Feedback on my Dining Plans Please

[brandyleeann]

Hi everyone!

My plans are coming together and I was hoping to get some feedback on my dining plans.

We will be doing a split stay at WDW before we head out on our 7-night western Caribbean cruise with DCL. Our hotel plans are:

• Animal Kingdom Lodge - December 30 to January 1
• Beach Club - January 1 to 6

About us, there will be me, DH, DS (7) and DD (5). Kids love pretty well everything and we have no allergies. We have lots of TS meals planned as we like to have a place to sit and to take a break from the parks, so that is what you will see in these plans.

We arrive to MCO at 7:30 pm and will use a car service to get to AKL. Here is my first question - will we make it back to AKL for a 9:30 ADR? I know it is late, but we are coming from Alberta, so will be two hours ahead and prefer to have TS than head to the Mara, which is what we did last time.

Arrival Day - December 30 - Boma (S)

Stay at AKL all day - December 31 - Boma (B); Maji Pool Bar (L); Sanaa (S)

Epcot - January 1 - Akerhaus (B); Beaches n' Cream (L - allows us to check into our room at Beach Club); Via Napoli (S) OR La Hacienda de San Angel (S - allows for fireworks viewing I believe).

Hollywood Studios - January 2 - Hollywood and Vine (B); 50's Prime Time (L); Sci Fi Diner (S) watch Fantasmic (hopefully with H&V dining package)

Animal Kingdom - January 3 - Tuskar House (B); Yak and Yeti (L); Tiffins (S) watch ROL

Stay at Beach Club - January 4 - Cape May Cafe (B); somewhere at Boardwalk for lunch - looking for recommendations; Yachtsman (S), back over to Hollywood Studios to watch Star Wars show

Magic Kingdom - January 5 - Crystal Palace (B); Liberty Tree Tavern (L); Be our Guest (S) watch fireworks

Departure Day - January 6 - possibly head to the Bon Voyage breakfast thing or just Boardwalk Bakery (B)
​

So, what do you think? Anything here absolutely not great for kids? Anything we can't wear our parks clothing to and feel comfortable? Any other ideas?

One last note - we are not planning on a dining plan as we are unlikely to do appetizer and dessert except at supper. I may regret this.

Thanks so much for looking and providing your feedback!!

 

[TwoMisfits]

Hi everyone!

My plans are coming together and I was hoping to get some feedback on my dining plans.

We will be doing a split stay at WDW before we head out on our 7-night western Caribbean cruise with DCL. Our hotel plans are:

• Animal Kingdom Lodge - December 30 to January 1
• Beach Club - January 1 to 6

About us, there will be me, DH, DS (7) and DD (5). Kids love pretty well everything and we have no allergies. We have lots of TS meals planned as we like to have a place to sit and to take a break from the parks, so that is what you will see in these plans.

We arrive to MCO at 7:30 pm and will use a car service to get to AKL. Here is my first question - will we make it back to AKL for a 9:30 ADR? I know it is late, but we are coming from Alberta, so will be two hours ahead and prefer to have TS than head to the Mara, which is what we did last time.

Arrival Day - December 30 - Boma (S)

Stay at AKL all day - December 31 - Boma (B); Maji Pool Bar (L); Sanaa (S)

Epcot - January 1 - Akerhaus (B); Beaches n' Cream (L - allows us to check into our room at Beach Club); Via Napoli (S) OR La Hacienda de San Angel (S - allows for fireworks viewing I believe).

Hollywood Studios - January 2 - Hollywood and Vine (B); 50's Prime Time (L); Sci Fi Diner (S) watch Fantasmic (hopefully with H&V dining package)

Animal Kingdom - January 3 - Tuskar House (B); Yak and Yeti (L); Tiffins (S) watch ROL

Stay at Beach Club - January 4 - Cape May Cafe (B); somewhere at Boardwalk for lunch - looking for recommendations; Yachtsman (S), back over to Hollywood Studios to watch Star Wars show

Magic Kingdom - January 5 - Crystal Palace (B); Liberty Tree Tavern (L); Be our Guest (S) watch fireworks

Departure Day - January 6 - possibly head to the Bon Voyage breakfast thing or just Boardwalk Bakery (B)
​

So, what do you think? Anything here absolutely not great for kids? Anything we can't wear our parks clothing to and feel comfortable? Any other ideas?

One last note - we are not planning on a dining plan as we are unlikely to do appetizer and dessert except at supper. I may regret this.

Thanks so much for looking and providing your feedback!!

I think it's just too much, especially on your planned park days. You will have very little time for actual park touring with all the sit downs...plus, on those days, you start many of them with an AYCTE buffet breakfast...it's unlikely you'll want to eat more than a snack at an expected lunch time...at a minimum, I would drop either breakfast or lunch TS on every park day...

 

[holden]

That's a lot of food. We usually book one sit down meal per day. Sometimes we might book a breakfast and a dinner, but that's rare.

I agree with the poster above, you'll spend most of your time in restaurants instead of on the attractions. Each meal will take approximately 1 to 1.5 hours of your time. That could add up to 4.5 hours of your day.

Forgot to add: A 9:30 ADR with a 7:30 arrival time at MCO is cutting it too close. What if your flight is delayed (as many afternoon/evening flights are)?

 

[CynBeth]

I think what you have booked is fine. You can wear park clothes to all on your list I believe. I have family members with food allergies so we have to eat all 3 meals at TS. We have breakfast usually at 7:30 am or 8:00 am depending on what time the restaurant opens. Then we have lunch around 11:30 am or 12 pm eating a little lighter. Dinner is usually 4:30 pm or 5:00 pm. We usually are on the go all day every day so we find the lunches and dinners are our time to sit down and relax.

We don't do the dining plan. We buy Disney gift cards to total the amount we think we will spend on food with my Disney Visa so I earn rewards at the same time.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree with the others. It's too much food and too much time wasted in restaurants.

Here are my suggestions:

Arrival day: If you have any travel delays, you won't make the reservation and will be stuck with a no-show fee. I would wait until you land and then check the MDE app to see if there are any TS available at AKL around 9:30 pm. If not, I, personally, would go to Mara or get room service. You could always try to walk up to Boma as well if nothing is showing on the app. No guarantees, but it's worth asking if they can seat you.

Dec. 31 - I think it's a good plan as your major meals are spaced far apart with just a pool lunch in between

For the rest of your days, I would, personally, drop one TS meal per day (I would drop breakfasts or lunches). It's just way too much food. On the days you want to do a lunch, you can grab QS or have some things in your room for breakfast. On the days you drop lunch, just do QS (tons of great QS in EP, AK and on the Boardwalk! and you can have a smaller, quicker meal)

 

[StaciaRae]

I think you'll be cutting it close to get to your BOMA reservation within 2 hours of landing. We stayed at AKL last year and it took us close to 2 hours to get there using Magic Express, then you'll have to check in, get to your room, etc. I think that is cutting it way too close.

I also agree that it's a lot of sit down meals. Each meal will take at least an hour. With this many, you'll pretty much be just going from one restaurant to the next. We love to eat and we love sit down meals. We did a breakfast and dinner sit-down one day, then just a sit-down lunch the next day (with counter service and snack carts in between), that was plenty for us. Plus, most of these place give you so much food, that you'll probably not be hungry again in just 2 hours.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I would consider room service the night you arrive. AKL's room service comes from Jiko and Boma. It might be more relaxing since you're getting in late, and you won't have to worry about possibly missing a reservation.

We enjoy table service restaurants, too, and though we've never done three in one day, if that's what your family enjoys and makes your trip special, then your plan looks great. Plus, it's smart to plan breaks for the kids' little legs. The Bon Voyage breakfast would be a fun start to your cruise day.

Tip: You can get a ROL dining pkg with a Tusker House breakfast. It has to be reserved as a package, and it works like the Fantasmic pkg you mentioned.

Your Yachtsman meal might have to be really early in order to grab a good spot for the Star Wars fireworks.

 

[guinea pig]

Way too much food and way tooo much time spent on food. Relax and have fun and go with the flow.

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

Wow! You have obviously given this a lot of thought and planning. Your choices are good - I do think that it is an ambitious dining plan! If you are really into dining more than the park experience then you are on track. Otherwise, perhaps breakfast in your room (most places have fridges for milk) and then enjoy lunch and dinner out. We usually do breakfast in our room, QS for lunch then have dinner reservations. To eat at Crystal Palace (big buffet) and then Liberty Tree will be a lot of food in a relatively short period of time. Same for Tusker House, Yak and Yeti and Tiffins - great places but that is also lots of food and time spent dining. The QS choices for lunch in the parks are pretty good overall - it would save you time and money...again, just depends on what you and your family enjoy doing. Have a great trip!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We have done 3 meals a day on the DDDP before and as long as you space them out well, you'll be ok. We usually do a pre-park opening for breakfast around 8am-ish (or earlier if they are serving earlier), then lunch around 2pm, and then dinner around 8pm. When I am planning I usually account for an hour form the start of a meal (for us an average meal is 45 - 60 minutes long) and usually try to leave about 5 hours between. And like I said we've done this on the DDDP so we were getting appe, entrée, and dessert...doesn't mean you have to eat till your plate is clean. And you're not talking about the dining plans so you can simply order what you want (except for the pay one price meals).

And at that time of they year, especially the first part but could be longer depending on the day of the week the holiday falls on, plans will be your friend. We were there over Christmas and New Years in 2015 and I think one of the main reasons we did not seem to notice bad crowds (that others have complained about) was that we had out ADRs in place for every meal. Lines at CS places were crazy the few times we got close enough to the venue. I would not have been happy waiting on my family to decide what we wanted then waiting in a long line to order then waiting a long time to pick up then stalking a seat...you get the picture. We were able to walk in and most of the time be seated within 5 minutes of entering...all except at Ohana.

I do think I wouldn't chance the TS on arrival night. We have always arrived on time and ME has always been great and not long to board and travel but I still would be worried about not getting there. Boma is a big place, it's possible that by that time at night you could walk in. Otherwise, while on the way in, check online to see if you can grab a last minute ADR. Otherwise, I'd do The Mara or room service like others suggested.

 

[Nancyg56]

I like to eat and I like TS meals but I could not keep your plan. WE usually book one or two TS meals a day, with our evening meal around 7 or 8 PM. We do have three lease a day, but the three ADR's are a huge commitment, and one that takes a lot of time.

I woudl nto book TS on your arrival day. If you do nto experience any delays, check to see I'd there are any openings after your arrive. The stress of trying to get to a restaurant when you have little control over the events around you is rough.