Early buffet dinner ADR's, any advantage?

[chris7]

We have little kids and eat dinner at home pretty early anyway. When I called to get a dinner ADR for 1900 Park Fare she said they opened at 4:30. At the time I thought that was a little early even for me, so I chose 5:00. But...is there any advantage to being the first one's in? For this restaurant I could probably get it changed if I decided to.

 

[tnmom25]

IMO, there are advantages to being there upon opening. First of all, your wait time for a table would be next to nothing. Second, most people don't eat dinner at 4:30, so the crowd would be minimal which would mean you would get more personalized character time (a great plus for the little ones!!) You could always have a snack between then and bedtime!

Good luck!

 

[mbcissell]

I totally think early eating is the way to go with little ones On our last trip, my son was almost 3. We made the mistake of eating when we normally would at home. Nightmare!! His schedule was so off that week, and he really had a difficult time at meals due to hunger, lots of activity going on around him, and Grandpa's insistence that he behave. So this trip DS is 4, DD will be 11 months. We are eating late lunches 4 of the 6 days just to try to avoid that mess again.

 

[Chelley00]

We loved doing early dinners so much last year, we planned all of our meals early this year too. The wait was nothing, the characters spent more time with us because there weren't as many people in the restaurant, and we were back in the parks playing when everyone else was stopping to eat dinner, so it made for little crowds.

We gave them a little snack later in the evening (usually during fireworks) so they wouldn't wake up early in the morning because they were hungry

 

[mom2mek]

Eat early! It's definitely the way to go! Avoid big crowds, get a lot more character interaction, the kids usually need to eat early anyway as they are using up more energy than at home. Also, less crowds later in the parks when you are done and everyone is just heading in to eat!

 

[SnowWtch]

I agree that the wait time is next to nothing if you go early and the crowds are lower to get to the buffet bar but the best thing is that the food is fresh and everything is out. You don't have to worry about them being out of something and having to miss out on the yummies.

 

[chris7]

I just called and switched it to 4:30 with no problems. Thanks

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wow! I guess I'm going against the grain here. We had most of our ADRs at 7:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. in La. time) and I wished I had made them for later in the evening. We had one ADR at 8:00 p.m. and one at 7:50 p.m. and those were our favorites. We ate a snack type breakfast, an early lunch, a snack mid-day and tour the parks efficiently all day. By the time our evening ADR rolled around, we were ready for a nice break and leisurely meal.

Oh well, everybody's family is different.