Is 8:15pm too late for 1900 Park Fare?

[thoskam]

Hi all! We are traveling to Disney at the end of May - and like a complete noob I didn't make my ADR's soon enough :S -- I did manage to score a dinner reservation at 1900 park fare for 8:15pm on the day we arrive. I've heard good things about this experience especially for the first half day you are at the resort and you don't want to burn a park ticket. My question is - is this too late? I see on the times that dinner ends at 8:30 - does that meant he characters leave at 8:30? or they just stop seating people?

This will be the first trip to WDW for DD4 and DD7 - and I want to make it as perfect as possible (who doesn't?) If you guys think it's not worth it to go at that late a time - i'd rather cancel it than disappoint my girls..

Thanks!

TK

 

[csjordan]

I'm interested to see what people say. We, too, have a reservation at 8:15 pm here on Sunday, May 29.

 

[Lynne M]

Moving to the Restaurants board...

 

[thoskam]

Moving to the Restaurants board...

whoops -my bad. Thought thats where I was when I posted it. Thanks!

TK

 

[laughinplace199]

I'd say it depends on your kids. If they can handle being up late, then do it. If that dinner time will interfere with their bedtimes, then don't do it. Even if you are seated right away, plan on an hour for dinner. Where are you staying? Will you have a car? If you're staying on the monorail or if you have a car, it won't take you too long to get back to your resort. If you're not staying at a monorail resort and you don't have a car, it could take you a long time to get back to your resort. You don't want to start your vacation off with tired, cranky kids.

My older two (DD11 & DS9) couldn't have handled that late of a dinner at the ages of your kids. My youngest (DS4) is all about keeping up with the big kids and he probably could handle it. It really depends on what your kids are used to. When our kids were little, we tried to keep their eating and sleeping schedules similar to what they were at home, which helped to avoid meltdowns.

 

[PrincessCooper's Mom]

Don't forget to keep time differences in mind.

For us on Alabama time it would really only be 7:15pm, which is not to late for my 3 year old on arrival day. Now after that we stick to Florida time.

 

[Gibbygirl]

We had 9:00pm reservations during our trip a couple years ago. DD was 5 at the time. We spent most of the day at a park, went back to our resort for a swim and a late nap. Woke her up and off we went. Thanks to the nap we had no problem & she LOVED it!!! Food was less than memorable but that's not what we were there for.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We had a 7:15 ressie and were not seated until 8:30 (yeah we were very mad) and when we left over and hour later the characters were still there

 

[effervescent]

We aim to get ressies at 1900PF around that time. The restaurant is usually less crowded and we have found that we get more time with the characters. The handlers have always come around to ask if we have seen everyone before the characters leave for the night. We also don't feel quite so rushed and have had a lot of great convos with our servers as well. It's really our favorite time to go.

 

[ktlm]

Do you have any type of time change you are dealing with? That could really make a difference for your girls especially on the first day.

For my DD(5), after a long day in the parks, this would be too late for her to get the most out of it and she would be a little tired and fidgety; however, since it is your arrival day, I don't think it will be as bad. You will probably have 2 kids bouncing off the walls because you are at WDW and ready for some time of WDW fun! It is a fun meal and I bet they would really enjoy it. I would probably keep your ADR, and just keep trying online for a little earlier time. It would be a great way to start your trip for 2 little girls if you are not going to a park on arrival day.


My only question would be what kind of wait you would be stuck with. We have never had an ADR there that late, so I don't know if they catch up as the evening gets later, but when we go earlier, we have never been seated on time. The quickest we have had is 20 minutes after our ADR time. Like MickeyNikki, we too got the joy of waiting well over an hour after our 6:00 p.m. ADR a couple of years ago. What was worse was that we checked in 30 minutes ahead of time so we wound up with an over an hour and half wait with a hungry 3 year old....not fun. Sounds like from effervescent that it can be great around that time.

 

[thoskam]

Thanks to all for the advice. I had completely forgotten about the time change. We are coming from South Dakora (cst) so that first day will seem earlier for us. However our flight out will leave at 6am so I fear my kids will be fairly tired by the evening. The good news is my persistence paid off and I was JUST able to score a 6:05 dinner reservation at 1900 PF. I literally had been checking it on the hour for the last two days. I was quite shocked when I saw it pop up! Thanks again for all the helpful advice.

TK