Am I completely nuts for this schedule?

[crabbygal902]

For me personally, it would be too much. My very active boys can barely sit still for 1 TS meal per day and my family is pretty tired of restaurants by the end of a Disney trip with only 1 TS per day.

For you, it may be perfect. You are ensuring that you have lots of lovely family time where you sit down and really pay attention to each other, and that is what a Disney vacation is all about. I agree with some PPs that there are some late ADRs or ADRs that seem to cut into nap times, but you know your kids better than anybody else and what they can handle. I also agree that swapping out some ADRs for dinner shows or signature restaurants could be good and would free up some park time for you. Another fun way to spend your credits would be to order room service or pizza one evening and let the kids eat dinner in their PJs.

 

[gabzee]

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

When we go we typically do a TS breakfast, CS lunch, and TS dinner. If you don't pig out at every meal, I don't think it would be too much if you had different ADR times. Many of your ADRs are very close together. When you have a 10something breakfast and a 2 something lunch, by the time you finish eating you are only going to have approx. 3 hours in between meals. I feel that it is not enough time. I would suggest trying to get earlier breakfasts. Since you have a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old some of the dinner time may be too late as well. (My kids would not have been happy when they were 2 or 4 at 11pm.) Just my opinion. I hope you have a fantastic vacation!

 

[aubriee]

My husband and I are taking my 3 y/o grandson for his first ever WDW trip Feb 4th-11th. I go to WDW several times a year and normally skip breakfast, do an early TS lunch and a Signature restauant for dinner every night. We are not big fans of CS. Even though I have the TiW card, for our Feb trip we decided to go with the DxDDP. Knowing my grandson's schedule and how well he does in restaurants, we decided to do all the character meals we could. We are doing a character meal early every morning, then a TS lunch about 12:00 and then having a TS dinner about 7:30pm. We'll be going back to the resort in the afternoon for a nap or pool time (if he doesn't nap in the stroller). We know that there will be alot of things that we normally do that we won't get to do with a 3 y/o and that's fine. The trip was planned around things he'd like and will much slower paced than we normally do. We intend to use the meal times to slow down and relax.

We have done the DxDDP in the past eating three meals a day. It works out, only if you space your meals out more (breakfast around 8:00am, lunch 12:00-12:30pm, and dinner around 7:30pm). Of course we are also not snackers and usually have just about all of our snacks left to use up the last day.

 

[Sugardimples]

This is way too much.

 

[Hopefully]

To answer your question, YES I think this is crazy.
I understand it is all you could get, but I would strongly recommend that you reconsider. Perhaps you don't want the DxDDP this trip.
I think you will be miserable.

 

[piranetus]

ok, well I changed Thursday to this:

Thursday

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare @ 10:20 am

Dinner at Flying Fish @ 7:15 pm


Still working on getting some of the other days worked out, it's just hard since I'm close to the trip, most times are booked at the moment. Thanks for everyone's advice and comments, I really appreciate it.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

ok, well I changed Thursday to this:

Thursday

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare @ 10:20 am

Dinner at Flying Fish @ 7:15 pm


Still working on getting some of the other days worked out, it's just hard since I'm close to the trip, most times are booked at the moment. Thanks for everyone's advice and comments, I really appreciate it.

This looks much better! And by the way FF is much better than GG or CR and the kids will love it! My 2 and 4 year old requested this as a repeat... it was the only "adult" meal without characters that was requested!

 

[nkereina]

We did DxDP at the end of September and I won't do it again. SO much food. You really need to have a very early breakfast, mid afternoon lunch, and then a late night dinner if you want to keep 3 TS meals per day, and be prepared to spend a lot of time traveling to ADRs and waiting (we were only seated on time about half the time). We had a lunch scheduled at 11:30 and a dinner scheduled at 6:30, and we cancelled the dinner, had it been later it may have worked. We just weren't hungry. Had we done an early breakfast and then a signature dinner around dinner time or later, it may have worked better for us. But you don't realize how much food an appetizer, entree and dessert really is until you get it. Plus we usually get soda or a milk shake where it's offered, and that just makes it worse for us.

 

[gayles]

Is does seem like alot of Sit-down Dinners which take sometime --- When are you going to enjoy the Park's & Rides ? Just a thought ..

 

[starousse]

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?

I definitely don't think you're crazy for having three meals a day. I just think your late 8, 9 and 10 o'clock dinners are WAY WAY too late for a 4 and 2 year old.

I'm doing Deluxe Dining next month, and have three meals planned for some of my days, but I did like a 9 breakfast, a 1:30 lunch and a 6:30 dinner.

 

[nkereina]

I definitely don't think you're crazy for having three meals a day. I just think your late 8, 9 and 10 o'clock dinners are WAY WAY too late for a 4 and 2 year old.

I'm doing Deluxe Dining next month, and have three meals planned for some of my days, but I did like a 9 breakfast, a 1:30 lunch and a 6:30 dinner.

From my own personal experience, I highly doubt you'll be hungry for a 6:30 dinner if you do a 1:30 lunch. We did an 11:30 lunch and were too full for a 6:30 dinner. Think about how much you eat at lunch in your normal life vs how much you will eat at a TS restaurant with an app, entree and dessert - it's double the food, if not more. This is something people on DxDP need to be wary of due to the new cancellation policies with CC holds (although you probably booked your ADRs before this policy was implemented) - had we booked ADRs with CC holds, we would have been charged more than once due to last minute cancellations because we weren't hungry, and didn't realize how not hungry we'd be. If we had an 8 or 8:30 dinner, we could have probably made that.

 

[piranetus]

I changed my Friday to this:

Friday

Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine @ 8:20 am

Lunch at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano @ 1:50 pm


Still have 'Ohana at 9:55 but trying to find an earlier time

 

[budafam]

I changed my Friday to this:

Friday

Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine @ 8:20 am

Lunch at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano @ 1:50 pm


Still have 'Ohana at 9:55 but trying to find an earlier time

I think that would be perfect spacing... the late Ohana meal will give you a chance to recoup unless that's too long of a day.

 

[Hopefully]

I changed my Friday to this:

Friday

Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine @ 8:20 am

Lunch at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano @ 1:50 pm


Still have 'Ohana at 9:55 but trying to find an earlier time

That is definetly better, but you have never answered the question of whether you think your 2 year old and 4 year old can tolerate dinner at 9:55 PM at night. If they are asleep or overwhelmingly tired, what good is it?

 

[piranetus]

That is definetly better, but you have never answered the question of whether you think your 2 year old and 4 year old can tolerate dinner at 9:55 PM at night. If they are asleep or overwhelmingly tired, what good is it?

Well, a 9 would be better. But it doesn't really bother me if they are asleep at that time. I also don't want to get something earlier, like 6 or 7, because I want to see the Osbourne Lights.

 

[Happy Mom2]

I think that is a lot of food, but as others have said you know your family. But since you asked for it, here's my 2 cents... we did the DxDDP last year, and we did early morning (before the parks opened) TS meals, QS lunch (if we were hungry) and TS meals again around 6pm. It worked perfect for us. As for the character meals, we loved them, and I don't think you can have too many! DD and DS were so used to the characters coming to see us at our table that they didn't want to wait in any lines to meet characters in the parks. The only exceptions were Buzz & Woody, the Fairies, and the Beast w/ Belle.

ETA: For the most part we kept our kids on their normal schedule... up early, early breakfast, lunch at noon, afternoon naps, dinner time, and bed time.

 

[mfulk]

I think you're plan sounds fine if it's what works well for your family.

We did the DxDP for a 10 day trip this past May with our 6, 4 and 2 year olds. It was our first time trying any dining plan - we loved it and it was not too much food for us at all. We enjoyed sitting down for 2 or 3 meals a day.

 

[havoc315]

See you are already making some changes, and my input is similar to others.
For my young children, they'd be starved if they waited till after 10 am for breakfast.
Not only are 3 meals per day probably too much food, but there are days when you are doing 2-3 buffets per day. It looks like there are days where you are practically headed straight from one buffet line to another. While I understand the value of character meals, in my family, the kids and adults alike would get burnt out from multiple character meals per day. I can picture my 4 year old crying, "please don't make me take another picture with the character."

I'd suggest throwing in more 2-credit meals. Hddr is fun for the kids. Signature dining is the best value on the DxDP.

 

[nkereina]

I changed my Friday to this:

Friday

Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine @ 8:20 am

Lunch at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano @ 1:50 pm


Still have 'Ohana at 9:55 but trying to find an earlier time

I think that would be perfect spacing... the late Ohana meal will give you a chance to recoup unless that's too long of a day.

I agree, I also think this is perfect spacing. Had we done our days on DxDP like this, we would have had the room for all the food maybe. By the time you actually eat at MM, it will be 2:30-3pmish, so the late dinner is perfect.

 

[piranetus]

So, my schedule for Tuesday right now is the same as originally:

Tuesday

Breakfast at Tusker House @ 9:05 am

Dinner at Cinderella's Castle @ 4:00 pm


Thus far, I haven't been able to find an earlier time for breakfast, or a later time for dinner.

But I'm thinking of changing dinner to this:

Yachtsman Steakhouse @ 5:00 pm

Keep in mind that we are going to the Christmas Party that same evening at Magic Kingdom.

If I can, it'd probably be good to get a nap in sometime around 3 this day.

So what would you guys recommend? Keep my current schedule, change dinner to Yachtsman, cancel dinner altogether, or something else?

Eating dinner at Cinderella's castle isn't a big deal, I've heard the food wasn't fantastic, we ate breakfast there last year so it's not like we've never been, and we're going to Akershus the next morning anyway.