How much time to allow for dining? Shows? Help me plan, please!

[Figment Mom]

I am so excited! I just set up my MDE account and booked FPs for the first 6 days of our trip. I just booked and am within my 60 day window so I did those first and am now working on dining reservations. (We'll be there for 10 days in late July/early August.

How much time does a typical table meal take? Do I need to allow 2 hours?

Also, how long are shows such as FOLK or Lights, Motor, Action? The FP return window on those is 20 minutes. For example, my FOLK return time is 3:30-3:50. Is that for a 4:00 show? What time should I expect to be finished there?

DS is going to want to do the Jedi Training Academy. I'm not booking any dining reservations on that day to remain flexible. I know I have to go there at RD to get signed up. On that day we have FP for 10:30, 12:50, and 3:10. Is it likely the JTA will make us miss one of those? And how long does the Jedi thing last?

I am SO excited but once I started making selections I started 2nd-guessing myself. What doesn't help is that DS doesn't like fast rides, roller coasters, etc. I still booked 7DMT for both of our MK days. But I didn't bother to book Splash or Space Mountain or even my FAVORITE, BTMR. I know I can make changes once we get there and he has tried something, and we can also ride SB. I also did two FP (two separate days) for Star Tours because he LOVES Star Wars, but I'm not sure if he is going to like the attraction because of all the motion.

Oh, I booked Kali but I have no idea how "thrill-like" it is. I suppose if he sees it and decides not to do it we'll just try to change it on the spot or just let the time expire.

At any rate, this trip is feeling real now that I see my list of FPs booked. I've only done the first 6 days so far because I wanted to leave the last 4 open. We'll do one resort day at least and then I was going to let him decide how to spend the last 3 days. Think I should book FPs now for what I think he might want to do and then cancel them if I guessed wrong?

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

Depend what type of meal and how quickly ur family eats. For a character buffet, I would say it is close to or more than 2 hrs. Keep in mind, you may have to wait 5-15 mins after check in.

 

[eyehartdisney]

Everything is available as a 'walk through' on youtube. Have little man watch some of the rides and give input on what he wants to do.

 

[figment_jii]

The time for meals depends on your family, how much they order, where you are eating, etc. In general I would allow between 60-75 minutes for buffets, 75-90 for non-Signature meals, and 90-120 minutes for Signatures.

 

[sharonabe]

This site should help you with timing for shows:

http://www.wdwent.com/

He updates times every week, but they are fairly consistent throughout the year.

 

[puffkin]

The time for meals depends on your family, how much they order, where you are eating, etc. In general I would allow between 60-75 minutes for buffets, 75-90 for non-Signature meals, and 90-120 minutes for Signatures.

Thats pretty much been our experience.

 

[GillianP1301]

Any character meal we've done is around 50 - 60 minutes once seated. Allow for another 10 minutes (on average) to be seated). Non buffet TS meals (non signature) around 60 - 70 minutes. I haven't done any signatures yet, but planning a few for this trip and allocated 90 mins.

It really depends on how you order/eat as a family. With a buffet, you could easily be out in 30 minutes, if you didn't care about meeting all the characters and if you pro-actively ask for your bill up front.

For TS meals you can set the tone for the speed of your meal (this assumes you don't have a poor server). If you want to make the meal faster, just nicely letting them know up front if you have a time constraint. Check out menus online before you get there so you have an idea of what you want to order already and do things like ordering your drink and meal at the same time. Any time you can cut down the number of times the server has to come back to your table, the faster it will be. Conversely, if you take your time looking through the menu, let the server know you need more time to choose, that will draw out your time if you are looking for a more relaxed meal.

 

[Beer Me]

We usually don't spend more than an hour on meals. Maybe a bit more for character dining or fine dining.

Kali is one of those round raft rides found in almost every theme park. The Disney version is of course very well themed and worth doing. It's not a thrill ride but you can get absolutely drenched. Most kids seem to like this .

No harm in scheduling FP on your open days. I've done the same thing for our upcoming trip.

 

[Figment Mom]

Depend what type of meal and how quickly ur family eats. For a character buffet, I would say it is close to or more than 2 hrs. Keep in mind, you may have to wait 5-15 mins after check in.

Thanks. I don't think we're doing any character meals.

Everything is available as a 'walk through' on youtube. Have little man watch some of the rides and give input on what he wants to do.

I'll let him do that but so far the trip is a surprise and I'm not sure when I'm telling him so I've done all of the planning solo so far.

The time for meals depends on your family, how much they order, where you are eating, etc. In general I would allow between 60-75 minutes for buffets, 75-90 for non-Signature meals, and 90-120 minutes for Signatures.

Thanks.

This site should help you with timing for shows:

http://www.wdwent.com/

He updates times every week, but they are fairly consistent throughout the year.

What a valuable site. Thanks!

Thats pretty much been our experience.

Thanks.

Any character meal we've done is around 50 - 60 minutes once seated. Allow for another 10 minutes (on average) to be seated). Non buffet TS meals (non signature) around 60 - 70 minutes. I haven't done any signatures yet, but planning a few for this trip and allocated 90 mins.

It really depends on how you order/eat as a family. With a buffet, you could easily be out in 30 minutes, if you didn't care about meeting all the characters and if you pro-actively ask for your bill up front.

For TS meals you can set the tone for the speed of your meal (this assumes you don't have a poor server). If you want to make the meal faster, just nicely letting them know up front if you have a time constraint. Check out menus online before you get there so you have an idea of what you want to order already and do things like ordering your drink and meal at the same time. Any time you can cut down the number of times the server has to come back to your table, the faster it will be. Conversely, if you take your time looking through the menu, let the server know you need more time to choose, that will draw out your time if you are looking for a more relaxed meal.

I think we'll look at the menus online ahead of time (when we have a chance to do it) and asking for the check up front is a great idea.

We usually don't spend more than an hour on meals. Maybe a bit more for character dining or fine dining.

Kali is one of those round raft rides found in almost every theme park. The Disney version is of course very well themed and worth doing. It's not a thrill ride but you can get absolutely drenched. Most kids seem to like this .

No harm in scheduling FP on your open days. I've done the same thing for our upcoming trip.

Thanks for the info on Kali. I'm really hoping he decides he loves rides once we're there and have tried a few. I'm not going to push him but maybe he'll come around.

I just added another day to our trip so now it's a little more open. I may book some FPs for those last few days just to have something but there are so many available right now it's hard to imagine getting locked out or even severely limited. And I'd kind of like to try a park day or two with nothing at all booked so I can enjoy Disney "old-style." Just walk around and see where we end up without having to watch the clock.

I do appreciate the FPs, though. It's nice to look at the schedule right now and know we'll get on some old favorites (and hopefully some new favorites) without lots of waiting.