Anyone do only dinners?

[eventsdj]

We are at DW for 6 nights, and I made all my ADR's this morning.

We did the DDP for the first time (only been to DW once before) just becasue I like the idea of most of our meals being pre-paid.

I made all my ADR's for dinner, around 5pm, thinking to get the most bang for our buck, I'd hate to get the DDP for eggs and pancakes.

But now I'm reading so many breakfasts are better...hmmm.

What is everyones general thoughts?

We have ADR"s at
Chef Mickey,
Ohana
Coral Reef
WCC
50's PTC
Crystal Palace

(we do have 1 oop breakfast at Kona for Tonga toast)

THaks

 

[spiceycat]

when you eat at home what is your big meal?

if dinner - then you are fine.

if breakfast - then try and change it

if lunch - again change it.

go on you and your family.

I would love breakfast - but the people going with do not eat breakfast and there big meal is dinner.

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

My husband and I did the dining plan last year and we used our Table Service for dinners as well and our counter service for lunches. I planned one breakfast and payed OOP for that. I couldn't see using our TS credits for breakfast either, as much as I love breakfast food. Plus I didn't want to take prime park touring time to eat breakfast. It worked well for us, although I know others feel different. You can get menus and meal prices from the allears web site and pencil out what works best for you both in park touring and financial sense. Have a great trip.

 

[Hootch]

only have one breakfast scheduled and that is Chef Mickey's on the day we check out. It has become a tradition for us to have breakfast there and head to DTD for final shopping. (The DTD shopping on the last days cuts down on the kids begging for more and more souveniers throughout the trip.) We're like KJ in that we usually have a light breakfast at the resort and lunch at a TS. We also carry snacks with us to carry us in the between times.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I only do ADR's for dinner. I'm not a huge breakfast person. I'll have some pancakes and eggs on vacation occasionally but prefer to have just some fresh fruit and some cereal. It would be a waste for me to use my DDP credits for that.

I've thought about doing lunch, but I'd never want to get up and walk around the parks after having a big lunch. I need to build my appetite up for a nice sit down meal.

 

[tink606]

DH and I are going to Disney for the Free Dining in August and we also have dinner only ressies. Were not big breakfast eaters and we figured we would use our snack credits on bagels and coffee since thats normally what we have in the mornings and then use our counter services for lunch and our table services for dinner. Our dinner ressies are as follows:

Day or Arrival Aug. 31st: Boatwrights at POR since were staying at POFQ
Sept. 1: Kona's
Sept. 2: Chef Mickey's
Sept. 3: Rose and Crown
Day of Departure Sept. 4: 50's primetime for lunch (only time were using TS for lunch instead of dinner since were leaving the same day, its a tradition for us to have lunch there before leaving).

 

[Dizneydaz]

We too use most of our TS for dinners. We don't just because of the most bang for your buck, but because we don't want to spend too much time at breakfast. We usually eat something in the room and then head out. Since we come from CA we have the 3 hr. time difference to deal with so getting up extra early in the a.m. (esp. at beginning of trip) can be hard-for DD7. Conversely, staying up later is easy for us! We ate dinner, mostly, between 7-8 p.m.

We do have one ADR for breakfast this time, at 'Ohana on our last day. We won't be going to the parks. Last year we did the same thing on my DD7th birthday at 1900PF, and it worked out well. We were able to take our time eating and visiting with the characters, and by the end of our meal, DD basically had all the characters to herself. She had a great time playing with The Mad Hatter and Alice.

We use most of our CS for lunch but as we get further into our trip and realize we have alot of CS to use then we will grab a quick breakfast in the food court.

Happy Dining!

 

[Piglet42]

I think it would all depend on what type of breakfast you eat and where at. For example, a character breakfast can get expensive depending on the size or your party. However, if you plan on taking full advantage of the dining plan at dinner (appitizer, entree, dessert) then are best paying OOP for breakfast no matter where you go. I always just try to look ahead at where I am eating, get an idea of what I'm eating, and pay OOP for the cheapest. For example, back in 2005 DH and I were celebrating our anniversary at California Grill, which uses 2 credits each. Since we like to go to on TS each day if possible, I knew we had to pay OOP at least one. We love Mama Melrose's flatbread pizzas, and we went there for lunch, that ended up being our cheapest meal, it was like around $32, even with an appitizer. This compared to over $40 for Crystal Palace breakfast. This was in Sept and the dining plan was free, so I guess it didn't really matter. We were in Disney back in Feb and paid for the dining plan, and I stressed myself out trying to make sure we used it to the full advantage. I liked it so much more when it was free!

 

[eventsdj]

Sounds good, I was curious to what everyone else did!

Most of our ressies are for 5 mp, I'm thinking mabey I should have made them later, but I guess by the time your seated and get your food, it will be closer to 5:30 or so, and that is when us midwesterners eat!

Plus, I was worried later ADR's would cut into our evening time, which is really when I enjoy things, being a night owl!

 

[MickeyNicki]

We used to do all TS dinners and grab CS for breakfast and lunch but on our last few visits we have done CP, Cape May and Kona for breakfast and those have been our favorite meals.

If we do a buffet for breakfast we usually skip lunch and have a light TS dinner or a nice CS dinner (we do not eat too many burgers or chicken fingers)

 

[dyna]

All supper ADR's here I would have liked to have done lunches for TS at about 1:30 or 2:00 and included that as part of our afternoon break. DH didn't want to tho. I figured we could eat while the parks was peaking out for the day go back to our room take a break an go back have the full evening to do the stuff we wanted to do.

2 yrs ago when we did free dining we did the supper ADR's an our evening was shot we didn't get to do much at all after supper some nights by the time we was done eating it was time for Illuminations or whatever and the park to close. I didn't much care for that but DH once again got his way.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

In December, we ate at Chef Mickeys, Garden Grill, Coral Reef, 1900 Park fare, Mama Melrose, Ohana's and CRT and they were all dinners. Since we had the dining plan, we got the most of our money's worth from eating at dinner since dinner costs more than breakfast or lunch.

 

[northie]

We do mostly all dinners too, mainly because by 5-7 pm we are ready for some downtime. We don't have kids along (they're grown) so we never go back to the resort in the daytime, we spend all day in the parks. By early evening we are ready to sit inside and recharge a bit.

For September (free dining) we have:

8 pm Fulton's Crab House (Check in day. Made it later in case the plane is late!) This is an OOP meal, but one of our favorite restaurants.

6:50 pm Le Cellier (to make sure we got done with dinner before IllumiNations!)

4:30 Crystal Palace

4:40 Prime Time Cafe

11:30 am San Angel Inn

7:10 pm Les Chefs de France

11:00 am Garden Grill, check out day. had to be lunch as we leave for the airport at about 2:30-3:00 pm.

October, fast trip for F&W Festival, no Dining Plan

6:50 pm Le Cellier arrival day

8:40am Chef Mickey's on departure day
Most of this trip we plan to eat around the world!

November trip with dining plan, not free but worth it!

8:40 pm Le Cellier, arrival day

Booking lunch with an Imagineer at Brown Derby

5:00 pm Hollywood and Vine Fantasmic Dinner Package

5:00 pm Grand Floridian Cafe, after a day of touring resorts to see Christmas decorations and before MVMCP

8:50 am Kona Cafe for Tonga Toast!

5:05pm The Plaza at MK, OOP, prices here are comparable to CS

4:15 Tutta Italia Candlelight Processional Package

9:00 Wolfgang Puck's Cafe DtD, late because my brother is meeting us after he gets off work and he has an hour drive at least to get to WDW from his home

6:50 Biergarten So far we have only had lunch here and wanted to be there once when the Musickanten was going on!

 

[Hodder]

When we went in Oct 2005 I had all Dinner ADR except for one breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (it was buffet and the bill was over $96 gotta love DDP) We decided then that when we go back we would book a couple of more breakfasts. Some nights we were too tired to want to eat a big meal and then too full afterwards to enjoy anything. Not to mention that most of the ADRs were for 6-7 and it was late by the time we got back to the bus. Out of the 13 ressies I have 4 breakfasts (on days that we will be doing water parks, going to I-drive to shop etc) The rest are dinners.

When we decided to go we knew that we were going to buy the DDP (yay got it free again), all we wanted is to break even so I wasn't looking for more bang One of my ressies is for The Plaza and alot of people say it isn't best use of the credits but I just figured that it would be nice just to have a lighter supper one night.

 

[kldmom2000]

Last year on the DDP for the first time, we had all dinners except 1 breakfast on our day of departure @ Cape May Cafe....

I swore never to do that again

All of our dinner ADR's were around 5/6pm because our girls won't hold out for a later time... BUT we'd be in the pool and I'd usher everyone back to the room by 3pm to change and rush to our dinner ADR. The girls didn't want to get out of the pool and sometimes we were just not hungry enough for a big meal at that time...

So, this time I've got 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 4 dinners