ADRs Monday- critique please!

[jknewberry]

Hello everyone,

I am wondering what you all think about my time slots for my choices... specifically whether I should switch some dinners for sit down lunch instead. Our party includes my husband and I, our 3 kids (9,7, almost 3) and my husband's parents. We are hoping to be done with meals in time to see the night time shows if possible. We have the Disney Dining Plan and will pay out of pocket for one table service meal (likely Sci Fi) since we decided to add breakfast at Ohana's. All of us went together in 2012 (except the little one) and we've eaten at Whispering Canyon (but DH got sick that night so didn't really get to enjoy it), Chef Mickey's was our favorite, and Liberty Tree but half our party was sick for that one too

Here's our plan (so far):

Saturday- arrival day, Whispering Canyon 6 pm (with my SIL and family who are visiting at the same time! She's already got the reservation!)

Sunday- MK- Liberty Tree Tavern 5 pm, park closes at 8

Monday- Epcot- Coral Reef- 6 pm, park closes at 9

Tuesday- Tusker House- park closes at 6 so I am wondering if it would be better to choose lunch here.

Wednesday- Breakfast at Ohana 7:30 am, dinner at Chef Mickey's 6 pm (fireworks at 8 from Poly or Contemporary observation deck) We have some plans off site- either a Tiger's baseball Spring Training Game in Lakeland or Kennedy Space Center for the day!

Thursday- DH- Sci Fi- at 4:30-5 or for lunch? Park closes at 7

Friday- MK- BOG at 6 pm- park closes at 9 pm. I will be booking this one first and crossing my fingers!

Specific Questions:


1. MK- Liberty Tree Tavern- park closes at 8pm wondering about booking this for lunch instead, but will probably keep the early dinner

2. AK- Tusker House: Park closes at 6 pm- I am hoping that Rivers of Light is up and running at this point, which would mean a later park closing, and if that's the case I'd like to be done with dinner in time to see it and do the safari at night. If they keep these hours, I am tempted to book dinner as late as possible (like 5:45) so that we aren't missing much park time. Could I book lunch and dinner there and then drop one a week before the trip?

3. DH- Sci Fi- Since the park closes at 7, should I maybe switch my plans to a sit down lunch since the meal appears to be the same?

My thinking is that a mid day break might be nice for some of the days (we are staying on site but don't plan to trek back to the hotel) and for those 3 at least the meals look pretty much the same for lunch and dinner.

We have one more sit down meal than what our dining plan covers, so I will figure out which meal will likely be the cheapest to pay out of pocket- looks like Sci Fi (especially if it is lunch) but I've got time to price it all out)

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

 

[Hopefully]

Hello everyone,

I am wondering what you all think about my time slots for my choices... specifically whether I should switch some dinners for sit down lunch instead. Our party includes my husband and I, our 3 kids (9,7, almost 3) and my husband's parents. We are hoping to be done with meals in time to see the night time shows if possible. We have the Disney Dining Plan and will pay out of pocket for one table service meal (likely Sci Fi) since we decided to add breakfast at Ohana's. All of us went together in 2012 (except the little one) and we've eaten at Whispering Canyon (but DH got sick that night so didn't really get to enjoy it), Chef Mickey's was our favorite, and Liberty Tree but half our party was sick for that one too

Here's our plan (so far):

Saturday- arrival day, Whispering Canyon 6 pm (with my SIL and family who are visiting at the same time! She's already got the reservation!)

Sunday- MK- Liberty Tree Tavern 5 pm, park closes at 8

Monday- Epcot- Coral Reef- 6 pm, park closes at 9

Tuesday- Tusker House- park closes at 6 so I am wondering if it would be better to choose lunch here.

Wednesday- Breakfast at Ohana 7:30 am, dinner at Chef Mickey's 6 pm (fireworks at 8 from Poly or Contemporary observation deck) We have some plans off site- either a Tiger's baseball Spring Training Game in Lakeland or Kennedy Space Center for the day!

Thursday- DH- Sci Fi- at 4:30-5 or for lunch? Park closes at 7

Friday- MK- BOG at 6 pm- park closes at 9 pm. I will be booking this one first and crossing my fingers!

Specific Questions:


1. MK- Liberty Tree Tavern- park closes at 8pm wondering about booking this for lunch instead, but will probably keep the early dinner I would keep this for dinner

2. AK- Tusker House: Park closes at 6 pm- I am hoping that Rivers of Light is up and running at this point, which would mean a later park closing, and if that's the case I'd like to be done with dinner in time to see it and do the safari at night. If they keep these hours, I am tempted to book dinner as late as possible (like 5:45) so that we aren't missing much park time. Could I book lunch and dinner there and then drop one a week before the trip? You don't say what month you are going. ROL is truly an unknown at this point, Yes you would be able to book lunch and dinner, but I consider that extremely self centered. Your indecision is potentially keeping another family from securing an ADR. I don't do this and I think it is wrong. I would book dinner as late as possible.

3. DH- Sci Fi- Since the park closes at 7, should I maybe switch my plans to a sit down lunch since the meal appears to be the same? Hollywood Studio restaurants went to "All Day Menus" several years ago. The meal will be the same. This might be a nice lunch

My thinking is that a mid day break might be nice for some of the days (we are staying on site but don't plan to trek back to the hotel) and for those 3 at least the meals look pretty much the same for lunch and dinner.

We have one more sit down meal than what our dining plan covers, so I will figure out which meal will likely be the cheapest to pay out of pocket- looks like Sci Fi (especially if it is lunch) but I've got time to price it all out)

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

I usually plan 60 - 90 minutes for a TS meal, if that helps in your planning.
See my comments above.

 

[jknewberry]

@Hopefully- I appreciate your input! We are going in Feb/March. I am leaning toward keeping Liberty Tree for dinner, and swapping to lunch for Tusker House and Sci Fi. I know Rivers of Light is somewhat of a mystery, but I am hoping that by the end of Feb they will have it figured out and change the hours for the park. Last year they were open til 7 for the same weekday in that calendar week, for our trip it says 6 and I think when we went in 2012 it was 5:30. For Sci Fi, it appears that the lunch items will be a couple of dollars cheaper than the same dinner items (namely the burger that I think all the adults would order), so considering that it makes it an even clearer choice for our out of pocket meal.

 

[Simba07]

A lot of times you can get dinner reservations very close to park closing and leave after the park closes to eat up park time. AK was closing at 6 I think and our reservation was for 5:30 or 5:45 at Tusker. We loved getting to walk through the empty park.

 

[jknewberry]

@Simba07 - That's kind of my plan for AK- we had a reservation for dinner at Yak & Yeti about 15 minutes before the park closed, and it was nice and relaxed, no hurry to get done in time to ride anything. Not that we stayed a long time, I wouldn't want a bunch of people at the restaurant stuck there while we sat around, but it was nice to just stroll out of the park without being in a throng of people. If they do happen to get RoL online in 6 months, then that reservation might still work out great- if sunset is at 6:30 ish then I would think they'd be open until maybe 8, so a 5:30 meal would give us time to see the show or hit one ride after dark. Or I could just do quick service for both meals (we have 2 other character meals anyways) there so we don't have to plan so much, then I wouldn't have to pay OOP for a sit down.... Hmmm... there's a thought.