Help with Arrival Day Plans/ADR

[kdb624]

We are arriving at Disney Tuesday afternoon and realize we get in relatively early (11:00am) and don’t really have anything planned for arrival day. Right now, we are looking at pulling together an ADR for that night, which could include an afternoon at MK, or just a tour of the monorail resorts. It just depends on which of these three restaurants we choose. We’ve sort of lucked out with three great last minute ADRs I scored today, now to decide which I will keep. Please help me decide… Ohana @ 7:50, which we’ve never been for dinner and we could stick around to watch MK MVMCP fireworks from the Poly. Narcoosees @ 8:55, kind of late, but really enjoyed it in the past, and also could watch fireworks. Or Be Our Guest @ 5:20. We have a lunch FP here on Wednesday, so not sure if it makes sense to do this as dinner the night before, plus we’d have to add on another park day to our tickets, but may not be such a bad thing since we have an early arrival and the cost is nominal with our existing tickets. I hear this is a great dinner ADR…

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I vote for the MK and BOG.

 

[Disneylover99]

I vote for the MK and BOG.

Me too.

 

[mymermaid]

I would choose O'hanas personally and tour the monorail resorts and maybe even take the boat over to the Wilderness lodge. You would also save a day on your park tickets. If you still need something to do you could also spend the evening at Downtown Disney

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Personally, I would not rush in to the parks right away. I speak from experience because I arrived about the same time of day in October, quickly went through check-in at POR and then rushed to MK to get a couple hours in the park before MNSSHP. It wasn't worth it. We should have just relaxed and enjoyed the resort a little, then gone to DTD to get a "taste" of Disney before hitting MK the next day.

I have not been to any of the restaurants you mentioned (except 'Ohana for breakfast) so I can't help you there. But I do suggest you stay on the monorail loop, or make an ADR in DTD.

 

[Alesia]

Personally, I can't imagine not going to a park on arrival day. On our last trip, we arrived at 9:00 pm after driving for 15 hours and still went to MK for a couple of hours.

 

[LovesTimone]

We are arriving at Disney Tuesday afternoon and realize we get in relatively early (11:00am) and don’t really have anything planned for arrival day. Right now, we are looking at pulling together an ADR for that night, which could include an afternoon at MK, or just a tour of the monorail resorts. It just depends on which of these three restaurants we choose. We’ve sort of lucked out with three great last minute ADRs I scored today, now to decide which I will keep. Please help me decide… Ohana @ 7:50, which we’ve never been for dinner and we could stick around to watch MK MVMCP fireworks from the Poly. Narcoosees @ 8:55, kind of late, but really enjoyed it in the past, and also could watch fireworks. Or Be Our Guest @ 5:20. We have a lunch FP here on Wednesday, so not sure if it makes sense to do this as dinner the night before, plus we’d have to add on another park day to our tickets, but may not be such a bad thing since we have an early arrival and the cost is nominal with our existing tickets. I hear this is a great dinner ADR…

Ohana's - The ADR's seating times are always way behind, like 45 + minutes. It get so crowded, while you are waiting, lots of people waiting for the fireworks so the tables don't turn over. For us the food is not all that great, and the service is spotty, at least for us it has been.

Narcoosees - This is one of our fav's, we try to make ADR here on every trip. Really great view of the fireworks, and electric water parade, nice and relaxing.

Be Our Guest - This is another dinner favorite, and the Beast is there for dinner, For us I would pick dinner over lunch.

Looking at your post, you say we get in around 11:00 is that your landing time? If so you need to factor in transportation time, are you riding ME? or renting a car and driving? OR - when you will arrive at the resort at 11:00 ish? If you arrive around 11:00ish then the chances are your room will not be ready, so you could head to the parks, but once you receive the text that your room is ready, you will most likely want to get settled in. So you will have to decided if the extra day and cost is worth it.

When we arrive normally- we head for the pool, maybe even nap (depending on how early we were up), Then head for DTD, for the evening and dinner. We try to turn in early as we hit the parks bright and early the next day. We have headed into the parks and had a blast, but only ate QS as the kids would not want to stop for a sit down dinner.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I would go to MK and eat at BOG. It would be a great start to the trip but still an early night.

 

[wmpenguin]

I am guessing your room won't be ready at 11 when you arrive, so you'll need someone to go, so I vote MK. Also, I vote BOG for dinner - we loved dinner WAY more than our lunch with FP.

 

[ghtx]

Another vote for MK and BOG.

 

[kdb624]

Thanks for input, appreciate all the different perspectives. Our flight lands at 11:00, and I do anticipate we won't have a room ready at that point. But we do have a rental car, so we can mostly get directly to wherever we decide to go.

It sounds like BOG is the overall recommendation. I have wanted to try dinner there. And I really don't mind the additional expense of the park days, as I believe it will only be about $11/day and only for my daughter and me. My bigger concern is that I think we can only do the add-on day when we arrive, so can't do any pre-booked FP+, so I wonder if having an abbreviated MK day (party night) without any FPs will be worth the trouble just to get dinner at BOG. Perhaps so, sounds like it is really that good.

Regarding Ohana, I have heard their dinner ressies can be delayed quite a bit. But our ADR is at 7:50pm and fireworks don't go til 9:30. Is it really conceivable we would be so delayed on the ressie that we would miss them?

 

[chloelovesdisney]

If you can't get FP+ ahead of time you'll be able to book some that day. Maybe not headliners but you'll certainly be able to get some attractions. Plan to also see Philharmagic, ride the Riverboat, etc.. You'll be landing at 11am so will probably want to stop for a light lunch and/or ice cream. There will be plenty to do before your BOG adr.

 

[JeninTexas]

Another vote for MK and BOG. It is a great dinner experience and is different from lunch. We did both lunch and dinner last week and enjoyed both, especially lunch. I was disappointed with Ohana. Average food, fair service, but nothing I would go back for.

 

[summerw]

We are arriving at Disney Tuesday afternoon and realize we get in relatively early (11:00am) and don’t really have anything planned for arrival day. Right now, we are looking at pulling together an ADR for that night, which could include an afternoon at MK, or just a tour of the monorail resorts. It just depends on which of these three restaurants we choose. We’ve sort of lucked out with three great last minute ADRs I scored today, now to decide which I will keep. Please help me decide… Ohana @ 7:50, which we’ve never been for dinner and we could stick around to watch MK MVMCP fireworks from the Poly. Narcoosees @ 8:55, kind of late, but really enjoyed it in the past, and also could watch fireworks. Or Be Our Guest @ 5:20. We have a lunch FP here on Wednesday, so not sure if it makes sense to do this as dinner the night before, plus we’d have to add on another park day to our tickets, but may not be such a bad thing since we have an early arrival and the cost is nominal with our existing tickets. I hear this is a great dinner ADR…

We ate at all 3 on our trip and here's my take… It will probably be pretty light crowds at MK since it's a party day, until 4 when they let the partygoers in. I wouldn't worry too much about FP since there are tons of things that should have small waits for you.

BoG was our favorite reservation. We at in the West Wing and it was so nice and quiet. As long as you don't have little ones that scare easy, you might ask for the West Wing and then eat in the main Ballroom for your lunch reservation as I think they are so different it would be fun. However, I would only add all that if it makes sense money wise to add the ticket.

Ohana was my husband's next favorite. I thought their food was great. It's not cuisine or anything, but it was a nice break if you're doing more than one character buffet, as the food is repetitive at those. It's definitely a crowded and fairly noisy restaurant. We waited longer to get a seat here than anywhere else. The servers were not quite as friendly as some of the other places, I'm sure due to how busy it was.


Narcoosees was beautiful, but you'll be too late to enjoy the daytime view. Also, it was one of our longer meals and that late will be harder on the little ones, which may be harder on you if you will worry about them being noisy in a fancier place.

I think BoG in the West Wing will be your best bet for a relaxing dinner to send you in early so you are ready to go the next morning, but if you just want the nicest meal, Narcoosees.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I would do bog dinner and drop the lunch there. The dinner is the hot spot and hardest adr to get to get plus u got a really great time! We are arriving early too...we are actually getting to go a couple days early before checking into Disney so are staying off site to do dtd and sea world. The day we check in we are doing crt and have wishes dessert party as well. So I definitely have to agree with most of the people on the board and say go with bog!

 

[dkrauss]

We are arriving at Disney Tuesday afternoon and realize we get in relatively early (11:00am) and don’t really have anything planned for arrival day. Right now, we are looking at pulling together an ADR for that night, which could include an afternoon at MK, or just a tour of the monorail resorts. It just depends on which of these three restaurants we choose. We’ve sort of lucked out with three great last minute ADRs I scored today, now to decide which I will keep. Please help me decide… Ohana @ 7:50, which we’ve never been for dinner and we could stick around to watch MK MVMCP fireworks from the Poly. Narcoosees @ 8:55, kind of late, but really enjoyed it in the past, and also could watch fireworks. Or Be Our Guest @ 5:20. We have a lunch FP here on Wednesday, so not sure if it makes sense to do this as dinner the night before, plus we’d have to add on another park day to our tickets, but may not be such a bad thing since we have an early arrival and the cost is nominal with our existing tickets. I hear this is a great dinner ADR…

Given you'd have to add tickets for the BOG ADR and its apparently on a party night.........I wouldn't do that. The issue here is not having park/party tickets for arrival day............The other 2 are a toss up depending on your party.........the earlier ADR at Ohana would be my choice......... you could tour the monorail resorts and view the Christmas setups...........before 'and' after.

Have a great trip.....

Doug