how many know before you go.....

[disney queen]

how many of y'all know where you will eat and what you will eat at the restaurants before you even leave for wdw? okay i will admit, i do, but it helps me stay on program while there. please tell me i am not the only one..............

 

[tiggersmom2]

I plan my vacation around eating! I plan which restaurants I will visit and coordinate my park visits accordingly.

 

[candykisses]

Part of the planning fun is deciding where and possibly what we'll eat.

 

[StitchGirl]

We always plan breakfasts and dinners before we leave! It's part of the fun-- plus, don't want to risk not being able to get into a restaurant we want to eat at!

I always have an idea of what I want to eat before I go, but I tend to change my mind at the last minute!

 

[shellybaxter]

LOL - one week from today will be our first park day at WDW. This morning when I got up I looked at the Boma menu and "pretended" I was eating there, since that is where we will have breakfast next week. Tonight I get to "pretend" to eat at 'Ohana.

I love to plan my meals before I go. This time it was more important though, because I am taking Dniece and she is a pick eater so I had to check the child's menu before deciding where to eat.

Shelly

 

[Tiziminchac]

I don't plan my trips around where I will eat, but food is a major part of the experience. I usually have two or three restaurants in mind and make my mind up on the drive to the park. Or if I'm going with someone, who doesn't go to the parks often, I let them choose. Of course they have to choose from the two or three I'm thinking of! I never know what I will eat until I look at the menu though. I like to try something new everytime.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I am a planaholic so I always make all the dining ps ahead of time. For this april I made about 10. We only have 1 good sit down meal a day and its usually a buffet. Everyone is sure to find something they like., this time ds 14 was complaining there was nothing good at chef mickey dinner for him. Go figure. DH and I were enjoying our prime rib. The other 2 ds were happily eating too. I do know our only long wait was at the rainforest in ak. 1 hour to get the food off the menu after we ordered it. Thats why I like the buffet. We can get in, eat and go when we are done.

 

[Uncleromulus]

You are NOT the only one!!
We always plan far ahead where we'll eat. The hard part is deciding which restaurants. Stay with the old favorites, or try something new????

 

[CamColt]

Youre not alone disney queen. I have our restaurants picked out and I know exactly what Im having. Now since we dont know if the new EMH will stick or not, we even made a second plan in case.
We usually do 1 sit down meal a day, but sometimes it works out to 2, and the rest is counter service.

 

[StuartMI]

Yup. DW often tells me I plan a military schedule instead of a vacation!

 

[disney queen]

whew! i knew i wasn't the only one. okay, y'all. how many actually eat what you have decided on before leaving? i really do stick to my choices the exceptions being california grill or jiko since those menus change frequently.

 

[OhMickey]

I always make PS way in advance. With a large family, I do not want to take a chance of not getting into a restaurant.

We sit down months before our trip and everyone gets a say in where we will eat. We then plan our day around our meals. This usually works fine but occasionally we've made changes at the last minute with no problem.

 

[CamColt]

Originally posted by disney queen
whew! i knew i wasn't the only one. okay, y'all. how many actually eat what you have decided on before leaving? i really do stick to my choices the exceptions being california grill or jiko since those menus change frequently.

Another yep here! I think the reason for me is that I try to watch what I eat at home so I really look forward to pigging out on vacation. My biggest disappointment about my next trip is we called Saturday to book Planet Hollywood and we couldnt get anything before 10:15. My first thought was "OH NO! No LA Lasagna!". I was so looking forward to that too.

 

[disneysteve]

We do not make any dining plans in advance. I can't imagine having to plan my day around where I've got a PS. We plan our meals around where we happen to be. If we decide to go to MK, then we'll pick a restaurant there. If we end up at DTD, we'll pick a place there. No way could we know that in advance. Honestly, I don't know how so many others do it that way.

 

[wannabee princess]

For us it works out to combine methods. I plan a few PS's and a few we decide that day.

In Dec. when we walked into MGM, I headed to the information booth, asked for a lunchtime at PTC and took what they had. But, we also had booked the CP dinner package and I knew I wanted the earliest dinnertime at LeCellier.

My hardest decision is like someone mentioned - try some place new, or go with the tried and true! I like to do both! Dh likes those he knows! We end up with a combo - always have a night at ESPN for example, but try to add at least one new place - last trip it was Boma!

 

[Aisling]

This is such a problem for me because there are so many restaurants I want to try. I plan my park days around the restaurants, but it really doesn't work out. It really turnes out to be too much eating and less attraction time. Three sit down restaurants a day at WDW is too much for me, so now I'm obsessed with choosing the smaller, fast-food type places for smaller portions. There are just too many to choose from!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by wannabee princess
My hardest decision is like someone mentioned - try some place new, or go with the tried and true!

Same here. We always hit some favorites, especially in the parks where the choices are more limited anyway. But we always get to one or 2 new places each trip too. Last time, we ate at Kona Cafe. Next trip, I'm looking forward to checking out the Earl Of Sandwich at DTD. Also, as our DD gets older, she's more willing to eat at some of the better restaurants even if they don't have the usual kid's menu choices.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Originally posted by tiggersmom2
I plan my vacation around eating! I plan which restaurants I will visit and coordinate my park visits accordingly.

BINGO!!!!

That is exactly how I do it also. I've already got every place DH and I are dining for our trip in 2006 posted on my magical gatherings planner. It's just the two of us, but it helps to see my plans so when I book with Dreams Unlimited, I can just email my agent with my restaurant plans.

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

I plan everything out so much my DH is worried that I won't leave time for bathroom breaks!!! Planning is a good thing, I've gotten every PS I've ever wanted by planning ahead!! I would NEVER chance PS the "day of"! What is disappointment if we couldn't get in!

 

[disneysteve]

I have a question for all of you who book your meals in advance. How the heck do you do it? How do you decide weeks or months in advance where you will be each day? When we go to Disney, we make up our itinerary as we go along. Which park we visit each day depends on what we are in the mood for, how the weather is, what special events might be occurring, how energetic (or tired) we are all feeling, etc. For example, last trip we were on our way from Windsor Palms to AK one morning and it started raining, so we went to MK instead. Any PS we had for AK would have been worthless. Other times we've ended up staying out fairly late one nite and decided to sleep in the next day and not do a park at all. There is no way we could have planned that in advance.

Planning what type of food we will all want at a specific time seems impossible too. Some days, we end up getting some favorite snack mid-day, like Dole Whip, and as a result aren't as hungry when dinner rolls around, or we decide to eat later than usual. That would mess up any PS we had booked.

Its great if pre-planning works for you. It just would never work for us. The most we'll do is call in the morning to schedule lunch or dinner for that day. We always lunch at Crystal Palace during our trip. When we enter MK in the morning, I'll stop at City Hall and book that. I've never done it in advance and I've never had a problem getting a PS. The only time I made a PS in advance was a couple of years ago when there were 10 of us meeting for dinner at Boma. I knew that wasn't something we could do at the last minute.

Sorry to ramble on. I just always wonder about the pre-planners and I'm curious to hear how it works out for you.