How to plan dining so far out?

[kim_o]

I've always planned trips within 60 days out, so park hours, events, crowd levels, etc were all out, which made picking park days a lot easier. How do you figure out where to make your ADRs at the 180 day mark? The crowd calendar isn't updated that far ahead, right? (i.e. How do I know which day to go to Magic Kingdom, and therefore try to get the CRT ressie?)

 

[rgf207]

If you buy the UG book, you can get the crowd calendar for the year but it's always updated closer to the actual date. When disney used to have 180 day ADR's they would post the park schedules 6 months ahead which would help. Of course the park hours are always subject to change.

Basically I just book my ADR's when I want and plan my park days around that. Since we go back to the resort mid-day, it doesn't matter if we go to a different park for dinner.

 

[Hootch]

have been a number of times, we have a general idea about what we want to do. We talk about how much time we want to spend in each of the parks and which restaurants we want to go to. Over time our touring and dining plans have evolved as our kids grow older. This past trip we didn't do too many TS locations, but my wife and I have been talking about doing more on future trips. Once we have an idea of what we want to do we look at park hours to determine which parks we wil attend which days. If we want to eat multiple TS at or near a particular park we will consider the popularity of the restaurant when determining the day. Popular restaurants go toward the end of the trip.

 

[Mickeefan]

We usually decide what park we want to go to on which day and then choose our dining from there. Of course, the dining plan is continually tweaked, up until departure!

In fact, we've been known to cancel and choose a different restaurant while on vacation. Sometimes you get lucky and happen onto a cancellation.

 

[funforfive]

I've always planned trips within 60 days out, so park hours, events, crowd levels, etc were all out, which made picking park days a lot easier. How do you figure out where to make your ADRs at the 180 day mark? The crowd calendar isn't updated that far ahead, right? (i.e. How do I know which day to go to Magic Kingdom, and therefore try to get the CRT ressie?)

I'm having the same thoughts....We'd like to see AK(never been) and MK(always a must) and will be there a Sat night and depart Tues am, so Sunday,Monday park days. How do you figure which park which day??

 

[francie57]

As one of the other posters said, we get the park hopper and go to one park until mid-day, go back to the pool, and then go the the park we are having dinner at. Since we stay in the BWV we usually eat most of our meals in Epcot, one at the Studios, and one at Kouzzina. We figure out which restaurants we want, make the ADRs and then go from there. I am one that doesn't stress over park days, crowd calendars, etc. We go the same time each year in Aug. so we pretty much know the crowds.

 

[funforfive]

I was just reading on the theme parks board, under a sticky and it said park hours would be released at 180 days to coincide with the expanded ADR's...I hope that's true, but you have to wonder how long it will take them to load.

Is there any rhyme or reason to EMH schedules? Is there a better day to visit each park/avoid park? I'll have wait to see if park hours are released or else just fly by the seat of my pants

 

[MickeyNicki]

I just go where we want to eat...dont care much about park hours or crowd levels since we hop around alot anyways.

 

[Hootch]

Is there any rhyme or reason to EMH schedules? Is there a better day to visit each park/avoid park? I'll have wait to see if park hours are released or else just fly by the seat of my pants

seems to be consistent on their EMH schedule from what I have seen.

We do look at EMH schedules when planning our park days. I like Epcot AM EMH but not Animal Kingdom. If we do an MK AM EMH we plan to change parks around noon because it gets pretty crowded. I'll never do Epcot PM EMH again but will do MK PM EMH if we get a nap in that afternoon.

 

[DisneyLover83]

We have never even looked at a crowd calendar, we base our decision for what park on the hours and then pick a place to eat, we also park hop almost daily to take advantage of EMH's. Unless you are going at Easter/Spring Break or some other really busy time I don't see the need for the crowd calendar.

 

[fla4fun]

Keep in mind that with the economy the way it is, Disney has been making adjustments to hours late in the game, and then the crowd calendars and best/worst parks have been adjusted accordingly. There have been several threads of disappointed people who made ADR's based on the crowd calendar or best/worst parks, only to have them change less than 30 days out when changing ADR's is very difficult.

I would just decide on a park schedule that works for you, and make your ADR's based on that schedule. Unless you are traveling during the two top peak periods (Christmas week and Easter) I don't feel the last minute changes make a noticeable difference, and certainly not enough difference to get yourself stressed out about.

 

[kim_o]

I would just decide on a park schedule that works for you, and make your ADR's based on that schedule. Unless you are traveling during the two top peak periods (Christmas week and Easter) I don't feel the last minute changes make a noticeable difference, and certainly not enough difference to get yourself stressed out about.

Traveling May 6-16 (so I was a little worried about crowds - crowd calendars show about a 6). We'll have 4 little ones (4 and under), so we're definitely not planning on park hopping.

 

[danceintherain]

I've always planned trips within 60 days out, so park hours, events, crowd levels, etc were all out, which made picking park days a lot easier. How do you figure out where to make your ADRs at the 180 day mark? The crowd calendar isn't updated that far ahead, right? (i.e. How do I know which day to go to Magic Kingdom, and therefore try to get the CRT ressie?)

When they reopen to 180 days they should have the Park Calendars up then.
I wouldn't worry about which day you want to go to the Magic Kingdom, because with 4 kids 4 and under, you will probably spend a large chunk of your 11 days at the Magic Kingdom anyways. I would just plan on the Magic Kingdom on whichever day you get your CRT ADR. You may want to try to avoid a day that has extra magic hours, if you're not planning on using them, but other than that you should be fine.
With CRT there's a chance that you'll have a hard time getting any availability, so if it's a must do, then you may have to be flexible with it.
Most of your other ADRs will probably have a bit more flexibility, at least until you get closer to your trip.

I'm having the same thoughts....We'd like to see AK(never been) and MK(always a must) and will be there a Sat night and depart Tues am, so Sunday,Monday park days. How do you figure which park which day??
Is there any rhyme or reason to EMH schedules? Is there a better day to visit each park/avoid park? I'll have wait to see if park hours are released or else just fly by the seat of my pants

EMH schedules are usually pretty consistent. It's usually best to avoid parks that have Extra Magic Hours that day, unless you're planning on using them.

UG has a calendar of which parks are best on which days, but they also say that having a good touring plan is 5 times as important as which day you go, which basically means, if you get to the park at rope drop on just about every day, and get the headliners done, then you'll be able to manage crowds better. If you get there around 11am, and stand staring at the map for 10 minutes, then wander around looking at wait times, then the crowds are much less easy to handle.

Traveling May 6-16 (so I was a little worried about crowds - crowd calendars show about a 6). We'll have 4 little ones (4 and under), so we're definitely not planning on park hopping.

A 6 is a good touring day. We went in January, and our crowds were projected to be at 5s and 6s and they weren't bad at all. The best resources on touringplans.com are the Cheat Sheets, in my opinion. They allow you to look at your day, and plan based on what you want to do, and when you'll be at the parks. Their touring plans are only really helpful if you plan on doing exactly what they tell you to do; however, they're nice to look at if you plan on arriving at one of the times they mention, because they give you an idea of which rides you should hit first.

You may not want to completely rule out Park Hopping, because with that kind of a group, you'll probably need a mid-day break. It's hard to walk around Disney all day for an adult in the best shape, so for 4 small kids it can be like torture. I would recommend bringing/renting a stroller for even the eldest, especially if you're planning on getting there in the morning, then staying as long as you can.
The middle of the day is the most crowded at Disney, so we prefer making it to Rope Drop, taking a midday break, then returning to the parks in the evening (usually Magic Kingdom or Epcot, even if that's not where we were in the morning).
You may prefer getting to the parks early, staying until you get tired, then calling it a night with young kids.
It's really amazing how much more you can get done in the first hour after the park opens, than you can do during midday.

 

[tndisneyfan]

When Disney makes the switch back to 180 days are they not going to release park hours six months out like they did before? We don't make a lot of ADR's but I like to plan them, at least to some extent, around PM EMH. Just as an example, we like to do a later dinner at Ohana on a MK PM EMH.

 

[danceintherain]

Oh.. you can also look at the hours for past months if you want to beginning planning before they release this year's hours.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/may09.cfm?requesttimeout=1000

Usually, the hours are pretty similar, so you could probably plan based on this year's hours.