Suggestions???

[schmoopypoo]

We are doing the DDP in October this year for my DD5's first trip to Disney. It will be me, fiance, my mother and DD. We have the plan for 7 days.

Anyways, I was just wondering how you usually work your meals. I mean do you use all of your TS on dinners or do you use them for lunch and breakfast too? I wanted to mix it up a little, but what do you all like to do...mix it up or just use the TS for dinner? Any suggestions or advice would be great. This is our first time on the DDP.

TIA!

 

[laceemouse]

Well, we always mix it up, DDP or no DDP. I would think with a 5 year old you will want some Character meals, and breakfasts CPs are my favorite. Just schedule what sounds good to you.

 

[thunderbird1]

Last trip, we were there for 10 days and used 8/10 for dinner. It was too many dinners. We found we just got tired of having plans every single evening. The two nights we had TS lunches instead of dinners, we really enjoyed being able to be a little more laid back in our wandering the parks.

That said, if you're paying for the DDP, you'll generally get the most for your money at dinner. If you don't care about getting the absolute maximum dollar amount out of the plan, I think you'll enjoy it more if you mix in a couple of breakfasts or lunches.

Here's our plan for our next trip: The first few days, all dinners. After that, I'll book a lunch and a dinner most days, and we'll decide which we want to do once we're there. I may throw in a Boma breakfast one day, even though I'm not wild about using credits for breakfast, just to try something different.

 

[Booknut]

We mixed it up last time. As you're going with your daughter it would be great to do a few character meals.

Maybe do one character breakfast (in Norway at Epcot- all the princesses are there!), one character lunch (we did Crystal Palace buffet and it was fabulous, great character interaction with Pooh and friends) and one character dinner (Chef Mickey's or Cinderella's Royal Table).

Boma is nice for breakfast and the Coral Reef for lunch at Epcot. I think both would be quite nice for kids and breaks up the 'big dinner' meals quite nicely.

Sometimes its nice to have the TS at lunch as it gives you the rest of the day to walk it off!!

Whatever you do have a great time!

 

[luv2nascar]

We mix it up. We plan on 7 nites in Sept so 7 TS which will be 1 Lunch, 4-5 dinners, and 1-2 breakfasts. Our breakfasts are late more like brunch for us. The lunch will be in MGM because we hate the counter service there.

 

[GoldfishColors]

We also mix it up. Dinner everynight gets to be too much and can make the night time entertainment harder to catch. We always do very early dinners 5 pm for that reason.

 

[TDC Nala]

I do signature dining and don't have kids, so my methods would be different from most. I could not do table service every night on a short trip (have never done more than 4 nights on DDP), because I use 2 credits for signature restaurants, and the only buffets that interest me are Boma and Biergarten.

I also do dinners no later than 6:30 so I can get to PI around 9.

 

[TxRabbit]

Definitely do a couple of character meals with TS...there are enough lines around the park, standing in one to meet the characters was not what we wanted to do...if the line was short, great, but otherwise, having the character meals really made the urge to wait in that line non existent for my DS6.

We ate at CP for lunch, first lunch seating at 11:30 on an am EMH day. Checked in at 11:15, seated right away, character interaction was wonderful. Tigger came by while the crowd was thin, so we had a lot of time with him, fun fun fun I did notice that right after we checked in, the check in line was getting longer and longer...and the restaurant filled up right away...the food was good (which is really just a bonus, because I cared more about being in the beautiful restaurant and meeting the characters). Tigger, Piglet, Pooh and Eeyore were all there.

CRT is totally worth it! I heard it was a hard ressie to get, and so I was almost reluctant to ask my DS6 if he would want to eat in the castle with Cindy, but of course, he did, who wouldn't want to eat in the castle? I got the ressie only one month in advance. Disney Dining can look for availability for your entire visit and tell you when you could get in. I don't think that dinner is a character meal. Your meal includes a photo with Cindy (one 8x10 and two 4x6, and one 8x10 of the castle itself). They will give you your photo before you leave the restaurant. Your DD will get a magic wand keepsake. The character interaction was even better than CP. Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, and the Fairy Godmother were all there. First, Snow White kissed my DS on the cheek. I wasn't ready for the photo, so she kissed him again on the other cheek, and so for the rest of the day, those in the know asked him which Princess kissed him. He felt so special. The boys get a sword keepsake. There were several boys where we were seated. Belle played sword fight with all of them! It was so worth the two TS credits to go. It was my son's first visit to WDW and I would put it down as a must try to do. If you can't get in, keep calling to see if you can, because it really was worth it to go. BTW, the food was wonderful too. DH and I both had the salmon, which was excellent. The blueberry buckle dessert was very yummy too. DS had grilled chicken and it was very good. And of course, the castle is beautiful, it was fun just to get to see any part of the inside of it.

In sum, we did two lunches, and three dinners. Dinner on arrival night, lunch for two touring days, early dinner for fantasmic, late dinner for illuminations. This worked well for us.

 

[schmoopypoo]

thanks everyone for the tips...it will be very useful