Opinions on Premium DP ADR's please

[mrsjoannh13]

Hi, everyone -

I'm a Disney newbie of sorts and am going in November with my hubby, daughter who will be turning 3 in Disney, my dad and mom (who will be in an ECV). We are staying at the Contemporary. The park days were picked based on crowd calendars. On Nov 13th, my brother, sister and law and their new baby will be joining us for lunch and dinner in Animal Kingdom so on that day instead of 5 we have 8 - including 2 little ones.

I would love any input on our current dining choices. We will be paying out of pocket for a couple of meals but here's the general plan. Since it's a "gift" trip for my parents and a birthday celebration, we want everything to be fun and special and full of pixie dust! Thanks in advance.

Nov 9 - arrival day - Contemporary check-in
6:00p Dinner at Chef Mickey's or California Grill
Trying to get a Cinderella's Table or BOG if it opens up

Nov 10 - Magic Kingdom
7:45a Ohana
11:30a Crystal Palace (may cancel and do QS to have more park time)
6:45p The Wave
trying to get a CRT or BOG in the park

Nov 11 - Hollywood Studios
8:30a Hollywood & Vine
1:30p Mama Melrose Fantasmic dining package
4:00p Sci Fi theater - will probably cancel and do QS prior to Fantasmic

Nov 12 - Magic Kingdom
8:25a Crystal Palace
12p Cinderella's Table (may cancel if I can get a dinner earlier in the week)
7p 1900 Park Fare

Nov 13 - Animal Kingdom
8:10a Tusker House
1:15p Sanaa
6p Jiko

Nov 14 - Departure day
8:20a Cinderella's Table
Hanging out at AK lodge until departure with bro, SIL and their baby

 

[IndyRnRfan]

I like your dinner choices. Never ate at Chef Mickey's but reviews are not good on the food but character wise I believe everyone likes it. Cali Grill use to be our favorite signature until we had the most awful service of all time. Food is really good though. Keep trying with BOG, you will get a spot.

I'm not sure what you want to know about DDP from your title or did you mean to say ADR's? There are a ton of threads about it already but if you are more specific people will help you in a heartbeat. FYI, this is the first time for us not using it. Going to try OOP and see if it works out better for us. The last trip we did save a couple hundred dollars if we had paid OOP for everything we ate but we probably wouldn't have ordered everything we did if paying OOP.

 

[jlwhitney]

Too much food! You will be losing a lot of time to sitting in restaurants and waiting to get a table (you cans till wait for a bit to get a table even with an ADR)

1 Sit down is plenty a day, 2 tops. 3 is just way too much.

Sanaa and Jiko are not in Animal Kingdom Park but at the hotel.

 

[Tonberry]

I'm not going to tell you it's too much food, because we like to eat and love food. And what's too much food for one person may be just fine for another. If you are fine with eating every 3 hours then your list is actually pretty good. It also helps if your 2 little ones are, well, real little, then the breaks will be needed anyway.
I would try and space out your meals as much as possible though.

On another note, you really only need one Cinderella's Table meal. I wouldn't spend 2 points on any breakfast. Instead, put this point towards another meal that you said you were going to payout of pocket for. Or, since you want the trip to be a special birthday gift, put the extra point into another signature meal or dinner show like Hoop Dee Doo.

 

[Hopefully]

Hi, everyone -

I'm a Disney newbie of sorts and am going in November with my hubby, daughter who will be turning 3 in Disney, my dad and mom (who will be in an ECV). We are staying at the Contemporary. The park days were picked based on crowd calendars. On Nov 13th, my brother, sister and law and their new baby will be joining us for lunch and dinner in Animal Kingdom so on that day instead of 5 we have 8 - including 2 little ones.

I would love any input on our current dining choices. We will be paying out of pocket for a couple of meals but here's the general plan. Since it's a "gift" trip for my parents and a birthday celebration, we want everything to be fun and special and full of pixie dust! Thanks in advance.

Nov 9 - arrival day - Contemporary check-in
6:00p Dinner at Chef Mickey's or California Grill
Trying to get a Cinderella's Table or BOG if it opens up

Nov 10 - Magic Kingdom
7:45a Ohana
11:30a Crystal Palace (may cancel and do QS to have more park time)
6:45p The Wave
trying to get a CRT or BOG in the park

Nov 11 - Hollywood Studios
8:30a Hollywood & Vine
1:30p Mama Melrose Fantasmic dining package
4:00p Sci Fi theater - will probably cancel and do QS prior to Fantasmic

Nov 12 - Magic Kingdom
8:25a Crystal Palace
12p Cinderella's Table (may cancel if I can get a dinner earlier in the week)
7p 1900 Park Fare

Nov 13 - Animal Kingdom
8:10a Tusker House
1:15p Sanaa
6p Jiko

Nov 14 - Departure day
8:20a Cinderella's Table
Hanging out at AK lodge until departure with bro, SIL and their baby

I think you have too many sit down meals. Most suggest the best use of DxDDP credits to be an expensive character breakfast followed by a 2 credit Signature dinner. TS meals generally take 60 - 90 minutes. You can also wait to be seated. an ADR is not a traditional reservation in the sense that they are not "holding" a table for you when you arrive. Rather it puts you in line for the next available table for your party size.
I would definitely cancel SciFi It is way too close to your lunch reservation. Can you move Crystal Palace to dinner rather than lunch? I personall would skip the Wave. I would not do Sanna and Jiko on your AK day. You are doing a lot of back and forth between AK and AKL that day.
Good Luck

 

[Pumbaa_]

Closing this thread, there is a second thread in play