questions on how you determine where to make reservations..

[nkereina]

This will be me and my boyfriend's first time using the dining plan. We are on the deluxe and have ideas of where we want to go. We have park hoppers. Our biggest problem is trying to decide if we should make our reservations (namely dinner reservations) in the same parks or at the resorts near the parks we are going to be at on the same day we do that park? For example, we want to do Coral Reef for dinner one night, but don't know if we should do that the same day we are planning on going to Epcot, or if we should do it a different day to switch it up. We don't want to feel like we need to "kill time" before our reservation, especially if we are tired out and just want to leave, and there's a chance we'd want to go back to our resort to get cleaned up before dinner. But I'd assume it would obviously be easier to just have the reservation for the park we are in that day. Thoughts??

Also, how far in advance does Disney release the EMH times and the times for the parades/fireworks? We don't want to decide which parks we do on each day until we know this info.

Thanks!!!!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

I would try to make ADRs for near where you are going to be. Traveling from park to resort to park takes time. You do have PHs so you could have breakfast in one park and dinner in another.

 

[Nadjalu]

I too make adrs as close to where I want to be for the evening as possible.

We have hoppers and usually take a mid afternoon break at the resort. So I try to plan the dinner close to the park we finish the day at.
Then it is easy, we leave the resort head to an early dinner (that is when we eat at home) and head to the park, if we aren't already in it.

 

[Pakey]

We always go back to our resort in the afternoon so we make our dinner reservations anywhere we want.

 

[thebwit]

Don't try to "park hop" just for food. Eat where you are going to be at. Just as an example, last trip we were at one park and had to leave to go for our dinner reservation. Even with 30 minutes to get there, we were still late due to Disney transportation. Just because a park or a resort is 20 minutes away, doesn't mean it takes that long. You can wait up to 20 minutes just for the bus, plus an additional 20 minutes. So keep that in mind.

 

[LeesyUD]

Are you planning to take breaks mid day from the park?

If you are not, I would not park hop just for dining.

If you are planning to take a break during the day on the other hand, then I think it is perfectly fine to go to another park for dinner because you will have more time.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My husband hates "traveling" to get to reservations so we just make them for the park we are in.

I have made ADR's at resorts or DTD on days we are taking a break from the parks which explains why we haven't tried many resort restaurants because we don't take many days off from park touring.

Have fun deciding your restaurants.

 

[Huff]

Here is what we do:

Check the calendar for show times for what you want to see during your visit. Parades, fireworks, Fantasmic etc.

With those in mind plan ADR's allowing sufficient time to get to those events.

For fantasmic nights we plan an ADR at a Boardwalk or Epcot restaurant around 5. That gives us plenty of time to enjoy dinner and take the boat to DHS for fantasmic.

On Illumination nights we have similar ADR's to above but possibly a bit later.

For Wishes, Electric Light Parade we usually dine at Kona or Ohanas and take the boat or monorail to MK.

We do not plan specific days for each park nor show. I have ADR's which will allow me the option to see Illuminations, Fantasmic or Wishes/Parade on any of at least 2 or 3 nights each during our week long stay. That allows us flexibility depending on what we feel like doing and also due to possible weather.

 

[nkereina]

The above post leads me to my next question - how much time do you give yourself between ADR's and fireworks/parades? I've read how backed up some restaurants get. We are doing a mixture of buffets and regular TS, so I'm trying to gauge how early we should make our ADR's in relation to fireworks/parades... 3 hours before maybe? Too much? We'll be there at the end of September (9/24-10/1 which I think is outside the free dining window so far) so hopefully crowds won't be too much of an issue.

 

[Huff]

How early to make ADR's before fireworks or shows depends on if we need to park hop. I do not care for any TS restaurants at DHS but do enjoy the park and want to see Fantasmic.

On the nights that Fantasmic is showing at 9pm we have 5:30pm ADR's at Epcot or Boardwalk restaurants. In the past this has worked well to then take the boat to DHS arriving around 8pm or a bit after.

On 9pm Illuminations nights we eat at Epcot or Boardwalk area with ADR's around 6:00pm.

For 10pm Wishes nights we dine at Polynesian (Kona, Ohana), Grand Floridian or Contemporary with ADR's around 7:00pm. If they're running late we watch the fireworks from GF or Poly beach after dinner instead of going to MK.

For Electric Light Parade at 9pm we'll eat at above restaurants around 6:00pm.

We're not the type that has to be up front at shows or fireworks and are not willing to get there and wait an hour or more to do so. The above works well for us!

 

[lblume91]

Although I am generally a total planner, we don't really plan out which park we are going to on any given day ahead of time. We always go to MK on our 1st day but then just go with what tickles our fancy the rest of the trip. Our one rule is that we skip the AM EMH park. We come from a time zone over so it's just too exhausting to get up the extra hour earlier for the AM EMH. We usually take a break, even if it's just an hour or so, every day and then head back out to wherever our ADRs are in the evening. That's just what we've found works for us.