Please Critique My April 2018 Dining Plan Spreadsheet

Long Beach Mike

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
Messages
170
Hi All,

Our family, myself (DH46), DW40, and DD10 and DD12, are going to Disney 4/2-4/10/18. We are staying in a standard Poly room, with DxDD Plan, and non-park hopper tickets. We last went to Disney for 9 days back in 12/15-12/23/15, that time staying at the GF and again on the DxDD Plan.

Our family had an amazing time, thanks in large part to the wealth of information on DISboards. The one major mistake I made was not recognizing the enormity of the parks, and the amount of time and energy burned racing across and between parks and hotels chasing our prized FPs+ and ADRs. Several veteran members of this board pointed this out to me when I posted my plans for our last trip, but unfortunately it was too late, unless I wanted to give up many of the great experiences I thought I had so perfectly choreographed.

My window to schedule ADRs is not for a month in a half, so I have enough time to tinker with how to balance having the experiences we want to have, while not being completely burned out by mid-trip like last time.

A little about our family. We are definitely not the rope drop types. Myself and my DDs get up pretty early, but like to lounge at the pool or take in some of the other activities the Poly offers, like the jet boats :) Wife sleeps in somewhat late, are we rarely get to the park before noon. We really really enjoy the signature dining experiences, even though they take so much time out of our schedule.

With all this, my basic plan is to have a mid morning breakfast (10AM) or early lunch (12PM) planned for pretty much each day at either Poly or GF, and then either a 6-7PM signature dinner at the parks, or a 9-9:30PM signature dinner at one of the monorail hotels (easy return to Poly at 11PM). If we are eating dinner at 6-7PM, we will breakfast. If we are having a late dinner, we will do breakfast or an early lunch.

Attached is a spreadsheet of the parks I plan to visit and and early plan of my ADRs. I scheduled what I believe are the toughest dinner ADRs to get, especially at times you want, later in my trip (Le Cellier, Cali Grill, CRT, and Ohana). I also made sure to plan our primary breakfast/lunch at least 8 hours apart from dinner. Last trip we were stuffed at many dinners.

There are some extra meals on the spreadsheet, giving me the option of eating the late breakfast or early lunch. If we feel we are needing more time at the parks, we'll do more of the breakfasts, and if we find we are wanting more Poly time, we'll go to more lunches. The meal I anticipate eating is colored in light orange, and the backup/alternate meal in pale yellow. On the 1st night, we are leaning heavily toward a late Sanna dinner over a 6:30PM Tiffins or Tusker. We would rather not break up our already very short day at Animal Kingdom, and Sanaa lunch was one of our favorite meals last trip.

I also attached the spreadsheet I posted a few weeks before my 12/15 trip, which I can see now involved way to much jumping around.

I would appreciate any advice you could give about my preliminary plans.

Also, a few questions:
1) It appears Disney has its hours of operation calendar out only 180 days. How late can I expect the 4 parks to be open each day.

2) When can I expect the MK fireworks, Illuminations, and Fantasmic to happen each evening? I'd like to plan in park dinners with more than enough time to see the night time shows.

3) Given my plan to sometimes schedule a late breakfast and early lunch on some days, is the minimum time allowed between ADRs so that they are not considered conflicting 2 hours. I believe I read that here, but was just hoping to confirm.

Thank you in advance for any and all advice!!! :)
 

Attachments

The week you are planning is the week after Easter, so be prepared for very crowded parks. I would anticipate longer hours at MK at least, and probably the other parks as well (except maybe for EP which stays the same most of the year). If you can find a park hour calendar for this year the week of Easter, it will give you an idea of when the night time entertainment will be.

Nothing is jumping out at me as a "don't think that will work," but without some hours and entertainment schedule, it makes it more difficult.

The only thing I see that you need to rearrange, is your final day. ME will pick you up around 5:30 at the Poly, and you will want to be AT the Poly no later than 5:15. The bus will NOT wait on you, and if you miss it, you're on your own getting to MCO.
 
Thank you so much, sharonabe!

I'll adjust my schedule to leave MK at 4PM. Give me a few minutes to burn off any extra snack credits at Poly as souvenirs.

I think I read somewhere on DIS that TouringPlans has historic park calendars. Easter was on March 27th in 2016. If anyone can recommend where to find or send a link with last March and April's calendars that would be amazing.
 
My first reaction to your spreadsheet is that you have several days with multiple reservations, for just in case. While you are booking a breakfast and a lunch, and that clearly is allowed, You are manipulating the system and from your post you have no intention of eating at both. This is highly frowned on, as it is unfair to other guests.
My advice is to take your best guess and book just one of the other.
 
Hi Hopefully, I understand and agree with what you are saying. On all but 1 or 2 days I was almost certain which meal (breakfast or lunch) we were going to choose based on our dinner time. I'll be booking only the meals we will be going to.

I've also changed a few dinners:

4/2: 9:30PM Jiko dinner
4/3: 9:30PM Narcoossee's dinner
4/4: 9:30PM Yachtsman's Steakhouse dinner - love the idea of being able to walk from Epcot and not rely on Disney buses :)
 
those are such late dinners... I would not be able to eat and digest and go to bed at that time.

Also a 7:30 dinner at CRT will likely not get you out in time for 9pm fireworks. I'd book it 6:30. If you want to view it from inside know that the view is very compromised from inside and there are very few window tables.
 
Thanks Lisa!

Looking at last year's schedule it seems like the fireworks are 10PM during this time of year, but your right, I'll move CRT to 6:30 or 7PM.

We may also move the 9:30PM dinners to 9PM, but any earlier than that and we cut too much into park time. We did quite a few late dinners when we sent 2 1/2 years ago and it went well, except my younger daughter fell asleep at a few meals.
 
Thanks Lisa!

Looking at last year's schedule it seems like the fireworks are 10PM during this time of year, but your right, I'll move CRT to 6:30 or 7PM.

We may also move the 9:30PM dinners to 9PM, but any earlier than that and we cut too much into park time. We did quite a few late dinners when we sent 2 1/2 years ago and it went well, except my younger daughter fell asleep at a few meals.
my 9 year old would never be able to eat that late. he'd be melting down by 7pm. I try to keep a pretty close (+/- an hour or two) eating schedule in the parks as I do at home. I prefer the 5pm seating at signatures because the restaurant is not remotely full and the meal goes more quickly... no wait for a table. I find it takes a lot less time out of my day. We did CA Grill at 5pm and then went to Epcot to close it out and it was one of our best days... we left refreshed and ready to hit epcot. It is easy to monorail between MK area and Epcot.
 





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