Have not been to park in 25 years!

[flip270]

I am new to dining plan. Haven't been to park since the Earth cooled! Staying at WL. I am setting up these dining reservations (7 day plan) online and need help. I'll be there 8/22-8/28 on the dining plan. I may have overextended my plan. Good idea? Let's stick with Table Service, Counter Service I am up in the air on, have a couple of lunch spots. Snack is breakfast and then will deal with hunger in between lunch and dinner? Bad idea? Anybody good at math? Need help

8/22 Lunch Crystal Palace
Dinner Artist Point
8/23 Dinner Chef Mickey
8/24 Dinner Trails End
8/25 Lunch 50's Prime Time Cafe
8/25 Dinner Boma
8/26 Dinner Holywood Brown Derby
8/27 Dinner Yachtsman Steakhouse
8/28 Lunch Biergarten

 

[Bostonterrierlover]

Have you booked these yet? If not, you should check availability ASAP!! Also, you have some signature places in there (Yachtsman, Brown Derby) which require 2 credits. Are you on the DDP or Deluxe DP? If just the regular DDP, you may want to get rid of one or both of these and pick 1 credit places to eat or upgrade to the deluxe.

 

[Bostonterrierlover]

Artists point is also 2 credits, so you have 12 credits worth of TS listed there. If you want to keep these I would recommend upgrading to the Deluxe.

 

[flip270]

I have regular DDP and these are all booked. Is it worth the upgrade? Im afraid it will be too much food! Eating too much. What do you recommend for substitutions. Should I pick and choose now and then wing it down there?

 

[amshowers]

Since you are only on the DDP I would try to rework some things or upgrade or you will be paying alot oop, and have many CS credits left over. I would drop Trail's End and do CS for that evening. Be aware that Chef Mickey's is more about charactors than the food, I just ate salad, carved beef and dessert, which was tasty enough. I did notice that you only have 1 Epcot restuarant on your list, but Epcot offers some of the best dining options around. Since you are on the DDP you will get 1 counter service and 1 table service credit per night that you are staying, so you need to think about where you will go for counter service meals. I'm sure you will get more help with lunch if you list what your plans are for the day.

 

[Bostonterrierlover]

You could pick and choose, but if you were to stick with this I would recommend upgrading. Deluxe is $71.99 a night per adult, which could easily be spent at 1 Signature if you get the appetizer, meal, and desert. It is a lot of food, but you may want to sit down and eat in the AC since you are going in August. I would either upgrade or eliminate 1 or 2 to get closer to the 6TS credits. Since you are going for 6 nights you will only get 6TS credits. It's up to you, but I would advise scaling back or upgrading. Hope you work everything out

 

[Taja]

You beat me! 25 years between visits! I only had 22 years between 1st and 2nd WDW visits! *LOL*

You stated your dates as arriving 08/22/2010 and departing on 08/28/2010. That is six nights. The dining plan is based on the number of nights in your visit; park tickets are based on the number of days. So you would have a maximum of 6 TS credits. You can choose any meal for TS--breakfast, lunch or dinner, but you will have six credits total. Anything else will be OOP (out-of-pocket)

Yachtsmans' Steakhouse is a signature TS restaurant, and I believe someone else pointed ou Artist Pointe is, too. That's four of your TS credits in two meals.

BTW, the food at Crystal Palace, while a buffet meal with characters, actually is quite good. We like to have dinner there--not big on breakfast and due to time differences, we're just developing a solid rhythm in the parks around lunch time! *LOL* Expect good character interaction and good (not gourmet) food.

A PP suggested upgrading to the Deluxe Dining Plan. Personally, I find even the regular one requires too much planning around food. Since it is your first WDW visit in 25 years, I would stick with the regular DDP this visit. The you can expand your dining horizons in the future!

Edited to add:

Just noticed Hollywood Brown Derby on your list. It also is a signature dining experience requiring 2 TS credits.

 

[mistysue]

Have you picked which parks you are going to on which days? If not, sit down with a scrap of paper and decide which park(s) you are going to on each day. Then go look for lunches and dinners in that park. If you don't upgrade your plan, just schedule one meal/day and skip one day. (in the parks, Hollywood brown derby and Cindarella's table will cost you two credits each, but I think all the others are only one)

Whether or not you upgrade your meal plan, especially because it's been a while I would try to stick to meals in the park or in your home resort. I would cancel any meal at a resort that isn't your own (unless you really want that particular restaurant) because it can be a huge hassle to get to those. Every meal you have in a resort where you aren't staying generally means blocking off at least 3 hours of your day just to do a meal.

You can still get plenty of good ressies for that week, I've been playing around with mine and we overlap. I just searched for EPCOT dinners at 5:30 on the 27th and got 9 places open. (most with multiple different times) Dinners will get you more value for your meal plan, but lunches are easier to schedule, may go a little faster because they aren't a busy and are a GREAT relief from the heat!

 

[Taja]

I have regular DDP and these are all booked. Is it worth the upgrade? Im afraid it will be too much food! Eating too much. What do you recommend for substitutions. Should I pick and choose now and then wing it down there?

Don't wing it! You're likely to end up dining CS your entire visit!


Here's your list:
8/22 Lunch Crystal Palace
Dinner Artist Point
8/23 Dinner Chef Mickey
8/24 Dinner Trails End
8/25 Lunch 50's Prime Time Cafe
8/25 Dinner Boma
8/26 Dinner Holywood Brown Derby
8/27 Dinner Yachtsman Steakhouse
8/28 Lunch Biergarten

Crystal Palace (in MK), Chef Mickey's (in Contemporary Resort) & Trails End (at Fort Wilderness) all are convenient to MK. Since you've exceeding your 6 TS credits, I probably would drop Trails End by default, unless you really want to dine there.

Artist Pointe? Is that at WL, where you are staying? It might make sense, but I would have only one ADR per day--personally. But that's me! Again, someone mentioned that AP is a signature restaurant requiring 2 TS credits. So you'll need to decide which ADR works better for you.

50s Prime Time & Hollywood Brown Derby are in DHS (Disney Hollywood Studios). Hollywood Brown Derby is a signature restaurant, requiring 2 TS credits. Unless you are using it for the Fantasmic! Dinner Package, I probably would drop it. 50s Prime Time is fun--if you've ever been to Ed Dbevic's, it's the same basic premise. Or, I should say, the flagship restaurant was! I've never gone to any of the other locations!

Boma is at AKL, which is convenient to AK.

Biergarten is in WS at EPCOT, and Yachtsmans' Steakhouse is in YC (Yacht Club Resort), which also is convenient to EPCOT and DHS. Yachtsmans' is a 2 TS credit signature restaurant.

If you drop all of the signature dining, you would still have:

8/22 Lunch Crystal Palace (in MK)
8/23 Dinner Chef Mickey (MK area)
8/24 Dinner Trails End (MK area)****(may be eliminated)
8/25 Lunch 50's Prime Time Cafe (in DHS)
8/25 Dinner Boma (AK area)
8/28 Lunch Biergarten (in EPCOT)

Just noticed you have two ADRs on 08/25. Apart from possibly too much food in one day, you would be running from lunch at DHS to dinner at AKL, which would take a serious chunk of time out of your touring day. I would try to reschedule one of them for 08/24 and eliminate Trails End or on 08/26 or 08/27. Then I would try to book one ADR for one of the remaining two days (eliminating Trails End if it wasn't already eliminated by moving either Boma or 50s Prime Time to that date).

Some suggestions for ADRs that aren't always booked as quickly as some of the other TS restaurants:

Turf Grill (at SSR--Saratoga Springs Resort)
Captain's Grill (at YC--Yacht Club)

The Turf Grill would have the advantage of being up the river from DTD (Downtown Disney). You could plan to spend a day--or a good portion of one!--at DTD, then take a ferry (more a water taxi, really) to a meal at the Turf Grill.

And Captain's Grill at YC is very convenient to EPCOT--you can take a Friendship boat from the IG (International Gateway), which is the EPCOT resort area entrance to WS. You'll probably need more than one day at that park!

That would leave you one day without an ADR--which is not necessarily a bad thing on the DDP! *LOL*

 

[Silver Queen]

I disagree with the idea of upgrading to deluxe. As other posters have mentioned it's a lot of food, more time and stress devoted to getting around to restaurants on time and also more money. If this is the first time you've been back to WDW in 25 years it seems that you'd like to spend time more seeing the attractions and not running from restaurant to restaurant. My recommendation would be to lose at least one of your signatures (Brown Derby) and also lose Trail's End (not that great). We've stayed at Wilderness Lodge and it's pretty easy to take the boat to the MK and then get on the resort loop monorail where you could go to restaurant in the Poly, Grand Floridian or Contemporary. The GF Cafe is a lovely possibility. It's fun to visit the GF and the food and service are quite good there. I would also suggest having your TS meals at dinner time when it might be cooler. Heavy lunches and August heat could wipe you out. As another poster mentioned there are many good possibilities at Epcot. There are also several good quick service restaurants in the parks and resorts. You didn't mention the demographics of your traveling party...adults?, children?, seniors? Good luck with your decisions and have a good time!

 

[flip270]

I narrowed it down to:
8/22 Artist Point Dinner
8/23 Chef Mickey Dinner
8/24 Free
08/25 Boma Dinner
08/26 Free
08/27 Yachtsman Steakhouse Dinner

All my lunches I cancelled. Had to get it within 6TS for may family of 4 (2 kids 8 and 5).
I guess we will just see what our mood is down there. Mistake?

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I narrowed it down to:
8/22 Artist Point Dinner
8/23 Chef Mickey Dinner
8/24 Free
08/25 Boma Dinner
08/26 Free
08/27 Yachtsman Steakhouse Dinner

All my lunches I cancelled. Had to get it within 6TS for may family of 4 (2 kids 8 and 5).
I guess we will just see what our mood is down there. Mistake?

AP- Is a 2 Tb credit.
I would swap that with WCC
8/24 & 8/26 it depends where you will be
Prime Time
Mamma Mel
Tony's
LTT
CP
Tutto
Teppen Edo
Coral Reef
France

 

[hart6066]

Since you have 2 kids (I have ones the same age!) you might want to cancel the signature restaurants--Yachtsman and Artist Pointe. IMO, you're better off going to a nice restaurant home without the kids than wasting 2 TS per meal at Disney with your kids! At the end of the day, while those restaurants may be pretty good, I'm sure you have restaurants at home that are far better for the same price. The only 2TS meal at Disney that I'd think of doing with kids that age is Cinderella's Royal Table, if you have girls.

Really think about the restaurants at Epcot--your kids may really love them and I think the food is pretty good. The atmosphere is GREAT and would be very different than what you'd get at home. I think even picky eaters would be happy at every restaurant (kids menus are pretty standard). My kids LOVE Coral Reef because of the dive tank! Good luck!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I would keep the Crystal Palace lunch for the kids and remove Artist point for dinner. CP has a good selection of food and the kids would have a great time at the character meal.

 

[jojomoore]

If you decide to pay OOP for a meal or two, make sure you use your dining credits for the most expensive 1 credit TS meals and pay OOP for the least expensive TS meal. If you have plans to go to DTD, Earl of Sandwich is a really food QS option. 50's Prime Time was probably the least expensive meal that we ate last year.

You can also decide to pay OOP for a 2 credit TS (Signature Dining). We also did this last year because i figured out that the 2TS credit restaurant (Jiko) was less money than eating at two other 1 credit TS restaurants.

However, I used my 2TS dining credits for CRT because this one of the most expensive meals at WDW and the bill was equal to or more than two other TS meals added together.

Personally, I hated the dining plan and am paying OOP for everything this year. There are alot of restrictions on the DDP.

Just to clarify. Artist Point, Yatchsman's, Hollywood Brown Derby are all 2 credit TS meals.
I really would keep a character meal for your children. These will make memories that will last a lifetime.

 

[lblume91]

I agree with dropping signature dining places with kiddos. We've never done any signatures but have always been happy with our experiences. Typically, we bring breakfast food with us & eat in the room as we get ready, CS for lunch & 1 credit TS for dinner.

 

[Taja]

My two cents...

Overall, I like your revised plan, primarily because of alternating days with and without TS meals. If not on the dining plan, we typically have a TS meal about every third day. Not ideal for everyone, but we find we're a bit stuffed if we have TS every day. 'Course, we grew up with "You have to clean your plate. There are hungry children in..." You get the idea--and it stuck well into adulthood! *LOL*

Deciding whether to keep the signature restaurants (business casual dress) will depend on your two children. Are they good at longer meals in restaurants? I've never dined at Artist Point, but love Yachtsmans' Steakhouse. However, while it isn't unfriendly to children, it doesn't cater to children. The servers are terrific, but it is a quieter, more adult-oriented atmosphere.

Some children are great in that atmosphere, others not so much. You know yours best.