Did I make too many Reservation?

[LibrarianPrincess]

My last trip my family and I thought we made too many reservations. Half the time we were running around the park just to make our meal reservation.

We want to avoid this. Also, do more quick services. I wonder if I made to many again? We are going for 10 days. What do you think? Cut a restaurant? Or, is it kosher?

Beaches and Cream
Ohana
Be Our Guest
Crystal Plaza
Tea Room in Floridan

 

[a1tinkfans]

10 days, 5 meals... light to me.
we typically do 1 sit down meal a day. Grab a quick serve at lunch and a quick something or nothing at bkfst. Snacks as needed thruout the day.
We did deluxe dining and it was Awful... too much food, too much lost Park time, too much transport and time wasting and lots of wasted food.
Too many quick serves gets old quick!
So for us.. that one sit down, whether lunch or dinner seems to be our sweet spot.
Only u know what ll work best for ur family.
Nice choices by the way!

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

It wouldn't be too many for me. We typically like 1 TS per day, usually a late lunch or early dinner. But really it's personal preference and how you like to tour. Good luck!

 

[LibrarianPrincess]

10 days, 5 meals... light to me.
we typically do 1 sit down meal a day. Grab a quick serve at lunch and a quick something or nothing at bkfst. Snacks as needed thruout the day.
We did deluxe dining and it was Awful... too much food, too much lost Park time, too much transport and time wasting and lots of wasted food.
Too many quick serves gets old quick!
So for us.. that one sit down, whether lunch or dinner seems to be our sweet spot.
Only u know what ll work best for ur family.
Nice choices by the way!

Oh, that is a great strategy. I didn't think about that. Because your right, some quick services are kinda...meh.
I agree. We did the 2 credit meal plan back in 2007. We wasted so many credits. Thank you for your feedback it really helps.

 

[Staren]

I would say that you were pushing the number of reservations if you were trying to do more then one per day. I think a table service meal on half of your vacation days is fine. Though on my last trip I did the regular dining plan and did one of each type of meal per day. I was very happy with that. The one suggestion I’d make is to put together a list of quick service locations for your other meals. You don’t have to follow it of course, and can switch it up if something grabs your fancy. However, if you have trouble deciding where to eat for whatever reason, you can just look at the list.

 

[LibrarianPrincess]

It wouldn't be too many for me. We typically like 1 TS per day, usually a late lunch or early dinner. But really it's personal preference and how you like to tour. Good luck!

That's a great plan. Doing one nice restaurant a day. I think my family and I did poor planning last trip. Thank you for answering, and your input. This helps with the touring planning. Thank you!

 

[LibrarianPrincess]

I would say that you were pushing the number of reservations if you were trying to do more then one per day. I think a table service meal on half of your vacation days is fine. The one suggestion I’d make is to put together a list of quick service locations for your other meals. You don’t have to follow it of course, and can switch it up if something grabs your fancy. However, if you have trouble deciding where to eat for whatever reason, you can just look at the list.

See, I'm glad I asked this. I have no idea what quick services we would do. We were just thinking to walk around until we see something we like. But that is an excellent idea. Putting together a list. Thank you! This will help with my planning.

 

[sapphirerose915]

We are going in December for 6 nights/7days and we are on the Disney Dining Plan... we have 8 TS ADR'S and plan to fill in the rest with CS and snacks! those picks sound great by the way!!!! we werent able to fit in Beaches and Cream or Be Our Guest thus time around... But we have Ohana and Crystal Palace in our itinerary!!

 

[rg35]

We generally do TS lunch and dinner in the parks, so this is definitely not a lot of ADRs from my perspective. But everything is relative...

 

[LibrarianPrincess]

We are going in December for 6 nights/7days and we are on the Disney Dining Plan... we have 8 TS ADR'S and plan to fill in the rest with CS and snacks! those picks sound great by the way!!!! we werent able to fit in Beaches and Cream or Be Our Guest thus time around... But we have Ohana and Crystal Palace in our itinerary!!

Thank you so much!
Enjoy your trip and the holiday season.

 

[Summer2018]

My last trip my family and I thought we made too many reservations. Half the time we were running around the park just to make our meal reservation.

We want to avoid this. Also, do more quick services. I wonder if I made to many again? We are going for 10 days. What do you think? Cut a restaurant? Or, is it kosher?

Beaches and Cream
Ohana
Be Our Guest
Crystal Plaza
Tea Room in Floridan

That's nothing. I make at least one TS reservation every day. Everyone's gotta eat, right?

Perhaps my family tours differently than yours, but because of having to do FastPasses long before we go, I know exactly which park we will be in every day, therefore I know where we will be eating every day. We like consistent meal times, so I did my best to schedule ADR's based on our dinnertime. We take afternoon breaks at the pool, and most times don't return to the parks at night. We leave enough time to get to ADR's so that we aren't running anywhere.

WDW isn't the kind of vacation where you can "fly by the seat of your pants" and be really flexible. In order to maximize your experience, you have to plan and schedule everything, then allow some free time when you can be a little more spontaneous.

 

[Masonmj84]

We usually do 2 table service meals per day.

But for us, WDW is as much about the resorts and dining as it is the parks.

Our typical WDW day is approximately:

3-4 hours in parks visiting attractions (from rope drop to noon-1pm with a good touring plan)

2-3 hours at the resort pool (usually mid-afternoon).

2-3 hours of table service dining (either breakfast+dinner or lunch+dinner)

For the the remaining waking hours, we just go with the flow (may go back into a park, may hang out at our resort, etc.).

We find this to be a good balance of fun and relaxation.

 

[MomOTwins]

I would just point out that it helps to synch up your dining planning with fastpass planning. For example, on our AK day, we made our Kilimanjaro safaris fastpass for 10:30am-11:30am, followed by lunch at Tusker House at 11:45pm, and our Flight of Passage fastpass from 4:15-5:15pm, followed by dinner at Tiffins at 6pm. Same thing at Epcot: we have an 11am-12pm fastpass at Frozen Ever After, followed by a noon lunch at Akershus. We don't have to run around the park to get to our meals, because we will be there anyway on our itinerary.

As for taking up too much time out of the day, we are going in August, so that is part of the point (i.e., getting out of the heat for an hour plus at mealtimes).

Last thing, I see 3 of your 5 reservations are outside the parks. Transport to Disney resorts to and from parks is a big time suck, so if you want to minimize running around you might want to focus on in-park dining.

 

[drwadadli]

I think you have great choices but for 10 days, that seems a little light. So, no I don't think you have too many reservations. Out of your choices, I have greatly enjoyed 'Ohana and Be Our Guest. We have never done Beaches and Cream or Crystal Palace. My wife wanted to do the Tea Room for your birthday but passed this time.

 

[heidijanesmith]

Agree with above posters, 1TS per day works best for us.

I work my lunch or dinner around an attraction that we want to see around that time. Example: 5:00PM Soaring FP+ and then 6:00 PM Chefs De France or 11:00 AM Sci-fi then a 12:00 Star Tours FP+.

I try to minimize criss crossing the parks for FP+ or/and a meal. If we are eating at another resort, I take a cab to minimize transportation time.

 

[kiford]

We usually do 2 TS per day (late breakfast/late dinner normally) so it would be far too little for me. It really depends on your eating habits - time of day, how much you typically eat at one seating, how long you take, how often you normally eat at home. We usually eat in more or less the same habits as at home so we're comfortable doing what we do.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We are doing 10 days and have BOG lunch (which I consider QS but it is an ADR), Plaza lunch, BOG dinner, HDDR and VN dinner. The rest we will do lounges, QS, F&W booths and same day ADR's. I'm loving the more freeing feeling of this trip!

 

[DisneyLu]

Keep the ADRs you have. While you are there and you decide you want another TS check for ADRs. We have had good luck making ADRs the day of or the day before we want them. We have even been able to get O'hana's. Grand Floridian Cafe is usually available and they have great food.

 

[old feller]

I understand the stress of having to make " that reservation". We do one or two sit downs for our trip.
Quick service is easier for us.

 

[maltdizzy]

We try and schedule enough ADR's to have options if the crowds are heavier than expected, I will book "back up" ADR's further out knowing I will cancel some or all as our plans shape up. Often I am cancelling ADR's right up to the "day before" cutoff. We average ~4 sit-down meals in the parks over 6 days (with some others in the resort or in Orlando in general...Cowfish at Citywalk is a huge favorite of ours), and then we have our go-to quick service restaurants and a handful of ones we always can get a table at (either walk-up or same day ADR).

But we don't do the DDP, we pay OOP, and buy "what we want, when we want it" and don't sweat the details and credits. And we find sit-down meals cuts into ride time.