie dye cheesecake, Mickey Oreo cupcakes, and red velvet cupcakes. They were too cute looking to eat, honestly :laughing:. What's nice about the dining plan is that you can get desserts in place of drinks. We had the refillable mugs so we didn't need to get any bottled drinks with our meal. We ate at the Everything Pop food court several times over the course of our trip and really liked it. There is a good variety of meal options, the CMs are very helpful, nice, and efficient. Yes, there are times when the food court is busy but we wouldn't consider it chaotic or crazy. I think a lot of that has to do with the CMs here really know how to get people moving through the lines while still being helpful and able to answer questions rapidly about how the meal plan works for all those guests that have those questions. They even had a CM stationed in the middle of the food court just to help people with their questions. :thumbsup2
 
What a gorgeous family you have! Just adorable and handsome all around! We have a few things in common as I have a DS 14 on the spectrum, a 10 year old DD (10 going on 18, lol) and a DS 8. Can't wait to follow along on your adventures!!
 

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