scheduling your meals in advance

[surfergirl602]

For someone who hasn't ever eaten at WDW, how in the world do you schedule your meals? How do you know where to eat?

 

[TravelBugJill]

Hi,

The first time our family went to WDW we went and picked a few restaurants to eat at. We started reading some travel books, and making a game plan.

After going there, I realized then how necessary it was to have a plan, and calling in for reservations. During our first visit there, we witnessed many families being turned away, who did not have ADR's. Families arguing that they couldn't get into some nice restaurants, and had to eat hot dogs again.

Now planning has become part of the "fun" of planning our disney trip. So get yourself some good travel books, Birnbaums we enjoyed our first visit, and go on AllEars.com for some menus, and do some choosing. Problem is Disney has so many choices, you can't go everywhere you will want to.
I guess you'll start planning another trip when you get home.

 

[miler1600]

I would look at the pictures of the food on this board. There is an entire thread devoted to that. The allearsnet.com menus aren't always accurate. We couldn't figure out to book for a long time but once we saw those we saw some things we wanted to try.

Whatever you do though, book them in advance.

 

[Annabelleasb]

My family and I are going in April, first time in 7 yrs. To be honest, the last time I went my father made all ADR's. (he went too) I did a lot of "menu/photo" research. I looked at what restaurants had food we would like & of course included character buffets for the 3 kids. I didn't judge by reviews because everyone has a different taste (literally) on foods they like.
For example, I think my kids would have loved the atmosphere of Coral Reef. But we don't like seafood so I just kept looking at the menu's & picked the places where the food seemed most appealing. As for time~ we eat dinner around 5:30-6:30 so I just made mine around those times. (5:20, 5:50 & 6:10)--Good Luck

 

[surfergirl602]

Oooh, where is Coral Reef at? My hubby and my mother love seafood. (we're from maine)

 

[Hopefully]

Coral Reef is in the Seas Pavilion in Epcot. If you are from Maine you may be disappointed in Florida seafood. We are from MA and we generally do not order seafood in WDW, we are spoiled!
Did you know that you can make Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR's) 180 days in advance?
Many of the most popular restaurants become fully booked months in advance during busy times of the year. You need to plan and call early for any place you really want to eat at.
I review all of the menus at allearsnet.com at the various restaurants. I spend hours reviewing these. They are the most accurate available. I look for food and costs that work for our family.
Then I plan which park on which day. It is best to make your ADR near where you will be that day. It is a huge waste of time to be crisscrossing the World for a dinner reservation. Both Tour Guide Mike and the Unofficial Guide publish web sites with information on the best park on which day calendars. Both are worth the added cost in planning.
Once I know which park I will be in on which day, I start to work in my ADR's near there. Don't exclude nearby Resort restaurants, as these are good too. Eating in one also gives you the chance to check out other resorts. The Contemporary, Poly and Grand Floridian are a short Monorail ride from the MK, and the restaurants of the Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Clubs and the Swan and Dolphin are a short walk or boat ride from Epcot or even the Studios.
It sounds like a lot of work but advance planning is part of the fun for me.
Remember you can always cancel an ADR if your plans change, but you very definitely can not always add one on in real time.
Have Fun planning.

 

[HollyH]

Then I plan which park on which day. It is best to make your ADR near where you will be that day.

I agree with Hopefully. Your first step is to know where you're going first. We check the online calendars for park hours which are posted 6 months in advance. We have older teens and young adults that sleep in so we are not concerned with the early openings but we do plan to go to the park that has late closing. Once you've made a tentative list of which park you're going to... you're ready, like Hopefully, to research the menus of nearby restaurants. That's exactly what we do. Our whole family gets involved with choosing from what's available!
Bottom line is... It's important to have something booked so you're not eating turkey legs everynight and you can always cancel or change the ADR if something else comes up.

 

[beroh2253]

For someone who hasn't ever eaten at WDW, how in the world do you schedule your meals? How do you know where to eat?

Here is the allears menu site, we usually start from here.

http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm

 

[danielle782001]

Hi.... We choose which parks we want to visit each day based on EMH, shows, events.... then we look at which places we would like to eat.

We make our reservations 180 before. My DH hates this. Deciding where you want to eat over 6 months before can be a bit difficult but it is required if you want to eat at some of the most popular places. When thinking about where you want to eat think about: ages of people in the party, types of foods liked and disliked, price, and location. I can tell you a bunch of places we have enjoyed but they may not work for your needs. Go through the dining menus. That will help a lot. It helped me because I have two picky eaters (my husband and 5 year old).

 

[Shellandscott]

Coral Reef is in the Seas Pavilion in Epcot. If you are from Maine you may be disappointed in Florida seafood. .

Agreed. We are from NJ and the we found the food OK, at Coral Reef. However the view is great. You may want to look at the menu and go for lunch. We like Fultons in downtown Disney.

In addition to Birnbaums, you can find many other books from Frommers or even Moon Handbooks. I checked some out of my local library.

Research is the key. You can search the boards also for some key words, like Favorite Studio restaurant, or Italian restaurant ect. And look over what others have written about places.

 

[surfergirl602]

Thanks for all the tips! This has def. pointed me in the right direction.

How many points does your party get per day?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If you go to the very top of the page you will see two blue lines. About in the middle of the lower one (light blue) it says "DINING". Click on that and you will be linked to the DisBoards detailed informaiton about dining, including the menus. Note there is a search function there which allows you to search for particular foods.

And for your question about "points", take the number of people age 3 or older on the reservation and multiply this by the number of nights of the reservation. Four people for Seven nights will give you 28 Table Service Crdits, 28 Counter Service Credits, and 28 Snack Credits.