Hmm..beginning to think I have planned WAY too much!

[Trishtack]

Hmm....Okay first trip to Disney as a family DH, me and DD (will be 4). We are being joined by a friend who has DH, her, DD (will be 4) and DD (2). We are staying at the Poly and both purchased the Deluxe Dining Plan.

Okay so for my little organizing mind that means we get 18 TS meals so I chose 18 places to eat and organized according to park of the day etc. I am reading this thread and see people making maybe 5 or 6 ADRs.

Am I bonkers?

The absolutes for me are:

Crystal Palace (b or l)
'Ohanas (b)
Coral Reef (d)
CRT
Cape May Cafe

Our DD loves music and dancing and any siting of a character. DH was paralyzed in Sept and this is our "We survived a year and there is hope" trip.

Any must do's?

 

[bentleygirl22]

Okay so for my little organizing mind that means we get 18 TS meals so I chose 18 places to eat and organized according to park of the day etc. I am reading this thread and see people making maybe 5 or 6 ADRs.

Am I bonkers??

Nope. not at all. We actually have a spreadsheet. We begin with a wish list, old ones we must do again, new ones to try, etc. Then plan those selections around park days, EMH days, special occasions.

The absolutes for me are:

Crystal Palace (b or l)
'Ohanas (b)
Coral Reef (d)
CRT
Cape May Cafe?

Crystal Palace, done way too many times, kids still enjoy Pooh characters.
'Ohanas ~ DEFINITE MUST DO!!!! (Dinner, too)
Coral Reef ~ was one we could have done without. 4 adults would enjoy it, but our two kids thought the food was so so. I actually thought my steak tasted like seafood.
CRT and Cape May, haven't tried but it's on our list of 'one day we will'

Any must do's?

In addition to Ohanas, we really enjoyed Kona & Grand Floridian Cafe. The food and setting were excellent. Even the kids enjoyed it, with zero complaints. That almost never happens.


See our 2008 Trip Report for Kona & GFC pics.

 

[jenharring]

We also did ours on a spreadsheet.
If your bonkers then I must have fell off the deep in lol we have a bunch of adrs. if you go ready my TR you will see our adrs. I figure it gives a chance to sit, relax, cool off and grap a bite to eat. Our kids LOVE to have sit down meals.

 

[scanne]

We, too, are on the DxDP and I am STILL planning, changing and refining. We will have 24 dining credits and I've booked 16-17 of them. I am planning on several counter service meals and at least one room service meal.

So, don't feel like you're "bonkers." You are merely being a prepared WDW vacationer!

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

Hmm....Okay first trip to Disney as a family DH, me and DD (will be 4). We are being joined by a friend who has DH, her, DD (will be 4) and DD (2). We are staying at the Poly and both purchased the Deluxe Dining Plan.

Okay so for my little organizing mind that means we get 18 TS meals so I chose 18 places to eat and organized according to park of the day etc. I am reading this thread and see people making maybe 5 or 6 ADRs.

Am I bonkers?

The absolutes for me are:

Crystal Palace (b or l)
'Ohanas (b)
Coral Reef (d)
CRT
Cape May Cafe

Our DD loves music and dancing and any siting of a character. DH was paralyzed in Sept and this is our "We survived a year and there is hope" trip.

Any must do's?

Not only are you NOT bonkers, you have planned my dream vacation. You are staying at the Poly AND you have Deluxe Dining AND you are travelling with friends. It doesn't get much better than that in my book.

If I had 18 meals, here is what I would do:

Breakfast

1. Ohana Character Breakfast with Lilo & Stitch
2. Chef Mickey's or Cape May Cafe (whichever one not visited for dinner)
3. Hollywood & Vine (my DD4 loves the Playhouse Disney characters)
4. 1900 Park Fare or Whispering Canyon Cafe
5. Tusker House Donald's Safari Breakfast
6. Akershus Princess Storybook Breakfast

Lunch

1. Crystal Palace
2. Cinderella's Royal Table
3. France (with audioanimatronic Remy)
4. Yak & Yeti
5. Coral Reef (my DD4 loved sitting next to the sea turtle)
6. minus one ADR because CRT is signature dining

Dinner

1. Le Cellier or Tutto Italia or Rose & Crown
2. Boma (check out the animals while there)
3. Mama Melrose
4. Chef Mickey's or Cape May Cafe (whichever one not visited for breakfast)
5. Biergarten (especially if DD loves dancing)
6. Wolfgang Puck's Cafe

Let us know what you decide. And don't worry about too much food. We did Deluxe Dining and found that if we sampled everything rather than pigging out--it was perfect. We saw the restaurants as being as much fun as the theme park attractions. The key for us was to eat light at each meal and space them out a little. We loved it!!!

 

[Trishtack]

Wow! So great ideas and such relieft that there are others microorganizers out there! Now I have a whole new set of menus to review with the suggestions coming in.

We will be there Saturday afterrnoon and most of Sunday by ourselves until our friends arrive. We have a nice 3 hour flight and they chose to drive (12 hours without stops)..With the arrival distance we will be choosing 3 meals for just our family. I can't wait to start researching again.

I'll post my final list (well before reserveratons opens) shortly.

 

[Colleen27]

You aren't overplanning at all!

On our January trip, we were on the deluxe plan for 11 nights. I had 24 ADRs that accounted for 29 of our 33 meal credits. For Sept, we've got nine nights on the deluxe plan, and I already have my first-draft ADR list put together. I'm planning on 16 ADRs that will use 23 of the 27 meal credits we'll have. I like leaving a few unplanned for times we would't want a sitdown meal, like waterpark days or breakfasts on the go, and for room service on trips where we stay deluxe.

On that January trip, we did end up cancelling two ADRs - one when we decided to stay at DHS to catch Fantasmic rather than hopping back to Epcot as planned, and one (Le Cellier) because it was going to be a long wait even with the ADR so we chose to go over to ESPN Club instead - but with the difficulty of getting walk-ups it is better to have them and cancel than not have them.

 

[mass02703]

If your DD loves to dance and meet characters I would definetly say try to get in on Mickeys Backyard BBQ. We were a group of 10 and everybody loved it. My DD 18 months and DD 11 did not stop dancing from the moment that they started the music until the end of the night.

 

[KristiMc]

It's good to be organized. Planning our meals is one of my favorite parts of the planning process.

My only thought is that with your little one 3 sit down meals a day could be a bit much. Each TS meal can last 1-1.5 hours. That's taking away alot of time from the parks.

 

[MelanieC]

Nope - I'm there for 18 nights...............Trust me, I have a ton of places planned. And this year, only because we have free dining (more CS's than we are used to)- will make it less planned than usual.

 

[maggiew]

From almost every review I have read about deluxe dining plan, they have said eating 3 big meals per day EVERYDAY for a week was way too much food. Especially since this is your first trip, you will not be seeing much of the parks because you will be running from ADR to ADR.

If I were you, I wouldn't do 18 separate meals with your 18 credits. I would throw in a few 2 credit places.

Here is what I would do

Arrival day: Cape may Cafe dinner (if you wanted CMC for dinner)
MK day: Castle breakfast with princesses (2 credits), Kona dinner
EPCOT day: Akershus Princess breakfast, Coral Reef dinner
DHS day: H&V character breakfast, maybe Brown Derby Fantasmic (2 credits)
AK day: Donald Safari breakfast, Jiko dinner (2 credits) - look around AKL
rest day: 'Ohana Breakfast, California Grill dinner (2 credits) - watch wishes
second MK day: Crystal palace breakfast, Narcoose dinner (2 credits)
Leaving day: Cape may Cafe breakfast (if you wanted CMC for breakfast)

(you would either choose CMC for dinner on arrival day or breakfast on leaving day. Not both. You didn't specify which you wanted.)

These are obviously just suggestions, but you get the point.

Don't forget you will also have to eat 2 snacks per day!

Maggie

 

[Colleen27]

From almost every review I have read about deluxe dining plan, they have said eating 3 big meals per day EVERYDAY for a week was way too much food. Especially since this is your first trip, you will not be seeing much of the parks because you will be running from ADR to ADR.

If I were you, I wouldn't do 18 separate meals with your 18 credits. I would throw in a few 2 credit places.

I'll second that suggestion. We used every last credit on our January deluxe trip and only had one day with 3 sitdown meals. I'm not planning any 3 TS days for Sept.

This is what my early list looks like right now, with non-ADR dining in (). I'm sure it will change in the 2 months between now and June when I can finally make ADRs. I'm still waffling on whether I should do TS breakfast before heading to the waterparks or just have CS lunch while we're there, and I'm trying to work Citricos in if I can, probably in place of Kona or California Grill, because that's the only signature we haven't tried that isn't already in the plan.

Arrival day:
(Meadows pool bar lunch)
Artist Point dinner

Magic Kingdom day:
Liberty Tree Tavern lunch
Narcoosees dinner

Hollywood Studios:
Brown Derby lunch
Flying Fish dinner

Animal Kingdom:
Yak & Yeti lunch
Jiko dinner

EPCOT day 1:
Teppan Edo lunch
Marrakesh dinner
(snack credits around the World late EMH)

EPCOT day 2:
Akershus breakfast
(snack credits around the World lunch)
Le Cellier dinner

Waterpark day 1:
The Wave breakfast??
Kona Cafe dinner

Waterpark day 2:
Whispering Canyon breakfast??
Spirit of Aloha dinner show

Resort day:
Chef Mickey breakfast or lunch if it is offered
California Grill dinner

Departure day: (depending on flight time)
Grand Floridian Cafe breakfast
(Main Street Confectionary to use up leftover snacks)
or
Raglan Road lunch
(Goofy's Candy Company to use up leftover snacks)

 

[scanne]

Just for grins, here is my DxDP "plan" so far. We're staying 8 nights so that's 24 credits pp in our party x 8 people = 192 credits.

Arrival Day:
Casey's Corner = 1DC
Teppan Edo = 1 DC

Day 2:
Room service breakfast = 2DC
Chefs de France for dinner = 1DC

Day 3:
Chef Mickey's breakfast = 1 DC
DH and I are dining at Citricos for dinner = 2DC for us (each)
Our kids, my parents, my aunt and my grandmom will have dinner at Kona Cafe = 1 DC

Day 4:
Dinner at Tusker House = 1 DC

Day 5:
Cape May Cafe breakfast = 1DC
Garden View Lounge Tea for the girls while the boys go fishing!
Hoop De Doo Dinner = 2DC

Day 6:
1900 Park Fare breakfast = 1DC
'Ohana dinner = 1DC

Day 7:
Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table = 2DC

Day 8:
Breakfast at Boma = 1 DC
Dinner at Cape May Cafe = 1 DC

Day 9:
Lunch at Crystal Palace = 1 DC

Total DC's planned = 18 (except my DH and I are using 19).

That leaves us with some counter service options and of course, our snacks!

OP - I think you're smart to plan and organize because like another poster said, it's better to have ADR's than not and I also suggest trying to get a couple of 2DC places like CRT and HDDR.

Have FUN planning! That's my favorite part, next to the actual vacation!!!

 

[heatherlynn444]

i have to chime in....the DP wasnt enough TS meals for us but the deluxe plan is a TON of food. we love it but I do NOT reccommend doing 3 TS meals a day. you will die!my husband and I can shovel down ALOT of food and we never wanted to see food againa fter that trip. I reccommend doing a lat breakfast TS or early lunch TS, then doing a dinner worth 2 TS credits so you are still using 3 aday. you get 2 snacks, so if you ge hungry in between you can do that. as someone else said it is also A LOT of sititng down, your 4 yr. old wil probably get bored. disney meals take forever, esp. with the deluxe plan since you get breakfast lunch and dinner.

just a suggestion!

 

[MJMcBride]

Some thoughts

1. I love Boma and 'ohana

2. Get a ressie for one night at the World Showcase. For me, its not a trip to Disney w/o one dinner at WS and illuminations. My favorites are Chefs de France and San Angel Inn, but Tutto Italia and some others are very good

3. 2 character breakfasts that we tried last trip are now my 2 favorites. 'ohana with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto is absolutely great food.
Here's a review
http://www.mouseextra.com/2009/03/20/ohanas-character-breakfast-my-favorite/#comments

The other one is the Royal Akerhsus Princess breakfast in Norway at WS. The food is solid, the princesses stay with you for awhile, we had Aurora, Jasmine, Snow White, and Mulan. Plus, upon entering you meet n greet with Belle. You then get 3 large sets of free pics. Its terrific

 

[trappednabox]

don't think you're bonkers at all! I use Mouse Manager for all my reservations and I LOVE it! it has everything! A place for airline and ground transportation reservations, Plus places for day to day and notes, AND gives you the temp in Anaheim and Orlando yes I'm a bit OCD when it comes to my Disney Planning

I don't think you have too much planned at all! For our 1st trip we had dinning plan with 3 meals a day and were so happy to use all 3 a day!

Since we had never been we didn't realize how tired and hot we would be when it came to meal times. We were so happy to have a nice cool place to eat and rest during a meal so we could get up and go again

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

Before we went on the Deluxe Dining Plan in December 2008, I researched here on the disboard and subsequently planned one table service breakfast and one signature dinner for most of our days.

We actually enjoyed the days when we had three separate meals planned more.

I think I would have enjoyed the signature dining if it had been just me and DH. But since DD4 was with me and DSis, I wasn't as excited about Jiko's, Citricos, Artist Point, or Brown Derby. DD4 fell asleep in all of those places.

I liked going to the places DD4 enjoyed more.

Now, what I do think I may try this next trip is the Hoop Dee Doo and Mickey's Backyard Barbecue. That will give us a nice break from the three meals a day. But we really didn't mind them. We enjoyed being with the characters so much! And we ate light. We grazed all day and were entertained by some of the best character shows. It was wonderful!

 

[DisneyBunny15]

If I had 18 credits, here's how I would spend them:

Breakfast
1-Chef Mickeys
1-Crystal Palace
2-Cinderella's Royal Table
1-Akerhsus - (Disney Princesses - your DD would probably love that!)

Lunch
1-Sci-Fi
1-Coral Reef
1-San Angel
1-Plaza Restaurant
1-Beaches & Cream
1-Liberty Tree Tavern

Dinner
2-Narcossee's
1-Ohana
1-Chef's de France
1-Le Cellier
1-Rose and Crown
1-Whispering Canyon

 

[angelmav]

Actually, in your situation, I wouldnt do the deluxe at all. Your kids are young and you said its a first trip, so missing out on the hours of park time that they can do is a major thing to give up for dining, plus do you want to take kids that young to the more formal and longer lasting 2 credit places?

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Don't underestimate the benefit of room service. I think it would be great to go back to the resort around noon, order room service for lunch and then hang by the pool - especially since you could easily split some meals that way (since you are using two credits for each meal).

Also, CRT is two credits. Since you're staying at the Poly you might want to consider the Luau (also two credits). Although it doesn't get high marks for the food, it is an experience you don't get too many places.

I'd also recommend Kona for breakfast before hitting the parks at least one day.