Dinner planning 101 - Help Please!!!

[mrsjoannh13]

Hey, you can always book them and then cancel once you get there if your group is starting to feel run down. Better to get them and have them if you feel like a nice sit down meal at the end of the day. I think everything can be canceled with 1 day's notice. You might not know until a day or two in if a table service dinner each night is too much for you. Personally, I think my family would kill me if I didn't book one nice character meal or T.S. meal daily so that's our itinerary. To each their own! Maybe just plan it for a time late enough in the evening that you don't have to rush out of the parks if you are having a good time, but not so late that you are worn out the next morning and miss rope drop!

 

[DWDan]

I follow a couple of simple rules for TS:
1. Don't do TS dinner every day. Make some ADRs for breakfast and lunch instead.
2. Decide on parks/activities first and then schedule dinner around touring. Not the other way around. There's nothing worse than having to break off in the middle of touring to get to an ADR half way around the world. If its MK day then we do an MK restaurant on that day, etc. We get a nice break and then we can get back to the fun with minimal travel time.

Thanks for the tips! I haven't really thought about lunch TS. My thinking has been to alter between early morning TS and late morning TS (brunch time) and then a dinner TS. I figure some mornings we'll grab something from our room and go.

 

[DWDan]

Hey, you can always book them and then cancel once you get there if your group is starting to feel run down. Better to get them and have them if you feel like a nice sit down meal at the end of the day. I think everything can be canceled with 1 day's notice. You might not know until a day or two in if a table service dinner each night is too much for you. Personally, I think my family would kill me if I didn't book one nice character meal or T.S. meal daily so that's our itinerary. To each their own! Maybe just plan it for a time late enough in the evening that you don't have to rush out of the parks if you are having a good time, but not so late that you are worn out the next morning and miss rope drop!

I think I'm with you on the 1 TS meal or character meal daily. And never really thought about the possibility of canceling a TS ADR if it's too much. Good idea!

 

[The Librarian]

I have always booked 1 TS per day. As long as you cancel 24 hours ahead of time, you can change your mind if you are finding it too much. We even cancelled BOG on our last trip (I know...gasp). But we have also found last minute reservations (e.g. Garden Grill) that worked out very well. Consider throwing a TS breakfast or lunch on a day when it works with your schedule, just to change things up a bit.

With our park hoppers, we always take a break in the afternoon, then shower and head out to dinner and light activities at a place close to our home base. If I were you, when choosing your restaurants I would figure out which parks you will visit on which days if you plan to stay at the park for dinner-you could use Josh's crowd calendar at easywdw.com. Otherwise, being at the Poly you could focus most of the TS dinners at MK/Epcot/MK resorts. You don't want to spend a lot of time getting from one place to another, and it'll be easier to get back to your room after a long day.

I would have your DD help you and look at different restaurants, dinner shows, menus, and have her give some input on where she might like to eat. I notice you didn't mention any character meals. She is still young enough to enjoy them, and it makes for some very fun pictures. A picture at Via Napoli -a nice Italian restaurant- is a nice memory, but a picture with my kids hugging Chip & Dale in between stuffing their faces just melts my heart.

 

[DWDan]

I have always booked 1 TS per day. As long as you cancel 24 hours ahead of time, you can change your mind if you are finding it too much. We even cancelled BOG on our last trip (I know...gasp). But we have also found last minute reservations (e.g. Garden Grill) that worked out very well. Consider throwing a TS breakfast or lunch on a day when it works with your schedule, just to change things up a bit.

With our park hoppers, we always take a break in the afternoon, then shower and head out to dinner and light activities at a place close to our home base. If I were you, when choosing your restaurants I would figure out which parks you will visit on which days if you plan to stay at the park for dinner-you could use Josh's crowd calendar at easywdw.com. Otherwise, being at the Poly you could focus most of the TS dinners at MK/Epcot/MK resorts. You don't want to spend a lot of time getting from one place to another, and it'll be easier to get back to your room after a long day.

I would have your DD help you and look at different restaurants, dinner shows, menus, and have her give some input on where she might like to eat. I notice you didn't mention any character meals. She is still young enough to enjoy them, and it makes for some very fun pictures. A picture at Via Napoli -a nice Italian restaurant- is a nice memory, but a picture with my kids hugging Chip & Dale in between stuffing their faces just melts my heart.

Appreciate the feedback! I'm hoping we'll be able to also break in the afternoon then head back out in the evening for dinner and activities. I am focused on places in the MK/EP area, as well, while eating at places we'll be at only on the days were visiting the parks like HS and AK. The character meals were planning on being done in the morning (Chef Mickey, 1900 Park Fare, and possibly Crystal Palace), but depending on reservations dinner character meals may need to be done. And I've heard great things about Via Napoli! I definitely want to eat there. Sounds like a wonderful memory!