How do you plan dining?

[deebs]

If you don't know park hours and such, how do you figure out where and when you're going to dine? I'm going in January and I know the parks close early, but I don't know how early. If the parks close at 7...I'd rather get a 7:30 reservation then a 6:00 reservation. I'm at the 90 day mark and am totally confused on what to do.

Any insight would be much appreciated

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

I think most people will tell you they plan meals when and where they want them and then make any adjustments when park hours come out. Here's a link that will help you get an idea about park hours last Jaanuary:

http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/calendar/historical/archive/default.asp


Bob

 

[Thumper's Tara]

I am not sure if this is the right solution, but it is what I did. I looked at early Decembers hours and Novembers hours and kind of projected them into January. Just make sure you don't look at the holiday period, but before the longer hours start.

Good luck! I don't know about you, but I keep going to the WDW site to see if the hours are posted yet I want to see if I am all good.

Also, I called and booked my PS/ADRs and didn't have any problem. I think because January is fairly slow, you may be okay waiting until the calender comes out. Don't quote me on that though and notice that I didn't wait.

ttfn,
TT

 

[lucincia]

You can also ask the CM on the phone when is the latest the restaurant will take ressies then work around that.

For us, the entire trip basically resolved around the freaking CRT ADR. When the date for that changes, the entire week's schedule goes into flux

 

[gigi1313]

how i planned for our mini-vaca in january... i started w/the fact that the kids will want to go to MK the very first day (we've got 4 full park days)... so, i tried for crt on that day (and got it!)... next i remembered tgm's advice that saturday is a good day for MGM so i made H&V/FDP for that day (and got it!)... now i knew i had two days left, figuring we'll do epcot on the third day, hoping it's not too bad and made our ARs for biergarten (and got it! although that might change 'cause even though we were less than impressed w/le cellier over the summer, dh wants to give it another whirl)... finally i know the kids will want to do MK on their last day (we're skipping AK this trip) but i know we'll be tired, so i went for the Pontoon Premium Cruise for Wishes fireworks that night (and got it) and am planning dinner around the cruise...

my aug/sept trip was a bit trickier although i tried to alternate our late evenings (i.e. Fantasmic or Illuminations) w/our early mornings and relied on the advice of the unofficial guide best days chart as well as tgm... finetuning it as the hours were released... and double finetuning it once we got there and our needs did not always match up w/our plans (i.e. we were starving around 5:30 while walking past LTT which we had a 6:30 AR for so we popped our heads in and asked if they could seat us sooner and they said SURE!)

 

[crisi]

We tend to eat in resorts or Epcot. Epcot is open til 9:00 year round. We parkhop there for dinner.

If there is a restaurant in MGM we want, we book for lunchtime. That way we don't worry about park hours.

I've never had a sit down meal in MK, and the only place in AK that does them is RFC - and we have one of those locally.

 

[goodferry]

I joined Tour Guide Mike and develop a tentative itinerary based on which parks he says are best for which days and then develop our dining plan based on that and last years calander.

 

[ainmama2001]

I choose my restaurants based on characters and preferences from former trips. I then plan my daily plans AROUND whatever ADR's I could get so I'm not on a bus half the day.