Haven't booked restaurants yet...

[Jen12573]

We are heading to Disney from Jan. 17-22, and I realized today that it's just over a month away. We haven't booked any of our dining yet - are we in for a rude awakening, not being able to book where we want?

I'm booking our meal plan on Monday - the Deluxe Dining Plan (waiting for a check to clear before doing so). Will we have a lot of trouble booking restaurants during this timeframe do you think?

We're not eating anywhere special from Jan. 17-19 because we're going for the 3v3 soccer tournament, so we'll probably just grab quick meals, but from the night of the 19th-22nd (late afternoon), we will want to eat at a few different restaurants. Since it's just me and my husband, no kids, late meals aren't an issue for us. Plus we're not planning to dine at the castle or anything uber-special like that. Thoughts?
Thanks!

 

[vicki_c]

I don't think you'll have a lot of trouble except for the days around MLK day weekend. Those will be tougher. Generally that's a slower time except for the holiday weekend.

My advice - call now this weekend and see what you can get before you decide to purchase the dining plan (especially the Deluxe!). I wouldn't spend any $$ for the dining plan until you know you can get enough reservations to use up your credits.

 

[Jen12573]

Excellent suggestion, thank you I will call today to see what reservations we can get before booking the Deluxe Dining.

Another odd question - will they allow me to use two different dining plans - say the Quick Service for Jan. 17-18 and the Deluxe for 19-22?

 

[vicki_c]

Excellent suggestion, thank you I will call today to see what reservations we can get before booking the Deluxe Dining.

Another odd question - will they allow me to use two different dining plans - say the Quick Service for Jan. 17-18 and the Deluxe for 19-22?

I'm not sure but I think you would have to have 2 different packages (room + dining) to do that, one that covered the QS plan and one the deluxe, just like if you were staying in 2 different resorts over your trip.

Someone else may be able to answer more definitively.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

You would need two seperate reservations but you don't need to do that. If you want just counter service for the first half and deluxe for the second half that equals the regular package the whole trip. Just use all the CS in the first half of the trip and the TS in the second half. You can use them as you wish. We had days where we used only sit downs, days where we used only CS and days where we mixed them. Good luck getting the meals you are hoping for...

 

[Jen12573]

Thanks - I didn't even think of that. So basically book the Deluxe for all the nights we're staying, and use CS for the first couple of days, then bank the sit down meals for the rest of our stay. Sweet, love that idea.

Last question on this - can I make a character breakfast and dinner reservations without having the dining plan set up yet?

 

[Claire L]

Thanks - I didn't even think of that. So basically book the Deluxe for all the nights we're staying, and use CS for the first couple of days, then bank the sit down meals for the rest of our stay. Sweet, love that idea.

Last question on this - can I make a character breakfast and dinner reservations without having the dining plan set up yet?

I think the previous poster was saying book the normal dining plan and double up the unused TS from the first few nights to use for signature restaurants later in the visit as they take 2 credits.

Claire

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I think the previous poster was saying book the normal dining plan and double up the unused TS from the first few nights to use for signature restaurants later in the visit as they take 2 credits.

Claire

Yes, that is what I was saying. If you pay for the deluxe plan and use half of the credits for CS you are basically paying more for the regular plan. With the regular plan you get one TS per night and one CS per night but use them as you wish. So, you can use all the CS in the begining and save all the TS for when you have time.

Yes you can book your ADRs and add the dining plan later...

 

[Jen12573]

That's what I took from the post as well (I'm in my PJ's doing calculations of what and where we can eat). But after thinking about it the Deluxe may work out better for us after all.

We are staying five total nights - 30 TS credits. We're planning 3 signature dinners, for two of us that would be 12 credits.

So we can also do 5 TS breakfasts (10 credits) and 4 TS lunches (8 credits) or add another signature dinner and lose two lunches/breakfasts, to use all 30 of the TS credits. Plus snacks which I could easily live on while we're visiting the parks from the 19th-22nd - yay dole whips!

Thanks so much, this makes sense to me now!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Thanks - I didn't even think of that. So basically book the Deluxe for all the nights we're staying, and use CS for the first couple of days, then bank the sit down meals for the rest of our stay. Sweet, love that idea.

Last question on this - can I make a character breakfast and dinner reservations without having the dining plan set up yet?

You got it exactly except switch out the word DELUXE for the word BASIC...

EDITED TO ADD--- Sorry, we were typing at the same time. If Deluxe works for you go and enjoy, I was just trying to explain to you why if half your meals were CS you would be better off with the basic plan.

We did the basic plan 2 weeks ago. We ate at a couple Signature places a bunch of TS places and still on our last day had 7 or 8 CS left over (we filled the cooler for the drive home.)

 

[Jen12573]

Sorry, now after reviewing the "BASIC" that would work as well, and be less expensive obviously - fewer signature dinners but that's fine by us. Whew, never do math on a Saturday morning! Basic it is - and I'm calling to reserve dinner today. Whew.

EDIT - thank you again, I realized too that we were typing at the same time. At least now I understand how it all works. I'm going to price out the different plans to see what we're going to do. Hotel and airfare was paid for by my parents (Christmas and 2008 anniversary gift that we're finally using). So, I figure we could, if we want to, go all out on meals...

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

To give you an idea of where we ate...
WCC-dinner
Kona-dinner
50s PT- lunch
Cali Grill (just DH and I)- dinner
Chef Mickey's-dinner
CRT- breakfast
LeCellier- lunch
Akerhaus (not grandma, grandpa and our oldest DD)- dinner
Chef Mickey's (not grandma and grandma)- breakfast

A couple times we paid OOP for my grandpa's meals (he always orders burgers) to save the credits we went a couple over on.

We ate well, very well, and all on FREE DINING! I can't imagine the Deluxe plan but it would be fun to try!!! Have fun...

 

[Claire L]

Sorry, now after reviewing the "BASIC" that would work as well, and be less expensive obviously - fewer signature dinners but that's fine by us. Whew, never do math on a Saturday morning! Basic it is - and I'm calling to reserve dinner today. Whew.

EDIT - thank you again, I realized too that we were typing at the same time. At least now I understand how it all works. I'm going to price out the different plans to see what we're going to do. Hotel and airfare was paid for by my parents (Christmas and 2008 anniversary gift that we're finally using). So, I figure we could, if we want to, go all out on meals...

With the deluxe it would be alot of food if you did a TS breakfast, TS lunch and TS dinner! The cost for basic is $40 plus tax and $70 plus tax for deluxe. although we deluxe get the appetizer with the lunch/dinners.

Claire

 

[Jen12573]

SUCCESS - we booked the Coronado Springs Resort for Jan. 17-19 with the BASIC dining plan. Since we have the second leg of our trip booked through American Express Rewards (Mom & Dad's gift), I was able to split the two reservations and the two dining plans.

So - BASIC plan for Jan. 17-19 (2 TS, 2CS), and DELUXE for Jan. 20-22 (12TS, 4 snacks).

And we got dinner/lunch reservations where we wanted and at the time we wanted - Brown Derby (lunch, 4 total credits), Narcoossee's at 7:15 for dinner (4 total credits), and character breakfast (2 credits) as well as the GF Grill (2 credits) for another breakfast.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Have a great trip...

 

[Claire L]

Oh thats great news that everything is sorted

Claire

 

[Jen12573]

Thank you again to everyone, you all helped me out so much! Now I'm really excited, and we got the restaurants we wanted (except for California Grill, that was totally booked until 9:30 - too late to eat for me...)

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Well, here's my $.02. You didn't ask, so feel free to ignore it.

We had our 15th annivarsary this year. We didn't do much as we are on a tight budget and were saving for our trip. We had the dining plan free this trip, so we decided to splurge on CG for just the 2 of us. The view was amazing for sure, but the meal was one of our least favorites. It was fine, but not as amazing as we had thought. I had the fillet, DH had the salmon. The fillet I had at LeCellier was 100 times better and DH felt the same was about the salmon he had at Akerhaus. It was a nice experience I am glad we had once, but I won't ever be back. For us the best part was the view, watching Wished from the roof and the flatbread we had.

I don't know if you have been before and love it, if so, I am sorry to offend. But for me it was always a dream place and while it was a fine meal, there are a lot of places we'd much rather dine at.

 

[Jen12573]

Not at all, thank you for your input. Can you go to CG for a drink so we can see the view? I'll check out LeCellier as well...maybe instead of Brown Derby.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I have been told you can go from a drink and that is a good idea (the flatbread was good too, maybe you could order one of those to linger a bit longer.) I'd go again for that. The lounge area was not huge, but nice sized. LeCellier was the most amazing meal I have ever had in my life (but then the best place I have been outside of Disney is Outback, which I love.) Another outstanding meal was a CS, but soooooo good we went twice and ordered the same thing. It was Wolfgang Puck Express in Disney Marketpace. Oh, my soooo good.