These would be some of my tips:
1. Make your ADRs as soon as you can (i.e., 180 days in advance) at the most popular restaurants. These include Be Our Guest (dinner), 'Ohana (dinner), Chef Mickey's (any meal), and any pre-park character breakfast, particulary in the MK (CRT and Crystal Palace). In the signature category, Cali Grill also tends to book up fast.
2. For most of its restaurants, Disney charges a $10 per person no-show fee if no one shows up for the reservation or the reservation isn't cancelled with at least a day's notice. Along those lines, if at least someone shows up for the reservation, a no-show fee is typically not charged, even if the group that shows up is smaller than the number on the reservation.
3. Resorts that include table service dining, on average, tend to have better restaurants than theme parks, with the deluxe resorts generally having the best restaurants, including signature options at most (and among the deluxes, the Grand Floridian and AKL have the overall strongest dining options). Of the parks, Epcot has not only the most table service dining options but also most of the better ones (making the Epcot resorts a good choice from a food perspective). The other theme parks lag far behind in this category.
4. There are many really good non-Disney operated dining options on property at places like Disney Springs and the Swan and Dolphin. And, unlike Disney operated dining, many of these can be reserved (e.g., on Open Table etc.) without a no-show penalty. However, these restaurants generally don't accept Disney dining plans or Tables in Wonderland.
5. Whether paying for a dining plan will end up saving you money depends a lot on the makeup of your group as well as your preferred dining style. They tend to make the make the most sense financially if you're planning to go to several character meals with children under age 10. Otherwise, they often end up being more expensive than paying OOP (especially considering that they don't include tips). And generally, the cheaper the dining plan, the harder it is to drive cost savings versus paying OOP.
6. If you chose the deluxe plan, which entitles you to three table service meals per person per day (as well as two snacks), it's generally advisable to plan for a one credit meal and a two credit meal (e.g., a signature dinner) per day as opposed to three one credit meals per day. Three table service meals per person per day is not only too much food for most people but also demands a considerable amount of time.
7. Try to plan meals to be as close as possible to where you are otherwise expecting to be at a given time. And keep in mind that if you are at the MK, there are many excellent resort dining options that are a Monorail or boat ride away. The same holds true if you are at EP or HS (except in this case, the transportation is by boat or walking).
8. To the extent possible, try to pick places where the nature of the restaurant more or less forces them to prepare fresh, made-to-order food. For example, in Epcot, we really like Via Napoli wood fired pizza and Teppan Edo teppanyaki.
9. If you book CRT or a dinner show, keep in mind that you'll be required to pay for the entire cost of the meal when booking (unless using dining plan credits) and that cancellations require at least a day's notice, otherwise you're out the entire cost of the meal (as opposed to just a no-show fee). For this reason, it's generally unadvisable to book these on your arrival day, especially if you're flying in. And of the dinner shows, the Hoop de Doo Revue consistently gets the best guest reviews for a reason.
10. Restaurant quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity. Along those lines, there are many off-the-beaten path, hidden gems in the resorts that are usually very easy to book, even at the last minute (and may not even require a reservation).
1. Make your ADRs as soon as you can (i.e., 180 days in advance) at the most popular restaurants. These include Be Our Guest (dinner), 'Ohana (dinner), Chef Mickey's (any meal), and any pre-park character breakfast, particulary in the MK (CRT and Crystal Palace). In the signature category, Cali Grill also tends to book up fast.
2. For most of its restaurants, Disney charges a $10 per person no-show fee if no one shows up for the reservation or the reservation isn't cancelled with at least a day's notice. Along those lines, if at least someone shows up for the reservation, a no-show fee is typically not charged, even if the group that shows up is smaller than the number on the reservation.
3. Resorts that include table service dining, on average, tend to have better restaurants than theme parks, with the deluxe resorts generally having the best restaurants, including signature options at most (and among the deluxes, the Grand Floridian and AKL have the overall strongest dining options). Of the parks, Epcot has not only the most table service dining options but also most of the better ones (making the Epcot resorts a good choice from a food perspective). The other theme parks lag far behind in this category.
4. There are many really good non-Disney operated dining options on property at places like Disney Springs and the Swan and Dolphin. And, unlike Disney operated dining, many of these can be reserved (e.g., on Open Table etc.) without a no-show penalty. However, these restaurants generally don't accept Disney dining plans or Tables in Wonderland.
5. Whether paying for a dining plan will end up saving you money depends a lot on the makeup of your group as well as your preferred dining style. They tend to make the make the most sense financially if you're planning to go to several character meals with children under age 10. Otherwise, they often end up being more expensive than paying OOP (especially considering that they don't include tips). And generally, the cheaper the dining plan, the harder it is to drive cost savings versus paying OOP.
6. If you chose the deluxe plan, which entitles you to three table service meals per person per day (as well as two snacks), it's generally advisable to plan for a one credit meal and a two credit meal (e.g., a signature dinner) per day as opposed to three one credit meals per day. Three table service meals per person per day is not only too much food for most people but also demands a considerable amount of time.
7. Try to plan meals to be as close as possible to where you are otherwise expecting to be at a given time. And keep in mind that if you are at the MK, there are many excellent resort dining options that are a Monorail or boat ride away. The same holds true if you are at EP or HS (except in this case, the transportation is by boat or walking).
8. To the extent possible, try to pick places where the nature of the restaurant more or less forces them to prepare fresh, made-to-order food. For example, in Epcot, we really like Via Napoli wood fired pizza and Teppan Edo teppanyaki.
9. If you book CRT or a dinner show, keep in mind that you'll be required to pay for the entire cost of the meal when booking (unless using dining plan credits) and that cancellations require at least a day's notice, otherwise you're out the entire cost of the meal (as opposed to just a no-show fee). For this reason, it's generally unadvisable to book these on your arrival day, especially if you're flying in. And of the dinner shows, the Hoop de Doo Revue consistently gets the best guest reviews for a reason.
10. Restaurant quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity. Along those lines, there are many off-the-beaten path, hidden gems in the resorts that are usually very easy to book, even at the last minute (and may not even require a reservation).
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