Making ADR's Help!!!!!

[vargas17]

This will be our first time going. We will be there May 22-29. We are on the quick service plan but I do know that we would like to do a few sit down meals. How does everyone plan them all out? Do you pick your meal and time first and then plan the rest of your day around that? Or do you plan what shows or attractions/things you want to do and then make adr's? DS will be turning 4 on the 26th so I definately want to do something special for that day. I know we need to plan thinngs at to a point yet I know with a 18 mo. and 4 yo. it depends on how they are "coping" at the time. Any suggestions?

 

[RocketCityMama]

Hi we too will be there those exact dates hehe org booked PC but went back to CSR. Anywho, we have the Dining Plus that is CS and TS meals and so far have made 2 ressies (Chef Mickey and CRT) and will be making the others as soon as our 90 days comes up.

What I have done is look thru the character meals/locations and see if anyone of them were ones I wanted to do. Then decide if I wanted breakfast/lunch/dinner and have it all wrote down. Then when our 90 day comes up, we'll call and book it (hopefully). Then I will plan our park times around that, plus since May hours aren't out yet anyways, there's no real way to plan which park which day, based on EMH...and we have the Park Hopper option, so it'll be easy to go to 1 park and then go to another for food.

Also go ahead and book your selections as soon as you can, closer to time you can always cancel if need be. Be sure to check the cancellation policies, and do it before the time frame to charge your cc if you cancel to late.

 

[ShannonMB]

I do it a little differently. I decide where I'm going to be what days, then decide where I want to eat, then try to book ADRs based on which park I will be in which day. The park hours should be out right around the time the 90 day window opens up, so hopefully that won't cause a snafu. I will still go this route without knowing park hours, make all my ADRs, then try to change if the park hours don't agree with what I've made.

I find it so much easier to plan to eat in or close to the park I will be in, I would think especially with little tiny ones. For instance, we are going to Boma on our AK day, and Chef Mickey on one of our MK days. Easy to get from those parks to the restaurants. I think those are our only resort meals this trip. The rest are in the park we will be doing that day.

Just another planning strategy for ya! Good luck!

 

[Samantha/NC]

We do as the pp does. We figure out what park we are going to be in. Then we usually do a big dinner, and a lite lunch. But with your little ones you may want to plan a rest time in the middle of the day and then a nice dinner in the park you will be visiting that day.
Have blast!!!!!!!

 

[vargas17]

Thanks for all the advice!! I think I will decide what park first and then go from there. That way if the kids have a melt down and we have to cancel a ressie, at least we did the other "important" things already. If we have to leave the park for the rest of the day then so be it. I get more and more excited after every post

 

[summermac]

If the darn park hours & show times, etc would be released then I'd decide how I want to proceed with ADRs. For some places I"d be willing to leave my planned park. For others, I am not so willing.

AHhhH!! Why aren't the hours out yet? WHY??!!!!

 

[septbaby]

Have you ruled out the Basic DP? It will cost your family $22 more a night to have that second meal be a TS vs a CS meal. So if you think you'd spend close to $154 for those 2-3 Table service meals the plan would be a good choice for your family (Chef Mickey's breakfast $63, The Plaza $51, Boma Breakfast $47). I chose 3 of the least expensive TS meals and it was pretty easy to go over that price. But if you ate those on the DP you'd still get 4 more TS meals for that extra $154.

There is no charge for the 18month old and the 3yo is $10.99 vs $8.99 and your price is $39.99 vs $29.99. There is no character meal less than $12.99 for a child. So any day you do a character meal, CS and grab a snack for the 3yo you get an amazing deal.

The DP does require some planning and you need to use those credits, esp TS to get the most out of the deal, but it is a really good deal when you have children under 10.

We did this (2A and 1C) and really liked the plan. We visited all 4 parks and planned our meals to be convenient for our plans. We did travel from MK to Epcot for a meal, but we were leaving MK anyway (eat and back the resort for a rest because we were doing a late party night) so it didn't really matter where we ate.

We only had two TS meal inside a park, Coral Reef and Hollywood and Vine. The rest were resorts (Narcoossee's, Boma and Chef Mickey's).
- H&V was the Fantasmic dinner package
- Narcoossee's was our first night, no park that day
- Boma was dinner right after leaving Animal Kingdom
- Chef Mickey's was a late breakfast after a late night at MK

One thing I didn't realize until we were "in it". It was sooo nice to have that TS lunch. We started in the park at 8am, rode a lot and were famished by noon. It was so so nice to take a lunch break and be served.

 

[quadsthen1]

I agree with Septbaby. I would go with the DDP that gives you 1TS. We did this plan a year ago with 5 kids 6 years old and under. It was a great deal for us. If you plan carefully, you can avoid meltdowns. Maybe use some TS meals for breakfast when they have plenty of energy. I also found that by choosing TS restaurants that would entertain my kids kept them happy and we avoided any crabbiness. Kids love Whispering Canyon Cafe and just about any Character meal will perk up a tired child. IMHO, my kids do better at a fun table service restaraunt than they would at a simple QS.