what about the first and last day?

[Malissa Boymom]

Alright you guys had very good insight on my last question about dinning so hoping you can help me again.
We are going to disney for 5 nights 6 days, dinning plan, so we have 5 sit down meals. planning on 4 dinners and 1 breakfast. Would you try to do any of these on the first or last day? I don't have flights arranged yet or anything so i don't know what time we will be arriving or departing. I am hoping early and then late but you never know. Let me know what you guys think

 

[Allie B]

We always try to get an early flight. That way we can arrive, get checked in, walk around the resort. Then go for a nice dinner somewhere. I don't know if you are traveling with children but starting off with chef mickeys or ohanas is fun!

 

[sharonabe]

I don't have flights arranged yet or anything so i don't know what time we will be arriving or departing. I am hoping early and then late but you never know. Let me know what you guys think

I think you need to get your flights arranged so you know what time frames you have to play with. If you're already within 180 days, get the ADRs you know you really want on your non-travel days, but get those flights as soon as you can.

 

[Malissa Boymom]

I think you need to get your flights arranged so you know what time frames you have to play with. If you're already within 180 days, get the ADRs you know you really want on your non-travel days, but get those flights as soon as you can.

Flights aren't up yet for me to pick, we are going in sept, they should be up before i reach my 180 day mark, thats in march

 

[WooPigScientist]

We always try to get an early flight. That way we can arrive, get checked in, walk around the resort. Then go for a nice dinner somewhere. I don't know if you are traveling with children but starting off with chef mickeys or ohanas is fun!

I second this. We don't fly, but we drive down over two days and try to work the timing out to do this very thing. Last year we did dinner at Chef Mickeys with our kids, and they had the best time (and contrary to what you hear most, we really liked the food). For us, a great dinner really starts our trip off well.

But if your timing with transportation is going to be very close, then I would go with a fun breakfast or lunch to finish off the trip. Stressing over missing an ADR is NOT a good start! We have also done late breakfast at O'hana on our departure day, and that was a nice way to leave it.

Basically, either one. Super helpful, right? I'd just see what flights work best price and timewise and go from there. Good luck!

 

[JZCubed]

Alright you guys had very good insight on my last question about dinning so hoping you can help me again.
We are going to disney for 5 nights 6 days, dinning plan, so we have 5 sit down meals. planning on 4 dinners and 1 breakfast. Would you try to do any of these on the first or last day? I don't have flights arranged yet or anything so i don't know what time we will be arriving or departing. I am hoping early and then late but you never know. Let me know what you guys think

Since we fly-in (from the Northeast), we never make ADR's for Arrival Day.

You cannot control airplane arrival times and the $10 no-show fee/person at Disney restaurants is the proverbial decision-making straw for us.

We find some balance by typically utilizing Room Service for breakfast on our first morning before heading out for a Rope Drop at some Park to kinda' make-up for a potentially shoddy meal the night before.

We find 'missing' a Park on a morning Departure Day can be overcome by a lovely breakfast ADR.

Matter of fact, that's our plan for our next vacation - breakfast with Goofy before we leave.

So go ahead and make some ADR's - even without your airline details, the sooner-the-better.

 

[Hopefully]

I never make an ADR on travel day sooner than 5 hours after our scheduled arrival. Travel delays are frequent and uncontrollable.
We always eat on our departure day when we have a late flight.
I would tentatively make a plan, but I would not book until after I have scheduled flights.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We like to do a late character breakfast on the day we leave. We usually leave mid afternoon and the buffet breakfast usually holds us over till later that evening, way on down the road before we have to eat again. Plus, we have found that often times the characters leave us with a good exit feeling, happy and wanting to come back.

 

[Micca]

We like to keep it simple on arrival/departure days. Too many variables with flight times, cancellation fees, the unforeseen "X" factor. I can see the appeal of special first & last meals, but they would just add stress for our group.

 

[addiln]

I always get there early and leave late. This way we can walk around the resort and relax by the pool the rest of the day before we start with the parks the next day. Also this gives me the ability to book whatever we want for dinner that night. I am not worried about the time of the reservation since I know we will be there. The kids went with the grandparents once and the flight was delayed for hours and missed their CM dinner. They were all bummed about that so this solves that issue.

 

[DIShawn]

One thing I learned from my last trip... schedule to come in early-ish and leave early-ish. There's nothing worse than waiting until an 8pm flight in excitement to go to Disney. Then having an 8pm flight back home that you're dreading if you don't have a park ticket for that day.

That being said... for our trip in late-Feb we are arriving at 1:30pm and have an ADR at O'hana for 8:35pm. We'll check out the resort, head to Disney Springs for a few hours, get anything settled at guest relations (Military activations, PhotoPass), buy the inevitable pins, browse around, and the head to Poly for dinner. The day we leave our flight is for 10:30am. Get up and get out... no dread!

It's not worth saving money on flights and having a lousy first and last day. I learned that the hard way. If you have park tickets you should be fine taking a late flight home. Whatever you decide to do... just have something to do those first and last days, whether it be at home or at Disney.

 

[Chrelaine]

We also don't book ADRs for arrival day. Too much stress for us. We usually head to Disney Springs or just grab dinner at the resort. Departure day depends on the schedule. We do tend to go to breakfast if we have time before our transport to the airport.