How do these plans sound?

[AngiTN]

Finally got all my dining plans arranged. Yes, we want all these character meals, we love them. Most of them offer us characters different than what we see at WDW.

Stats
Me, DH, DGD7
5 day PH passes
Staying at DLH
We will do most all the EE options so starting the days in those parks, planning to hop often
Our rest day will be flexible in case of bad weather but for meal planning this is what I based it on.

Would you make your rest day Fri or Sat if you were in my shoes?

Tuesday 6/2, arrive LAX @ 1:00
Wednesday 6/3, DCA EE (Grad Night)
Thursday 6/4, DL EE,
Friday 6/5 resort/rest/recoop (Grad Night)
Saturday 6/6, DL EE (Grad Night)
Sunday 6/7, DCA EE
Monday 6/8, DCA EE
Tuesday 6/9, Depart SNA @ 5:00 PM

How do these times seem?
Give us enough time before the meals to utilize the early morning lower crowds? I tried to book all the breakfasts for the end of the time period.

6/2 - Goofy's Kitchen @ 6:35
6/3 - Ariel's Grotto @ 2:20 (BBB @ 10:50)
6/4 - WOC Carthay Circle Lunch @ 11:30
6/5 - Storyteller's Cafe @ 10:45
6/6 - Plaza Inn @ 10:30
6/7 - F! Blue Bayou @ 6:00
6/8 - Carnation Cafe @ 10:30
6/9 - PCH Grill @ 10:30

 

[figment_jii]

The only thing that I noticed is that you do not have dinner plans for Fri, Sat, or Sun. It looks like you aren't planning on going into a park on Friday (6/5), so were you thinking of dining at DTD or somewhere off-property? Whenever I've done a Friday or Saturday dinner in DTD, the walk-up wait times are long (1 to 2 hours is not uncommon). So if you're thinking of eating in DTD on Friday or Saturday, I would strongly consider making a reservation.

 

[AngiTN]

I didn't include our QS plans, only our TS plans. We will fill in additional meals not booked at TS with QS. I have a long list of those I want to do too. I will make something in DTD for Friday. Thanks for the idea.

What about the later breakfast Character Meal times? Someone at another site has suggested those are not good times since they are near the end of the service. At WDW we prefer those times and in our experience we get as good food and as good (if not better) character interactions when we book times about 30 min prior to the end of service. Is that a bad idea at DL? If I need to push them back how far back is good. We obviously don't want to go and then find the characters are no longer going to come around shortly after we arrive

 

[figment_jii]

I've never done a character meal close to the end. I will say that at places like Storytellers (and I'd guess the Plaza Inn), the characters don't stick around very long after the lunch service service starts. I've had lunch at Storytellers around 11:30 am (first lunch seating) and within the first 5 to 10 minutes (it seems like) the characters are all gone even if there are folks still eating breakfast. Now admittedly, the restaurant has been pretty empty (only a handful of tables still seated), so I would guess they had pretty good interaction with the character before they left. I would just make sure to see the characters at the start of your meal time rather than wait until closer to the end.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks. That does give me thought.

Do you think pushing them back 30 min will adversely impact our morning touring time?

 

[figment_jii]

I do think it's a balancing act, but for me, I would probably opt to slide them further away from the end of the breakfast time. It looks like your reservation is about 30 minutes before the end of breakfast at the Plaza and about 45 minutes before the end of breakfast at Storytellers. I would probably aim for something closer to 10:00 am at the Plaza and 10:30 am at Storytellers (to give yourself an hour).

 

[Xenorye]

I didn't include our QS plans, only our TS plans. We will fill in additional meals not booked at TS with QS. I have a long list of those I want to do too. I will make something in DTD for Friday. Thanks for the idea.

What about the later breakfast Character Meal times? Someone at another site has suggested those are not good times since they are near the end of the service. At WDW we prefer those times and in our experience we get as good food and as good (if not better) character interactions when we book times about 30 min prior to the end of service. Is that a bad idea at DL? If I need to push them back how far back is good. We obviously don't want to go and then find the characters are no longer going to come around shortly after we arrive

I wish I could give you this info with 100% certainty, but I can't remember the exact details.

In 2/2013, we did Minnie & Friends @ Plaza Inn around 9:30 am on a day when EE at Disneyland was at 7am. It was great. We got Fantasyland done, Star Tours, Space, and a few more things before breakfast time. Character interaction was still fine there, and the food was good. This year when we go, we plan on doing something similar.

Maybe someone can offer more insight or agree/disagree, but I think planning character meals during busy times is a good way to avoid long lines at the rides and such, so that's the strategy we're going with this time around.

 

[SMD]

Can you flip Carnation and Carthay since you're doing EMH at the opposite parks on those days?

 

[AngiTN]

Can you flip Carnation and Carthay since you're doing EMH at the opposite parks on those days?

I don't want to do WOC and F! on back to back nights. Trying to keep our late nights spread out

I'm not certain we'll do the EE at DCA that day. Sort of depends on how much we have left to do early morning there.

 

[cmpeter]

Personally I would prefer to take Saturday as a rest day as I think it's generally a little busier on Saturdays vs. Fridays.

My kids are teens, so it's been years since we have done many character meals...although my dd (14) and I did Ariel's for lunch last Oct for nostalgia sake and both loved it. Lots of princess time there!

 

[Imdboss]

I would definitely choose Saturday as a rest day instead of Friday if I had the choice between the two. Plus then you have 3 days at the park before giving your feet a break for a day.

 

[AngiTN]

Personally I would prefer to take Saturday as a rest day as I think it's generally a little busier on Saturdays vs. Fridays.

My kids are teens, so it's been years since we have done many character meals...although my dd (14) and I did Ariel's for lunch last Oct for nostalgia sake and both loved it. Lots of princess time there!

I would definitely choose Saturday as a rest day instead of Friday if I had the choice between the two. Plus then you have 3 days at the park before giving your feet a break for a day.

See, I've been advised by others that Saturday would be a better park day as AP holders will be blacked out.