I promise....

[metsno1]

NOT to allow the free dining plan to dictate the entire course of our trip this time! Last time on the free DP (two years ago September), we made ADR's for each day. We were also following some advice that did not work well for us, namely to split our days between two parks with a break at the hotel in between. We ended up running around like chickens with our heads cut off, spending way way way too much time with our friends in the Disney Transportation System trying to get to ADR's that weren't close to where we were already located.

This time, it's one park per day from start till finish with an ADR booked either in the park itself or at a nearby (walk or monorail) resort!

So far, it's just Raglan Rd. upon arrival, Coral Reef for our EPCOT day, Boma for AK day, and 50's for MGM. Only 5 more days to plan.....!

 

[Mom of 3]

Wow, you sound like me. I think we did 2 parks a day last time. This time we are only doing one park per day. We're not going from sun up till sun down but instead going to enjoy some down time at our POR resort. We will be eating TS at either the park we're at or at a resort on the way back to POR since we have our own car to get around.

 

[Tink3Belle]

We did the same but this time I am only doing 1/2 days at the park starting early leaving at lunch and taking the littleones back for swimming and a nap and deal with dinner afterwards. I am also renting a car so we are not waiting for transportation and hauling a double stroller on and off the bus or renting a taxi to the hotel restaurants. I am hoping this will help and the car rental was only $169. for an intermediate. Going Last week of August. Too hot to be stressed about getting back and forth.

 

[septbaby]

We've mixed up our days:

Arrival Day:
Check out the resort and main pool area
Short rest before dinner
8:30 Dinner reservations at Narcoossee's
will see EWP and Wishes there

Day One: Long Day
8am Little Ones Magic Hour
12:20 ADR at GF Cafe, take monorail
Back to resort for fun and rest
Dinner at resort CS
7pm Pirate and Princess Party

Day Two: Flexible Day
Sleep in
11am Chef Mickey's
Epcot whenever we get there, maybe mini golf first, maybe DTD or Boardwalk
9pm Specto Magic
10pm Wishes

Day Three: Flexible Day
Sleep in (one to golf)
Enjoy resort, including CS breakfast
AK by mid afternoon to see parade, a few other items
6pm Boma (AK closes at 5pm)
9pm Illuminations


Day Four: Long Day
AK AM Extra Magic Hours
11am lunch, back to resort
3pm MGM for Parade (might miss this for more rest)
4:40 Fantasmic Dinner
8pm Fantasmic seating
MGM EMH

Day Five: Travel Day
Enjoy resort
May be Pirate adventure of the little one
2pm ME back to airport

Hope this works, otherwise we'll adjust on the fly. We only have one ADR a day so that shouldn't be too hard to manage. We'll value this vacation down time and consider the TS dining part of that treat.

 

[zaxmom]

I have never gone on the dining plan before, and it does seem like a lot of effort. I have scheduled dinner at a park or monorail hotel for every night we are there. I have promised DH that I do not have anything scheduled for the first half of each day so that we can sleep in and play it by ear.

I am sure am hoping I get to rearrange ADR's when we are there. If not, at least I know we can eat somewhere.

 

[cdrn1]

I've never done the dining plan either; but for our girlfriend getaway, it's all about the food! Our plan is to hit a park early, go back for pool time/snooze when that park gets crowded, and then head to the park for our ADR and close that park down. My thinking is, it will be hot, and that will get us out of the hot and in to the water in the afternoons. I really don't want to be walking that hard pavement in the sizzling afternoon heat.
We have never done it that way; we are usually at the parks from open until we drop but for 3 middle aged nurses who are used to being on our feet for 12-13 hour shifts, it sounds like a welcome respite...we will see if it works out!

 

[metsno1]

I've never done the dining plan either; but for our girlfriend getaway, it's all about the food! Our plan is to hit a park early, go back for pool time/snooze when that park gets crowded, and then head to the park for our ADR and close that park down. My thinking is, it will be hot, and that will get us out of the hot and in to the water in the afternoons. I really don't want to be walking that hard pavement in the sizzling afternoon heat.
We have never done it that way; we are usually at the parks from open until we drop but for 3 middle aged nurses who are used to being on our feet for 12-13 hour shifts, it sounds like a welcome respite...we will see if it works out!

This sounds like a great plan! Maybe the whole "break in the middle of the day" thing didn't work as well for us because of a couple of things....First, we always went to the park that was offering EMH, so the crowds were bigger. Second, we were staying at ASMo, which is a pretty good hike from virtually all of the parks. It ended up taking a solid hour to an hour and a half out of our day every day just for the extra transportation!!

This time around, we're going to avoid the EMH parks unless we hit the evening hours after water park days or when AK closes early. Plus, we're "moving" to CS, which looks pretty well located, so it should cut down on some of the transport times.

I'm going to continue to try and get ADR's at LC and 'Ohana, or at least grab something decent at a monorail resort for the MK days.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

Time is something I hate to waste while at WDW so we always do as the OP has planned for their upcoming vacation. We always get to the parks at the opening, never hop, always eat in the parks or as close as possible, and we never head back to the resort for mid day breaks...although this is something we MAY do this time around if we get most of our touring done in the morining. Gotta love post Labor day crowds!!!

We also prefer lunch ADR's too. We have tried to do the CS lunch and TS dinner but we found that we were never that hungry for dinner and did not enjoy our TS meals as much as our lunch ones. Lunch ADR's give us a break from the heat and frees us to do pretty much anything for the rest of the day without being tied down to a dinner reservation. If we get hungry during the evening, we can have CS meals BECAUSE we are hungry, not because we do not want to miss out on our ADR.