How do you plan meals when you Park Hop?

[SplashMountainMama]

We've never gone to WDW with Park Hoppers so in the past we always figured out which park we would be at on each day and then made ADR's from there. I just booked for 2008 and we got Free Park Hopper upgrade. I've made some ADR's already based on us having non-Park Hoppers, but now I'm wondering if I should change a couple. For those of you that do Park Hop is it something you plan on ahead of time or do you just Hop when you feel like it? Is it a big pain to park hop based on ADR's? I think this free upgrade is going to be more complicated than it's worth! Any suggestions????

 

[Hootch]

take breaks in the afternoon and return to the resort for a swim and some down time. If we are hopping we'll do one in the morning and one in the evening. If so then we try to schedule a breakfast or lunch in the AM park and dinner in the PM park if we're doing a table service. The few times we have done parks back to back we decide earlier how much time we want to spend at a park and make a dining decision based on that. It's usually easy to decide early on what parks you want to visit, but if we are staying longer the last couple of days are place holders and we reserve the right to change our plans.

Probably the key thing to remember when planning is to allow enough time for travel between parks. If you are using the Disney transportation system allow ample time and remember there are not buses designed to go between parks. You can work the system though. If you are going to the MK then ignore the Ticket and Transportation bus and hop the one for the Contemporary. It's a pleasant walk from there. The Beach Club resort bus will get you very near the international gateway at Epcot.

Enjoy! With a little prior planning your vacation should go smoothly.

 

[disnut8]

It just depends on your family. For mine, we'd never book anything at Magic Kingdom because we didn't last there very long before we moved on. AT MGM, we'd book a late lunch so we could get there, do some things and then eat. Then we'd figure out what to do next. Nothing at Animal Kingdom ever caught our eye although we did do a couple of lunches at Rainforest Cafe.

Epcot is another story. We could make any reservation there for any time and it never bothered us to leave what we were doing (if we weren't already at Epcot) and make the reservation.

We also did a lot of resort dining so we could just leave a park, have our meal, and then go back if we wanted.

For us, late lunches or early dinners were our choice.

 

[Mom24Princesses]

In 7 big trips we have only not PHed twice.
I plan where we want to eat 1st.
Which parks which day 2nd.
PHing has not been a problem.
We eat lunch last before leavign a park.
We eat dinner first when entering a park usually.
(Early suppers at Epcot are great.)

 

[jdads2]

We park hop every trip and arrange our park hopping around our ADR's. If we don't feel like making the ADR we call and cancel. An hour before we're supposed to be there I ask if we're all hungry. If not I'll cancel and try to make another for later or just do a CS.

 

[Pumbaa_]

We like to hop. We also go a couple times a year, that makes a difference.

We like tohit one place in the morning and usually end up at Epcot in the evening (except for AK EMH, love to see the tree at night )

 

[newholidayx2]

I plan my entire vacation (this Nov for 2 weeks) around Off Kilters schedule.
They usually start playing at 230 and their last show is over at 8pm

If Im at a different park (than EpCot) in the morn I'll have AR lunch there at 1215/1230 which gives me an hour to eat, hour for transportation.

If Im at a different park and want to eat at EpCot I'll leave there about 1215/1230, have EpCot lunch AR about 115/130 and then Im ready for "my men in skirts"

 

[EastonCat]

Firstly, if you have a tourning style already that really works for your family, there is no reason to change it just because you have a park hopping upgrade. That being said, I really like park hopping and couldn't imagine doing things a different way.

I think it is a good idea to plan hopping in advance. We don't stick to all of our plans, but planning can help the experience of hopping add to your vacation and not just be a process of transition from one park to the next. For example, hopping between EPCOT and Disney Studios can include a trip on the boats on crescent lake and a stop for a meal at any of the resorts along the way (Swan/Dolphin/Boardwalk/Y&B Clubs). If you plan this on an evening where EPCOT has extra hours and will be open late (assuming you're a Disney resort guest and can enjoy them), you can sleep in, have a good four hours or so at Disney Studios, have dinner, finish the trip to EPCOT and enjoy a late night in the park.

Another hop we like to do starts at the Animal Kingdom early to tour that park. We then go back to our resort, take naps, have a meal (usually a late lunch or early dinner) in our room (no ADR required!) or at a hotel restaurant, and then an early evening start in the Magic Kingdom for touring Tommorrowland under the lights and to see Wishes.

 

[rie'smom]

We have APs and stiil don't park hop that much. If we do, we have a meal in the morning at one park and another meal at another park in the evening. We don't take breaks.

 

[BoomNLeon]

I agree with everyone's post. We would just plan the ADR around our visit (unfortunately ADRs are hard to get sometimes and "control" what we will do) and allow for travel time. Epcot is a favorite meal destination and is fortunately easy enough to get to either by bus or monorail. It just depends on you and your family's needs. Counter service can be a good option if you do not want to be committed to an ADR. Some mornings we get up and decide we want to go to whichever park and then make sure to allow for travel to the ADR.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[JD3419]

The ultimate planning question, what came first the park or the ADR? We do a little bit of both. My DW let's me know which couple restaurants she wants to try (Boma and WCC are always on the list) and then we go from there. We try to plan most of our ADRs for lunch and visit those parks in the day, giving us flexibility to visit different parks at night. In the case of dinner or resort ADRs we usually plan our park around them.

 

[alldiz]

I usually make just dinner ADR's....
We'll eat a counter service lunch.

If I park hop, I always come back to hotel for a rest and a swim..

Then I go to the park at night where my dinner is.
kerri

 

[Sinderelli]

OT, but is the free park hopper upgrade available to the public, or did you receive a special deal?

 

[Davidsmommy]

Probably the key thing to remember when planning is to allow enough time for travel between parks. If you are using the Disney transportation system allow ample time and remember there are not buses designed to go between parks. You can work the system though. If you are going to the MK then ignore the Ticket and Transportation bus and hop the one for the Contemporary. It's a pleasant walk from there. The Beach Club resort bus will get you very near the international gateway at Epcot.

Busses do run between parks. I have taken them lost of times. Busses do not run from downtown disney to the parks, because (I presume) they don't want people parking for free and then traveling to the parks. But, I have taken busses from park to park many, many times.

 

[disnut8]

I plan my entire vacation (this Nov for 2 weeks) around Off Kilters schedule.
They usually start playing at 230 and their last show is over at 8pm

I thought I was the only one who did that! We once had a seating for Cape May Buffet for 8:00 and canceled it when my husband said he didn't want to have to hustle over there after the last show. Always have a lunch around 12:30 or so because you can take your time and still see that first show. And the break between the 3:30 and the 5:30 show is just not enough for a sit down place.

Off Kilter is one of the reasons we know a lot about Epcot counter service and how to get things to go!

 

[pezheadmeg]

Make the ADRs first, then plan the park days from there on. Though, it's typically a lunch ADR and not a dinner ADR. So for an early lunch, the day starts at that park, then after lunch and a few more things it's on to the next park. If it's a later lunch, it's just an aim to be at that park 10 minutes before the ADR. Then later on that evening dinner is a CS in either whatever park we're left in or back at the resort.

 

[becka]

I typically start by deciding how many "days" I want to spend in each park for our trip. This trip I wanted 1 MK day, 1 MGM day, 1 AK day, 1/2 Epcot day, 1/2 day off (for DTD or just to rest) and 1 "free for all" day. I then look at which days were best for each park and split it up from there. This trip we probably will not be hopping a great deal but on others we hop everyday. I book my ADRs around where we plan to be for that afternoon/evening.

We ended up with:

Day 1: Epcot morning/rest/MGM evening - Akershus lunch ADR
Day 2: MK all day - Crystal Palace lunch ADR
Day 3: MGM morning/off - Hollywood & Vine lunch ADR
Day 4: AK all day - Kona dinner ADR
Day 5: Free for all (favorites or whatever we feel like) - No ADR will just play it by ear

 

[SplashMountainMama]

OT, but is the free park hopper upgrade available to the public, or did you receive a special deal?

OP here--I'm Canadian so I was able to take advantage of the newest promo in Jan-Feb. We were already going Jan.30-Feb.5 so it just worked out for us. We've never had park hoppers before so I've always planned our ADR's around what park I thought we would be at. I'll probably keep most of the ADR's I already have, but I was just curious to know what others do. It will be interesting to see how much we really use the park hoppers,etc. It'll definitely give me an idea of whether or not it's worth it to buy them on future trips. Thanks everyone for your input!!

 

[A_NY_Outlaw]

We park hop around our ADR's as well. You have to make sure you leave early enough, especially if you are depending on the shuttles. We had a couple of instances in April, where we were so tight on time, we got to the restaurant on the dot, without a second to spare. Even though they like you to show up 20 mins early, even if you get there on time, chances are you will still have a 10 minute wait at least.

We also find that spacing out our meal ADR's (early lunch, late dinner) for example, makes things a little easier.