Overbooked?!

[TheLittles]

I am a habitual over thinker. Lol. Last time I was in Disney (this past Nov for the Wine and Dine half marathon) my party of three tried relentlessly on multiple nights (and a couple lunches) to get seated at a restaurant. One night we tried Crystal Palace, they said they were not taking walk ups, then tried Tonys, same thing, then had to get on the Monorail and got off at the first stop,contemporary, because we were so hungry. Tried Chefs, same thing. Finally went to The Wave and got seated. I think I am scared from that experience!!! For my upcoming trip I made a lot of ADRs. I'm starting to think too many. But I don't want my party of 6 to run into those problems. Here are my ADRs and days and maybe it can get some critiques/ suggestions/ and advice on what's good and what I should keep or get rid of. Thanks so much! I'm seriously stressing about it as I do not want to feel rushed my whole trip.

Other info that may be helpful; like I said we have six. Five adults and one 2 yr old. Staying at YC. Have Deluxe Dining.

ADRs
Drive in on sep 19
2pm beaches and cream
7:55 pm cape may
Sep 20
820am Ohana
630pm crystal palace
Sep 21
830 Akershus
2pm San Angel Inn
830 coral reef
Sep 22
930 Boma
150 Yak and Yet
730 Le cellier
Sep 23
830 Hollywood and vine
630 50s prime time
Sep 24
805am Cinderellas Royal Table
7pm Whispering Canyon
Sep 25
915 am GF cafe

Is this too much?! Will my family feel too programmed? How do I have a happy medium where we can all get seated and maybe not have so many ADRs? Or is it ok? Thanks again for whoever gives me some input!!

 

[deakam]

I like the way you have booked a breakfast and then a late-ish dinner. I also enjoyed all of the places you have picked. I don't think it is too regimented but then again, I enjoy the sit down and relax with family meal times we have at Disney. If you get there and feel like it might be too much then cancel at least 24 hours so you won't be charged especially Cinderella's Royal Table because they charge you for the whole meal and not just the $10.00 per person.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Most of what you have booked is a sit down type dinner place. There are lots of places you can get a quick lunch that do not require prior booking. Most of the places you have booked will require a reservation unfortunately. Our family went through the same thing 4 or 5 years ago and now I am fixated on booking, but I am also the type who likes to do what I want, when I want. I hate the fact that I know my reservations tie me to a particular place on a particular day. I have mostly booked dinners. MY itinerary is
(Arrival day)
11/28 Liberty Tree Inn 5:45
11/29 nothing
11/30 Hollywood & Vine 1:30
12/1 Coral Reef 5:30 (waiting fotr the Candlelight Processional)
12/2 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party day:
10:00 Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Cinderella's Royal Table 5:45, Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party 8:30
12/3 Pirates League 11:00, Be Our Guest 7:15
12/4 Boma 6:00 pm
12/5 (day we leave) 1900 Park Fare 11:00 breakfast

Even at that I feel confined, but we'll have no problem picking up lunch somewhere, or we'll go back to the room

 

[Momof2Singers]

First of all, if its what your family likes, you should go for it.

My family would flip at that many, especially 3 a day sit down meals. Add all the hours spent eating. You do have the deluxe plan, but you don't have to fit in all TS meals. Again, comes down to what you want. Time in the parks will be more limited, you are spending a majority of your day eating. And with a small child, mine would not behave for all those sit down meals, chef mickey's and crystal palace were the 2 places that kept our kids occupied. We have pictures of our then 6 month old sitting in a seat looking up at Piglet. Great memories.

By the end of the week, you may not want to see food LOL

We did the dining, not deluxe because regular dining was the NOW deluxe when we bought it. We were miserable most of the trip. We felt we had to eat the appetizers, entree and dessert every meal because we paid for it. We re-evaluated this trip because we have booked 4-5 expensive meals, but we still would come out better OOP because we do not eat a lot of sweets or appetizers.

It all comes back to your group and what is important to them, but you guys may want to do a little power walking, have a wonderful trip!

 

[Mommymarie]

We did the deluxe plan once and spaced our meals similar to how you have yours scheduled and we loved it. We did a few days with 3 TS meals, but mostly just 2 TS....breakfast and dinner....it worked great! Disney meals are really special for my family--have a great trip

 

[Sparkie]

For my family, it would be too much especially with a 2yo. The meals will likely last 1.5 - 2 hours each plus your travel time. Our grandkids were 2 and 4 on our last trip and there were times that I wondered if the sit down meals that I wanted were worth my sanity.

Our next trip we are going to try for character bfasts a few days, counter service lunch, and a select few table service dinners and they rest will be counter service. But thats what works with us. I would rather have the flexibility to just stop and eat when the kids are hungry at night instead of wrestling through a sit down late dinner. Especially later in the trip, kids were tired, we were tired and I cancelled some of our table service because we were just tired of having to be somewhere at a certain time.

Now I do agree with you in that having a reservation of something is much better than having no reservations and getting shut out everywhere. And I would schedule the ones that are really important to you.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

I am a habitual over thinker. Lol. Last time I was in Disney (this past Nov for the Wine and Dine half marathon) my party of three tried relentlessly on multiple nights (and a couple lunches) to get seated at a restaurant. One night we tried Crystal Palace, they said they were not taking walk ups, then tried Tonys, same thing, then had to get on the Monorail and got off at the first stop,contemporary, because we were so hungry. Tried Chefs, same thing. Finally went to The Wave and got seated. I think I am scared from that experience!!! For my upcoming trip I made a lot of ADRs. I'm starting to think too many. But I don't want my party of 6 to run into those problems. Here are my ADRs and days and maybe it can get some critiques/ suggestions/ and advice on what's good and what I should keep or get rid of. Thanks so much! I'm seriously stressing about it as I do not want to feel rushed my whole trip.

Just an FYI - I just read this thread about all TS requiring an ADR now. Read the last couple posts if you don't want to read thru the whole thing. This was news to me.

 

[lam0037]

You know what's best for your family, but my only concern would be the day you have Boma, Yak & Yeti and Le Cellier. If your Boma ADR is 9:30 realistically after you are seated and get through the buffet you will start eating around 10 and i'm not sure about your family, but we tend to eat over a course of an hour. So you will be done at 11. Then you will be eating 3 hours later at Yak& Yeti, which also is a lot of food. And this also leaves you only really 2 hours of park time before eating again. For me, this would be a lot.

And if you go back to your room then that also cuts a lot out of your time at AK. But, you may not be a fan of AK and only want to stay half a day.

IMO, I would do either an earlier Boma, or even a Tusker House since it is in the same park and you are not having to travel to a park to get to AKL then to AK. Or even an early Cape May Cafe breakfast or even Captain's Grille before heading to AK. I know that Tusker House and CMC are character breakfasts and looking at your plan you do have a lot of them, but only O'hana is the only one with Mickey and friends, and they are dressed really cute at TH (safari) and CMC (swimwear).

You know what will work with your daughter and family but to me that day seemed like a lot of travel and eating, not a lot of park time.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Only you can decide what is best!

This would be way to much for our family... we actually like the: Breakfast = snack credit for a muffin, QS & TS Lunch & Dinner route.

I do think it will cut out a huge portion of your days, it may be difficult with having to schedule FP+. Are you on the Deluxe plan? If you aren't I would consider changing it to 2 ADRs daily and leaving most of the day free for the parks. If you have the deluxe, you could also use some credits for 2 credit dinners instead, and you can use your credits at QS too!! But again, that's what I would do, your mileage may vary

 

[GWhitten98]

The animal kingdom and epcot day with 3 meals seem really full, espicially the AK day with going from YC(home resort) to AKL(Boma) to AK and then ending the day at another park. Not sure if you are driving and using DW transportation, but this will be a lot of travel time. On the Epcot day I would not do the lunch and use the snack credits you have to snack your way through the world showcase.

If you don't use those two credit for sit down meals you could change one of your dinners to another signature or do a couple of QS meals instead.


The rest of the days seem totally managable from a time and quantity of food standpoint to me...that being said we are family that loves to eat on vacation!

 

[Mariep26]

Since you are going with the Deluxe dining your schedule looks good (meaning you need that many meals to make the dining plan worth it). You will definitely be spending a good amount of time eating and travel to/from your meals but it sounds like having good quality, sit down meals is a priority for you on this trip. I agree with someone above to just make sure that you aren't overdoing it on one particular day relative to how much food will be available to you (buffet etc..).
Enjoy!

 

[ElizabethG]

I would reconsider the lunch ADRs on the days where you have 3. Unfortunately, you can't decide at lunchtime that you are too full from breakfast and cancel without paying $10pp.

 

[lam0037]

The animal kingdom and epcot day with 3 meals seem really full, espicially the AK day with going from YC(home resort) to AKL(Boma) to AK and then ending the day at another park. Not sure if you are driving and using DW transportation, but this will be a lot of travel time. On the Epcot day I would not do the lunch and use the snack credits you have to snack your way through the world showcase.

If you don't use those two credit for sit down meals you could change one of your dinners to another signature or do a couple of QS meals instead.


The rest of the days seem totally managable from a time and quantity of food standpoint to me...that being said we are family that loves to eat on vacation!

Or even a dinner show. If you feel like other signature dining wouldn't work for your family, a dinner show is a great option! HDDR is great, with good food. And Mickey's Backyard BBQ has characters and dancing, which I'm sure your 2 yr old would love. Spirit of Aloha is entertaining too!