Advice about some changes...

[rdominy]

Okay...I have character meals schedule for every day of our trip...we leave on Friday !
Now I'm thinking it is just too much money and am considering canceling some of the ADRs. I need some help swaying me one way or the other on doing it.

The plan:
Akerhaus breakfast
Cape May breakfast
Crystal Palace breakfast
Hollywood & Vine breakfast (consider canceling)
Tusker House breakfast
1900 Park Fair breakfast (consider canceling)
CRT breakfast (consider canceling)
1900 Park Fair dinner

If I cancel the 3 of those it will save us about $245.
It will be me, DH and 3DD. I am just having such a hard time spending so much money on meals, but I'm also having a hard time canceling such great ADRs. Any advice?

 

[Robo]

Okay...I have character meals schedule for every day of our trip...we leave on Friday !
Now I'm thinking it is just too much money and am considering canceling some of the ADRs. I need some help swaying me one way or the other on doing it.

The plan:
Akerhaus breakfast
Cape May breakfast
Crystal Palace breakfast
Hollywood & Vine breakfast (consider canceling)
Tusker House breakfast
1900 Park Fair breakfast (consider canceling)
CRT breakfast (consider canceling)
1900 Park Fair dinner

If I cancel the 3 of those it will save us about $245.
It will be me, DH and 3DD. I am just having such a hard time spending so much money on meals, but I'm also having a hard time canceling such great ADRs. Any advice?

Akerhaus breakfast
Cape May breakfast (I'd cancel one or the other of these)

Crystal Palace breakfast
Hollywood & Vine breakfast (Agree-cancel, one of the least-liked restaurants at WDW)
Tusker House breakfast (We like this one.)
1900 Park Fair breakfast (Agree-cancel)
CRT breakfast (I'd keep this one. It's "THE" Character Bkfst.)
1900 Park Fair dinner (Maybe lose this one.)

Its all a matter of personal taste and just which characters you want to have come to your table.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

If it were me, I'd cancel some. For example, it looks like you're going to the same restaurant twice. That's not something I'd do, with so many choices there.

My second comment is sort of a personal preference issue: why so many breakfasts? I guess I'm just not a big breakfast person, but I'd rather eat a bagel and a banana in the morning, and spend that money on a good lunch or dinner. For me, after a breakfast in a restaurant I'm hungry an hour later, and I don't tend to feel like I get my money's worth on eggs and pancakes. I'd rather go at a time when I can get a more substantial (and interesting) meal. That's just me though.

But yes, I'd be inclined to cut a couple and save the money. We usually do table service only every other day or so. There are so many good counter service options if you know where to look, where you can get a very nice meal for a lot less money.

 

[caroline1851]

I just think it's a waste of morning park time to be an adr-which most likely will take over an hour. Parks are least crowded at rope drop and you can get a lot done without waiting in lines early. I would change some of those to lunch or dinner.

 

[lovealatte]

In addition to what everyone said.. your daughter is 3, ten years from now will she remember each character breakfast?
Personally I'd go to 2 at the most for that age.. you have plenty of years to return and go to the rest of them.

 

[rdominy]

As far as the question about "why so many breakfast ADRs?"...we prefer to eat a big breakfast and skip lunch, plus we are all pretty picky and don't like the menus for anything else .

We won't miss RD for any of them. We are either doing a late day on purpose because of a late night, preRD breakfast or a late breakfast in the park (10:50) in place of lunch.

 

[jlwhitney]

Here is my advice, character meals are very pricey, so I would do one with princesses, one with mickey and gang and one with pooh and friends. I would do crystal palace, CRT breakfast and Tuskerhouse. The money saved from not eating at them will be well worth and once you are there and having fun it won't matter that much. Think of the money saved as souvenir money or for a trip to Bibbi Bobbi Boutique if you can get a reservation there. If you miss a charcter you really want to see, find them at a meet and greet throughout the parks.

 

[MickeyWatcher]

We have 3 kids, and this is how we have planned in the past.

I think think that only a couple of breakfast buffets are better than the rest (Tusker House & Boma), so we selected character ADRs based which character the kids are interested in at the time. They remember the character interaction, not the food.

Our kids are picky eaters also, so we do 2 or 3 character ADRs on a week trip. They are expensive, and the kids never eat much anyways. They want the see the character, get autograph, and take pictures.

I agree with the other posts. Save some money and do less character ADRs.

 

[tallen429]

JMO, but having done most of those, and considering your child's age and to get the most variation of characters, I'd keep CRT, Tusker House (my personal favorite) and H&V. 1900 and Askershaus will have a lot of repeat characters from the CRT meal. If you can do one more, do CP. I think the food has gone downhill, but the Pooh & Friends are worth it.

 

[bgirl29]

If you really want to have that many character meals did you look at the math with buying the dining plan? I just wonder if that wouldnt save you some money.

 

[Coach81]

Are you on the dining plan?

 

[MHSweb79]

I would keep all your ADR's and decide during the week if you have too many. There's no penalty for cancelling, even same day or the day before, as long as you haven't given your CC to hold the reservation.

That said, H&V at the Studios was pretty bad the one time we've eaten there. If you really need to drop one now, that would be my vote.

 

[huge mickey fan]

I have to say if you have a CRT reservation, keep it. They are very hard to get and if you cancel within 24 hours they will charge you anyway. We really like Tusker House and Askerus. I understand you wanting a big breakfast. We like to fuel up in the morning before a big day of walking and such. However if you are not renting a car, then it gets pretty tricky to go to the resorts for breakfast. 1900 Park Fare for dinner is the only place you will meet Prince Charming if you don't attend a Christmas Party. If your daughter is 3 I would keep the princess meals. We really like character meals so it is really a matter of perference.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I would cancel 1900 Park Fare dinner. I would cancel one of the Princessess breakfast...if its funds I would cancel CRT.

 

[rdominy]

Thanks for all the responses.
In the next couple of days I am going to cancel our ADR for 1900 PF breakfast since that comes after our MVMCP night and the H&V breakfast.
I'm still up in the air about canceling the CRT breakfast or the Akerhaus breakfast but because of scheduling and the fact that CRT is on Saturday which is rated as an extremely high crowd park day followed by the fact that it is a 8:05 ADR and the park opening has been changed to 8:00 makes it less appealing.

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

I know people rag on H&V but if your child likes Handy Manny, Oso and dancing its great! We thought the food was good (breakfast) and my son loved getting up and dancing. That was his favorite meal because there was something for him to do. Just my .02

 

[beautyqueen]

I agree with everyone else, I would get rid of some of those. We went to the Plaza inn breakfast at DL last week, our bill for 3 adults and one child was over $100 and my dd5 at 2 slices of bacon and drank three sips of juice!

 

[iloman]

I know people rag on H&V but if your child likes Handy Manny, Oso and dancing its great! We thought the food was good (breakfast) and my son loved getting up and dancing. That was his favorite meal because there was something for him to do. Just my .02

I did lunch here just for those characters. Food was OK; we didn't have any complaints. My DD 5 really liked meeting the Little Einsteins.

 

[Max Webster]

Okay...I have character meals schedule for every day of our trip...we leave on Friday !
Now I'm thinking it is just too much money and am considering canceling some of the ADRs. I need some help swaying me one way or the other on doing it.

The plan:
Akerhaus breakfast
Cape May breakfast
Crystal Palace breakfast
Hollywood & Vine breakfast (consider canceling)
Tusker House breakfast
1900 Park Fair breakfast (consider canceling)
CRT breakfast (consider canceling)
1900 Park Fair dinner

If I cancel the 3 of those it will save us about $245.
It will be me, DH and 3DD. I am just having such a hard time spending so much money on meals, but I'm also having a hard time canceling such great ADRs. Any advice?

You have way too many expensive character breakfasts!

I would cancel all but 1 or 2 and save your money for evening dinners. Plus, you should eat a light breakfast on the non ADR mornings and have a larger CS lunch instead.

Cheers!

Max

 

[sumsmommy03]

That would be way too many breakfasts for me but since you like breakfasts I would cancel Akershus breakfast (food was awful) and HV.
I think the 1900 PF dinner is great.