Dining Strategy?

[JacksMama]

The more I read the more excited I am about the FOOD! We have a list so far of places we want to visit, and wonder how you plan your dining strategy? For ADR, do you make it correspond to the restaurants within the park you are visiting that day, or do you just choose what sounds good and hike there no matter where you are?

 

[disneybliss2]

We take into account which park we'll be at. We always get park hoppers so if our plans change, it's not the end of the world. We'll still be able to get into a different park than where we are if our reservations happen to be elsewhere. I first plan out which park we'll be at each day. We like to eat at several of the Epcot restaurants, so I will book a dinner there for a day I know we'll be there. Another example: we typically spend a day and a half at AK. On the half day we usually hop over to Epcot, so I would know to plan another meal at Epcot for dinner that day. If I plan a meal at Sanaa or Boma, I would have it on a day we were near AK since it's closest to that park. If I go to 1900 PF which is at the GF, I would book it on a day we were at MK. One, because we don't like any of the TS restaurants at MK. Two, because if we decide to leave MK to eat elsewhere, the GF is close (just a boat ride away). It helps me to utilize my park time best.

 

[JacksMama]

Perfect, that's exactly the type of info I was looking for. It's our first time so we weren't sure how massive it all was, and will plan our ADRs accordingly!

 

[Hopefully]

We love eating in WDW, it is a big part of the vacation for us.
We always choose which park which day first, then choose our restaurants. WDW is expansive. Time between locations is not to be under estimated. I would never decide to be at the MK for a day, travel to EC to eat, and then think I would go back to MK for fireworks, for example.
We choose restaurants in the park we will be at, or near it.
So for MK day it could be in the MK or a Monorail resort.
On our Epcot day, we love the variety and food at the international restaurants at WS. We often visit another park during the day (DHS) and eat in WS in the evening.
We do usually plan one evening at DTD for dinner - but again we plan it into our over park strategy.
Have Fun

 

[WizardLarz]

I don't go to far. If I'm at the Magic Kingdom I'll look at the 'Magic Kindom' Resorts. You have the 3 with monorail access and 2 more within a relaxing boat ride away. If at Disney Hollywood Studios you can walk or take a boat over to the 'Epcot' Resorts. Eating at Ecpot after part of a day at MK or DHS is also easily do able but it does require having a Park hopper option on your tickets or Annual Passes.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Eating is always a big part of my vacations as well and while Disney offers some very good and very interesting choices, don't confuse it with what it was in the 90's. There is little really fine dining left, aside from V&A's, but a lot of interesting dining with reasonably, albeit over priced food still available.

I'm not saying this to be negative but if you're accustomed to fine dining you need to set your Disney expectations accordingly. You can still have a lot of fun and eat a lot of good food but don't expect gourmet.

 

[Remmy]

The more I read the more excited I am about the FOOD! We have a list so far of places we want to visit, and wonder how you plan your dining strategy? For ADR, do you make it correspond to the restaurants within the park you are visiting that day, or do you just choose what sounds good and hike there no matter where you are?

We like to first start off with a list of "must" restaurants that we love to go to or want to try and then the rest that can be interchangeable. This starts well before we even book our vacation. Then when we are planning a vacation we look at all the "must" restaurants and plan our days according to them, then plan the rest of the days and put the alternatives in.

My family is truly easy as we only start off with 4 must restaurants- one for each of us, then the rest we choose together and luckily all like the same restaurants. We usually go for the dining plan when we are there for our longer trips, thus we have a lot of choice.

I agree with looking at options at the restaurants close to the parks too. If you have the hopper option then you can start off in Epcot, eat at a resort in between Epcot and DHS and end your day at DHS, this is just an example.

I wish you the best in your planning. Remember you can always cancel your ADRs if you have to. We try to make all the ADRs first as they sometimes don't seem to have the park hours out when we first started planning our vacations in January nor do we always know for certain all restaurants will be back on the dining plan. Have fun with your choices, and know that only you will know if the restaurant is the best for you. On our last vacation we had ourselves, and two different families from our grand gathering all go to the same restaurant on different days. The other two families went before us. The first family hated it, the second loved it. We went and we loved it too; and to think we almost canceled after the first family went. Thus if we went just by their opinions, we might have missed a meal we had a blast at and loved the food.

Remmy

 

[wintershawl]

The more I read the more excited I am about the FOOD! We have a list so far of places we want to visit, and wonder how you plan your dining strategy? For ADR, do you make it correspond to the restaurants within the park you are visiting that day, or do you just choose what sounds good and hike there no matter where you are?

I plan my ADRs around the parks I want to visit. I find crowd calendars and pull from my own experience to decide which parks to do on which day, and then schedule the ADRs around that. On days when I am not quite 100% sure we will stick to the plan, I schedule ADRs in some of the resorts. It's tricky at times, but since I also enjoy the dining experiences of Disney just as much as the parks... it's all good in my book!!!

 

[JacksMama]

Oh Remmy, a girl after my own heart! I don't have my hotel booked yet, but I have this:

6 Breakfasts
Crystal Palace Bkfst w Pooh
Olivia’s at Key West
Chef Mickey’s
Best Friend’s Breakfast
Ohana
Garden Grill
Akershus

7 Lunches
Beaches & Cream at Boardwalk
Peco Bills at MK
Toy Story at Disney Hollywood
Biergarten at Epcot
Liberty Tree at MK
Mama Melrose at Hollywood
Starring Rolls at Hollywood
Yak & Yeti at AK
Cali Grill

6 Dinners
Victoria & Alberts at Grand Floridian
Jiko at AK
Restaurant Marrakesh at Epcot
Le Cellier Candlelight Dinner
Luau Poly book dinner 40 minutes before fireworks, can view fireworks
Restaurant Marrakesh
San Angel Inn at Epcot
Boma at AK
Narcoosee’s at GF can see fireworks
Hoop De Doo Review

Yak and Yeti Snow Cone Martini

Snacks
Main Street Bakery MK
Rose & Crown Pub Drinks & Dessert Epcot
Scat Cat’s Club at New Orleans for drinks + Jazz

Once we pick our parks well make our ADRs and narrow it all down. We still cannot decide if we want to do the dining package. So many fun decisions, I am loving the planning process.

 

[homedad]

after 3 trips with dining plan I'm comfortable to say don't trek all over just to eat, it just takes too much time. pick your park and then plan accordingly or eat where your staying early and then head back out

 

[Hopefully]

Oh Remmy, a girl after my own heart! I don't have my hotel booked yet, but I have this:

6 Breakfasts
Crystal Palace Bkfst w Pooh
Olivia’s at Key West
Chef Mickey’s
Best Friend’s Breakfast
Ohana
Garden Grill
Akershus

7 Lunches
Beaches & Cream at Boardwalk
Peco Bills at MK
Toy Story at Disney Hollywood
Biergarten at Epcot
Liberty Tree at MK
Mama Melrose at Hollywood
Starring Rolls at Hollywood
Yak & Yeti at AK
Cali Grill

6 Dinners
Victoria & Alberts at Grand Floridian
Jiko at AK
Restaurant Marrakesh at Epcot
Le Cellier Candlelight Dinner
Luau Poly book dinner 40 minutes before fireworks, can view fireworks
Restaurant Marrakesh
San Angel Inn at Epcot
Boma at AK
Narcoosee’s at GF can see fireworks
Hoop De Doo Review

Yak and Yeti Snow Cone Martini

Snacks
Main Street Bakery MK
Rose & Crown Pub Drinks & Dessert Epcot
Scat Cat’s Club at New Orleans for drinks + Jazz

Once we pick our parks well make our ADRs and narrow it all down. We still cannot decide if we want to do the dining package. So many fun decisions, I am loving the planning process.

California Grill doesn't offer lunch.
The luau is 2 seatings per night. You can not schedule it 40 mintues before fireworks
Good Luck

 

[tinkmom2]

We try to eat new places everytime we go to WDW. We are on the dining plan so we take into account how many character breakfasts and things like the MNSSHP and plan my list according to credits. Location, location, location.. I have my ADR list made according to where we're going to be that day like what park or DTD. I use the Disney site a lot to help me choose restaurants too!

What we do is usually have a big breakfast, a small lunch like fruit or a turkey leg at HS, and then a good sized dinner. It's not always possible time wise and stomach wise to eat three meals a day. Plus we break up park time and go back and take a nap.

Character meals also use up 2 credits so if we aren't on the Deluxe plan we only do one. We are going to be on the Dream that week too so we will get plenty of character time.

I not only write down all my confirmation numbers, I make a copy of them too. Or I just skip the computer all together and call. The agents are awesome at helping you!

 

[BBQMommy]

after 3 trips with dining plan I'm comfortable to say don't trek all over just to eat, it just takes too much time. pick your park and then plan accordingly or eat where your staying early and then head back out

We don't do the hopper so we eat in the park we pre-planned to attend that day or at a resort close to that park or to our resort. We do the DLX Dining Plan and really enjoy planning for meals.

Caryn

 

[disneybliss2]

Character meals also use up 2 credits so if we aren't on the Deluxe plan we only do one.

Not all character meals take up 2 credits. In fact, most only take up one. CRT takes up two but that's the only one I can think of besides the dinner shows--Mickey's Backyard BBQ, etc.

 

[Vinnya1726]

Yeah that is correct only CRT uses 2 TS all the rest use one for Character meals. We booked at least on Character meal a day with my two little ones. It is a great way to make the meals a little more fun, when the kids would rather be playing around in the parks than eating. Actually I would rather be playing around in the parks also, but you do need a break. Disney Magic is all around especially in the character meals.

 

[sand&sun2]

love all the food

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

We have always dined in the park we will be at during the day as we have never paid for the hopper upgrade. We tend to always book our ADR's first, that way we get the restaurant we want to visit on any particular day. If we committed to a park on a specific day, the restaurant of our choice might not be available to us.

Recently though, we've dined at some resort restaurants during the day, allowing us to return to the same park after we've finished our meal.

The hopper option is nice, but given the additional cost and the time it takes to get from park-park, our family would rather not spend for the hoppers and use the additional money towards some nicer meals.

 

[tinkmom2]

Not all character meals take up 2 credits. In fact, most only take up one. CRT takes up two but that's the only one I can think of besides the dinner shows--Mickey's Backyard BBQ, etc.

I stand corrcted Dinner shows like Fantasmic if you choose Brown Derby (which we are doing) is two credits. I am pretty sure we spent 2 credits on Sprit of Aloha. They are TS credits not the QS ones. I had the plan in 2009 with free dining and I added one TS for a extra fee. Signature ressies are also two credits.

 

[lilandvisma]

The more I read the more excited I am about the FOOD! We have a list so far of places we want to visit, and wonder how you plan your dining strategy? For ADR, do you make it correspond to the restaurants within the park you are visiting that day, or do you just choose what sounds good and hike there no matter where you are?

With 3 kids we don't park hop now. I get very excited about all the food as well but I usually try to plan based upon where we will be and what is easiest to get to from that point. For example Epcot is only a walk or a boatride away from several of the better resort signatures, Ohana/Kona is only a monorail ride away from MK,etc. I wouldn't want to take too much of a hike with the kids just to go to dinner but we do want to eat at the better places. We enjoy a nice boat ride, monorail ride, etc... and look at it as a little break as well.