Help with changing our dining reservations

[mherb]

We had booked the BC without DDP through a local travel agent. Because we weren't booking directly with Disney we had $500 in Disney gift cards that were going to go to waste. We had decided to just put the cards on our KttW and use that towards our food. Well yesterday we received a 35% off pin code. Turns out the travel agent group fee was equal to the discount we would receive for Disney. We rebooked with Disney and are now able to add the basic dining plan and use the $500 gift cards to pay towards our trip. This means that I need to remove and reconsider some of the things we booked. I am willing to keep one or two things that we pay out of pocket for but would prefer to stick with the plan. I ended up having to pay for CRT out of pocket since we didn't have DDP yesterday. I should mention it will be me, husband, and daughter who will be 2. Our daughter loves princesses but not sure how she will react to costumed characters? We are all major foodies and love all different kinds of food. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Here is our list of ADRs:
Sunday, May 1st
Arrive in Orlando at 10:15
Dinner- 6:30 Biergarten

Monday, May 2nd
Breakfast-8:30 am Akershus
Dinner-6:30 La Hacienda

Tuesday, May 3rd
Breakfast- 8:05 am Cindy’s Royal Table (already paid for)
Dinner- 6:30 Ohana

Wednesday, May 4th
Dinner- 7:05 Coral Reef

Thursday, May 5th
Breakfast: 8:00 am Tusker House
Dinner-6:20 Boma

Friday, May 6th
Breakfast: 8:05 am Crystal Palace
Dinner- 6:20 Via Napoli

Saturday, May 7th- Departure Day
Breakfast: 8:00 am Cape May Cafe
Leave Orlando 5pm

 

[Disneyfreak616]

What would you like to keep/eliminate????

 

[mherb]

What would you like to keep/eliminate????

That is what I am looking for suggestions for. I have never been there with a child so I am not sure if all the character meals or breakfasts are necessary.

 

[MrsLS]

I'm assuming you picked those dinners for a reason (liked the menus, reviews), I would keep the dinners as I think having a nice dinner at the end of the day is relaxing/nice.
As for the breakfasts, you might have too many character breakfasts but you will probably have to eat somewhere either for breakfast/lunch. If you are staying at BC, I would probably get rid of Tusker & CP unless you are early risers. You need to take the bus there, unless you have a car and I would think you have to give yourself a good hour or so before to make sure the bus is there and then the ride over.
Or if you want all of them, I would keep them now, see how your daughter does with the characters, go to a character line at one of the parks and if its not a good experience, then cancel the ones you have for later in the week when you get there.

 

[MrsLS]

I didn't see until now that you aren't going until May. Why don't you take her to see Santa &/or the Easter Bunny and see how she does.

 

[DEA]

In my opinion, Akershus is a great breakfast with fantastic princess interaction. I think that all the characters do a good job with the littler kids, and the "face" characters, I think, tend to be a little less anxiety-inducing for kids than, say, a 6-ft. tall duck. YMMV.

I might suggest you move Tusker House breakfast to Tusker House lunch at a little after 1pm, which gets you priority seating for the Finding Nemo show.

Even if you prepay for CRT, you can apply the DDP credits toward it when you pay, and get what you prepaid refunded to you. We did this our last trip and it worked out fine.

I have done Coral Reef with a 2yo, and unless you are close to the front (and therefore the aquarium), you might end up chasing said 2yo as she keeps trying to wrangle her way up to the front. I did. We did have a good meal there, but not a great one. I have not had the inclination to go back in our subsequent trips, and I have made several return visits to restaurants since then.

Crystal Palace is fun, but I might just do a breakfast on Main Street instead, especially if your daughter would rather see Princesses than Pooh characters.

If it were me, I'd drop Cape May breakfast and La Hacienda dinner, to make things fit, and because the other options that you already have are better.

If you are foodies, I might point you to Chefs de France rather than Biergarten, and also point you toward Sanaa at Kidani Village. I know this doesn't help cut down on meals.

So my suggestion would look more like:

Sunday, May 1st
Arrive in Orlando at 10:15
Dinner- 6:30 Chefs de France

Monday, May 2nd
Breakfast-8:30 am Akershus

Tuesday, May 3rd
Breakfast- 8:05 am Cindy’s Royal Table (already paid for)
Dinner- 6:30 Ohana

Wednesday, May 4th
Dinner- DTD Wolfgang Puck Express (good portions for a CS and a good bit of variety)

Thursday, May 5th
Lunch: 1:05 am Tusker House
Dinner-6:20 Boma

Friday, May 6th
Dinner- 6:20 Via Napoli

Saturday, May 7th- Departure Day
Leave Orlando 5pm




Which would have you using 12 of your 12 DDP TS credits and paying for CRT OOP. Adding stuff back in would be an OOP operation at that point, but I think it will give you some good food. Enjoy!

 

[mherb]

Thanks for the great tips!! The Nemo then lunch at Tusker would probably work great right before nap time. Thanks for the pointers about going to see Santa/Bunny first.

We do love Chefs de France but are drawn to Biergarten. Must be those German roots and the fact that I lived in Germany when I was 3 We thought our lil Ella would love the music. I am heeding the Coral Reef advice and cancelling that one. A friend from work told us it was a must for little ones but I didn't realize not every seat is a good one!

Thanks again everyone