I don't even know where to start!

[Erica09M]

I'm sure you see this all the time, but it's the truth... I have no idea where to start! Our trip is in May 2010, a smidge over 10 months away Our very FIRST trip to WDW But I have no idea where we should eat!

So here is the deal.... the trip consists of me, my DH, and our two children (at the time they will be 5 and almost 2). On this trip we'll be celebrating my daughter's 5th birthday (it's the day after we arrive, our first full day there). I don't know what (if any) dining plan we should use. I don't know if I should gather a list of place I think we'd like to eat, and then pick a dining plan from there. Or if I should pick a dining plan and then build around it. I also don't know how I should plan the meals. I have an idea of what parks I'd like for us to go to each day, should I try to plan our meals around that? Is it a hassle to visit a park for the day and then go to a different park for a meal?

When we arrive (it will be a Friday) it will be in the afternoon, and we just plan on hanging around the resort (CBR) swimming and such, and then I'm hoping to have a character dinner to kick off our vacation. I'm thinking Chef Mickey...

The next day is B's 5th birthday. I want to do it up big for her! I'm hoping to take her to BBB early in the morning to get her princess makeover and I definitely want to do a princess meal for her. The problem is that I think I'd rather do Princess Storybook Breakfast (Akershus, Epcot) than Cinderella's Royal Table in MK.... BUT I want to spend her birthday at MK. Is this going to be a pain? If it's doable, and we're staying at CBR what is the most logical way of going about this. Which BBB do we go to (there are 2, right?), then should we do MK first and head to Epcot for dinner, or go to Epcot for breakfast first and the MK for the day? Oh I'm just so lost! Am I making this more complicated than it has to be?

I know we're going to take one day off in the middle of the week and not go to a park. We're just going to relax around the resort, swim, and then do some shopping. I'd like to plan a good meal for us this day... probably a late lunch or dinner.

Our last day will be the following Friday, and I think we'll just do breakfast and then head to the airport. I don't know our flight times yet, but probably early afternoon. What should we do? Just have an easy breakfast at our resort, or try to do a character meal for a farewell... like Play 'n' Dine at
Hollywood and Vine?

I know we still have time... but I'm a planner, and it's driving me crazy that I can't get this figured out I wish I wouldn't have thought about this vacation until right before our 90 day mark to make ADRs... maybe I wouldn't drive myself so crazy with this planning!

 

[Stitch2244314]

I'm sure you see this all the time, but it's the truth... I have no idea where to start! Our trip is in May 2010, a smidge over 10 months away Our very FIRST trip to WDW But I have no idea where we should eat!

So here is the deal.... the trip consists of me, my DH, and our two children (at the time they will be 5 and almost 2). On this trip we'll be celebrating my daughter's 5th birthday (it's the day after we arrive, our first full day there). I don't know what (if any) dining plan we should use. I don't know if I should gather a list of place I think we'd like to eat, and then pick a dining plan from there. Or if I should pick a dining plan and then build around it. I also don't know how I should plan the meals. I have an idea of what parks I'd like for us to go to each day, should I try to plan our meals around that? Is it a hassle to visit a park for the day and then go to a different park for a meal?

When we arrive (it will be a Friday) it will be in the afternoon, and we just plan on hanging around the resort (CBR) swimming and such, and then I'm hoping to have a character dinner to kick off our vacation. I'm thinking Chef Mickey...

The next day is B's 5th birthday. I want to do it up big for her! I'm hoping to take her to BBB early in the morning to get her princess makeover and I definitely want to do a princess meal for her. The problem is that I think I'd rather do Princess Storybook Breakfast (Akershus, Epcot) than Cinderella's Royal Table in MK.... BUT I want to spend her birthday at MK. Is this going to be a pain? If it's doable, and we're staying at CBR what is the most logical way of going about this. Which BBB do we go to (there are 2, right?), then should we do MK first and head to Epcot for dinner, or go to Epcot for breakfast first and the MK for the day? Oh I'm just so lost! Am I making this more complicated than it has to be?

I know we're going to take one day off in the middle of the week and not go to a park. We're just going to relax around the resort, swim, and then do some shopping. I'd like to plan a good meal for us this day... probably a late lunch or dinner.

Our last day will be the following Friday, and I think we'll just do breakfast and then head to the airport. I don't know our flight times yet, but probably early afternoon. What should we do? Just have an easy breakfast at our resort, or try to do a character meal for a farewell... like Play 'n' Dine at
Hollywood and Vine?

I know we still have time... but I'm a planner, and it's driving me crazy that I can't get this figured out I wish I wouldn't have thought about this vacation until right before our 90 day mark to make ADRs... maybe I wouldn't drive myself so crazy with this planning!

First things first, take a breath! You have ten months left!!

But I will try to answer some of your questions. As far as the dining plan goes, I don't really know too much about it, because we don't purchase it. However, if you do purchase the Regular Dining plan, you will have one counter service meal, one table service meal, and one snack per night. So you would basically need to make one ADR for every day of your vacation.

Next, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Chef Mickey's!! We kicked off our vacation here a few weeks ago, and it really was fantastic. The food, the atmosphere, everything was great. One of my favorite meals, if not my favorite meal I've ever had at WDW.

Ok, going from Epcot to MK probably shouldn't be that big of a deal. You can just take the monorail. So eating breakfast at Epcot then spending the day at MK would be fine I'd think.

And last, I just wanted to say that CBR is my favorite resort!! You made a great choice with that, and I think you'll have a great time.

 

[Crystal_27]

I don't think that you are making it more complicated than it has to be at all - - the whole trip planning process at Disney in itself is very complicated. That said, it looks like you are on the right track. However, do keep in mind that park (or resort) hopping for the sake of eating is a pain!! So, if you're going to be at MK for your DD's birthday anyway, it will probably save your sanity to just eat at CRT that day, instead of trying to get to Epcot for Akershus. Remember that the later on in the day that you book BBB, the more backed up they are going to be, and your 10:00 a.m. appointment could turn into an 11:30 appointment in a hurry. We've had great success doing BBB at 8:05 a.m., and then doing CRT for a late breakfast, and that combination might be something you would want to look into for your DD's birthday.

Generally, given the ages of your children, you are probably going to want to do a few character meals, but do keep in mind that your wait for the characters can be very long during the meals, so make sure that you (and they) are a bit flexible. Since it's your first trip to the world, you are going to want to tend to try and fit it all in, but my guess is that you'll be back sooner than you think.

Just keep reading the menus and the reviews and your dining plans will come together. Happy planning!!!

 

[msmary]

I think you should start by looking at all the menu's and getting an idea of where you want to eat. I love the dining plan and it works great for us we do the Deluxe so we can fit in more TS meals and lots of character meals. But it will depend on how much time you want to spend in the parks vs time going to meals. Some time a nice lunch is the perfect break in the day for little ones.
Chef mickey is great both of my girls love itand the character interaction was some of the best we have ever had and what a way to kick of a trip than seeing Mickey!!!
My favorite character meal is Crystal Palace at MK have done all 3 meals but Breakfast is Super Yummy.

For BBB if you dont want to go from MK to Epcot back to MK then you should go to the BBB at Down Town Disney (try to get the first seating so you dont run late) then head to breakfast at Epcot (We really like this Princess meal) then hope on over to MK.

I hope this helps Just take it slow you have time to figure everything out. You will find that even after you plan it all out you will change your dining plans at least 3-4 times and if your like me you will be changing them the day prior to going.

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

For little ones, a good plan might be head to the park early in the morning, go back to CBR for lunch and a nap, then back to the park if your kids are up for it (EMH are very helpful in these situations). For a 2 and 5 year old, MK will probably be the most popular park. I would plan on spending at least a couple days there. A park I think is underrated is AK. I love the safari, Lion King and Nemo shows. Plus they have camp Minnie and Mickey where your kids can see the characters. There is also Tusker House breakfast, which is the only place on property where you can see Daisy Duck if that appeals to you.
For a nice meal on your "off" day, I would recommend California Grill. It is good food in a family atmosphere with an opportunity to see wishes with a great view.
Just keep reading and researching and you are sure to have a great trip!

 

[Erica09M]

Thanks for all of the help/tips!

For BBB if you dont want to go from MK to Epcot back to MK then you should go to the BBB at Down Town Disney (try to get the first seating so you dont run late) then head to breakfast at Epcot (We really like this Princess meal) then hope on over to MK.

This sounds like a great idea! I had checked out the map on http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ and saw that leave CBR, hitting up DTD for BBB, then Epcot breakfast, and finally MK for the day would reasonable. Let's just hope I get the reservations I need when the time comes!

 

[squirrel]

Will you have a car/van?

If you don't then going to DTD's BBB is going to be a pain. You would have to take a bus to DTD, then a bus to a resort, then bus/monorail/boat to EPCOT, then monorail to MK. There isn't any transportation from DTD to any of the parks.