ADR's driving me NUTS!!! Help...first timer

[meredith1]

We make ADR's tomorrow and I've gone through no less than two spiral notebooks taking notes and I'm more confused than I was at the beginning. I'm positive I'm making it harder on myself than it needs to be. My H says I should be getting payed by the hour as much as I've been working on this-HA!

We are taking our 3.5 yr old/leaving twins at home. We are staying at CR/MK view. I dropped club level in leu of the DxDP. Our dd loves to go out to eat. We will be taking an afternoon rest time at the resort every afternoon.

Any input would be great. I would rather have to many ADR's than not enough since it's our first time and I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing...we may skip some of them, I'm not sure.

Sunday- MK-arrive mco 10:55 am
L-Contempo Cafe/rest a bit-we have to get up at 4:30 am
D-Crystal Palace & MVMCP

Monday-Epcot
B-The Wave
L-Via Napoli
D-Narcoosees

Tuesday-DHS
B-Grand Floridian Cafe
L-Hollywood Brown Derby
D-California Grill and Back to DHS for Osborne Lights

Wednesday-MK
B-CRT
L- CS somewhere in MK-Cosmic Rays or Pecos Bill
D-1900 Park Fare-It's just my DD3.5 and myself this night-

Thursday-AK
B-Tusker House
L- CS at Flame Tree
D-Ohana & Wishes

Friday-DTD for a few hours prior to leaving to go home
B-Chef Mickey's OR ???????

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Hello! Don't feel bad ... I have been to WDW many times and am making myself crazy over my ADRs this year. It seems that I am making a change every day!

I like your plan except that maybe it would be easier for you to eat dinner at Hollywood Derby on the night you want to do the Osborne Lights and move Cali Grille to another night. Maybe replace Narcoossees? We have never eaten there so I can't comment on the food. I wouldn't change your other dinners so Narcoossees is the only one I could pick to change.

Then if you are in DHS for that whole day, maybe have lunch at Sci Fi. The cars are really cool to eat in for little ones.

 

[Colleen27]

For the most part your plans look good to me, but personally I'd swap Brown Derby for either Sci-Fi or 50s Prime Time to shave off a credit since you have more meals planned than dining credits. Brown Derby just doesn't stand up to the other signatures in terms of food quality in my opinion, and I don't think it is really worth two credits.

Also on your Studios day, what is the park closing time? California Grill doesn't open until 5:30 and dinner there routinely takes 90min or longer so if Studios closes at 8 you're going to be cutting that very tight. Ohana would likely fit better that evening, and then book California Grill on the night you plan to watch Wishes.

If you want to get your credits down to what the plan includes, keep in mind that it is very easy to make a meal (breakfast especially) out of snack credits. Check out the sticky and see if you might not want to fill in some of the CS meals or drop one or both of your non-character breakfasts in favor of pastries and other snack-credit goodies.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

woah that is a lot of reservations!!!

Keep in mind that each meal will take 1-1.5 hours (if not more) with at least 15-20 minutes of travel time for any not in the park where you already are. So you are looking at about 90-120 minutes 3 times a day if you keep all of your dining reservations that are BLD in one day. 3 sit down meals a day would be 5-6 hours of dining plus a rest time and your park time is going to be very segmented. If you are staying 5 nights you will get 10 table service credits and right now I think you have 14 being used as Brown Derby and CRT are both 2 TS credits.


I would schedule a breakfast or brunch and then a dinner. You will get very full with a sit down meal and by not having a table service lunch you would be better able to judge when/if you need to return for an afternoon rest.

I also agree that your night for DHS/Osborne Lights should be when you do Brown Derby if you stay with that ADR.

 

[DizFanatik]

woah that is a lot of reservations!!!

Keep in mind that each meal will take 1-1.5 hours (if not more) with at least 15-20 minutes of travel time for any not in the park where you already are. So you are looking at about 90-120 minutes 3 times a day if you keep all of your dining reservations that are BLD in one day. 3 sit down meals a day would be 5-6 hours of dining plus a rest time and your park time is going to be very segmented. If you are staying 5 nights you will get 10 table service credits and right now I think you have 14 being used as Brown Derby and CRT are both 2 TS credits.


I would schedule a breakfast or brunch and then a dinner. You will get very full with a sit down meal and by not having a table service lunch you would be better able to judge when/if you need to return for an afternoon rest.

I also agree that your night for DHS/Osborne Lights should be when you do Brown Derby if you stay with that ADR.

They are on the deluxe DDP which is three TS meals per day so they have 15 TS credits. I do agree with others that Brown Derby is usually not a great experience for 2 TS Credits.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

They are on the deluxe DDP which is three TS meals per day so they have 15 TS credits. I do agree with others that Brown Derby is usually not a great experience for 2 TS Credits.

thank you-I don't know why in my head I thought it was 2 TS per day.

 

[sharonabe]

thank you-I don't know why in my head I thought it was 2 TS per day.

What the DxDP gives you is 3 credits a day. You can use them however you want at a TS or CS.

Right now you have four 2-credit restaurants in your plan: Narcosses, Calif Grill, CRT, and Brown Derby.

If you want to have 3 meals a day, you'll need to cut some of those.

 

[River Country]

They are on the deluxe DDP which is three TS meals per day so they have 15 TS credits. I do agree with others that Brown Derby is usually not a great experience for 2 TS Credits.

Brown Derby not getting any LOVE

I ate there in the begining of May and was absolutely blown away. The appetizers and the Cobb Salad were PHENOM. The entree was superb and the service was outstanding. Def. added to my must do's from here on in

Keep the ressie here the mroe people are turned on to it again it will be a difficult ressie to get i am sure.

 

[nyrfan00]

We did the dxddp last time we went and loved it.

However we used 1 TS for lunch and did a signature every night. I will say the food ws awesome and really enjoyed all the different restaurants, but it always seemed we were on such a tight schedule. That was the only negative...but was worth it in the end

I honestly couldn't imagine having 3 ADR evey day...I'm sure it's doable, but might the rigid schedule might be too much for us.

 

[3pletprincesses]

I would change Narcossees as we didn't like our meal there last month but we did LOVe brown derby. Keep in mind that it does take alot of time to eat app, entree and dessert at every meal. I would schedule about 90 for a regular restaurant and 2 hours for signature as that's what it took us roughly last month every day with our 4 yo. Also it's alot fo food and oyu might be too full from one meal to the other. We did mostly breakfast and early dinner or early lunch and later dinner and we were's starving in any shape or form between meals. I know my girls we not really hungry at every meal either.

 

[pugcrazy]

I also fear that your 3.5 year old will be tired and not cooperative with your dining plans. You have alot packed into your schedule for a 3.5 year old.

I would not expect a 3.5 year old to quietly enjoy Cali grill after a busy day at the park. I also fear that you will miss Osbourn lights if you leave the park.

I would hit 50's Prime Time or Sci Fi instead of Cali Grill on your HS day. No leaving the park and you will have a fun meal.