Dining Reservations and Family

[jlb]

Question: Does anyone feel unappreciated in making the dining reservation for their family. I have been talking to other Disney Mom's who take on the task...same reply. Now with the 180 day out we are set pretty much by that time set, my family actually questioned where we were eating and making sure we have dining, we are less than 40 days out. My reply was I asked your opinion back in May....done. Just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

 

[douglisa]

Yes, I feel your pain!
My dh could care less, even though at home he asks the night before what we are having the next day. He likes to brag to his construction buddies because I was a chef for 7 yrs.
In fact I do not care for his lack of excitment one bit. He has never been to Disney and says that if he can he will volunteer to work if they do not get laid off this year. I want so bad for him to go just so I can say "I told you so!"
Part of me feels his poor Disney attitude would better be left at home.

 

[ilovemickeymost]

Question: Does anyone feel unappreciated in making the dining reservation for their family. I have been talking to other Disney Mom's who take on the task...same reply. Now with the 180 day out we are set pretty much by that time set, my family actually questioned where we were eating and making sure we have dining, we are less than 40 days out. My reply was I asked your opinion back in May....done. Just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

I actually love the planning process, so I don't mind at all. I love the rush of gettings all the ressies for the times I want. And making sure we only have a few of each type of food, etc. I just love the whole thing leading up to the trip except paying for it & packing the night before. DD (14) has been several times w/ me & has been to all the places I have. So, we briefly talk about where we want to go again & what to skip. Also, if there was a place we wanted to try, but didn't get a chance too. DH has been 1x for a long week-end. Before making ressies, I gave him options, steak or seafood, 50's or drive inn theatre, sit down or counter, Mickey or Stitch & then I made the choices of resturaunts. If I'm stuck between 2 places, I'll let him read a description or see a menu & pick. He is smart enough to know what he doesn't know , so he just stays out of my way. He knows we have to make ressies or we can't get a seat. So, I tell him where we need to go & what time we need to be there, DS is 2 & has been twice, but doesn't get a say. I plan one CM around who will be there that he likes. I make a chart of where we will be on what days & my wish list & stand bys. I've never had a complaint. They know that WDW is really special for me & I can just as easily go w/out them, so they don't question anything once I've made ressies. They really hate all the details & planning & just want to show up & have fun. This trip DD had a very strong opinion about wanting to stay at CB in a room. So, we are staying there. She really doesn't want to go to Corral Reef again, but I think DH & the boys (the boys will be 4 & almost 1 when we go) will love the watching all the in the gigantic tank. So, I veto'd her on that. Number one family rule for all things Disney: If it isn't fun, we don't do it.

 

[ilovemickeymost]

Yes, I feel your pain!
My dh could care less, even though at home he asks the night before what we are having the next day. He likes to brag to his construction buddies because I was a chef for 7 yrs.
In fact I do not care for his lack of excitment one bit. He has never been to Disney and says that if he can he will volunteer to work if they do not get laid off this year. I want so bad for him to go just so I can say "I told you so!"
Part of me feels his poor Disney attitude would better be left at home.

DH knows that when in Disney all attitudes/tempers are left at home. I made him go w/ us for a long weekend before he deployed b/c I wanted to have that memory for the kids & myself in case something happend to him. He had a good time, but isn't ga, ga over Disney like I am. The trip I just booked is repayment to me for the year that he was away. I told him, "I NEED to plan this trip." We will all be going. So, this is his 1st fulll length trip. We'll be going for 8 nights. After this trip, if he has no desire to go again, at least I tried. And he knows if he gets pissy b/c the lines are long or there is a crowd, he will be sleeping by the pool for the remainder of the trip.

 

[ilovemickeymost]

Yes, I feel your pain!
My dh could care less, even though at home he asks the night before what we are having the next day. He likes to brag to his construction buddies because I was a chef for 7 yrs.
In fact I do not care for his lack of excitment one bit. He has never been to Disney and says that if he can he will volunteer to work if they do not get laid off this year. I want so bad for him to go just so I can say "I told you so!"
Part of me feels his poor Disney attitude would better be left at home.

If he likes good food so much, why not go during the wine & food festival?

 

[ms*mountaineer]

I also feel your pain. I have made the ADR's for 18 people for our December trip! I enjoy the planning process - so I did volunteer for this. But it was like pulling teeth to get people to even SUGGEST things they'd like - I was agreeable to anything. No arguing - just tell me whether you want Italian or not! Sheesh!

AND - this is really the part that gets me - I gave plenty of notice before our 180 day mark that if anyone wanted to join me for CRT or Akershus breakfast to let me know. At 180 days I made the reservations - now I find out that so-and-so would like to eat in the castle too! Oh, and can we add someone else too? I've explained the situation - but I'm sure there will be hard feelings.

OK - I feel better now just getting that off my chest!

 

[biolabetty]

What I loved was when I made our ADR for CRT at 180 days out, and about 7 days from the ADR date, one of the couples was thinking of not coming to WDW after all. They couldn't think about that a few months earlier? They ended up coming, but got there very late, I was frantic that they wouldn't even be there up to the last second. That was the only stressful part of our whole trip because I had purposely set up dinner there since that was the only meal our whole group could be together at.

 

[jlb]

Oh, I love the planning process too...but when I ask the family I think I am hoping that we actually have a discussion. I get that is fine, I find it is other moms that I talk more about dining with. They know we need dining, I just can't believe after 9 plus trips I am still getting this reaction.

 

[Hopefully]

I have never felt that way at all.
I love the planning, it is just as much fun for me as the trip itself is. I get frustrated because DH and DS don't want to talk about it daily for a year, like I do
Prior to our 180 day mark I usually have a good idea of when and where I want to go. I print menus and ask for opinions/suggestions and I go from there. We have been many times so DH and DS do know many of the restaurants.
I love the feeling when the day has gone well and everyone had a good time.
Have a Great Trip.

 

[Tricia1972]

I enjoy the planning process a lot. We are making a 'surprise' trip in October 2009 with just my sister and husband. I have already started talking to my sister about places that we may want to try. Our only must do is Jiko and beyond that it's open. (We're saving V&A for February 2010)

However, I totally understand those that don't get into it like I do. There is a large percentage of people that think it's absolutely totally and completely insane to decide where you're going to eat MORE than 6 months in advance. (Face it we may be making our ADR's at 6 months, but our decisions are finalized weeks before this magical date )

It's frustrating when they change their minds, but I usually get the last laugh. My mom decided about two weeks before our October 2007 trip that she'd like to treat the family to HDDR. She talked to me about it and I told her to go ahead and make whatever arrangements she could. I let her know that if she could get us in on any day, I would go ahead and cancel our reservation for that night. She was surprised that there was no availability for our entire 2 week trip. (I wasn't as surprised )

My family still thinks the process is insane (even I think it's kind of nuts), but because I am pretty heartless and let them do some legwork when they want to change gears closer to the date, they know that what I do is absolutely necessary. Now they let me do my thing and don't complain about where we're going and when we're going there.

Beginning with our March 2008 trip, we started renting a car. We aren't fans of the Disney Buses, and now too if we have an ADR at Tony's but aren't in the mood for Italian that night, we can cancel Tony's and drive off site for a bite at a sit down restaurant. We really enjoyed that extra freedom last time.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I admit I drive DH totally nuts with the dining thing. I always say I am just going to book what I want but then I ask him what he thinks and he gets testy and I get mad that he doesnt want to help me choose.

Sometimes he will throw in his 2 cents like, you have to book San Angel Inn I want to try it, or something like that but for the most part it is just me pestering him.

What is even more annoying is when we are actually there and he tries to change things up on me! UGH!

BUT when we are in WDW and he has enjoyed a really good meal, snack or CS lunch that I found out from the Dis he thanks me and tells me I did good.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I hate that to. I do all the work and when we get there they say why here or why this time. Hey I say when I ask you all say you don't give a .... . So now I just book it and say here's where we are eating an this is the time.
And as far as the extended family I did that for many of years too but won't do that anymore don't want to hear them.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

When we go it's DH, myself and the kiddies. This next trip MIL, BIL and SIL are supposed to be going but we have been planning everything out like it's just us. They aren't big planners and MIL doesn't even have her trip booked yet so who knows.

DH does not care where he eats. Not one bit. He eats anything and everything. The only request he had was all ressie's are dinner AND we do CP again. LOL Seriously! I asked him the other day if he wanted to give more suggestions and he said "You do it. I don't care. You just tell me where and what time and I'll be there. You know I eat anything" Then he makes fun of my "Disney bible." LOL My folder with info and ressie #s and all that!

My kids are young. They love character meals so every meal is a character meal except dinner at Ohana's.

I do keep our itinerary low. I basically plan one park per day and one ADR per day. I leave our evenings open to park hop, DTD, pool or whatever else we pick on the fly. My DH isn't a big planner so I leave the evenings there so we can wing it and it leaves him happy. Plus with two kids you just never know.

 

[milmore104]

I feel your pain. I'm always the one that makes the plans. When I ask for help I get the all to famous "We don't care...Whatever". I went w/ my cousin last year and she thought I was nuts plannig every last meal. Mind you we went during Free Dining. She gave me the hardest time about it until we were waiting in Sci-Fi for our table and she say many people turned away. We were 1/2 way into our trip. She turned to me and said TAHNKS!!! Which made it all worth it for me. In fact I'm busy planning another trip for us in April.

I'm even crazier trying to get my whole family to go. And on the DxDDP. Heaven help me!

 

[lilsydney]

we took our first trip to Disney EVER in Jan and really had no idea how the whole thing worked. Thankfully I had booked CRT but the rest we pretty much did once we got there an figured it out LOL


NOW because I am so much wiser I am actually booking ADR's for trip in two weeks. My DH really has no idea how this whole thing works. He definately is under the impression that we just show up LOL and we get to eat but in defense I didnt fully understand that either initially

I don't mind because I am definately the more picky one so this way we get what I want hahaha

 

[jaymesmommy2004]

My DH has left the entire planning up to me and will be happy with eating, lol. My mother and MIL could care less and the kids wanted characters so all our TS are character meals/buffets except for our first night which will be at the Maya Grill at CSR. The only input was I wanted to make sure my DH liked where we were going for our anniversary dinner. Since no one wants to plan and I do it the rule is no complaining. This also applies to anything outside of Disney since in my family I am the go to person other than my mom.

 

[caroline1851]

Yup, my dh didn't want to help at all or give any suggestions or do any research. But...if we're there eating and the meal sucks, he'll be the first to say "why are we eating here."

 

[jlb]

I love planning...and it is not that they do not care, they just do not get it. I think we need to start an disney board for the exteme...

It has become an ongoing joke with my crowd, we are the reason you have a successful Disney Vacation! We plan, plan,plan...we are just tooo obsessed tp prove our point about going down with no plans.

 

[Bracho]

I have planned for a party of 14 over a 16 day vacation and it is one of the biggest pains in the world to do but at the end of the trip, everyone told me how wonderful it was to have that part of the trip taken care of.

Everyone had dinner together every night and during the day, we all went of seperate ways. Everyone told me they had wished I had taken care of luch reservations as well because most of the rooms they wanted all had 30-40 minute wait times.

It is alot of work but in the long run I do it for me so I don't have to hear it from them...LOL The BEST of luck

 

[The Hendies]

Almost all of the planning is up to me and I love doing it. In '06 we did get input from each 'kid'. Each one got to choose a restaurant. That was great. When we are in the World, once in a while DH will ask, "Are you sure....?" To which I (and everyone else) say..."Do you NOT trust Mom!!!" I take some good natured ribbing for my Commando Disney approach, but no one complains, really, and everyone loves the amount of stuff we get to do each day.