parks first or resturants first??

[happy7]

just a question on how people plan the trip..do you make your adrs first or do you decide what park you go to first??which way is easier and why?? Thanks everyone!!

 

[IggyLans]

I try to see which parks we want to be mostly in that day, and then depending on that decide where we would like to eat, then make my ADR's. So I guess we decide parks first, then ADR's.

 

[dqpowell]

I plan park days based on least crowded park recommendations from various sources. Once I know which parks I'll be visiting, I plan the meals around that.

David

 

[thunderbird1]

My dh loves to be in the parks after dark, especially MK, so we pretty much have to do every pm EMH and/or make sure that our MK days are when MK is open late. The kids and I love the am EMH's, so we have to make sure our non-park days are scheduled so we get at least one am EMH per park. Where we'll be each day pretty much helps us figure out where to eat.

Also, we go for longer trips (10-14 days) with 10 day parkhoppers, so we have to make sure to schedule in some non-park days. Once we know which days are non-park days, we can plan some non-park ADR's. It would be a bummer to make an ADR for Le Cellier, only to find out that we're not going to be using a park ticket that day. Hmm, blow one day's tickets on dinner, or cancel Le Cellier? Tough choice!

 

[madalex]

Neither actually. Generally, we do not spend all day in the parks - we usually show up at the opening and then are gone by early afternoon - back to the resort to swim and relax. We don't eat lunches anywhere that requires ADRs and we only get ADRs for dinners. Thus, the park during the day is unrelated to the restaurant where we are having dinner. As a result, we make plans for those two things independently of each other.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Dining plans first...we pick the places we want to have TS at and go from there. Say I want Le Cellier for Monday but they dont have it but Tues and Weds are open..ok cool lets switch.....doesnt matter when we go to a park UNLESS it is a MVMCP night or something else I have tickets for.

 

[Colleen27]

just a question on how people plan the trip..do you make your adrs first or do you decide what park you go to first??which way is easier and why?? Thanks everyone!!

Parks first. I look over the UG crowd charts and park recommendations and any special events, and make a basic schedule of which parks for each day, then look over menus and plan ADRs that will work with where we'll be.

 

[BillSears]

I plan park days based on least crowded park recommendations from various sources. Once I know which parks I'll be visiting, I plan the meals around that.

I do the same. I make a list according to the least crowded days for each park. I also factor in things like Spectromagic, double Fantasmics, and the various EMH. Based on this I plan what parks I will visit on each day and make ADRs accordingly.

I miss the good old days when I could wake up in the morning and head to whatever park I wanted to for that day. But Disney parks and especially the restaurants have gotten too crowded to be spontaneous. So I play the game as it is and make ADRs.

 

[kimis]

We schedule our adr's as soon as we can. Some of the resturants are harder to get in to so we schedule those first. You can always conceal once you get to WDW. I also find out what park has emh's and we go to that park that day.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

just a question on how people plan the trip..do you make your adrs first or do you decide what park you go to first??which way is easier and why?? Thanks everyone!!

Pretty much both at the same time for the most part now. Right now, the only real difficulty is your Mk scheduling around the various parties and when they have spectro. The rest is relatively easy. We tend to try to schedule restaurants in or near the parks we schedule. It's more convenient that way.

It used to be they didn't post park hours until about a month before. Yet you had to make your ressies starting at 90 days. So you had to make your ressies and guess based upon last year's schedule. Others guessed for their month based upon the month's schedule when they called. Boy were they usually upset when everything changed on em. For all the complaining about the 180 day window, there are some things that are totally better than the way things used to be.

 

[kathie859]

We usually plan how we are going to attack the parks based on projected attendance and then make a list of 2-3 places to dine (either lunch or dinner) each day and call for ADR's. I find if you have more than one option, you can usually get what you want.

 

[dominicsplace]

Planning the parks first usually works well for us. Make a list of the days you are going and then for each day note each of the parks hours and the EMH either morning or night.

I tend to like going to the parks with evening EMH and booking an earlier dinner. This gives us time to eat and then enjoy the park a little longer.

 

[Amyg]

I plan park days based on least crowded park recommendations from various sources. Once I know which parks I'll be visiting, I plan the meals around that.

David

This is the exactly the same way I planned our trip last summer and it worked out great!

 

[barbmouse]

Definitely parks first!!!

 

[clarrkkent79]

My GF and I are either/or type planners. Normally we schedule parks first, then ADR's. But if there is a dining place we just can't miss and it's not available the day we want to visit a park, we'll change days.

On the other hand, we wouldn't rearrange a whole visit, just to accomodate one ADR.

I find it's helpful to be flexible on both sides when planning ADR's, especially when table service places are near booked.

 

[amery]

While most vacations wouldn't necessarily be planned around eating, a vacation to WDW may be an exception only because of the draw and allure that some of those eateries have to offer.

Couple that with high traffic periods such as the holidays and you clearly have an argument for why the ADR becomes a priority. At the end of the day, most of those ADR's will dictate to some degree which park you will be in. If you are staying onsite, have a full week or more and Park Hopper passes, you will definately have flexibility on your side. You won't have to worry about burning a day simply because you have an ADR for say CP or CRT in MK. You have that coveted CRT for breakfast and opt to bounce to another park for that day or go wherever then bounce back to do CP for dinner.

ADR's for anything in the resorts however need not really cause you much concern as they can be scheduled around your designated park days and wouldn't require park admission.