Am I completely nuts for this schedule?

[piranetus]

I live in Florida and go to Disney a few times a year. I've never really cared for dining, I just typically ate wherever I could that was available. Dining at Epcot was really the only place I cared about dining, since they have so many great restaurants.

Well, my family is going the week after Thanksgiving, and I decided to get the Deluxe Dining Plan. I have two girls (ages 4 and 2), and so am trying to maximize the cost of the Dining Plan. But perhaps I've gone overboard? What do you think?

Here's my schedule:

Monday

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's @ 10:25am

Afternoon Tea at 1900 Park Fare @ 2:00 pm

Dinner at 1900 Park Fare @ 7:15 pm

Tuesday

Breakfast at Tusker House @ 9:05 am

Dinner at Cinderella's Castle @ 4:00 pm

Wednesday

Breakfast at Akershus @ 10:35 am

Lunch at Le Cellier @ 2:20 pm

Dinner at San Angel Inn @ 7:45 pm

Thursday

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare @ 10:20 am

Lunch at Garden Grill @ 4:30 pm

Dinner at Coral Reef @ 9:05 pm

Friday

Breakfast at Cape May Cafe @ 10:20 am

Lunch at Hollywood & Vine @ 2:15 pm

Dinner at 'Ohana @ 9:55 pm

 

[nanni]

I think if you really want to do a lot of sit down meals, they look fine. But to me, the breakfasts and lunches are too close together. If I eat an all you care to eat breakfast at 10:30, chances are I won't be terribly hungry by 2:30. But, if you will be, then that's fine.

 

[ccgirl]

I live in Florida and go to Disney a few times a year. I've never really cared for dining, I just typically ate wherever I could that was available. Dining at Epcot was really the only place I cared about dining, since they have so many great restaurants.

Well, my family is going the week after Thanksgiving, and I decided to get the Deluxe Dining Plan. I have two girls (ages 4 and 2), and so am trying to maximize the cost of the Dining Plan. But perhaps I've gone overboard? What do you think?

Here's my schedule:

Monday

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's @ 10:25am

Afternoon Tea at 1900 Park Fare @ 2:00 pm

Dinner at 1900 Park Fare @ 7:15 pm

Tuesday

Breakfast at Tusker House @ 9:05 am

Dinner at Cinderella's Castle @ 4:00 pm

Wednesday

Breakfast at Akershus @ 10:35 am

Lunch at Le Cellier @ 2:20 pm

Dinner at San Angel Inn @ 7:45 pm

Thursday

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare @ 10:20 am

Lunch at Garden Grill @ 4:30 pm

Dinner at Coral Reef @ 9:05 pm

Friday

Breakfast at Cape May Cafe @ 10:20 am

Lunch at Hollywood & Vine @ 2:15 pm

Dinner at 'Ohana @ 9:55 pm

For us, Wed, THur, Fri would be too much. On the DxDDp, we tended to do a late breakfast and a signature dinner and were still stuffed.

 

[3pletprincesses]

I have 5 yo triplets and have done Deluxe twice and I can tell you it will be too much food to have 3 meals a day. for one thing, my 3 girls usually share 2 kids meals and usually are not over hungry during the day. We usually do character meals early morning and then signature meals at about 5pm. We use our snacks during the day for a few things but even then they rarely want anything. Your Wed and Thurs are too full for us. Le Cellier after Akershus is cutting it too close considering that you will be out of Akershus around 11:30 at the earliest. You will probably still be full by your ADr at Le cellier.

 

[Ramsfan28]

It is only crazy if you think it is crazy - I highly doubt anyone on this board knows your eating habits and how important certain meals are to you versus others.

 

[piranetus]

Well, I'm hoping the meal frequency won't be that big of a deal. I don't really care for any Disney breakfasts, they're typically fairly gross to me. So, I plan on eating light on the breakfast meals and then filling up later in the day.

The main thing I'm worried about is just the number of character meals - 10 in all. I hope that doesn't overstimulate my kids or something.

 

[lovin'fl]

Well...if you aren't hard pressed to see and do everything in the parks, than 3 TS meals a day is fine (2 TS each day would really interfere with park time...let alone 3 TS). I also think your breakfast ADRs should be earlier so that you'll be hungry for your lunch ADR. Also, you have a couple late dinners for the ages of your kids. When we did Disney, when my kids were little, they'd sack out by 10:00, they'd be so worn out. If you all can handle the schedule, then go for it.

We had a split stay in 2009 and had the Deluxe DDP for the second 5 days. We had a hard time eating all that food and we did 2 TS a day (1 signature or if not, we'd do 2 TS and 1 CS). By the last few days, we would barely touch the food on our plates...we were so stuffed. It was pretty hot too (July), so that didn't help. When we checked out and went home, we still had some meals left that we didn't use.

 

[jennamarie]

Personally, I think it will be WAY too much food for you guys. It also minimizes your park time to do all three sit down meals. The places that you chose all seem great though. We had the dining plan when it first came out with the appetizer meal and dessert and even that was too much food. Plus, it doesn't leave any room to get those much desired snacks at the parks, like a dole whip!

 

[tinacaplan]

Two things...and they are both merely my opinion. I think the deluxe plan is only worth it if you more or less do a signature every night. Its hard to be really hungry when you're eating three table service meals a day, with a lunch and dinner that includes an appetizer and dessert. Oh...and then there are the snacks! It really is a lot of food. Again, if my husband and I ever do another adults-only trip again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. We went last February with our four year-old son. He is reasonably well behaved in restaurants. That said, we were inclined to change our plans quite often and ended up leaving a lot of credits on the table by the end of our trip. We went without a dining plan at all this past July and it worked really well for us. If we wanted to cancel something, we could...no worries.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

A little nuts, maybe... but what DISer isn't?

I agree with several of the other posters... if you can move some of your breakfasts up a bit, it won't seem as though you're jumping right from one meal to another. Also, some of your dinners are a little late with such young kids--but if they sleep through the dinner, so what?

I think if you're excited about the plan, and your kids like to eat in restaurants, go for it and have a great time! You know your family best. As for the characters meals, as long as your kids like the characters, they'll probably be pretty excited to see them so many times. For most kids, there is no such thing as too much character time!

You made some great choices! Have fun!

 

[jturling]

My only thought is you may get tired of being out late for dinner and getting up early every morning for breakfast.The small ones may crash and burn after a couple days.May take a sleep in morning and add a signature dining.

 

[mom2maggie]

We're doing DxDp with a 6 & 2 year old this time - and if we had your schedule, my kids would not be very happy with the late dinners! When are they going to nap?

 

[amym2]

All kids are different, but if we tried that, our kids wouldn't be too pleasant, and they are 7 and 10! I agree that you might be better off turning some of those meals into signature meals and not scheduling as many. 10 character meals? Wow! We like to do 2 per trip, can't imagine doing 10. You have some great meals on there, but not for 9:55pm with a 2 and 4 year old! Personally we couldn't do it, not without some major naps for everyone. Plus that's a lot of time in restaurants- can your kids sit in restaurants for 5-6 hours per day? Seems like a lot of time they'd rather be riding rides.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

There is NO WAY that my 4 year old or 2 year old could make a 9:55 dinner at night. (Or even the 9:05) Also, is the tea on the dining plan?

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Just a couple things jump out at me - I think the late dinners (like the couple after 9 p.m.) might be rough for a 2 and 4 y/o - at least based on how my DD was at that age but YMMV. Also the later breakfasts may be hard for the little ones as they may be hungry earlier than that depending how early they get up.

 

[gigi1313]

Here's my schedule:

Monday

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's @ 10:25am

you will likely finish here close to noon... even if you go to MK this day, you cannot get there much before 12:30 and at 1:30 you will need to leave to go to tea... giving you an hour, maybe 1.5hr of park time.

Afternoon Tea at 1900 Park Fare @ 2:00 pm

Dinner at 1900 Park Fare @ 7:15 pm

Tuesday

Breakfast at Tusker House @ 9:05 am

you will likely finish this meal about 10:30am... in order to be at the Castle in MK by 3:45pm, you will need to leave AK no later than2:30-2:45pm, giving you maybe 4 hours of AK touring time (keeping in mind that some of the shows are only shown at set times, you will also miss the parade).

Dinner at Cinderella's Castle @ 4:00 pm

Wednesday

Breakfast at Akershus @ 10:35 am

if you arrive at rope drop you will have an hour to do some of the Future World attractions, maybe collect some FPs before heading to WS to get to b'fast by 10:20am... you will likely finish this meal just before noon... head back to FW to use your FPs and head back into WS to be at Canada by 2pm, giving you 2-2.5 hours of touring time between the two meals (not to mention just two hours to digest the food you just consumed!)... conversely you could stay in WS and tour your way to Canada for about 2 hours...

Lunch at Le Cellier @ 2:20 pm

Finish this meal around 4pm and visit the remainder of Epcot for about 3 hours... now you've been in Epcot 12 hours and spent more than half of that eating or getting to ADRs!

Dinner at San Angel Inn @ 7:45 pm

Thursday

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare @ 10:20 am

Finish here close to noon... 3 hours to visit Epcot again... followed by a few more hours of Epcot, (which is probably not going to captivate your 2 and 4 yos for two days straight) before you have to head to your next meal at 4pm, which you should finish about 5:30, giving you another 4 hours before you have to go to your next meal...

Lunch at Garden Grill @ 4:30 pm

Dinner at Coral Reef @ 9:05 pm

Friday

Breakfast at Cape May Cafe @ 10:20 am

This meal should be finished again around noon and because of its location, will likely give you little or no time to visit a park prior... by the time you get to DHS (boat or walk) it will be around 12:30... 1.5 hours later you have to be at H&V... again, because so many of the attractions are shows, and some on time schedules, you will likely not be able to do much park touring...

Lunch at Hollywood & Vine @ 2:15 pm

10pm dinner for a toddler and a preschooler?! unless your kids are used to being up this late, or you take a nap (when? after lunch w/out visiting much more of DHS) this sounds like a delicious recipe for disaster!

Dinner at 'Ohana @ 9:55 pm

Here's how i would shake it out, if it's not too late to get ADRs for your dates... I would attempt to do some of your character b'fasts (keeping in mind that a lot of your character meals are character overlap... CMs, TH, CMay, GG are all Mickey/Minnie/Donald/etc... CRT and Akershus are both princesses... the first time will be a hit, by the fourth, a yawn!) but not all... also, consider CP for the Pooh gang!

In addition, i would visit HDDR and SoA dinnershows... my ds at 2 was captivated by both and they are very kid-friendly (much more so than the tea!) and they include gratuity (something if you are on a budget is going to take a major toll on your wallet given your current lineup)...

Another question... are you/your kids used to not eating b'fast 'til 10:30am? you have a few later b'fasts (what i'd call brunches)... my kids would need a light b'fast in the room if we were not feeding them 'til 10:30am!

Last but not least, you have a short AK day, two long Epcot days, 1.5 MK days punctuated by a lot of meals, and a short DHS day... i would definitely reconsider it!

 

[NLD]

You'll be in restaurants all the time! Getting to the restaurants, waiting for your table, sitting at the table, eating at the table.

I know everyone's family is different... heck I don't even like one TS per day, so take it for what it's worth... but there's simply no way I'd take my dd (age 8) to three sit-down meals in one day... let alone for several days in a row.

Even if the parks / attractions aren't a priority--even if you don't mind missing lots of stuff--will your kids be able to tolerate that much sitting and eating?

 

[budafam]

We just got back from 6 days in WDW with the DxDP and I had 2 days with 3 meals scheduled each. Other days had 2 meals each. Everyone on here warned me that it would be too much having 3 meals in one day and I thought "no way!" lol... boy was I wrong! We were so stuffed from breakfast... I usually made it through the appetizer for lunch but once dinner rolled around, I felt as though we were being tortured. It's really that bad and I feel like I am a very big eater. I am usually a 3 plate buffet runner (at the least) but it was too much for me. Take the advice and switch up some for a few dinner shows and enjoy more park time. You'll be happy in the end and still super full!

 

[piranetus]

Believe me, I wasn't planning on eating breakfast so late, or having so many character meals.


But I've gotten what I can get. I guess I'll call Disney Dining and see if I can change anything around, to get more time in between the reservations.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I don't think it's too crazy, as long as the timing works for you. I know people always protest, "Too much food!" I think that's silly. It's not like you have to clean your plate every time you're at the table. We've had days where we've had three sit-down meals at Disney and it works out fine as long as the reservations are well-spaced. I will say, though, that our party is two adults. Small children may not do as well with that kind of schedule, especially since it often means early mornings, late nights and missed nap times. Not to mention how table service meals cut in to park touring time.