We are traveling to WDW in May and it is the first time our kids (ages 6 and 4) will ever go to Disney and the first time for my wife and I staying on property.
We're staying in a DVC studio so no kitchen to cook meals in, so have been mulling over how we're planning for meals throughout the stay, and whether or not the dining plan would make sense given the kids are free. The more I'm looking at it, the more it seems like the DDP might be the way to go from both a convenience AND cost perspective given we'll want to do a few character/signature dining meals anyway, plus can use a lot of the snack credits at EPCOT in the flower & garden festival...
...if only I can nail the plan down ahead of time...
I've been scouring the DIS and blogs and have gotten 90% of the way there and laid everything out -- I think I have a tentative plan that would work for most days (including meals on our park days like Cinderella's Royal Table), but need some advice on a few things:
We'll use 1 Table-Service meal for a Fantasmic! Dining Package the day we're at Hollywood Studios, and I'm torn between Sci-Fi and Hollywood & Vine -- any advice or recommendations between the two?
We'll be there for 9 nights, and only will be in the parks for 4 days, so will have some non-park days where outside of the pool or Disney Springs, meals will be the "big thing" for the day, and depending on where we choose, we may have different options on different days throughout the stay. We're split-staying between Beach Club and Animal Kingdom, so ideally looking to eat close to those locations or at Disney Springs. My question is, would a signature dining location that takes 2 credits be worth it, or should we go for more breadth? And if we didn't have a dinner, say at Topolino's, what would you do instead? Really focused on breakfast/dinners at the moment and will likely do some lunches/breakfasts as quick service or something easy in the room.
Option 1:
Option 2:
Thanks for the help! Entering analysis paralysis territory here...
(Note, I get the split-stay wrinkle when it comes to dining credits, which is actually what helps us out from a TS credit perspective later in our stay, as we would be able to use a TS credit from leg 1 instead of leg 2 on our transition day dinner)
We're staying in a DVC studio so no kitchen to cook meals in, so have been mulling over how we're planning for meals throughout the stay, and whether or not the dining plan would make sense given the kids are free. The more I'm looking at it, the more it seems like the DDP might be the way to go from both a convenience AND cost perspective given we'll want to do a few character/signature dining meals anyway, plus can use a lot of the snack credits at EPCOT in the flower & garden festival...
...if only I can nail the plan down ahead of time...
I've been scouring the DIS and blogs and have gotten 90% of the way there and laid everything out -- I think I have a tentative plan that would work for most days (including meals on our park days like Cinderella's Royal Table), but need some advice on a few things:
We'll use 1 Table-Service meal for a Fantasmic! Dining Package the day we're at Hollywood Studios, and I'm torn between Sci-Fi and Hollywood & Vine -- any advice or recommendations between the two?
We'll be there for 9 nights, and only will be in the parks for 4 days, so will have some non-park days where outside of the pool or Disney Springs, meals will be the "big thing" for the day, and depending on where we choose, we may have different options on different days throughout the stay. We're split-staying between Beach Club and Animal Kingdom, so ideally looking to eat close to those locations or at Disney Springs. My question is, would a signature dining location that takes 2 credits be worth it, or should we go for more breadth? And if we didn't have a dinner, say at Topolino's, what would you do instead? Really focused on breakfast/dinners at the moment and will likely do some lunches/breakfasts as quick service or something easy in the room.
Option 1:
- Day 3 (Beach Club): Character breakfast at Cape May Cafe (1 TS credit), Quick service dinner at Disney Springs
- Day 4 (Beach Club): Dinner at Topolino's or Yachtsman (2 TS credits)
- Day 6 (Animal Kingdom Lodge): grill dinner or pizza
- Day 7 (Animal Kingdom): Dinner at Tusker House or Boma or Sanaa (1 TS credit)
- Day 8 (Animal Kingdom Lodge): Dinner at Boma or Sanaa (1 TS credit)
Option 2:
- Day 3 (Beach Club):
Character breakfast at Cape May Cafe (1 TS credit),Quick service dinner at Disney SpringsQuick service breakfast near Beach Club, Table Service dinner at Disney Springs or somewhere near Beach Club (1 TS credit) - Day 4 (Beach Club):
Dinner at Topolino's or Yachtsman (2 TS credits)Character breakfast at Topolino's (1 TS credit), Quick service dinner somewhere - Day 6 (Animal Kingdom Lodge):
grill dinner or pizzaDinner at Sanaa (1 TS credit) - Day 7 (Animal Kingdom): Dinner at Tusker House
or Sanaa or Boma(1 TS credit) - Day 8 (Animal Kingdom Lodge): Dinner at Boma
or Sanaa(1 TS credit)
Thanks for the help! Entering analysis paralysis territory here...
(Note, I get the split-stay wrinkle when it comes to dining credits, which is actually what helps us out from a TS credit perspective later in our stay, as we would be able to use a TS credit from leg 1 instead of leg 2 on our transition day dinner)
