Critique My Dining Plans?

czechplz

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We will be staying at Art of Animation with four adults. We also have the Deluxe Dining Plan. We each chose a favorite that we won't change, which are Nine Dragons, Trattoria al Forno, and Homecomin' and the Hollywood Brown Derby.

Day 1-Arrival Day

Lunch at Landscape of Flavors
Dinner at Homecomin'

Day 2-Hollywood Studios
Lunch at Hollywood Brown Derby
Dinner at Cape May Cafe

Day 3-Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafe
Lunch at Satu'Li Canteen
Dinner at Sanaa

Day 4-Epcot
Breakfast at Les Halles
Lunch at Nine Dragons
Dinner at Via Napoli

Day 5-Break Day
Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno
Lunch at Sebastian's Bistro
Dinner at Trail's End

Day 6-Epcot/Magic Kingdom
Lunch at Tokyo Dining
Dinner at Be Our Guest

Day 7-The Dark Side
Breakfast at Landscape of Flavors

Day 8-Magic Kingdom
Breakfast at Crystal Palace
Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table

Day 9-Departure Day
Breakfast at Olivia's Cafe
Lunch at D-Luxe Burger
 
We are going this Saturday and cancelled all of our dining plans and are going to wing it except for Hoop-De-Doo Review which we love. As far as your plans go, here is my personal opinion:

Love landscape of flavors - inexpensive as far as Disney goes and tasty.

Art Smith's - we are going to try to just walk in - if we do not get to eat there, I will be disappointed but we only live 90 minutes away and can try again.

Brown Derby - have not eaten at, my husband would not like the menu.

Cape May Cafe - have not eat at, my husband is allergic to shellfish.

Yak and Yeti - we love it here - may want to check, my husband said they stopped serving breakfast.

Nine Dragons - we really liked.

Via Napoli - we loved it there. My husband still raves about their pizza.

BOG - was sorely disappointed - loved the atmosphere but not the food.

Have fun.
 
We are going this Saturday and cancelled all of our dining plans and are going to wing it except for Hoop-De-Doo Review which we love. As far as your plans go, here is my personal opinion:

Love landscape of flavors - inexpensive as far as Disney goes and tasty.

Art Smith's - we are going to try to just walk in - if we do not get to eat there, I will be disappointed but we only live 90 minutes away and can try again.

Brown Derby - have not eaten at, my husband would not like the menu.

Cape May Cafe - have not eat at, my husband is allergic to shellfish.

Yak and Yeti - we love it here - may want to check, my husband said they stopped serving breakfast.

Nine Dragons - we really liked.

Via Napoli - we loved it there. My husband still raves about their pizza.

BOG - was sorely disappointed - loved the atmosphere but not the food.

Have fun.

Did you do the BoG prix faire? I have had it for breakfast and lunch and I wasn't a fan of either of those. I really hope Yak and Yeti are still serving breakfast. That was the only decent QS breakfast at AK. Also, good luck on Homecomin'!
 
Three table service in one day is a ton of food. Especially with 2 being AYCTE and 2 character. That’s about 5-6 hours of dedicated dining. I would maybe skip the lunch and have some snacks instead.
 

I would limit sit down meals to one a day. As was mentioned, that's a lot of time spent eating vs. spending time in the parks. IMHO, overall WDW dining is mediocre at best with a few standouts. It's nothing to spend a lot of time doing.

Note: I just noticed you have the deluxe dining plan. It's a lot food. I mean, a ton. Can you really eat that much per day?
 
I would limit sit down meals to one a day. As was mentioned, that's a lot of time spent eating vs. spending time in the parks. IMHO, overall WDW dining is mediocre at best with a few standouts. It's nothing to spend a lot of time doing.

Note: I just noticed you have the deluxe dining plan. It's a lot food. I mean, a ton. Can you really eat that much per day?

My group are all foodies. We definitely won't eat all of everything we get, but we like to try new things and pig out on multiple options.
 
if you might not eat everything then why the deluxe plan? It may be less expensive to pay out of pocket.
 
if you might not eat everything then why the deluxe plan? It may be less expensive to pay out of pocket.
We’ve eaten on the Deluxe dining plan several times and twice OOP. For us it really depends on who we are going with and to some extent what time of year.

On a trip with kiddos who prefer to eat three times a day we generally opt in to the dining plan; gives the trip some needed downtime and structure and also provides A/C during summer trips.
On adult trips, one small plate lunch and a sit down dinner generally at a Signature restaurant suits us well.

I should note that we rarely eat at QS eateries on any type of trip as I’ve concerns about the quality of the food from a health and nutrition POV. Haven’t done the full cost comparison on our current OOP trip but it looks like it’s going to be a wash as far as price is concerned.
 
We will be staying at Art of Animation with four adults. We also have the Deluxe Dining Plan. We each chose a favorite that we won't change, which are Nine Dragons, Trattoria al Forno, and Homecomin' and the Hollywood Brown Derby.

Day 1-Arrival Day

Lunch at Landscape of Flavors
Dinner at Homecomin'

Day 2-Hollywood Studios
Lunch at Hollywood Brown Derby
Dinner at Cape May Cafe

Day 3-Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafe
Lunch at Satu'Li Canteen
Dinner at Sanaa

Day 4-Epcot
Breakfast at Les Halles
Lunch at Nine Dragons
Dinner at Via Napoli

Day 5-Break Day
Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno
Lunch at Sebastian's Bistro
Dinner at Trail's End

Day 6-Epcot/Magic Kingdom
Lunch at Tokyo Dining
Dinner at Be Our Guest

Day 7-The Dark Side
Breakfast at Landscape of Flavors

Day 8-Magic Kingdom
Breakfast at Crystal Palace
Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table

Day 9-Departure Day
Breakfast at Olivia's Cafe
Lunch at D-Luxe Burger

I'm glad I read some of your previous responses to understand the mindset of your group. A focus on food without worry about missing other experiences and you won't fill up knowing you've got more on the way.

I would consider Yachtsman over Cape May, unless there are some menu items at Cape May that you really want to try.
On your last magic kingdom day, no Skippers Canteen? This was one of our surprise hits on our trip in 2017, so I hope the diversity and quality continued. Consider also maybe popping out of the park and hitting the Wave or California Grill over at the Contemporary. A short walk for some non-park dining choices.
 
Did you do the BoG prix faire? I have had it for breakfast and lunch and I wasn't a fan of either of those. I really hope Yak and Yeti are still serving breakfast. That was the only decent QS breakfast at AK. Also, good luck on Homecomin'!

No, we ordered off the menu. Unfortunately Yak and Yeti does not serve breakfast any more.
 
While we are fans of the deluxe plan, this is seriously way too much food and meals. Planning more than 2 TS meals in one day does not leave you nearly enough time between meals, you simply wont be hungry. I am looking at day 8, and you will spend over half your time in the MK at a restaurant. My suggestion would be to take another look, plan two meals per day, use those extra credits toward the signature experiences, and fill in with snacks between meals.
 
Day 4-Epcot
Breakfast at Les Halles
Lunch at Nine Dragons
Dinner at Via Napoli

On Day 4 I would consider a ppo breakfast at Garden Grill depending on how you are touring.

If you are coming from the main entrance it would be a really long walk just to go to Les Halles to eat, then back out to future world for attractions until the rest of world showcase opens.

The garden grill ppo will make Soarin a walk on for you and most importantly you get to eat chips cinnamon bun bake!
 
I don't see anything wrong with your plan, but it has way more food per day than we would want. We normally have a light in room breakfast. Then one meal is QS and 1 Signature dining.
We did the Standard Dining Plan a few years ago and it was too much food for us. We couldn't do the Deluxe plan. If it works for you, great and enjoy.

As noted, I would change breakfast on Day 4. Unless you are going in the IG, its a long walk to France from the front just for breakfast and then back to the front. By the time you get back to the front, the lines will be very long.
 
@WedWayPilot - We don't really have a touring plan yet, but we will definitely keep that as an option!

@senadler - What signature dining experiences would you recommend? We already have CRT and BoG.

@Quellman - I keep going back and forth on Skippers because we do have a picky eater in the group and she didn't like any of the entrees on the men. I chose Cape May because I've never had crab legs (I know, I know) and that seemed like the place to go. We also really don't want to worry about dressing up on one of our park days. Yachtsman has a dress code.
 
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If you are 4 adult foodies I would do adult signature restaurants as your 2 credit meals as opposed to in park character meals. California grill, Jiko and Narcoosies are the first three that come to mind but there are others.

HBD is 2 credits too... you didnt list that as one of your signature meals so I wasnt sure if you realized.

Day 8 3 sit down meals in MK sounds like torture lol.
 
Oh yeah, I just forgot to ist it, but I did count it as a signature. Thanks for czeching! CRT reservation will be 10 mins before park close so that day seems kind of doable to us, bt you are right, that's a lot of time spent in restaurants.
 


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