Please help me plan this!

[Ashley Nadeau]

Hello,

We are going to Disney this November from the 13-24.

Check In Day: Sun Nov 13 (we will be in Universal for most of this day and then checking in to POP in the evening)
First Day in Parks: Monday the 14
Departure Day: Thursday the 24 (Thanksgiving)

We have Park Hopper/Water Park/ and more option and the Regular Dining Plan

We want to go to all four parks and one of the water parks (I believe the other one will be refurbished). We also want to fit in a massage at the Grand Floridian and go bowling at Splittsville Luxury Lanes in Disney Springs during an evening.

These are the restaurants we want to go to:

Magic Kingdom:
CRT for dinner (on Nov 19th as that is my birthday)
CRT for breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern (was hoping to do this on the 23rd)
Be Our Guest (breakfast)
Be Our Guest (lunch or dinner)

Hollywood Studios:
Mama Melrose's
Sci Fi Dine In
50's Prime Time Café

Epcot:
Coral Reef
Akershus (Breakfast)

Animal Kingdom
Tusker House (Breakfast)
Rainforest Cafe

Disney Springs:
Wolf Gang Puck
Planet Hollywood

I understand that our days in the parks will mostly be ruled by our ADR, which is fine by us

How would you schedule your trip like this? I appreciate any help you can give!

 

[karly05]

My first step would be to check the crowd calendars and daily park recommendations on easywdw.com. It's too early yet for November, but Nov should be up before your ADR window opens.

Am I calculating correctly that your birthday is a Saturday? Yikes. I'm nowhere near as experienced as most folks here, but one of my biggest rules is stay out of MK on Saturdays (too crowded). If I absolutely had to have my birthday dinner on my birthday, I would spend the bulk of the day at another park and hop to MK just for the ADR.

Think about how much time/how many days you want at each park, and try to keep some flexibility later in the trip so you can revisit favorites or try again on things you missed. I'm a big fan of Park Hoppers; they will really help.

 

[Ashley Nadeau]

My first step would be to check the crowd calendars and daily park recommendations on easywdw.com. It's too early yet for November, but Nov should be up before your ADR window opens.

Am I calculating correctly that your birthday is a Saturday? Yikes. I'm nowhere near as experienced as most folks here, but one of my biggest rules is stay out of MK on Saturdays (too crowded). If I absolutely had to have my birthday dinner on my birthday, I would spend the bulk of the day at another park and hop to MK just for the ADR.

Think about how much time/how many days you want at each park, and try to keep some flexibility later in the trip so you can revisit favorites or try again on things you missed. I'm a big fan of Park Hoppers; they will really help.

Thank you!! My birthday is a Saturday and this worried me to, but attempting to eat at CRT on my birthday is something that would be so special to me! I have a wonderful travel agent who has been wonderful to work with and give suggestions, but I wanted to hear from the DIS community

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Hello,

We are going to Disney this November from the 13-24.

Check In Day: Sun Nov 13 (we will be in Universal for most of this day and then checking in to POP in the evening)
First Day in Parks: Monday the 14
Departure Day: Thursday the 24 (Thanksgiving)

These are the restaurants we want to go to:

Magic Kingdom:
CRT for dinner (on Nov 19th as that is my birthday) Didn't love the food - we did it once.
CRT for breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern (was hoping to do this on the 23rd) We love this restaurant
Be Our Guest (breakfast)
Be Our Guest (lunch or dinner) We enjoy the lunch and the dinner. We enjoy the dinner because you can meet the beast.

Hollywood Studios:
Mama Melrose's
Sci Fi Dine In We love Sci Fi - we eat there every time.
50's Prime Time Café We love this place but mostly for dessert. They are excellent.

Epcot:
Coral Reef
Akershus (Breakfast) We enjoy this restaurant better than CRT. Great place.

Animal Kingdom
Tusker House (Breakfast) We love this restaurant.
Rainforest Cafe

Disney Springs:
Wolf Gang Puck Excellent
Planet Hollywood

I understand that our days in the parks will mostly be ruled by our ADR, which is fine by us

How would you schedule your trip like this? I appreciate any help you can give!

How we start our plans is by the late EMH at MK. We love being at MK late at night. I check the hours first and then plug in the days. For that amount of days we do HS and AK once. Epcot probably 3 times - just not 3 full days - we love the countries. MK - we would do 3 to 4 times - again but not full days.

Once I check the hours - then I decide which restaurants are most important and make those first - again plugging in the days once I make each ADR.

Enjoy make the reservations. Have a great trip.

 

[Ashley Nadeau]

How we start our plans is by the late EMH at MK. We love being at MK late at night. I check the hours first and then plug in the days. For that amount of days we do HS and AK once. Epcot probably 3 times - just not 3 full days - we love the countries. MK - we would do 3 to 4 times - again but not full days.

Once I check the hours - then I decide which restaurants are most important and make those first - again plugging in the days once I make each ADR.

Enjoy make the reservations. Have a great trip.

Thank you so much! We definitely want to take advantage of the EMH!!!

 

[ArielSRL]

Definitely check some crowd calendars when they come out and use that for planning park days, then fit in the restaurants. I would think that if you schedule the ADRs at 180 (+ 10) out, you'll get most of them when you want them, maybe being flexible by 30 min either way.

 

[dachsie]

With the new price increase of BOG, I would not do breakfast there. And I am not sure I would do CRT breakfast if you are doing dinner.
Were you only spending one day in EPCOT? There are so many great restaurants there. I thought Coral Reef was ok, but there are much better ones.
With DS - you could go any day from whichever park you are doing if you don't spend a full day there

 

[snayak]

My advice echos what is said above - check the crowd calendars for November (once they're up).

We like to Rope Drop & plan FP+ between 11AM and 4 PM when crowds are super heavy, but that depends on when you eat lunch.

I used a custom TouringPlans itinerary so I could plan out the day and see where FP+ would benefit us the most - i.e., not book a 7DMT FP+ for 9am, rather RD hit other lands and come in at 1pm for a 7DMT FP+ which lets you walk on rides all morning, and the skip the lines in the afternoon.

We didn't do a many ADRs because we went during Food & Wine and ate there, mostly. Check the menus to see if its worth going to the same place for multiple meals (BOG breakfast & dinner, etc) - we lucked into a BOG ADR once for dinner, and it was good. Seeing the castle and meeting Beast was cool, but once per trip is enough for our group. Its a different story if its a tactical advantage to get into the park earlier.

Have fun!

 

[Shanti]

Book your birthday ADR's 180+10 days in advance, to ensure the availability of CRT. I would avoid Magic Kingdom on Mondays, and avoid Epcot on Tuesdays. Schedule your resort down-time days for weekends. Expect crowds to get heavier as you approach Thanksgiving. In late summer, check back for fall resort discounts that you can apply to your room.

 

[Ashley Nadeau]

With the new price increase of BOG, I would not do breakfast there. And I am not sure I would do CRT breakfast if you are doing dinner.
Were you only spending one day in EPCOT? There are so many great restaurants there. I thought Coral Reef was ok, but there are much better ones.
With DS - you could go any day from whichever park you are doing if you don't spend a full day there

We were planning on spending 2-3 days in EPCOT! Any suggestions I would love! When I've been there in the past we only ate at Sunshine Season and Coral Reef, so I'm open to any suggestions!

As for CRT, I've had dinner there before and loved the experience so that's why I want to dinner there on my birthday, I've never done breakfast there before so I thought it would be a nice experience, we are not worried about the cost, we will pay our of pocket for both CRT meals. Have you had breakfast there, is it good?

 

[Ashley Nadeau]

My advice echos what is said above - check the crowd calendars for November (once they're up).

We like to Rope Drop & plan FP+ between 11AM and 4 PM when crowds are super heavy, but that depends on when you eat lunch.

I used a custom TouringPlans itinerary so I could plan out the day and see where FP+ would benefit us the most - i.e., not book a 7DMT FP+ for 9am, rather RD hit other lands and come in at 1pm for a 7DMT FP+ which lets you walk on rides all morning, and the skip the lines in the afternoon.

We didn't do a many ADRs because we went during Food & Wine and ate there, mostly. Check the menus to see if its worth going to the same place for multiple meals (BOG breakfast & dinner, etc) - we lucked into a BOG ADR once for dinner, and it was good. Seeing the castle and meeting Beast was cool, but once per trip is enough for our group. Its a different story if its a tactical advantage to get into the park earlier.

Have fun!

Thank you so much! I appreciate your advice!!

 

[Ashley Nadeau]

Book your birthday ADR's 180+10 days in advance, to ensure the availability of CRT. I would avoid Magic Kingdom on Mondays, and avoid Epcot on Tuesdays. Schedule your resort down-time days for weekends. Expect crowds to get heavier as you approach Thanksgiving. In late summer, check back for fall resort discounts that you can apply to your room.

Thank you so much! I have also heard the same about Mon/MK and Tues/EP. I'm hoping to get free dining and then upgrade!! (crossing my fingers)!

 

[karly05]

We were planning on spending 2-3 days in EPCOT! Any suggestions I would love! When I've been there in the past we only ate at Sunshine Season and Coral Reef, so I'm open to any suggestions!

I'll admit, I had the same reaction as a PP of "only 2 restaurants at Epcot???" My favorite attraction there is FOOD. World Showcase is full of choices for both TS and CS, and you will get all sorts of recommendations. I look forward every year to my pizza night at Via Napoli, and La Hacienda de San Angel (the Mexican restaurant on the lagoon) is on my short list for a return trip. I also really enjoyed lunch at Les Chefs a few years back. For CS, I love Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. The bakeries in France and Norway are also good, as well as fisn & chips in the UK.

I've never eaten at Teppan Edo (Japan) or Biergarten (Germany), but a lot of folks here love them. Check out the World Showcase menus and see what sounds appealing.

 

[snayak]

Thank you so much! I appreciate your advice!!

I'll admit, I had the same reaction as a PP of "only 2 restaurants at Epcot???" My favorite attraction there is FOOD. World Showcase is full of choices for both TS and CS, and you will get all sorts of recommendations. I look forward every year to my pizza night at Via Napoli, and La Hacienda de San Angel (the Mexican restaurant on the lagoon) is on my short list for a return trip. I also really enjoyed lunch at Les Chefs a few years back. For CS, I love Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. The bakeries in France and Norway are also good, as well as fisn & chips in the UK.

I've never eaten at Teppan Edo (Japan) or Biergarten (Germany), but a lot of folks here love them. Check out the World Showcase menus and see what sounds appealing.

I second that - we graze our way through Epcot. The macarons at the French pavilion rival the ones we had in Paris (in fact, they were ice cream macarons so the Epcot ones were better, in my opinion).

We were there for F&W so we planned a late lunch & dinner at Epcot munching and sipping our way around the world every night - but we're not much for character M&Gs and generally find the buffets and TS a lot of food (for a lot of money too, when you're paying cash!)

 

[dachsie]

There are a lot of choices at Epcot - Via Napoli would be one. Rose and Crown is good or Biergarten - they have live entertainment while you eat. Marrakesh has belly dancer at dinner. If you have already eaten at Coral Reef, definitely try something new. Check out the menus to see what you can find.

Another restaurant out of the parks that I like is Sanaa.