Help me "prune" my ADRs please? :)

[lilpnutmama]

I have made too many TS reservations!! We are only on the basic plan and allowed 7 TS meals so I have to cancel some but cannot decide what. Can anyone help me decide? We are staying @ Beach club and have a 2 and 4 year old. we are willing to pay OOP for maybe one meal.

Here are our ADR's (also hoop de doo but it's OOP)

cape may dinner (arrival night)
play and dine at holly&vine lunch
CRT breakfast (definitely not cancelling this one!)
WCC dinner
Candlelight processional package w/ Biergarten dinner
1900 Park Fare Breakfast
Ohana Breakfast
Cape May character breakfast
Akershus dinner

Gah - that makes 10. I have to prune 3 of them! Which would you lose out of these ones??
thanks!!!

 

[WUVmyDISNEY]

I don't blame you for holding onto that CRT ADR, I have tried since 9/18 and can not get it! It looks like you may have 3 princess meals booked...CRT, 1900 Park, and Akershus. You may want to cancel out at least one of those. I would keep the CP, but don't forget, all of these TS and dinner shows will take up time that you may want to spend in the parks. Good luck deciding!

 

[KatMark]

I have made too many TS reservations!! We are only on the basic plan and allowed 7 TS meals so I have to cancel some but cannot decide what. Can anyone help me decide? We are staying @ Beach club and have a 2 and 4 year old. we are willing to pay OOP for maybe one meal.

Here are our ADR's (also hoop de doo but it's OOP)

cape may dinner (arrival night)
play and dine at holly&vine lunch
CRT breakfast (definitely not cancelling this one!)
WCC dinner
Candlelight processional package w/ Biergarten dinner
1900 Park Fare Breakfast
Ohana Breakfast
Cape May character breakfast
Akershus dinner

Gah - that makes 10. I have to prune 3 of them! Which would you lose out of these ones??
thanks!!!

Personally, the first one I would eliminate is WCC. We thought it way overrated and DH got sick eating some of the things in the skillet. If you are doing Cape May for breakfast, I woudl eliminate dinner (or vice versa). We've never done Akershus for dinner, but did lunch--we weren't impressed--it was fair at best.

 

[aussietravellers]

Well I can not help you with what to prune, but don't prune your breakfast's at Cape May and Ohana's. They are both fantastic

 

[onelilspark]

Akershus for dinner with 2 little ones would make me nervous because the food isn't "standard." Though...I guess the kids meals would be, but idk, my tummy would be doing flip flops the rest of the night!

The other one I'd lose is the Play & Dine. Sounds great for the ages of your kids, but I've heard some really bad reviews on it.

And last I would do is the Cape May dinner on your first night. It's one of my friend's favorites, so it's not the restaurant. Just that I would skip a sit down meal your first night and stick with CS.

And there's three!

 

[colinsdad]

We stayed at the BWV a few months back with my 4yo and <1yo.

Just a few things to think about.

Its VERY hard to go from resort to resort. So in the a.m. packing up your 2 and 4yo's, you'll have to take a bus from the BC to MK and switch to the monorail for Park Fare and Ohana (or take a bus to TTC and go from there). Give yourself at least an hour in travel time to do this. If your ADR's are early, consider if you'll have enough time to do it. Will the busses be running that early? If the ADR's are later, will your kids be starving before you get there?

We had Ohana and I cancelled that realizing it would be a lot of work to get over there. So off the bat I'd cancell either Ohana or Park Fare or maybe even both since you have CRT and Cape May CB. Both excellent choices.

My next vote would be get rid of Akershus since you have CRT.

My 4yo loves Playhouse Disney, so we've done the Play 'n Dine (Breakfast) the last 2 years. I can't speak to the lunch, but the breakfast is o.k. (not great but I go for my son). After that tough choices, but DO NOT get rid of Candlelight Processional under any circumstance!

The final piece of the puzzle is what park do you plan to be in during any particular day. Will it be hard to get to your dinner location? Maybe that will help you pick one to drop.

It may work out that you have to drop the better ADR for convenience sake when you have kids in tow. Just put it on the list for next time (when maybe you stay at the Poly or GF or WL).

Good luck and have a great trip!!!

 

[lilpnutmama]

Wow! Lots of great help. Hmm...

in regards to Akershus, that is our last night, I wanted us to do something with characters on our last night and that's the only one I could get at this late notice. (originally i had booked olivia's, which we like, but is kind of boring for the kids for last meal). If it were any other night it would be the first to go but since it's our last...

Play and Dine we did last year and the kids adored it. So I could go either way on that. The kids loved it but we already did it recently.

It sounds like the cape may breakfast is pretty good, I may lose the cape may dinner then.

I will have to check the bus schedules for our morning ADR, but I think they should be ok? I thought ohana and park fare wouldn't be too bad to get to (compared to boma or something like that)...

I am a little concerned about the WCC too, have heard mixed things about it. but i think i want to do it 'just once'. every trip i book it then back out

 

[Pakey]

I would def get rid of WCC. Not only cuz it's a pain in the rear to get there from BC, but the food is terrible. I don't think the antics are worth it IMO with the age of your kiddos.

Also, I would think your children are not going to LOVE the candelight processional. I would not exchange a character meal for that.

I don't know what I would pick for the 3rd one. Good luck!

 

[webray]

I would get rid of Cape May breakfats or WCC dinner.

 

[lilpnutmama]

The kids aren't invited to the candlelight processional

My parents are coming on this trip as well, so some of our ressies are for 4, some for 2 and some for 6.

That being said, could i 'borrow' a couple of their TS meals? I did organize 2 OOP dinners for them (V and A and bistro) so they are up two...
since i am doing all the planning they probably wouldn't notice

 

[Eastern]

I think I would keep one of the extra ADR's that falls later in the week. If you miss an earlier one, (very possible) it will be hard to rebook a good TS onsite and then you may have to forfeit TS credits at the end of your stay.

Notice I am not advocating double-booking for the same time, but keeping an extra TS booking that you could cancel if you don't need it towards the end of the week.

ps I am going to go against the popular opinion of paying OOP for meals (not sides or apps) while on the DDP.

Lots of people come back and say they did not use all their dining credits. If you are not using all your credits, you are not getting the full benefit of the plan. I know some people will say 'oh but I wanted to do signature dining OOP', but that defeats the purpose of the plan, which is to prepay all of your meals. I would do HDDR on the plan. Pay the 2 credits each and be done with it. Your young kids may not be up for so many table service meals anyway.

 

[lilpnutmama]

I think I would keep one of the extra ADR's that falls later in the week. If you miss an earlier one, (very possible) it will be hard to rebook a good TS onsite and then you may have to forfeit TS credits at the end of your stay.

Notice I am not advocating double-booking for the same time, but keeping an extra TS booking that you could cancel if you don't need it towards the end of the week.

ps I am going to go against the popular opinion of paying OOP for meals (not sides or apps) while on the DDP.

Lots of people come back and say they did not use all their dining credits. If you are not using all your credits, you are not getting the full benefit of the plan. I know some people will say 'oh but I wanted to do signature dining OOP', but that defeats the purpose of the plan, which is to prepay all of your meals. I would do HDDR on the plan. Pay the 2 credits each and be done with it. Your young kids may not be up for so many table service meals anyway.

Our HDDP seats are ones for which i had to pay with credit card
it is now totally booked up so i can't change to the other kinds of seats..
it probably is a lot of TS meals for the kids though, they are pretty restless at the best of times...

 

[MickeyNicki]

WCC because I have heard that the food leaves alot to be desired (I just cancelled mine on Friday) and 1900 PF breakfast because we did this one once and not only was the food ick the place is so loud you cannot hear yourself think and we are no particularly fond of the characters there.


No way would I give up Ohana or Cape May breakfast or Cape May dinner as they are all fantastic!

 

[disneystacy]

I would keep them all (as long as you are not double booked). See how the week is going and how the kids respond to the characters, meal length and travel time and cancel reservations as you need to.
We are also taking my son who is 2(as well as my 2 older girls 10,6) and we may have to drop some of our TS meals once we see how the beginning of the week goes and how my son likes the characters (2 year olds can be unpredictable) and how long he can sit for a meal.
We already did drop Akershus because it was a credit card hold and since we already had 1900 Park Fare I didn't think it was needed (we also did it a few years ago and was not impressed for the money). We also skipped Hoop de do (again, we may have to leave if son is not happy = big waste of money).
We only booked resort breakfasts on days we are not doing parks (rest days) because we don't want to rush to breakfast at another resort in the morning (something you may want to consider) with a 2 year old in tow.
Good luck with what you decide to do.

 

[lilpnutmama]

Hrm! You people were no help Everything sounded good sooooooooo
...
I went ahead and upgraded to deluxe instead.

 

[Tricia1972]

I would pay OOP for CRT. It's not a great value on the DDP. I'd cancel Hollywood & Vine, just because of the bad reviews.

 

[Redbudlover]

I would def get rid of WCC. Not only cuz it's a pain in the rear to get there from BC, but the food is terrible. I don't think the antics are worth it IMO with the age of your kiddos.

Also, I would think your children are not going to LOVE the candelight processional. I would not exchange a character meal for that.

I don't know what I would pick for the 3rd one. Good luck!

I am so in agreement with the OP. My 2 1/2 year DGD would never be able to sit through a 2 hour CP - It is very much an adult music and choir performance and you have to sit still the whole time. Plus Biergarten - I have eaten there 3 times - I keep thinking next time the food will be OK, but it is not, it is terrible - have the fish and chips outside. They are good! So I would lose this one. OOPS - just read you are not taking the kids. In that case, keep it

Also I took my DGD to WCC and she wiggled and fussed and wanted to leave after the first half hour. Again bad food. And service was bad for me. They were so involved with ketchup we couldn't get service. I would lose that one.

Don't worry about getting over to Park Fair - just do yourself a favor and grab a cab. You spent a fortune for this vacation. $15 for a cab to save an hour is good math....

 

[itchin2go]

I would dump a breakfast or 2 for sure. With that many breakfasts booked, you're going to have a hard time getting to the theme parks at optimum times. I would cancel 1900 PF for breakfast. Are you kids really into Alice in Wonderland? My daughter never was... Then look at the other ones and decide which characters your kids are most into. If they're into the Playhouse Disney characters, then keep that one (no matter what the food reviews are). If they're into Lilo & Stich, then keep that one. If not, dump it. I would keep Cape May because it has some traditional characters. Those pictures are the best. Nothing like Minnie's happy face next to you kid's happy face!

Otherwise, keep them all and just play it by ear. When you realize you're not going to want a reservation, call and cancel it. If you keep all your reservations, at least you'll have those options.