Critique my dinning plan

[Smbmoyers]

So we're planning a laidback trip with me, my dh, my ds, and my mom. We're not going to be rushing around like mad people trying to do everything while there. We enjoy to eat. Like food Is fun to us and I feel like with some of our health problems a sit down meal Would be a welcome respite. I decided to do the deluxe dinning plan because we love sitting down. Here's what I have:

Arrival day: driving to disney will arrive at 7am

Ohana breakfast 8am
Crystal palace lunch 2pm
Whispering Canyon 7pm

Day two:
Garden Grill 8am
Coral Reef 1pm
Teppan Eso 7pm

Day 3:
Hollywood and Vine 8am
Fairfax fare 1pm
Cape May Cafe 7pm

Day 4:
Pop food court (light breakfast) (sleep in)
Primetime 1pm
Mama Meleroses Fantastic dinner package

Day 5:
Be our Guest Breakfast (pre opening adr)
Liberty Tree 1pm
Chef Mickeys 7pm

Day 6:
Tusker House
Flame tree bbq
Rainforest Cafe

Day 7:
Chef Mickeys
Columbia Harbor House
Be our Guest.

 

[goofy4prez]

As someone who has done the DxDP I would suggest you don't do three TS restaurants a day; it takes up a lot of time and is a whole lot of food. I would suggest to do a breakfast ADR (character ones for your son if younger). Then for dinner I would do a signature restaurant. And during the middle of the day use your snack credits and get something to tidy over while you sit down and relax for a bit. When I use to do the deluxe dining plan this is what I did. I tried the three TS and it was just too much, even for a foodie like me.

I should also add that using a CS meal while on the DxDP such as Columbia Harbour House, Flame Tree BBQ and the Pop food court is not the best use of your dining credits. Also your first day may put you in a food coma for the rest of the week with Ohana (family style), Crystal Palace (buffet) and with Whispering Canyon if you get the all you can eat skillet.

 

[Smbmoyers]

So would you think booking an early lunch and later dinner would work well? If we were to skip a meal its probably gonna be breakfast just not huge breakfast people. Although I probably would want to keep Ohana to start us off

 

[goofy4prez]

So would you think booking an early lunch and later dinner would work well? If we were to skip a meal its probably gonna be breakfast just not huge breakfast people. Although I probably would want to keep Ohana to start us off

That would work well; I have done that many times myself. I also do not usually do a big breakfast. You can actually use one of your snack credits to grab a muffin/pastry or something for breakfast and then do your early lunch and a late dinner. The signature restaurants like Narcoossee's, Jiko, Yachtsman, Artist Point, California Grill and other signatures are excellent. Don't forget with the DxDP you also get an appetizer and dessert with all your meals.

 

[Smbmoyers]

Do you know what time Lunch adrs typically start? And I will definitely remember that apps and desert come with everything! I'm not above eating some dessert deliciousness for Breakfast mainly anything cheesecake. I'll start tweaking the menu and see what it looks like. We're not really worried about the "best use of credits." but as it stands according to the dinning calculator break even took I'm $250 saved even with using the couple quick services I chose! Oh well, back to the drawing board

 

[goofy4prez]

Do you know what time Lunch adrs typically start? And I will definitely remember that apps and desert come with everything! I'm not above eating some dessert deliciousness for Breakfast mainly anything cheesecake. I'll start tweaking the menu and see what it looks like. We're not really worried about the "best use of credits." but as it stands according to the dinning calculator break even took I'm $250 saved even with using the couple quick services I chose! Oh well, back to the drawing board

The lunch hours vary from restaurant to restaurant. I usually book a lunch between 11:00 & 11:30. I hear you on still coming out ahead, and there are some decent CS restaurant, but some of the restaurants really give you the bang for your buck. You mentioned about sitting down and relaxing; I also enjoy that since my park commando days are over which is why I enjoy the signature's for dinner. The food is the best Disney offers and you can plan on taking a couple of hours enjoying the appetizers, meal and some incredible desserts. I'm a big signature fan myself and will be booking my own ADR's tomorrow including the Boathouse, Artist Point, Jiko, Citricos, California Grill and Narcoossee's.

Enjoy your upcoming trip.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

I'd be nervous about having an ADR at 8 if I'm not getting to WDW until 7 - what if there are delays on the way, traffic, etc.

 

[Baklava]

We're first timers, also on the DxDDP and our plan is here:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/our-hoopdeedoo-debut-advice-welcome.3418896/page-2#post-54773236

(The most recent version is post #31.)

We have a 5 year old who isn't really a good fit for the fancy signatures, but we have a couple 2 credit meals in the form of Spirit of Aloha, HDDDR and Cinderella's Royal Table. I'm not sure how old your boy is, but you might think about one of those. We've got a lot of similar choices on our lists.

 

[POTCfan]

We've done the deluxe dining plan before. It was a trip where we focused on the dining, trying to hit restaurants we hadn't gone to. I loved that aspect of it. We had a few 2 credits meals, and a lot of 3 TS days. If I had it to do over, I would make more 2 credit meals, as eating appetizers, entrees, and deserts at every meal made it so at the end of the week we weren't really looking forward to the restaurants. We started off using our snack credits, but ended up taking a lot of bags of candy home. I think if I stuck more to 2 meals a day, we would have been better able to take advantage of the good snack values (the ones that don't really travel well back on the plane). Oh, and I would mix between lunch and breakfast along with the 2 credit dinner. I like your Ohana and Tusker breakfasts!

 

[supersnoop]

I think you're doing too many meals and they're too close together. I'd do breakfast or lunch, and a late signature dinner, or at least move your dinners a little later. Otherwise, I suspect you'll start cancelling meals after two or three days of eating way too much.