Order of operations?

[Chili327]

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but i am wondering how WDW DVC people do their planning… I’ve got my DVC reservation’s all finalized, and now that I’ve got my park hopper tix settled, next is food reservations… but I’m used to DLR, where i can hop anywhere for lunch or dinner on any day at any time, but being that I’m going to be possibly up 15+ miles away from other parks at different times of the trip how do you plan your food reservations?
FYI, i have 2 nights at AKV, then 3 nights at Boardwalk, then 5 nights at BRV. Worst case i just have to make my way over to wherever the reservation is, and i do have the first 3-5 park days planned out already, so that should help.

Also are all food reservations 60-days out? (and i assume that is 60 days from each day)
I’m not going to sit down for every meal, but there are a handful of places i really want to try. (Brown Derby, SciFi, 50s Cafe, & at Poly, AKV, etc)

What else am i needing to look into? Am i forgetting anything? (Park res wont be needed by end of Jan, and I’m working on airline)

Thanks for any insight, its all gonna be new to me.



*edit*

Current itinerary
Sat - Travel, check in to AKV
Sun - AK 2nd half of the day, stay at AKV
Mon - Early to whenever at AK, then planning to hop over to Epcot for EEH, check into Boardwalk
Tues - Epcot, BWV
Wed - Possibly DHS/MK/Epcot or just Resort day (checking out resorts), end day at MK for EEH, Stay at BWV,
Thurs - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, check into BRV
Fri - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Sat - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Sun - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Mon - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, Epcot for EEH, stay at BRV
Tues - Travel Home

 

[thanxfornoticin]

All ADRs begin 60 days out. If you have a Disney resort reservation, you can make the ADRs for the entire length of the stay. So for your AKV reservation, you can reserve 60 days from check-in through your check-out day. Caveat there is you have 2 different reservations, so you'll likely be able to make ADRs for the length of the first reservation, and then wait a day or 2 until your check-in date for the other reservation to make the rest - hope that makes sense! And just FYI - while I agree you might be far away from a park or dining reservation - much bigger diff than DL - your 15 mile estimate is pretty high! It might not matter, but the distance between AK and MK, probably the greatest distance between parks, is about 6 miles!! BTW - end of Jan is a great time to visit - we do it most years! Enjoy your trip.....

 

[Chili327]

All ADRs begin 60 days out. If you have a Disney resort reservation, you can make the ADRs for the entire length of the stay. So for your AKV reservation, you can reserve 60 days from check-in through your check-out day. Caveat there is you have 2 different reservations, so you'll likely be able to make ADRs for the length of the first reservation, and then wait a day or 2 until your check-in date for the other reservation to make the rest - hope that makes sense!

And just FYI - while I agree you might be far away from a park or dining reservation - much bigger diff than DL - your 15 mile estimate is pretty high! It might not matter, but the distance between AK and MK, probably the greatest distance between parks, is about 6 miles!! BTW - end of Jan is a great time to visit - we do it most years! Enjoy your trip.....

2 great things to know!!
Thanks, I thought I heard or read it was 15 miles from AKV to MK, glad to be wrong (maybe it was round trip).

 

[Chili327]

I see, it was 15min, not miles.

Also yes, I hate Humidity, so Jan/Feb is about the only time i want to visit Orlando. lol

 

[Cybertruck]

The Festival of the Arts in EPCOT will occur during you stay, while significantly less food booths than Food & Wine, and crowds! Anticipate some ride share to get to key reservations to maximize your visit.

 

[Chili327]

The Festival of the Arts in EPCOT will occur during you stay, while significantly less food baths than Food & Wine, and crowds! Anticipate some ride share to get to key reservations to maximize your visit.

Awesome, I love a good food bath.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Festival of the Arts has become our favorite of all the festivals at EPCOT. It's also the most expensive for us most winters, as we tend to find items we really like and find we need to purchase and ship home!

 

[Chili327]

Festival of the Arts has become our favorite of all the festivals at EPCOT. It's also the most expensive for us most winters, as we tend to find items we really like and find we need to purchase and ship home!

Items?
As in festival merch, or other?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Items?
As in festival merch, or other?

Yes! Festival merch and many 'other'! They have some amazing creative folks displaying their art all around the park, and we have a couple walls in our family room displaying some of it. We enjoy walking around and browsing the art booths as much as we do the food booths.

 

[holden]

If you are using Genie+ for LL and ILL, I recommend booking sit down lunches instead of dinner (or perhaps only a few sit down dinners). That's been our strategy lately.

The reason we do that is because some of the popular attractions have later return times. For example, let's say you book Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner on a day you are at Magic Kingdom. You grab a LL for Seven Dwarves Mine Train with a return time of 6pm. You try to modify it for an earlier time, but it doesn't work. Your LL might interfere with dinner, so you'll have to cancel one or the other.

This tends to happen only with the most popular attractions, and it's not guaranteed to happen. You could grab an earlier LL, but you won't know until 7am that day. Also, the time the app shows you may not be the time you actually book, as times change during the booking process. They only guaranteed time is the time for the paid ILL.

So we book sit down lunches (also a break from the heat). If we want a sit down dinner on a particular day (and we don't have any LL to interfere), we book them at the last minutes. There's always availability somewhere.

Keep in mind too that Disney recommends allowing 1.5hrs for transportation. It might not take that long, but you never know. I would allow 1.5hrs from the time you start walking to exit a park to the time you arrive at a restaurant.

With that in mind, if you are booking dinner try to book something in the park or close by.

Have fun!

 

[Chili327]

Any suggestions on which days to hit certain areas? (food res, etc)

Sat - Travel, check in to AKV
Sun - AK 2nd half of the day, stay at AKV
Mon - Early to whenever at AK, then planning to hop over to Epcot for EEH, check into Boardwalk
Tues - Epcot, BWV
Wed - Possibly DHS/MK/Epcot or just Resort day (checking out resorts), end day at MK for EEH, Stay at BWV,
Thurs - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, check into BRV
Fri - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Sat - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Sun - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, stay at BRV
Mon - DHS/Epcot/MK/DS, Epcot for EEH, stay at BRV
Tues - Travel Home