Parents with little ones...what is your favorite meal to make ADRs?

[camgenemmysmom]

Hello! My kids are 8, 5, & 3! I'm probably overthinking this but what is your favorite time for booking ADR's? We will probably take an afternoon break most days, so I am leaning toward changing my dinner reservations to lunch ones so we don't feel rushed to get back to the parks for dinner. Any input is welcome!!

 

[mrsp1030]

My Boys were similar ages last fall when we went: 8,6,2...we did a variety of times...some breakfast, some lunch and very few dinner ones..We actually wanted to cancel our Thanksgiving dinner one b/c the kids were just wiped...but we couldn't due to paying the fee. This time I am only booking two dinners but one is at our resort and the other one is on a day when we are not hitting DHS until about noon anyways...

 

[Hawkeyegirls]

I made only 1 dinner adr and I was thankful that is all. The rest were all lunches. I just never knew with my daughter being 3 if she would make it until dinner, and since most of our dinners were characters ones for her, I didn't want her to be cranky or sleeping through it.

 

[Stubbzilla]

We enjoyed lunches the most, tried to make it a later lunch and we used that as our break instead of trying to return to the hotel room or anything like that.

 

[blackpearl77]

I think breakfast and dinner are the easiest. Lunch is hard since you don't know what time to make the reservation with rides. I don't want to try and plan rides around a lunch adr. And naps...for us nap was around lunch time.

 

[msmama]

I personally like dinners.

That said, we've never taken breaks, and we tend to leave the parks right after dinner. So we park from morning (close to RD) to 5ish, have dinner, and then back to the resort for the rest of the evening. It's just always worked for us. It's only now that my son is 7 that we're starting to do nighttime shows and fireworks.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

We're doing breakfasts and dinner ADRs. Like @blackpearl77 I find lunch hard to plan because I'm not sure if the kids will be hungry early or want to push through and do more rides/attractions.

 

[jacknsally19]

Personally, I plan my days and base my meals around it. If I am going to do a late start day, I may book a late character breakfast. On days where I plan on taking a long break break (e.g. Magic Kingdom in the AM never then a long break to return for the parade and fireworks), I usuall do a lunch and then just leave after lunch for our break. Finally, on days where I know that we are going to have an early night - say an Animal Kingdom day - I usually do dinner.

 

[abinormal]

We did almost all breakfasts. They were cheaper, got us in before opening, breakfast is a hard meal for me to arrange for everyone so lots of options, and hubby is a breakfast fanatic. It kept us going for a good while.

 

[keepswimming76]

We've never done dinner ADRs with the little ones. It's always early morning before the parks or a late lunch.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I enjoyed our lunch/brunch and dinner ADRs last trip with DS, then 2. The only late dinner I regretted was Ohana because they didn't seat us for 45 minutes past our ADR time. I'm too impatient to do a long breakfast, I want to get going while the kiddo still has good energy. We are doing a BOG QS breakfast this upcoming trip though, hopefully it won't take more than 30 minutes.

 

[Lupeix]

Hello! My kids are 8, 5, & 3! I'm probably overthinking this but what is your favorite time for booking ADR's? We will probably take an afternoon break most days, so I am leaning toward changing my dinner reservations to lunch ones so we don't feel rushed to get back to the parks for dinner. Any input is welcome!!

I like doing the latest breakfast reservation possible, so it ends up being brunch. It is cheaper, less crowded and I find it works well for the under 5 crowd
I like having a quick breakfast in the hotel, so you can be at rope-drop, do a lot of rides with smaller lines and then head to the meal before the toddler is too wiped out.

 

[HulaHoopy]

I like to do breakfast, even though it is my last favorite meal. It is the only one that everyone is always awake for!

 

[Ava]

We were planning around toddler nap time on the last two trips, so what worked best for us was a lunch ADR and then we'd leave the park and go back to the hotel for nap. If you don't necessarily need/want to go back to the hotel, but still want a break sitting down in the A/C, a lunch ADR can work for that too. We have also done pre-park opening breakfasts, but my kids are not the best at getting up early so we only did one (Akershus) last trip. The only dinner ADR we usually do is Boma after the day at Animal Kingdom, since that park has shorter hours so we don't leave midday, or on a non-park day where the kids have gotten to sleep in and/or nap can be given earlier in the day. (Waking my toddler from a nap before she's ready is never a good scene, so we try to avoid having to do it.)

 

[ssmurphy28]

We never made breakfast reservations since I wanted the kids to be able to sleep as long as they needed to in the mornings. My favorite time was probably between 6-7PM for dinner. We would always take an afternoon break and then head back for supper. If it was an earlier than 6, it could turn into a rush, so I liked the 6:00PM hour the best.

That being said, on our last trip we had one ADR a day (9 days), and I would not do that again. Some days you just want to grab a sandwich at the resort and call it a day, but with ADRs it restricts the ability to be flexible and put the needs/desires of your family first. That is just my opinion, but we will not be doing that many ADRs again.

 

[smiths02]

I'm going to do fewer dinner ADRs for our family. They were difficult for us because we would have to leave park, take a shower (it was June), take nap, wake everyone up, get ready, get to the restaurant. I never knew what the best time for dinner was. Some days, it was hard to get everyone back out to make a 6pm ADR, but 7pm would have been too late to get back to the hotel and rope drop the next day.
Another thing is that I don't think I'll do any pre-rope drop ADRs because with 3 kids, we never got out early and we felt rushed. For breakfast, I am sticking to late breakfasts.
Here is my tentative plan for next year (kids will be 10,3,3)
Arrival night-Dinner ADR (we drive and get there around 1-2pm) and Fireworks
Day 2-Sleep-in, quick snack in room, brunch ADR, dinner at QS in resort (or order pizza)
Day 3-Rope Drop, Lunch ADR in Park, QS dinner
Day 4-Rope Drop, Lunch ADR in Park QS dinner
Day 5-Rope Drop, Lunch ADR, later dinner ADR
Day 6-Sleep-in (pool), hit park in afternoon/evening only, dinner ADR
Day 7-Sleep-in (pool), hit park in afternoon/evening only, dinner ADR
Day 8-Brunch ADR, Later Dinner ADR
Day 9-No Parks, Dinner ADR
Day 10-No Parks, Departure, Late brunch ADR

We won't get the dining plan, but we do have TiW, for the character meals, breakfast is significantly less expensive, so that is where we do the brunches. Also, with TiW we get a discount at TS and at our resort (AoA) QS...so it makes sense to eat lunch in the park and then eat dinner at the resort.

Of course, for our family, and given that we travel in summer, 3/4 or 1/2 days worked better...we either hit rope drop and stay through lunch/early afternoon OR arrive early afternoon and stay through dinner/fireworks.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My kids are 9 and 2. We usually get the deluxe plan so we make ADRs for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. I would have to say our favorite ADR time is most likely breakfast. We are early risers so I make all the early ADRs and try to get into the parks before they open for those early ADRs. My next favorite time would probably be dinner because thats when we meet up and talk about our days. This past trip my older son and me stayed in the park and did all the big rides after lunch while my hubby took my little guy back to the hotel for a nap, then we met up about 3:30-4 and did some more stuff and then headed for dinner. My least fav ADR time is lunch. I usually try to plan lunch in the park that we are going to be so we don't actually have to leave the park to get there, but we always seem to be rushing to lunch and for some reason we are always more tired around lunch time then dinner time. I have no idea why though, lol. Anyways thats my 2 cents, lol

 

[Crystal824]

I like breakfast ADRs. They are cheaper and my kids are usually still in a good mood then....by dinner, all bets are off. In fact, during our last trip, I called and canceled a dinner reservation because they were just done that day.

 

[Happyjen27]

My first trip with 5 year old twins, we made many ADRs, and split them all between pre-park opening breakfasts (at Tusker House, and Hollywood and Vine) and lunches (Via Napoli while at EPCOT and Whispering Canyon right after our MK day on our way to the resort to nap) and dinner after we napped (O'hana, Chef Mickey, Les Chefs de France) and even a brunch on a non-park day (1900 Park Fare).

Never again. We had the dining plan, so we did a lot of dining.

Subsequent trips with 6 year olds, and this upcoming trip with 8 year olds include far fewer ADRs (and no dining plan). I still require sit down meals to make my belly happy, because QS doesn't always sit well, but, I don't like the feeling of rushing to ADRs and feeling obligated. My plan will be the same though. Pre-park ADRs (Be Our Guest) and some lunch ADRs (Beirgarten on our EPCOT day) some dinner ADRs (The Plaza, The Wave)

 

[ktlm]

DD is 9 now, and we have been every year since she was 2. I'm thinking more about your 3 and 5 year old as unless your 8 year old is a low energy kid, they can probably adapt to anything.

When DD was younger, and still today, we enjoyed lunch the most, but we do not take afternoon breaks. (We tried the afternoon break once when DD was 2, and it did not work well for her at all. She did not want to leave the parks, and she did not nap at the resort- she just stayed angry and pouted for 2 or 3 hours instead and then when we finally gave up and went back to the park she happily crawled into her stroller and took a nap. She has always been a high energy kid.). The TS lunch is our rest break. We sit and relax through lunch and by then we are rested and ready to go for the rest of the day. When DD was 2 and 3 that worked great because the lunch would get her wound down and then she would get in her stroller and take a nap. DH and I would take turns riding some of the bigger rides or rides she would not do while she napped. As she got older it still worked great because lunch would get her refueled and rested and ready to go again.

DD is not a morning person, so we discovered when she was a toddler that pre-park opening breakfasts were bad for us. Rope drop at the parks is as early as she is going to do without being cranky, especially with the one hour time change. If we do a breakfast when the park opens, then we miss valuable morning park time while the lines are shorter. If we did CS at lunch and waited for TS at dinner, when she was under 5, she was often tired and restless at dinner. She would be fine if we were running around in the parks, but if you made her sit down for any lengthy period of time for a TS, then the park adrenaline would slow and the tiredness would start to kick in. She has even fallen asleep at the table.

We typically do one TS a day. Much more than that and it takes away too much park time. We usually do book a late breakfast like at Tusker House, so that we can spend some time in the parks before and as we really enjoy their breakfast buffet, and then as AK closes early we will also book an ADR for dinner, typically 1900 Park Fare as DD's favorite has always been the Cinderella characters.