Are my ADRs Crazy?

[Trina7020]

I am so worried about food! lol Too much... too little?


We are travelling with a 2 year old and a 3 year old. This is our first trip.



May 31
Dinner: Chef Mickey’s (6:25)

June 1
Breakfast: Crystal Palace (8:05)
Dinner: Tony’s (5:00)

June 2
Breakfast: Tusker’s (9:00)

June 3
Breakfast: Ohana’s (8:30)
Dinner: LeCellier (4:20)

June 4
Breakfast: Hollywood and Vine (8:30)
Dinner: Sci-Fi Dine In (5:00)

June 5
Dinner: Liberty Tree Tavern (4:05)

June 6
Breakfast: Cape May Cafe (10:00)

 

[vbilello]

I think that looks about right- we are traveling with a two and three year old and our ADRs look very similar. Early dinners- smart! Buffets- great with little ones (lots of choices- no charge for 2yo! One thought- Sci Fi might be scary (films with aliens- have heard of little ones being scared). Also, I have heard that seating is not great for little kids (b/c the seats don't face each other in car). Maybe look at something else -perhaps Ohana? Family style is great with little ones & they will even do special food for little guys. My DD was 2.5 last year and LOVED ohana- especially learning the hula and getting a lei. Or, maybe something else in a resort? Otherwise, your choices look good.
One other suggestion- perhaps rent some of the SIng a long videos to prepare for characters-while my 1 year old was fine last year, DD2.5 DEFINITELY benefited from watching these before going. Several weeks before WDW last year, we went to Sesame Place- she was TERRIFIED of the characters (so much bigger than on TV!). Before DIsney, I bought on ebay (or maybe amazon?) some of the live sing a longs (Campground, Disneyland, Beach Club). These were GREAT b/c they show the actual characters interacting with kids. If your kids have only seen the cartoon characters (like on Playhouse DIsney) the size of the characters can be very overwhelming for these ages. Seeing the videos definitely prepared my girls! Be prepared for it to take a little time for them to warm up to the bigger characters. Give your kids a task (like giving Donald a high 5) also helps take the initial fear away!

Have a great trip!

 

[DisneyAprilFool]

Mind you, I'm no expert- but that looks like an awful lot of table service meals- you'll be spending all day at the restaurants and no time having fun in the parks! Particularly the days you have two TS planned- I'd pick the ONE I really want to go to and nix the one I didn't.

We did free dining back in September and even with just ONE table service a day- it took a good chunk up of our time and I really really wish we had cut back on a lot of our TS and just had quickie counter service meals.

 

[Trina7020]

Thanks!

I have actually thought about Cancelling Sci-Fi

Mostly my reasoning is I really want to see Fantasmic that day while we are DHS, but it doesn't start until 9:00! Which is super late for my kiddos. I thought about spending the morning at DHS and then heading back to the Hotel to swim and for a late nap and then head back for the show... I think I will have a better chance of them being cooperative that way. I am not worried about them being scared of it... I am more worried about them being too tired.

 

[Melissa_E]

IMHO, your plan looks great! The breakfast times won't cause you to get to the parks too much after rope drop or right at rope drop. We had a very similar schedule when we went in February and saw everything we planned on seeing. We never thought that our park time was minimized because of TS meals. I personally think it is exhausting to run through the park for the whole day without stopping to sit for a while. We did to the run through in MK with 1TS lunch and CS breakfast/dinner and we were at Epcot for rope drop until Illuminations. At around 4p.m. I said to DH, "that's it, I'm going to sit on this bench right here, you can DD can do what you want, but I'm done!" Then we had our dinner at 5:30 at Yachtsman and when we came back I caught a second wind and had a great time for the rest of the night.

 

[asktriplets]

hmmm...i like the idea of HAVING the reservations, but i'm not sure i'd plan to keep all of them. i would think it would depend on how your kids do. even NOW for my relatively well-behaved 5 y.o.s, table service dining can be more trouble than it is worth to me (in terms of keeping them entertained for that length of time). You should plan on about an hour per character meal, once you get seated, if you want to see all the characters.

i think the other thing i want to mention is that for OUR family, when my kids were 2 and 3, i knew that they had about 2-3 hours of good, compliant, easy-going behavior in the parks before i would start to see them getting tired, hungry, overwhelmed by the fun etc., so i didn't want to "waste" that good touring time first thing in the morning EVERY morning.

the other, bigger, factor is that the first hour of the day is the BEST for breezing through lines with little ones. Assuming a 9am park opening time, your 8:30 ADRs MIGHT work, but i would hate for you to feel rushed to finish if you want to get out into the parks (and often, you might not get seated at 8:30...depending on the crowd, it could be 10-15 mins. later). When we do morning sitdowns, we get an 8:10 or before, OR even better for us, we get the latest possible breakfast (10:30-10:50am). this allows us to get the great breakfast food that my family LOVES, at the cheapest price of the day, AND we were able to take advantage of the first 1-2 hrs. of the morning with no crowds.

The other thing that helps us not worry about planning ADRS is that i think the counter service in the parks and at the resorts is pretty great...lots of good, healthy choices.

As i said, though, i don't think it hurts at all to keep the ADRs and figure it out as you go!