Need to stop obsessing

[Soph&HanMom]

I have made my ADR's for December but I can't help thinking I could do something better. I'm also on the fence about CP dinner package. Here's what I have
Dec 12 Wolfgang Puck 1:45
Hollywood & Vine 7:15
Dec 13 Hollywood & Vine 8:30
Mama Melrose 1:45 (fantasmic pkg)
Sci-Fi diner 7:45
Dec 14 Crystal Palace 8:20
WCC 12:00
Ohana 5:00 MVMCP
Dec 15 Tusker House 10:00
Boma 4:45
Dec 16 Akersus 9:20
Le Cellier 1:25
Rose & Crown 7:30
Dec 17 Ohana 10:25 departure day

I'm thinking of just making a lunch ressie for Tusker because we will be out late for MVMCP and then a late dinner at Boma so we can stay for AK late hours. Then I don't know if I want to keep the Rose & Crown or try Via Napoli that night but can we still see illuminations well from Italy. Any advise would be welcome. Also need some honest thoughts on Hollywood & Vine would like to attend EMH here and would not have to leave the park. I swear all I can think about is WDW

 

[DISNEY1975]

I have made my ADR's for December but I can't help thinking I could do something better. I'm also on the fence about CP dinner package. Here's what I have
Dec 12 Wolfgang Puck 1:45
Hollywood & Vine 7:15
Dec 13 Hollywood & Vine 8:30
Mama Melrose 1:45 (fantasmic pkg)
Sci-Fi diner 7:45
Dec 14 Crystal Palace 8:20
WCC 12:00
Ohana 5:00 MVMCP
Dec 15 Tusker House 10:00
Boma 4:45
Dec 16 Akersus 9:20
Le Cellier 1:25
Rose & Crown 7:30
Dec 17 Ohana 10:25 departure day

I'm thinking of just making a lunch ressie for Tusker because we will be out late for MVMCP and then a late dinner at Boma so we can stay for AK late hours. Then I don't know if I want to keep the Rose & Crown or try Via Napoli that night but can we still see illuminations well from Italy. Any advise would be welcome. Also need some honest thoughts on Hollywood & Vine would like to attend EMH here and would not have to leave the park. I swear all I can think about is WDW

Please dont make any more ressies!

Let me tell you from (awful) experience... I have 3 kids, including 2 late teen boys 6' and 6'3, both a little over 200lbs. I need to buy 4 large pizzas every time we get pizza for dinner. I also have a hubby who works in construction and can eat horses for a snack. With this, I bought into the deluxe dining plan on our last trip. I reserved 8:30am breakfast, 2:00pm lunches and 7:30pm dinners. By day 2, I cancelled our lunches for the rest of our stay.

Each meal was 2 hours...and we were usually not seated until about 20 - 30 minutes after our reservation. All of our breakfasts were buffets. Getting out of breakfast, stuffed, around 10:30, we had 3 hours to wait in lines and walk around before needing to go to our next meal. On deluxe, you get app, entree and dessert. We waddled out of lunch at 4:30ish, had enough time to get back to our resort, shower, change clothes and head off to our dinner ressie. It was awful.

I HIGHLY suggest, on the deluxe plan, having breakfast and a 2 credit dinner. The signature restaurants are very very good and you will still have your 2 snacks per day if you need something to hold you over until dinner (we left with 6 meals and all our snack credits on our cards)

 

[boltfan]

Wow! I can't imagine spending that much time in restaurants during my trip. Hoping you aren't bringing any little ones with you..unless they are really well behaved and really hungry!

 

[sherbet]

Why is it the Deluxe Plan gets such a bad rap? Im going for the first time in December too and am making my 3 restaurant reservations a day. Everyone says its too much food but we dont have to eat everything do we ? For me personally i cant imagine eating breakfast at 8am and walking around the parks for 10 hours before i sit down and eat dinner. Am i missing something here? Does it really take 2 hours for every meal? I do value peoples opinions because i havent done this before but surely someone must like this plan?

 

[Moms]

Why is it the Deluxe Plan gets such a bad rap? Im going for the first time in December too and am making my 3 restaurant reservations a day. Everyone says its too much food but we dont have to eat everything do we ? For me personally i cant imagine eating breakfast at 8am and walking around the parks for 10 hours before i sit down and eat dinner. Am i missing something here? Does it really take 2 hours for every meal? I do value peoples opinions because i havent done this before but surely someone must like this plan?

No, you don't have to eat anything on any dining plan but if you are paying for it it would seem to me to be a bit of a waste.

Everyone is different but we would find the deluxe plan too much! We love to eat but we are usually there when the weather is hot and three sit down meals a day would be a bit daunting! We usually eat a lite breakfast in our room (we stay at DVC sites), a CS midday and table service in the evening. The snack on the regular plan is generally determined by the park. At MK it is a Dole Whip in the afternoon ... or mid morning if we can't wait! If we are at Epcot we grab a snack while we are waiting for Illuminations.

The last time we were there we had a couple of table service lunches and were not hungry enough for a CS in the evening. Had snacks instead. We left with three CS credits left on our plan (and we paid for it!) ... we will try to do better this time around even if it is the free dining plan.


Not every meal will take two hours, but some may. I love to eat at a leisurely pace, but can do this to my heart's content at any restaurant here at home ... would rather spend Disney Days in the parks!

 

[Soph&HanMom]

Wow! I can't imagine spending that much time in restaurants during my trip. Hoping you aren't bringing any little ones with you..unless they are really well behaved and really hungry!

We are bringing our two girls and they love to eat in restaurants. I was a general manager, my husband a server before he opened his own business and these two girls were practically raised in a restaurant. My Dh and I feel that dining is part of our experience and enjoy interacting with the people that work here as well as trying new places (even theme park food). We do not feel the need to overeat and get our moneys worth. Most times for breakfast my Dd 5 ate some watermelon and drank some juice so by lunch she was hungry.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Why is it the Deluxe Plan gets such a bad rap? Im going for the first time in December too and am making my 3 restaurant reservations a day. Everyone says its too much food but we dont have to eat everything do we ? For me personally i cant imagine eating breakfast at 8am and walking around the parks for 10 hours before i sit down and eat dinner. Am i missing something here? Does it really take 2 hours for every meal? I do value peoples opinions because i havent done this before but surely someone must like this plan?

The 2 hours depends on how busy the restaurant is and where you are. We were in and out of the Wave in a little over an hour. Meals with characters took a couple of hours for eating, pictures, autographs, paying etc..

All of my breakfasts were 8:30 buffets with characters. It did take time and we did not leave until about 10:30. At 1:15, we were still full from all that food at the buffet. Even my teen boys who eat mountains of food said they were not hungry and didnt want to go to lunch. On 2 days we did anyway. Those 2 days were at Yak and Yeti (after Tusker House breakfast) and 50's Prime Time (after Hollywood and Vine breakfast) both fairly popular. 50's was almost an hour wait even with a ressie. YY was about 20 minute wait. Both meals were about 1 1/2 hours. We did not want to walk around anymore because we were so full. Rides were out of the question. On both days we went back to our resort after lunch...at about 4:30ish. We got to the resort and to our room at about 5:00. 3 people showered. (2 rooms, 3 people each room) I did my hair and my daughters, it was then 6:30. We had about 20 minutes to spare before heading for the monorail and over to Epcot for our 7:30 dinner reservation. With 3 ressies, we got 3 hours in at DHS and AK. After cancelling our lunches for the rest of the week, we left breakfast at 10:30, changed a few dinner ressies to 5:30pm and were perfectly fine. On the nights we werent able to change from 7:30, my boys had some ice cream during the day. We didnt even buy drinks because when we got back to change for dinner, we stopped and filled our mugs!

I have a family of BIG BOYS and they couldnt handle the 3 meals per day at Disney! The meal portions are HUGE.

I am doing deluxe again this time! BUT...we are doing character breakfasts and dinner shows/signature dining for 2 credits.

 

[Soph&HanMom]

I didn't mean for this to turn into a debate about the value of the deluxe dining. I only wanted to know if I should tweak what I have to take advantage of certain things in the parks. We did do the deluxe plan for our trip in May and did not feel that we over-ate or spent too much time eating. For us it is part of the experience. I only want to see some things we missed in May like Illuminations and Fantasmic! and was looking for some advice on Hollywood & vine because we did Chef Mickey's and thought the food less then spectacular but we ate and survived I have not been able to move forward on my planning because I want to finalize these ADR's first.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I didn't mean for this to turn into a debate about the value of the deluxe dining. I only wanted to know if I should tweak what I have to take advantage of certain things in the parks. We did do the deluxe plan for our trip in May and did not feel that we over-ate or spent too much time eating. For us it is part of the experience. I only want to see some things we missed in May like Illuminations and Fantasmic! and was looking for some advice on Hollywood & vine because we did Chef Mickey's and thought the food less then spectacular but we ate and survived I have not been able to move forward on my planning because I want to finalize these ADR's first.

Sorry I changed your thread. I thought you were looking to add more ressies.

As for H & V, it was great...my favorite breakfast (or maybe tied with rystal Palace) of 9 places we ate.

Have fun!