Do you plan your CS meals or just wing it? Also when to book?

[vcgirl925]

My question about making adr's is do you wait until 90 days before your trip and book only the first day and then have to call back each day? Or can you call 90 before the first day of your trip and are able to make adr's for the whole week?

Also do you plan you CS meals or just play it be ear?

I'm thinking about planning them a bit....WDYT?

Day1: Travel Day: (CS1) Dinner: Everything Pop
Day2: Magic Kingdom: (TS1) Breakfast: Crystal Palace 8:10
Day2: Magic Kingdom: (CS1) Lunch: Peco Bill's
Day2: Magic Kingdom: (TS2) Dinner: Ohana 7PM
Day3: Epcot: (TS3) Breakfast: Akershus
Day3: Epcot: (CS3) Lunch: Sunshine Seasons
Day3: Epcot: Dinner: Eat around the world (it's the food&wine festival)
Day4: Hollywood Studios: (TS4) Lunch: SciFi Dine-In
Day4: Hollywood Studios: (TS5) Dinner: Mama Melrose Fantasmic Dinner Pack
Day5: Animal Kingdom: (CS4) Lunch: Yak & Yeti Express
Day5: Animal Kingdom: (TS6) Dinner: Boma
Day6: Open Day: (CS5) Lunch: Earl of sandwich
Day6: Open Day: (Snack) Cookes of dublin: Doh bar
Day6: Open Day: (OOP) Dinner: TREX
Day7: Magic Kingdom: (CS6) Lunch: Columbia Harbor house
Day7: Magic Kingdom: (TS7) Dinner: Whispering Canyon Cafe
Day8: Travel Day: (CS7) Breakfast: Everything Pop

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

If you are staying on site (which it looks like you are) you can call on day 90 and make up to ten days' worth of dining reservations on one call.

If you are staying on site, you need to call back each day.

 

[05MM08MM]

I would think planning your QS meals is a good idea to an extent as long as you aren't setting up a particular time, you never know what might come up. I always look over the QS menus for the parks I am going to be in and the resort I will be staying at to give me an idea of what would work best for our travelers. I would hate to be in the park, it's 1:00 p.m., we're all hungry and we just pick the first place we come to and half the crew doesn't see something on the menu they like...no what I mean

But keep your options open too, pick at least 2 you could eat at since you may not know where you will be at in the park when you are ready to eat lunch.

 

[Hootch]

going to Disney we looked at the menus for the TS locations and decided which ones we would like to go to. Then when we decided to eat we knew our choices and could decide based on what we felt like eating. Now we have our favorite places figured out and just wing it.

 

[vcgirl925]

Hi,

If you are staying on site (which it looks like you are) you can call on day 90 and make up to ten days' worth of dining reservations on one call.

If you are staying on site, you need to call back each day.

Yes we are staying on site at Pop Century. Thanks for the info!

 

[vcgirl925]

I would think planning your QS meals is a good idea to an extent as long as you aren't setting up a particular time, you never know what might come up. I always look over the QS menus for the parks I am going to be in and the resort I will be staying at to give me an idea of what would work best for our travelers. I would hate to be in the park, it's 1:00 p.m., we're all hungry and we just pick the first place we come to and half the crew doesn't see something on the menu they like...no what I mean

But keep your options open too, pick at least 2 you could eat at since you may not know where you will be at in the park when you are ready to eat lunch.

That's exactly what i was planning. We have an idea where we want to eat but i'm not scheduling a time. We are not doing park hoppers this time around and want to loosely plan our day.

 

[Faldred]

For the few CS meals we did on our most recent trip, they were essentially "planned", although we always reserved the "right" to change our minds.

The main reasons they were kind-of-planned were:

1) We wanted to try places we hadn't been before when possible, and
2) It was the best-choice CS location near where we were planning on being at that time

For example, on our first day, at MK, we were moving between Fantasyland and Fronteirland around lunch time. The best CS options in that part of the park are Pecos Bill's and Columbia Harbor House. Since we'd never done CHH before, we kind-of-planned on going there, and wound up doing just that.

 

[JenSop]

As you've already found out, if you are staying on site, you can book the first ten days of your ADR's on that 90 day out phone call.

As for planning CS meals, we loosely plan. We know which places we'd like to hit, but we have some flexibility. On our upcoming trip, we'll be doing three lunch CS meals in Epcot because of the better selection with the World Showcase. Even on our DHS day, we will take the resort Ferry over to the Epcot stop to have lunch at a CS in Epcot. (We don't really love any of the DHS CS places.)

We looked over the menus (and rely on our past experiences) to choose.

 

[RMulieri]

We are pretty particular about which Cs places we like, so we know pretty much which ones we are going to go to when in a certain park, plus we know we like to eat lunch between 1030-1130 each day.So we do sort of plan, but for example at Mk, we like Cosmic Rays, Columbia Harbor House, and Pecos Bills. We just hit whichever happens to be closest to where we are in the park at the time.

 

[enchantingodin]

I'm so type A that I take it a step further and not only plan our CS meals but also our snacks.

 

[2disneyboys]

I'm so type A that I take it a step further and not only plan our CS meals but also our snacks.

LoL! DH will put up with me on DIS board all the time, and planning our park visits, and even sneaking in an "informal" tour guide but he draw the line at me telling him if its in the "schedule" for his snack or not!

Seriously, I am a fan of the loose plan...which park, which area, and then having researched all the options before hand, we can make an INFORMED choice of CS

 

[LiteBrite]

You know, in one way it seems ridiculous to plan your CS meals ahead of time, but there have been a bunch of times when the following scenario has happened to our family - we go in with a happy-go-lucky "oh, we'll just play it by ear and eat whatever and whenever we feel like" attitude. Then, when we're at the park of the day, it gets to be lunchtime, and suddenly everyone is starving with rapidly dropping blood sugar, people are starting to get testy, nobody can think straight, and we end up miserable and grumpy because nobody can agree where we should go.

So now we just go ahead and plan our CS meals ahead of time.

 

[barbiecruiser]

can you use a CS on the day you leave. If you are not staying that night and you are simply checking out of the hotel that day im not sure if you can still use your DDP, even if you have extra credit...hmm..i might be wrong however

 

[srwarden1928]

I have actually planned all meals, CS and TS, for our family for our next trip. Obviously the TS meals required ADRs, and so required planning. As far as the CS, there are certain CS meals we particularly want. Flame Tree is one of our favorite meals. I have been wanting to try Columbia Harbor House. We want our neice to see the piano player at Cosmic Rays. We like to eat a little something from various kinds of cuisine in Epcot WS. Then some CS choices are based on what park we intend to be in and what part of the park we expect to be in at mealtime.

BTW, I have been wondering why the new abbreviation QS and what distinction it is from CS. If there is a difference, I dont understand what it is and would like to learn. If there is no difference, I dont understand the need for a second abbreviation with the same meaning. Anybody with a good answer?

 

[TillyMarigold]

can you use a CS on the day you leave. If you are not staying that night and you are simply checking out of the hotel that day im not sure if you can still use your DDP, even if you have extra credit...hmm..i might be wrong however

Your credits expire at 11:59 pm on your checkout day. So if you still have credits left over, then yes, you can use them the day you leave.

 

[HdnMickeyGrl]

We don't plan our CS meals, we usually just play it by ear. We either eat a few snacks or wander into whatever happens to be closest that we know we would like. But we've been to WDW enough to know what CS places we'd want to eat at and which ones we'd want to skip so when it's lunchtime we just kind of pick off our short list.

 

[TillyMarigold]

BTW, I have been wondering why the new abbreviation QS and what distinction it is from CS. If there is a difference, I dont understand what it is and would like to learn. If there is no difference, I dont understand the need for a second abbreviation with the same meaning. Anybody with a good answer?

This is way more complicated than you'd think at first glance.
QS=quick service
CS=counter service

QSDP refers to the Quick Service Dining Plan, which can only be used at CS (counter service) restaurants. CS means you walk up to the counter, place your order, get your food. As opposed to sitting at a table and having your food brought, which would be table service (except that at WPE, your food is brought to you after you order, I believe).

But since counter service is quick, and the quick service plan is used at counter service restaurants, people are starting to interchange them, and refer to the counter service dining plan and to quick service restaurants.

I think Disney did it just to confuse us. They could easily have called the new dining plan the "Counter Service Dining Plan."

 

[vcgirl925]

can you use a CS on the day you leave. If you are not staying that night and you are simply checking out of the hotel that day im not sure if you can still use your DDP, even if you have extra credit...hmm..i might be wrong however

Yes, you can used them until the end of the day on check out day. I know this because on our last trip we went and "cashed in" on our leftovers and had like 12 snack credits that we stocked up on.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I had an idea of where I wanted to eat during the vacation but we basically winged it with CS meals.

 

[enchantingodin]

LoL! DH will put up with me on DIS board all the time, and planning our park visits, and even sneaking in an "informal" tour guide but he draw the line at me telling him if its in the "schedule" for his snack or not!

Seriously, I am a fan of the loose plan...which park, which area, and then having researched all the options before hand, we can make an INFORMED choice of CS

Well no one really knows the plan but me - so they don't even know they're on a schedule. I'm sneaky that way.

And while I do take the time to plan out where I want to snack it isn't a be all end all situation. It's not like "we need to be at aloha isle at exactly 10:02AM and use 2 SCs for 2 dole whip floats or heads will ROLE."

But I do have a basic touring plan and included in that is where we will be eating. Weather it's TS,CS or SC. But if it doesn't happen it just doesn't happen. Like I didn't get my Figaro fries last year...

It's organized chaos.