What do you think of our ADRs

[nkereina]

Just thought of something... have you called Disney direct and spoke to the grand gathering people? A grand gathering is a party of 8 or more. They help you with ADRs and I'm not sure if maybe they notate these with the restaurants so they know it's a large party? There's also a few other perks such as special things and dining events you can book. I've never been a part of a grand gathering so I don't know what else they do. But might be worth looking into!

 

[jude&jonah]

It sounds like you're happy with your plans- so if that's the case- then by all means- keep them and have a great time!!

I will agree with everyone else though and say I think 3 table service meals is waaay too much, and I also think not having any time at the resort relaxing is a problem too. When you ask little kids their favorite part of the resort- you know what they say? "The pool". Much of the time at least I don't think its necessarily to spend a ton of time at the pool, but I would say it's nice to have 1-2 days per disney trip where the schedule looks like:

9-2 - park with possible quick ice-cream cone
2-6:30 - foodcourt at hotel with swimming
7:30pm- dinner

I think for the average day- I would say if you're doing a character breakfast- I would skip sit down lunch and just grab something easy (I would grab an ice-cream myself because I think you'll be surprised by how hungry you are not considering how big the meals are and how much stimulation there is in the park- but if not ice-cream than quick service where you can sit and people watch, time it with a parade, snack while I'm a 60 minute line, etc) and then do a 6:30 or 7 dinner.

If you're not doing breakfast- I would eat some cereal in the room and take a granola bar on the bus for instance- then do a 12:30ish lunch, and another 7pm dinner.

Again it seems like you don't truly want to change your plan that much- so by all means- go for it! But I think it will unfortunately make it a bit too stressful and you'll have tantruming kids and little time to enjoy the parks.

 

[redc]

Here's our family's eating schedule:
Breakfast in the room: cereal & fruit.
RD at a non-EMH park.
Lunch at a CS in the park or back at the hotel, then a relaxing afternoon at the pool.
TS at a nice restaurant.
Evening at a selected park.

 

[forbinsgirl]

I don't mean to appear resistant, and I do appreciate everyone giving us advice. Like I said before it is our first family trip and sis and I haven't been since childhood so we want the input, good or bad. We don't want to be stressed out and have tantruming kids.

I am definitely taking all of this into account and it has led to several vacation planning pow wows. I think our group thought is that we want to keep the breakfasts to get that early start and get into the parks early. The characters are a plus for these buffets, but the purpose of the breakfast is the in early in park buffet so I think we will be less hampered by the roving characters. From that perspective we aren't changing the mornings.

When looking at the lunches, it seems like Coral Reef and Yak and Yetis are the problem days so I feel like most days are okay or not over scheduled. We are winging it with the babies about naps etc. How they handle the day, one or two adults may take them back to the room, but I think we envision the majority of our party staying in each chosen park for the day. We are anticiapting cooler weather (?) so we had not felt we would do much pool time.

I suppose we were thinking the table services would be nicer. No standing in the counterservice lines and getting served by waiter. The babies also have to share plates with the adults so we thought more food would be a plus. We tried to chose attraction-like restaurants for the meals so I think this mentality is where my resistance is showing up. It seems like we were inaccurate in a some of our assumption? Let's assume we were going to pick up a counter service in Future World at Epcot and a counter service in Animal Kingdom, what all would you do?

 

[jude&jonah]

I think it's okay to keep 1-2 days loaded up more- but mostly not as much. I would mostly change:

Monday- Choose one for dinner, and CS for lunch. Epcot has such great CS options IMO.
Tuesday- I almost said take out lunch- but HS isn't a huge park so I think you can afford to do two meals here, especially with breakfast being so early.
Wednesday- I would skip breakfast- snacks in the room, on the bus, grab something quick as soon as you get into epcot, etc.
Thursday- I might consider skipping Yak and Yeti. It's such a huge park -you don't want ot have base your whole day around getting to that reservation. Just a possibility.
Friday- Based on your schedule- I might consider skipping going back to MK on Wednesday so you don't have to do the park hopper and just doing epcot, and then going back to MK on Friday. If I were you, I might do a late morning, let the kids swim for awhile, then maybe an early dinner/late lunch at Ohana (like 4) and then head over to the MK to finish off the night.

HTH- just my suggestions!

and also to see QS options- I would look here under the 'snack locations': http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-dining-plan.htm

 

[julluvsdisney]

DxDP with children I feel would be a waste of money and time atleast for my 3 yr DS and 8 DS and they LOVE to eat! We had 2 days on our dec trip that we had 2 TS booked and no one ( my 2 DS my DH my DBrother my DM and DFather and myself) could fathome eating another big meal 2 times in one day. I think the DxDP is great for all adults utilizing signature meals once a day. you will find you have very little park time between all the meals you have. I think by the 2nd day you will regret having the DxDP. I would rather have the DDP and pay out of pocket for one or two meals as needed. Good luck no matter what you decide! Have a great trip!

 

[rapunzels]

We're just trying to help you get the most out of this first family vacation. We're trying to help you save some time, $, avoiding cranky kids, from missing out on the parks, avoiding an inflexible schedule, and from regret. You can time your trip down the minute, but until you experience the hustle and bustle of WDW, you won't know unless someone - us - tells you!

You might be able to cancel an ADR if need be, but then you've technically already lost $ on the deal, because Lord knows, you will not be able to fit in another meal with your schedule.

I'm sure the memories of CS are still in your mind from being a child, but I can assure you, there is no counter service that is so miserable in WDW that should deter you. By miserable I mean, abounding with lines of people, absolutely nowhere to sit, ect. Most lines will be 5-10 people deep waiting to order. Now there might be 3-4 sets of those lines, but each line has a register. In fact there are some tasty CS's available, like Flame Tree BBQ at Animal Kingdom. The seating is outside, you can walk down the sidewalk, to shaded tables next to the lake, and our kiddos get a kick out of the ducks. My point is, there are just as relaxing and fulfilling places CS has to offer, all on the DDP.

In 4 years, we've been 6 times (long story why we went 3 times in 1 year!). We live in VA. Our kids are 8 and 6, and we started when they were 4 and 2. We've got visiting WDW down pat, nobody starves, we get to see EVERYTHING, and can rest when we need to.

You may want to ask everyone that is going what they would absolutely be crushed about not doing or seeing, that way if your schedule does end up being tight, you know where or what you still need to do before your done with that park.

We're going this year, during Jersey week - without kids. Our first without kids WDW trip. : )