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MSC Divina Day 7 – Do We Really Have to Get Off?

We’re nearing the end of our final day on the Divina, and having just finished the final trivia game of the sailing, I figured I’d get in one last blog post on board.

The last couple of days have been a continuation of the fun we’ve had so far. Yesterday was our “final” sea day, and I quote that because we also treated today’s stop in Nassau as a sea day too. On our November and December cruises, we’d gotten day passes at a couple of different resorts, but this time decided we’d spend most of the day on the ship, as there was really nothing we wanted to do here. Sure, Atlantis is cool, but it’s also pretty expensive these days, and with the crowds we expected in port (with 5 ships docked), we just didn’t feel it’d be worth the cost. We did get off for about a half hour so Bayley could get her hair braided and buy a few items for friends, but that was it for Nassau.

On both days, we participated in a variety of activities around the ship, including trivia, bingo, a scavenger hunt and a handful of other stuff. We managed to win one round of trivia yesterday, and finished second on the scavenger hunt, so we’re going home with a few prizes.

Additionally, we attended the main shows last night and tonight, even though we saw both the last time we were on Divina. Last night’s show was Treasure Island, a pirate themed show packed with singing, dancing, acrobatics, and even a little magic. This is my favorite, and one I recommend you do not miss if you’re sailing on the Divina.

Tonight was the Michael Jackson tribute. A fantastic show if you are an MJ fan. The dancer who plays Michael is amazing, and really brings Jackson’s moves to life.

We also stayed up for the late night activities in the Black and White lounge both nights. Last night, they played Quest, basically a scavenger hunt where you don’t leave the room. I’ll leave out the details, but suffice it to say that I *might* have been up in the center of the room dressed in women’s shoes, a bra (over my shirt), a purse, and lipstick. I’ve gotta make sure that picture never sees the light of day 🙂

Tonight’s late night event was a dancing competition (think Dancing with the Stars). Jen volunteered to be a judge, and really had fun with it. I know I’ve said it before, but the entertainment team on this ship are really good at their jobs. We’ve had a blast every single day participating in the events they run. They all really seem to love what they do, and it shows every time we see them.

Moving back to Yacht Club since that’s really where I wanted to focus these posts, we spent plenty of time yesterday and today in Top Sail Lounge, which we’re really finding to be a nice place to relax, grab a quick drink, and maybe even a snack. We haven’t paid for a single drink on the boat, thanks to the included beverages in Top Sail, Le Muse, The One Pool, and our minibar.

I hadn’t tried The One Pool for breakfast until yesterday, and am a bit sad I didn’t do so earlier. Both the scrambled eggs and bacon up there are so much better than the main buffet (on any ship we’ve been on). Add the quiet atmosphere as you eat with the ocean in view, and it’s a great place to grab breakfast if you’re staying in Yacht Club! We also spent some time up there again today getting sun. The glass along the side does a great job of blocking external noise, as the Carnival Victory was parked next to us today and had music blaring the entire time, but up there, I really couldn’t hear it.

We hit the waterslides today, too, right after getting sun at The One Pool. We must have ridden half a dozen times, as it was dead since a lot of people were off in Nassau. Their slide is fun, but seeing the Escape in port, and remembering how much fun their slides are, I admit to a little jealousy every time I looked over. Regardless, we had a blast.

Bayley and I followed the waterslides up with a trip to the F1 simulator. We did this last time, too, and did horribly that time. I think we were both expecting it to be more arcade-style, while it’s actually pretty realistic. This time around, knowing that, we both did better. It’s really fun, just know that knowledge of shift points, proper apex techniques, and familiarity with paddle shifters really helps. Oh, and apparently they recently stopped allowing anyone under 16 to use it, though. Something about a kid racking up a large bill on it.

I think that about covers the past two days. We’re all packed, and our suitcases are outside awaiting pickup, sadly. We’ve had an absolute blast this trip, and the Yacht Club experience has made this feel like a completely different cruise from our Christmas sailing. Over the weekend, I’ll get a blog post up summarizing our thoughts on the trip, including all the positives and negatives. For now, goodnight from somewhere between Nassau and Miami!

MSC Divina Day 5 – Port Fun!

The end of day 5 saw us ready for the upcoming sea day, giving us a chance to sleep in and recover from the past two days. Back to back port days can be exhausting, especially when you have a couple of pretty active excursions planned in each port. Before I get to that, another nice thing about being in Yacht Club is the butler escort off of the ship when you’re in port. Last time we sailed this itinerary, getting off in St Thomas was really, really slow, even though we waited a half hour or so after debark started. This time, I have no idea how long the line was in either port, we just got off. You meet a butler at the concierge area on 15, and he escorts you down to 4, out a side door right next to the gangway, stops one of the lines so his group can (more or less) cut in, and you then have your card scanned and get off the boat. If you’re on an MSC excursion, he’ll escort you over to that meeting point as well. All in all, less than 5 minutes start to finish. Very nice benefit! Here’s our butler, Jacques, after escorting us off the ship in San Juan:

For both of our first two stops, we (and by “we”, I mean Jen) booked independent excursions with an outside company, Island Marketing. We’d never used them before, but the reviews were good, and the excursions were things that sounded like a lot of fun. They didn’t disappoint, either. So what did we do at each stop?

St Thomas: After arriving in port and walking around the shops a bit, we grabbed a cab and headed for Oasis Marina Cove. We were booked on a snorkeling excursion with Captain Nautica, and had to meet there at 11:15am. Turns out, the rest of the people in our group (off the Norwegian Spirit) didn’t arrive until after 12, so we were there a bit early. No biggie. After everyone was there, we were given a bit of a talk on what was going to happen, along with a safety briefing. This wasn’t just a “hop on our boat and we’ll take you to a cove” excursion, we actually got to drive our own Zodiac over to Christmas Cove for snorkeling. It was a bumpy but really fun ride over and back in the little boat. I think it took around 25min or so to get there, and about the same to get back. Somehow I managed to keep Jen and Bayley in the boat, a tough task with all of the waves we were jumping in that thing :).

The snorkeling wasn’t bad. Not a lot of fish, but plenty of sea turtles, and even a couple of small stingrays! One of the guides was swimming around checking on people, and even grabbed my GoPro and swam down next to one of the turtles to get some video. One of the shots below (right next to the turtle) is a screengrab from that clip.

All in all, it was a really fun day in St Thomas. The guides were awesome, and it really wasn’t a crowded trip. There were 16 people, including us, on the excursion, and the cove had hardly any other tourists in it, so it wasn’t like Buck Island where you have a whole lot of excursions crowding you. I think we’d all recommend Captain Nautica to others coming here!

San Juan: Again, Jen booked us through Island Marketing, this time on a rainforest hike in El Yunque. The rainforest excursions are a popular thing on the cruise ships, but most of them only take you to a couple of stops, and maybe a small walk, and usually you’re in a larger bus with a bunch of people. Not us. We were in a van with a family of 4, also off of our boat (their first cruise!). We did have a longer ride to the park than expected, but only because a tree was blocking the main road, and our driver had to find a back way in. No problem, he got us in, giving us a history of the island along the way.

Once there, we stopped at a local food stand to get a pre-hike snack, which consisted of some local, really delicious food. I had a pizza turnover, Jen had a beef taco, and Bayley had a chicken taco. All really, really good. After eating, we then headed to Yokahu observation tower so we could walk up to the top and check out the view of the surrounding area. I haven’t pulled any of the pictures of that off the GoPro yet, but when I do, I’ll be posting them on our Instagram feed. The top of the tower provided some awesome views of the mountains and coast. Incidentally, the MSC tour of the rainforest was there at the same time as us. One thing we learned with their tours, they send one of the ship’s photographers along to take pictures of the guests, a nice touch we haven’t seen from any other line we sailed.

Our walk up the tower over, our guide took us over to the trailhead. We had a 1.5mi hike ahead of us, and he estimated it’d take us about 1h 15m, maybe a little longer. He gave us instructions for hiking down to a waterfall, then back up another trail, and told us he’d meet us at the top of that other trail at 1:15pm. His times were pretty close to accurate, too. It was obviously quite wet on the hike, but we were ready for that. We walked down the first trail to the waterfall, stopping along the way to enjoy the river and other scenery. When we got to the waterfall we didn’t go in the water, as it had rained pretty hard the night before and the water was moving at a good clip, but we did walk out on the rocks on the left hand side for some pictures. After a short stop there, we walked up the other trail. This portion got pretty steep in some areas, so if you do a trip like this, just know that hiking down means you eventually have to hike back up, and be prepared for it. We got back up fine, but there were a few other people (not in our group) who really looked like they didn’t want to be there anymore.

Once the hike was over, we headed back to the little food stand we’d stopped at before, this time to enjoy more of a lunch (the previous stop was unplanned, but the little boys in our group were hungry. Fine with us, that place was delicious!)

We’ve really been having a lot of fun on this trip on the ship, too. We attended the Flower Glory party on the evening of the second sea day and somehow managed to get caught up in a bunch of the video from it since we were out on the dance floor for most of it, but did miss the white party the night before San Juan. Just too tired to make it to 11pm. Last night we caught the Italian party, which was a blast too. The entertainment team really goes the extra mile to make sure everyone’s having fun. In one of the shots here, Carlos has loaned me some of his gear at the Flower Glory party 🙂

One more note – As previously mentioned, our Maitre’ D has been great. Another example, we decided to eat dinner the past couple of nights with a two other people we know onboard, also in Yacht Club, and without warning the first night, he set us up pretty quickly in Le Muse. He always has a smile on his face and is constantly walking the restaurant checking on his guests. We couldn’t be happier with the service in Le Muse!

That’s about it for now, but we have the final sea day on tap, along with a stop in Nassau. We’re not doing anything in port this time, just getting off so Bayley can get her hair braided, then spending the rest of the day on the boat. Figured we’d rather have another “sea day” than do anything here.

Oh, and if you’re not following us on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook, you’re missing out, I just posted a comparison of our YC1 balcony to the one next to us. Yes, it’s YC1 as well, but about half the size! (for reference, a deck plan of our deck). Follow us to see more from Yacht Club!

MSC Divina Day 3 – The Yacht Club Fun Continues!

As the end of our second sea day approaches, I wanted to get another post up on our time in Yacht Club so far. As I think I mentioned before, we weren’t really sure what to expect going in, but so far we’ve been really happy with everything the suites have to offer.

The past two days have been filled with a mix of activities for us. We’ve participated in several of our normal activities, from Taboo to trivia, and even another round of Scattergories, and have had a blast at all of them. I know I’ve mentioned how great the entertainment staff is in several previous posts on the Divina, but it really can’t be understated. This team is really fun to be around, and they do their best to ensure all participants are having a good time. They always have a smile on their faces. Always. So glad Bingo Boys are still a thing, too. Those guys make bingo fun (even if you don’t play), and that’s no easy task.

Having covered the normal activates in the posts about our Christmas sailing, I’d like to focus this more on the Yacht Club aspect of this trip. So far, it’s been worth every penny. I recognize it’s not a cheap upgrade, but it’s one that I wouldn’t hesitate to go for again. On the last sailing, the service from our dining room team and cabin attendant was somewhat lacking, as I covered in those posts, but this trip has been the exact opposite:

Cabin: Our butler Jaques and his assistant have been outstanding. Our cabin always looks great, and they always seem to be around, greeting us with a smile. Some of the best cabin service we’ve had on any sailing.

Dining room: In Le Muse, I finally see the purpose of a Maître D. In a large MDR, you never really see what they’re doing, and generally they only stop by once a cruise (unless there are issues raised), which can make you feel like they only showed up to get the extra tip that’s common for the Maître D on some lines. In a smaller setting like Le Muse, you really get to see him (or her) work. Our Maitre D has been outstanding, taking care of our seating arrangements, stopping by more than once per meal, and always engaging in short conversation asking how your day has been, how the meal is, etc. All with a smile on his face. We’ve eaten in there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and he always seems to be there ensuring guests are happy.

Our head waiter (Dejan) and his assistant have been outstanding. Always there to get what you need, and doing an excellent job keeping our glasses full. Also, I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but when we’ve eaten in there for breakfast and lunch, we’ve had the same head waiter for (I think) each of those meals as well, even though we’ve been at different tables. A nice touch if it is part of the plan.

Food: The food in Le Muse has so far been consistently better than what we remember of the MDR. We did have some good food there, but it was almost a hit or miss thing, with one night being good, the next night no so much, etc. In Le Muse, I don’t think we’ve had anything we didn’t like yet. Yes, the Easter dinner menu was the same in our restaurant as it was in the MDR, but other than that they’ve had little overlap, and we’ve had some good quality food compared to our previous MDR experience on the Divina.

Other perks of Yacht Club have been great as well:

Captain’s reception: Earlier today, there was a reception in the Top Sail lounge specifically for Yacht Club guests to meet the captain. Other than our trip on the Celebrity Summit, I’m not sure we’ve ever attended the captain’s events on previous ships. This time, we took advantage and hung out in the lounge with some drinks as the captain made his way around. He stopped by each table and chatted with the guests for a few minutes. Jen was sure to tell him how much we enjoy the entertainment staff, hope they get some recognition out of that!

Pool deck: This is where the whole “ship within a ship” concept stands out. We didn’t lay by the pool at all yesterday, but in walking the 14^th and 15^th decks outside have noticed how full it is during the day. There are a crazy amount of deck chairs out all around (pretty much any open spot on either deck front to back), and they’re always full. Either people are laying out in them, or they’ve got towels and bags on them. Can’t say I remember any ship we’ve been on where you really couldn’t find two or three chairs together anywhere unless you got down there really, really early. In Yacht Club, no such nonsense. We laid out today after lunch, and were easily able to find open space (plenty of it, in my opinion), and it was very peaceful. No kids running around yelling, and no real noise other than the waves. So relaxing. Here are a couple of comparison shots taken this afternoon:

It doesn’t hurt that there are a really good selection of drinks (both alcoholic and non) available at no additional cost in Yacht Club J

One additional thing to call out in regards to my mention of no kids running around the pool, it’s not that there aren’t any children in Yacht Club, because there are. What we’ve seen so far is that they’re really well behaved. Whether it’s in Le Muse, Top Sail, or up in the Yacht Club pool area, they’ve all been very polite and well-mannered regardless of age. I’m not saying all kids outside of this area aren’t, since good behavior is certainly not reserved for suite guests, but overall it’s been a nice change of pace compared to some of the ones we’ve run in to (literally, sometimes) while out in other areas of the ship.

Overall, we’re having a great time, and even with the same itinerary as Christmas, this feels like a completely different cruise. With a day in St Thomas on tap for tomorrow, can’t wait to see where the rest of the trip takes us!

Good night from cabin 15028!

MSC Divina – Day 1 in Yacht Club!

Here we are again aboard the MSC Divina, this time for spring break! It’s a first for us in a couple of ways; it’s the first time we’ve sailed on a ship we’ve already been on, and it’s also the first time we’ve sailed in a suite. When the deal showed up a couple of months ago, we decided to give it a shot and sail in one of the Yacht Club YC1 suites, even though we did this exact itinerary over Christmas. The big question, how is it so far?

Awesome 🙂

If you’ve been following our posts on Instagram, you’ve seen the pictures, but overall embarkation was a breeze. We arrived at the port and took our luggage over to the small grey Yacht Club tent near the entrance to the terminal:

On arrival, the dedicated porter had us remove our original luggage tags (would have been nice to know we didn’t need to print those) and he replaced them with grey almost airline looking tags that had our cabin number on them. A couple of minutes later, a shore-side butler arrived to escort us to the ship. With none of the normal waiting in line, he walked us through security (yes, you still get scanned and go through metal detectors, you just don’t have to wait), and into a separate Yacht Club check-in area. On arrival in here, he offered us water, champagne or wine while we checked in. We spent no more than 5 or so minutes in here getting our key cards before he escorted us to the gangway. All a very nice touch. We did stop for the obligatory boarding pic, which was optional, and then when we approached the actual boarding gangway he handed us off to one of the on-board butlers who then escorted us up to the Yacht Club concierge.

On the Divina, the concierge is located in the YC area on deck 15 forward, right near the dedicated Top Sail lounge. Arriving here, you check in with the concierge, who explains a few things about what Yacht Club offers, then hands you off to the Maitre D, who sets you up with a time in the Yacht Club’s dedicated restaurant, Le Muse. Somewhere in here, you’ve also been introduced to your actual butler, and for us, he was waiting to introduce himself and escort us to our cabin as soon as we finished.

I’ll take a second to add that it’s an odd experience being led through the terminal and ship by a butler as the passengers look on. You get a lot of curious looks, and in one case as he cut through one line in the terminal, a “seriously?” from some teenager we walked past. It wasn’t something I really felt a pressing need to experience up to now, but I’m certainly going to enjoy it for this week :).

Okay, so after we got settled we decided to grab some lunch. There are a couple of options for Yacht Club guests. You can always eat at the regular buffet, but where’s the fun in that? Figuring we might as well enjoy our ammenities, we decided to check out the Yacht Club’s restaurant, Le Muse. This is at the opposite end of the ship on deck 15, and after finally figuring out where the entrance was, we were seated. It’s a much smaller restaurant than the traditional MDR, and maybe seats 100 people. For lunch they offer the full muti-course meal, and the food quality in here at both lunch and dinner was definitely better than we remember the Divina’s regular MDR being over Christmas. The highlight of lunch for me was the dessert, a Nutella/chocolate pastry dish that was awesome. One of the people seated at the table next to us had the burger, which looked far better than the buffet burger, and he said it was really good.

After lunch, we spent out time relaxing. This is the first time we’ve repeated a ship, and it felt somewhat odd. Normally we’re up and wandering all over the ship locating everything and taking pictures, but knowing how the Divina is laid out, only wandered looking to see if we spotted any of the entertainment staff from the last sailing (more on that later). After a short walk across decks 6 and 7, we headed back up and relaxed in the Top Sail lounge, which is in the Yacht Club area, and offers a 180 degree view out the front of the ship. When you’re in the YC area, you get free drinks (including some spirits, with a few top-shelf offerings costing a littl more), so I had a Coke while Bayley had a Pina Colada, sans alcohol. In Top Sail, there’s also a small buffet that offers some finger food and small desserts in case you’re looking for a snack.

After relaxing in the lounge, we headed back to the room to rest for a bit. Dinner was still a couple of hours away, but the muster drill wasn’t, so we just hung out in the room until that happened. The room itself is a category YC1, but it’s one of the wider ones on 15. It does trade a little depth for the width, but overall we really like it, and that extra width definitely makes it feel more roomy. Another nice feature of Yacht Club is that everything in your mini-bar is included in the cost (all drinks and snack), as is the bottle of champagne they give you on day 1 to welcome you aboard. As you take from your mini-bar, it’s refilled by your butler. I did enjoy a little champagne :). A quick shot of our cabin, 15028:

Dinner wasn’t too far behind the muster drill, but by that time, Jen’s suitcase still hand’t arrived, so she went to dinner wearing what she boarded with, which was no biggie. Dinner was excellent, with a completely different menu from the MDR from what we saw. I had a nice little chorrizo-based appetizer, a vegetarian lasagna, and this awesome little hot and cold chocolate coconut dessert that was very delicious:

After dinner, we went back to the cabin, expecting to find Jen’s suitcase there. No such luck, so she headed back to the concierge to find out what was up. After a bit of a hunt, they found it in the Yacht Club office on our deck. Apparently it’d been tagged by security, but we never found out why. Must have been the cans of sunscreen, as there was nothing electric in it. That issue aside, we relaxed and unpacked, then hung out in Top Sail for a bit drinking a few Bayleys Alexanders before heading to the Black and Blue lounge for Majority Rules with the entertainment staff at 10:45. We were very happy to see that most of them were still here, as we still feel this is the best entertainment staff we’ve ever had on a cruise, and several of them recognized us and stopped to chat! The game itself was a blast, as usual.

All in all a fun embarkation day, with Yacht Club making it feel like an entirely different cruise. Yes, we’re sailing the same itinerary, but this is a totally different experience, and we’re really enjoying it so far. Can’t wait to see what’s on tap for the first sea day!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook as we’ll be posting a bunch of pictures along the way!

Disney Dining – Round 2

With everything going on the past couple of months, I haven’t had time to cover our Thanksgiving trip to Disney World, so it’s time to fix that. First up, our experience with the Plus Dining Plan, which gives each person on the plan 1 table service meal, 1 quick service meal, and 1 snack for each night of your stay.

This is our second time using the dining plan, but the first using one that included table service. As mentioned in my June post, I was iffy on getting the dining plan again, as I felt that I ended up eating a lot more unhealthy food than I would have without the plan, but the decision was made to go with the higher level plan this time around to see what we could get out of the table service meals.

We did a lot of planning for this, and I mean a lot. Jen was on the dining site nightly for several weeks trying to get our table service schedule just right, and in the end it paid off. We ended up with several character meals, including one for Thanksgiving dinner! Here’s a quick look at where we used the table service credits:

Be Our Guest: This was actually done as a quick service meal, but it was so much better than the first time that I wanted to include it. We were scheduled for an 8:00am breakfast here on our first day, the same time the Magic Kingdom opened. The nice thing about making dining reservations for that early is that you end up in the park before everyone else. There’s a separate line for those with dining reservations, and if I recall, we got in to the park about 7:50am to make our way back to the restaurant. They do have cast members along the way keeping an eye to be sure no one’s headed in a direction they shouldn’t be, but getting in the park that early is awesome. Here are a few shots of the (mostly) empty park I took along the way to the restaurant:

Additionally, we were second in line at BoG, so we got through ordering pretty quick and were able to easily get a table in the West Wing near the rose. The food was decent, too. I had the croissant doughnut, which was very tasty.

Donald’s Dining Safari Thanksgiving Lunch at Tusker House Restaurant: This was (obviously) our Thanksgiving lunch, scheduled for 2:45pm. We’d had an awesome day already at Animal Kingdom, having done the Wild Africa Trek first thing that morning (I’ll cover that in my next post). We got to Tusker House around 2:30 and checked in, and maybe waited 5-10 minutes to be seated. The buffet itself did have some changes to it, with traditional Thanksgiving items laid out in addition to some of the normal menu items. One note here: the dessert table isn’t well placed, as it always seemed to have a line, and that line runs in front of the table that holds things like the South African preserves, Tabbouleh, and Hummus, which my wife was disappointed to discover only after she was full since she never saw those items until she went for dessert. Still, it was a fun Thanksgiving lunch, complete with Donald Duck and Friends!

Fairytale Dining Breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table: Yea we did, and you should too! This isn’t an easy reservation to get, but Jen’s perseverance with the Disney Dining site paid off. Also note that this counts as two table service credits per person. We had a 9:05am reservation, and checked in slightly before that. After a short wait outside, were taken in to the lower waiting area where you meet and have your picture taken with Cinderella. After another wait for your name to be called, you’re taken upstairs to your table. The entire place is well done, with attention to detail in every aspect of it. Just like every other character meal, as you eat, the various princesses make their way around the dining area and stop at each table for pictures and autographs.

Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner at 1900 Park Fare: We did this the same day we did Cinderella’s Royal Table, so it was a princess-heavy day. We were second in line at 1900 Park Fare when it opened for dinner, and for those with little ones, I highly recommend being there for the dinner opening. The little girl in front of us got to help them open the doors. Here, that means saying the magic words, and having Cinderella and Prince Charming open the doors, welcome her in, and lead her and her family to their table. I can only imagine how much that meant to her, so for other parents who want a shot at this for their kids, opt for the 4pm reservation and be there early!

Food-wise, it was the best buffet we had. The meat on the carving station was perfectly cooked, and everything else I had, including the mashed potatoes, was excellent. As we ate, Cinderella, Prince Charming, the step sisters, and the wicked stepmother made their way around. The sisters and mother were hilarious, too, as they were perfectly sarcastic to everyone they talked to. Case in point: when the red-headed step sister came over, she took one look at Bayley’s red hair and said: “Look at your hair color, it’s like we’re better than everyone else!”. At one point, one of the step sisters passed a crying baby a couple of tables over and loudly said: “Stop crying, you’re fine!”. Really funny stuff, everyone we saw was eating it up!

Princess Storybook Dining Lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall: Okay, maybe we went a bit overboard on the princess-themed character dining, but we really wanted to try Akershus. It’s similar to Cinderella’s Royal Table in that after you check in and have your name called, you have your picture taken with a princess, which in this case was Belle. After being seated, it’s the typical “eat while characters come by” setup. The food was pretty good, too. The appetizer portion of the menu is buffet style, with it being a “Taste of Norway” setup with meats, cheeses and seafood, among other items. There are two sides to the buffet table, with both sides being identical. This isn’t clear at first, and results in people walking the whole thing, slowing down the line as they cut in to see what’s on the opposite end. Somewhat annoying, but oh well. From the entree menu, I had the Traditional Kjøttkake, which is Norwegian meatballs on mashed potatoes. D-e-licious!

All of the table service meals were great, as was the Be Our Guest breakfast using quick service credits. Our other quick service meals were at places we ate last time, including Wolfgang Puck Express at Disney Springs (still the best value for quick service, imo), Pizza Planet, and Contempo Cafe. All good stuff, I just didn’t feel the need to cover them again. We were disappointed in the specialty cupcake selection this time, as Pizza Planet only had a Thanksgiving-themed pumpkin spice cupcake (left pic), which was just okay. Contempo did have a few more options, including the creme filled cupcake I got (the chocolate one below). Mmmmmm.

In the end, I felt the same way about this dining plan as I did in May with the Quick Service plan, that it’s not something I feel it necessary for us, but it may very well be a good option for a larger family. After everything was calculated, we’d saved close to $300 total by getting the dining plan (vs paying for each place we went outright), but then again, it’s highly unlikely we’d have done this many character and quick service meals, or even gotten as many snacks as the plan offers, so who knows if we would have even spent as much on food as the dining plan cost. I’d say that in both cases, the dining plans just “enabled” us to eat at more of the park options than we would have otherwise. I did enjoy it more this time, due in large part to the table service choices we made.

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