To all you planning pro's

[tinkerbella69]

i have 8 months till my trip. i know which restaurants i want to go to but how do you plan out which park to go to which restaurant which night i will be on the deluxe plan am hoping to figure all this out before my 180 adr date any tips would help thank you

 

[bangzoom6877]

i have 8 months till my trip. i know which restaurants i want to go to but how do you plan out which park to go to which restaurant which night i will be on the deluxe plan am hoping to figure all this out before my 180 adr date any tips would help thank you

We are going twice each to MK, and DHS. And 3 times to Epcot (one day is only for WS and food!). We decided we will go to each park once for morning EMH, and the other times will be when there are no extra magic hours at all. The park hours came out a few weeks before we had to make our 180-day ADRs. We checked the park hours, decided which park on which day, then we knew what dates and times we needed which restaurant. We also have a couple of days we are not going to parks so we made ADRs for resort restaurants we would like to try.

It's great that you already know which restaurants you want to go to, because that's half the battle! Or maybe more than half for someone like me who is so indecisive all the time! You still have around 2 months until you have to make your ADRs, which is great! The rest should fall into place!

Happy planning and enjoy your trip!!

 

[stitchlover]

We always wait until the park schedule is out to plan days and times for meals. My family loves PM EMH at MK so we know we don't want an early breakfast the morning after.

 

[topmonkeygirl]

I plan my meals around whick park I'm going to, EMH, and what resort I'm staying at. My next trip I'm staying at the Bay Lake Towers. Breakfast We will do Chef Mickey (at the Contemporary) or Crystal Palace (in the MK). Lunch one of the counter service at MK. Dinner will be at one of the Signature restaurants on the monorail line.

We always either eat in the resort, park, or when we're done for the day we might head over to another resort for dinner.

We never park hop it just takes too much time away from the park, and too much stress.

Hope that helps, when you've decided you know what and when you want it you can always post here and we'll let you know how it looks.

 

[angelmav]

You could also sign up for Tour Guide Mike to help decide what the optimal park days are going to be while you are there. He usually has the schedule up before the ADR window opens.

 

[MrsLS]

I figure out where I am going to be first by looking at the park hours and past experience on which park to go to on what day. Also for dinner we are usually at a resort TS so it's only lunch ADRs I am mostly worried about too except for the occasional Epcot dinner.
My advice is to look at park hours an figure out if you want to do emhs or not and if you have hoppers plus maybe join touring plans or some other helpful website if this is your first time.

 

[Wendybird55]

The 180 day window stinks because park hours usually don't come out until 90 days before.

I go by lookg up the hours for the same time last year...usually EMH falls on same days for the parks and so on. Also, I spent the $9 and subscribed to the crowd calendar on Tour guides to get a sense of what days are better for what parks.

It also helps that I'm going the same time as I've been the past 2 years. But still scheduling can change.

I try my best to figure out a general park and meal schedule and make my ADRS and then as more information comes in and the schedule comes out I see if I need to adjust anything and if I do, I call WDW Dine and see if I can adjust my reservations. Last year I was able to change some reservations without much trouble.

Good Luck

 

[stitchlover]

I believe when they went back to the 180 day mark they started releasing dates earlier again. I could be wrong, it is worth looking at.

 

[B-Ride]

I believe when they went back to the 180 day mark they started releasing dates earlier again. I could be wrong, it is worth looking at.

They are releasing them earlier, just not quite early enough for 180 days out. I noticed the August calendar wasn't released until early February which isn't quite 180 days if you are trying to book for the first week of the month. Still, for most ADRs 100 - 150 days out is more than adequate. For places like Le Cellier and 'Ohana you have to book them at least 150 days out and more like 180 if it is during Free Dining.

One thing we find that makes planning easier are the Park Hopper passes. It really makes life easier to be able to visit one park and eat at another.

 

[jodywgirl]

You can also go to wdwinfo.com and they give historical months so you can look at the same week a year ago. Another place to look is touringplans.com. If you are a member it will give you the best day to go to each park and they have that for a full twelve months. I get my ideas set up and then at the first of the month six months out I check daily for the updated calendars to make sure there is not any changes or conflicts.

 

[djp0630]

Ok, well, we always visit MK first & last. Then I try to avoid parks with EMHs & Fantasmic, with my LOs. I try to have a mini-break day in the middle of the week. In Sept, we did the water park & in May we are doing a half-day at DHS then head to the resort. In May, we will be there for Mother's Day and I want to be in Epcot to eat. I also had touringplans.com and used their best & worst days to plan. Then I plan the ADRs.