Ugh, How do you guys do it? The last time I went to WDW, I didn't have to worry about ADR's because there was no dining plan. Now, I have to plan out every dinner for my entire stay, and it's making me bonkers!
How do you know where you want to eat and when months in advance? I know a few restaurants I definately want to visit, but others I just don't know about. One day I think I might want seafood, the next Italian.. and how do I know when I'm going to be hungry? I don't want to force myself to eat just because I have an ADR! I haven't made any of the ADR's yet, because I seem to change my mind every day! Is it just me?
Hi,
Well, you first have to determine when you are going to be there. For us, we are arriving on July 15 and leaving on July 21. We will spend the day at Magic Kingdom on the 15th, but we haven't made any ADR's because we might be tired from the flight, want to go swimming, etc.
The next thing I do is think about "OK, which are our favorite parks, and which are ones that we should only go to once or twice?" Our favorites are Magic Kingdom and Epcot, so I plan to include them in our schedule more than MGM and Animal Kingdom. Here is our tentative park schedule:
July 16 -- Magic Kingdom
July 17 -- Epcot
July 18 -- MGM, or Magic Kingdom
July 19 -- Animal Kingdom
July 20 -- Morning at Magic Kingdom, Afternoon and Evening at Epcot
Then, on our last day (July 21) we plan to go to Magic Kingdom because it is right on the monorail track and we can take our time and not rush back to the resort (Polynesian).
So, after all the park planning is out of the way, I think about "What does __________ like to eat?" We have five people going, me, DW, DS 10, DS 13, and MIL. I try to incorporate everybody's tastes into the food we will eat. An example is my MIL. She is German, so she loves German food and entertainment, but there aren't many good places that have both in Wisconsin, so we made reservations for Biergarten. Here is our ADR list and who I tried to incorporate the most when planning:
July 16 -- Lunch, Liberty Tree Tavern (MIL), Dinner, Crystal Palace (DS 13)
July 17 -- Lunch, Chefs de France (Me, DS 13), Dinner, Biergarten (MIL)
July 18 -- Lunch, ???, Dinner, Le Cellier (DW)
July 19 -- Lunch, ???, Dinner, Rainforest Cafe (DS 10)
July 20 -- Breakfast, Chef Mickey's (DS 10, DS 13), Lunch, Plaza Restaurant (DW), Dinner, Nine Dragons (Me, DS 13)
July 21 -- Breakfast, 'Ohana's (DW), Lunch, Tony's (DS 10)
Finally, you have to think about the meal times that would be good for your family. Here in Wisconsin we eat dinner around 6:00 PM, so because we are going over a time zone, I made all our dinner reservations for some time around 7:00 PM. Lunch is around 1:00 or 12:00 PM, and breakfast is around 9:00 AM.
You go through a lot planning ADR's, but when you get there, it is worth it in my opinion.
~Simon
