Dining and other details

Ok, so now we know where we are staying.  We know when and we have our airline booked.  But the planning is far from over.
I knew we had to rent a car now because we were staying off property for a few days.  Being a Costco member, I knew we could save on car rental.  But did you know you could combine discounts if you got special promo codes?  I didn't either.  But I was thrilled to find that out.  Car rental is not cheap.
Two great things with our car rental.  1.  We were upgraded to a mini-van when we picked up our car.  Again, that space issue is huge with us!  2.  I was able to drop it off at The Swan hotel which was right next to us and then then walk 10 minutes back to our hotel.  Once we were on Disney property, we had 'free' transportation.  We didn't need to pay for a car the entire time.
Stroller rental was also an issue.  Cameron was almost 5.  He could walk a lot, but I knew 2 things.  He would tire quickly and he's too big to carry.  And, I didn't want to fly with a stroller. 
So with more research, I found a great place to rent strollers.  The Disney strollers are great, but you have to turn them in when you leave the park.  There is still some walking either to your car or your bus after you leave the park.  This company dropped then off and picked them up for free at the hotel. AWESOME!

  Our big guy sleeping as we wait for the Electrical Parade in his comfy stroller.

Everything else came along great.  I used online coupon sites to save money on restaurants near by.  Even one at Downtown Disney.  The House of Blues had great food and service. 

A few important details when planning your dining.  You can share adult plates or adults can eat from the kids menus to save money.  Most of the time the meals are big enough.  You can bring in food to the parks.  We brought lots of snacks to help avoid the 25.00 'snack' runs with popcorn and pretzels.  And if you want to dine in a Disney full service restaurant, make your reservations IMMEDIATELY.  They will book up fast. 

We ate at Boma at the Animal Kingdom for the second time.  Although the food was amazing.  And the chef comes around to show us what is safe for our son with food allergies, it was far too expensive for us.  I think the prices had gone up by 10.00/person.  We came out of this wonderful buffet restaurant spending over 150.00.