Thanks everyone for your feedback and yes you are all right, I am planning on taking advantage of the
free dining promo (if they offer it this year). Since this is the 1st time we have ever been I just have no idea where to start and what park to go to on what day! a lot of information to dort through that's for sure!
You have some time. Try to think of all the information sorting as FUN!
This is how I plan:
We are rope drop people and will not stay up late. We do not like to go back to our room in the middle of the day and then return to a park. My dh and kids definitely need 3 meals a day to prevent the grouchies. Also, we don't have the patience for a lot of line waiting and we have some vastly different tastes in food. This is important, IMO, to know because it greatly effects our scheduling.
We are not going to both with EMH's. We need breakfast before touring anyway, which would make the early emh's tight and we'd be exhausted by laste afternoon, and we are not going to make evening emh's because that is too late for my dh and older dd who are definitely not night owls. So unless we want to be stuck in the busiest parks, I puposelt plan to be in the least crowded , nonemh parks each day. I used touringplans.com to figure that out. Since I am a cheapskate, instead of buying the Unofficial Guide, I borrow it fro the library so that I can access more than the next 6 weeks crowd predictions
Once I decide which parks for each day, I plan the meals. We like deluxe. So I plan for a breakfast in the park we will be at that day, or at a resort close by the park. I plan a lunch inside the park. I plan a dinner for inside or at a nearby resort (prefereably inside the park).
To decide, I look at menus and photos (I love the food porn threads! I prefer the categorized one here
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1601839 but I also read lots of reviews to see more current information. I make a list of possible restaurants for each meal and then begin narrowing down. I look at it with my kids and husband who have input. We try to have a variety and don't go to the same place over and over. Finally, on my little calendar, I have places to eat for each meal, each day.
Before calling or going online for the ADRs, I put them into a list of which are the most important to least important. There are some we would be very sad to not get and others that we could switch for another restaurant without being too heartbroken. Then I try for the ADRs
The only ones you must keep, unless you give 48 hour notice of cancellation, are the dinner show ones. For this trip of ours, it's just CRT. Last trip it was also HDDR and I think Fantasmic Package. The rest can easily be cancelled if your plans change. Last time, we were so exhausted one night that we decided to skip the next mornings breakfast ADR and wake up whenever we wanted and eat in the resort food court. So that night I called and cancelled our Kona ADR. You don't even have to cancel, there is no penalty if you don't for those other than the dinner shows, but it is a nice courtesy to call and let them know when you realize you won't be coming.
You still have a few weeks, you should be able to do it
Especially if you are planning on the basic dining plan and will only need on TS per day.
