What time to eat sit down lunch?

[Serling126]

I am going back and forth about what time to make ADR's for lunch. One option is to make an early lunch ADR (11am or noon) and then have a light breakfast & regular dinner. The other option is to make a late ressie (1 or 2pm), have breakfast before we go, a light snack in between breakfast and lunch, and then have a light dinner. What has worked out for everybody else? Thanks!

ETA: We are planning on leaving the park in the afternoon to rest, so what lunch time would work better with those plans??

 

[GettinReadyforDisney]

Either way would work BUT here's what we would do, particularly given that your signature indicates you are going in August and it's really hot then. We are true believers in getting up early, eating breakfast in our room while getting dressed and getting to the parks at rope drop. When we do that, we are hungry by 10:30 or 11:00. When it's really hot (like it will be in August), you need to rest in the afternoon AND you need to make the most of the morning hours. SO, we would grab a quick snack late morning and make lunch reservations for 1 or 2. We've found that when it's hot outside, lunch tends to make us really sleepy and ready for a nap (not only do you have a full belly after lunch, but you start dreading a return to the heat outside!). If your lunch is not until 1 or 2, you can get as much done as possible before lunch and before the worst heat, then head back to the hotel straight from lunch for a much needed rest!

Happy Planning!!

 

[bangzoom6877]

In trying to keep to my children's regular eating schedule, we make lunch ADRs between 11:30 and 12:30. Our earliest one is 11:35 and the latest one is 12:10. We get up very early, have breakfast in the room really quickly, get to the park about 30 minutes before rope drop. We do lots of attractions all morning (we take advantage of EMH mornings too which helps a lot, especially for Fantasyland in MK for the kids). On our last trip we were at lunch (CS) by 11:30. That worked out really well. So for ADRs for this trip we have between 11:35 and 12:10. We take a break and leave the park by 2PM...the hottest part of the day is in mid-afternoon (and we go in July! ). So during that hot and crowded time, we are in the air-conditioned room resting and then showering and feeling nice and cool! Then we either head to a resort for a TS dinner or back to the park for a dinner anywhere between 5 and 6:30. Again, the times my kids usually eat. Our earliest dinner ADR in July is 5PM (day of arrival) and the latest one is 6:10PM.

If we were on an adult-only trip or a trip with much older kids who could be more flexible than little ones for their eating schedule, we would probably still do breakfast in the room, then have a small mid-morning snack and lunch around 1PM before leaving the park, or leave the park and have lunch at a nearby resort, before taking a break. I'm still a firm believer in taking an afternoon break in that kind of heat.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

We usually mix up and do a little of both. We like to go to a character breakfast (usually Ohana), so on that day we do a later lunch and light dinner and we also go to one nice character dinner and on that day we have a quick breakfast in the room and an early lunch.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

We usually like to schedule our lunches for when we think we will be hungary...

 

[Serling126]

We usually like to schedule our lunches for when we think we will be hungary...

That's why I am thinking the later meal times would work out, we usually eat lunch on the late side... BUT since we will be running around at the parks in the morning, I am not sure if we would be ready for a meal before our usual time..

Thanks to all for the suggestions