ADR timing whith kids

[HappyGrape]

Trying to decide for dinner ADRs

I was thinking if lunch is at 12, and snack as ice cream cookie sandwitch at 3 dinner ADR should be 18:00 or 18:30. However if it's 7 pm we will have little extra daylight time for swim, rest after the park. But if we end up getting a table at 7:30 it may be pushing it with DS being 9

I read reviews complaining about service at Ohana being worse later, as well as Sci Fi - 7 pm ADR is closing time for them.

Should I go with 18:00, 18:30 or 19:00? What do you think? How do you schedule your ADR's

 

[HappyGrape]

Another thing - If I book ADR at 7 it will be harder to schedule fp+. Many parks change/increase their park hours near the time. In November if MK hours are closing at 8, and dinner if 7 I could only book one fp after dark. But if the ADR is 6, we would loose sunset hour (pretty in AK)

so hard to decide!

 

[Disneylover99]

We generally book the earliest dinner ADR's with kids. It's quieter and less hectic at the restaurants.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

with my kids I usually try to book breakfast ADRs for the earliest possible (usually 8AM), then lunch ADRs around 11:30-12 and then dinner around 5:30-6...if we do dinner at 6 we usually have time to swim or head back to the park for some more rides or meet and greets.

 

[Hopefully]

I would stick as close to your schedule at home as possible. What time does your 9 yo go to bed?
Personally, we like dinner later, but that is just us.

 

[DisBuckMan]

Only you can make that decision that's best for your family. You know your kids better than any of us strangers do.

 

[mernin]

I try to book early dinner ADR's so that it's not too busy and we aren't pushing the evening too late for my kids. We eat early at home (sometime between 5-6pm) so we do that at WDW too. We don't do a big lunch at the parks if we have a TS dinner planned.

 

[Gracie09]

We often skip a full lunch, grab a snack when we're hungry and get and early dinner -4:30,5. Then go back on rides for a bit and then when every starts to get cranky, go swim. If we are staying for night time parades, we will swim in the miring eat lunch then come to the park, eat a lateish dinner then some ride/ ice cream while waiting for the parade to start

 

[aaarcher86]

I agree with keeping it similar to your schedule at home.

Nobody likes cranky kids in a restaurant, especially the parents.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I guess a lot depends on how schedule dependent you guys are while at home. i.e. if you live by the schedule, it's going to be very difficult for your children to be flexible for vacation. Which means you shouldn't deviate much from this norm. However, if you have a schedule at home, but aren't too rigid with it...your children may be able to handle a more varied approach at WDW. We have never been strict schedule people beyond when we have to go to work and school, so in their early trips to WDW, I would shift around nap/rest time, plan ADRs based on what worked best for maximizing our touring, and just relied on snacks in between. It worked for us and afforded us the ability to stay late in parks and do fireworks meals (even when the younger one was 2), but only you know your children and if they can tolerate changes in their days like this.