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!!!
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

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!!!
