Where do I begin planning our meals? Help!

[Gummie Bears]

This is our first time going to wdw & I am feeling pretty overwhelmed.
We're going in early June and know what park we're visiting each day of our trip but not sure about dining.
There's so much emphasis on adr's. So how do I know where to eat? If we make reservations won't our day revolve around them? Or is that the point?
For example, should we eat lunch or dinner at Cinderella's castle?
Any tips, suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

Your day sort of does revolve around your ADRs unless you make them for breakfast

My best advice for you would be to sit down and make a list of what your family wants most. Character dining? A particular kind of food? A particular meal as the majority of your TS meals? Buffets/No buffets?

Then start to make choices from there....You can look up most of the menus on here as well, to give you ideas.

I will tell you this, I would recommend having 2-3 back up choices for each of your restaurants just in case. And CRT is really hard to get, so call EARLY on that one

 

[leslie826]

Read the dining reviews on these boards! The ones with pictures are my favorite . I would recommend doing at least one breakfast in a park before it opens. I never knew how cool it would be to be in Epcot when it was empty. There were photographers out, so we got some great pics with no strangers in the backround. We did lots of character meals and they were all great, but next time I'd balance it out with a few that were not buffets. Yes, your day will revolve around your ADRs but that is part of the excitement (eg, can we fit in one more ride before we rush off to dinner?!)

 

[pmaurer74]

It can be overwhelming.

You could start at allears.net they have the menu, you can read restaurant reviews on this board too. There are usually photo threads so you can see the food and atmosphere.

We try to plan one ADR per day so we are not running crazy. Usually we will do the ADR at the park or maybe resort we are staying at. We usually do counter service for the other meal either at the park or more likely at our resort or other resorts on the monorail line because we know it won't be as crowded and we can usually get a seat. We spend the afternoons back at the resort anyway.

 

[danielle782001]

I recommend:

1) Going through the menus and deciding what type of experiences you want (characters, buffets, sit downs)

2) Pick your restaurants that you want to eat...You can always ask us about places if you need advise

3) Use the calendar to determine which parks you want to be in each day and what times depending on EMH, shows, fireworks

4) Plug in reservation hopes based on where you will be and where you want to eat

*Are you going to be on the dining plan? That also helps in the planning because this determines how many reservations you may be making and for choosing how many places you need to choose for quick meals

 

[Gummie Bears]

Yes, we're on the dining plan since we figured it would help with the planning & budget. I wrote down everything y'all mentioned & it's given me a great place to start.
Thanks so much!

 

[deannanb]

I have a spreadsheet for my ADRs!
I started by reading comments posted here.
I knew that I wanted to do character meals so we didn't have to stand in lines at the parks to see the characters. (we did breakfast)

Last year we did the Deluxe dining plan - I had ADR for every meal.
There were some days that we cancelled a lunch table meal and just ate counter service.
It worked for us - and we weren't concerened with making sure we had to eat a certain dollar amount of food in order for us to justify the cost of the DXDP.

I start with what park I want to go to each day - and plan around that.

Example -
Monday - Epcot - Breakfast - 1900 Park Fair - then take the monorail to epcot.
Lunch - ?
Dinner - Teppan Edo
Tuesday - AK - Tusker House
Wednesday - MK - Crystal Palace
etc.....

 

[DiZBrad11]

Everyone has said basically everything... just remember that A LOT of the Table service restaurants will need reservations!

what I do is I go online and look up the extra magic hours and decide what park I would like to go to and on what day. Then I look at the restaurants or counter service locations are in that certain park, decide which ones I would like to do and make reservations as I go.

For example; what I usually do is this. I most of the time will eat breakfast at the resort unless I go to MK and when I go to MK I always eat at either Chef mickey's or at crystal palace! well, if I go to MGM/HS I usually skip breakfast and then head to the counter service next to the backlot tour and then eat dinner at either prime time or at the brown derby! If I go to epcot I go to guest services in the morning and se what is available if I haven't made the reservations already and then I eat breakfast usually at some bakery around the world and eat lunch at the counter service in Japan... like I say just plan around where you are going and where you are staying!

P.S. I highly recommend Whispering canyon which is located in wilderness lodge!!!!!!!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Great advice so far.

We like to make some of out ADR's for places out side of the parks at different resorts on some nights. This is also good to do if you do not have the park hopper.

Here are some of our favorites:

Magic Kingdom; Crystal Palace, or we would get on the Monorail and go to O'Hana, Kona Cafe or Chef Mickeys.

Animal Kingdom: We eat counter service here at Flame Tree BBQ, and get something at a Disney resort OR park hop to Epcot and eat someplace there.
They do, however, have a couple of Table Service places at AK. There is a Rain Forrest Cafe there too, but they are not on the dining plan.

DHS: We like to have lunch at 50's Prime Time cafe and just do a counter service at night, which is good for a Fantasmic night.

Epcot: They have so many choices, but our favorites are Le Cellier and Coral Reef. We are trying the Teppan Edo in Japan this time and I am excited about it.

Resorts: We like O'hana, Kona Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe, 1900 Park Fare & Chef Mickeys. There are also places at Down Town Disney.

There are lots of other places to eat though. Have fun trying to decide.

 

[DiZBrad11]

Magic Kingdom; Crystal Palace, or we would get on the Monorail and go to O'Hana, Kona Cafe or Chef Mickeys.

Animal Kingdom: We eat counter service here at Flame Tree BBQ, and get something at a Disney resort OR park hop to Epcot and eat someplace there.
They do, however, have a couple of Table Service places at AK. There is a Rain Forrest Cafe there too, but they are not on the dining plan.

DHS: We like to have lunch at 50's Prime Time cafe and just do a counter service at night, which is good for a Fantasmic night.

Epcot: They have so many choices, but our favorites are Le Cellier and Coral Reef. We are trying the Teppan Edo in Japan this time and I am excited about it.

Resorts: We like O'hana, Kona Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe, 1900 Park Fare & Chef Mickeys. There are also places at Down Town Disney.

There are lots of other places to eat though. Have fun trying to decide.

MK: Like I said before Crystal palace is really good! O'hana I liked but tooo many things are made with pineapple! and chef mickey's is amazing!

AK: Omg you have to try the Flame Tree BBQ!!!!

Epcot: Teppan Edo is REALLLLLYYYYYY COOOOLLLL!!!!! I have done it 3 times. lol!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

MK: Like I said before Crystal palace is really good! O'hana I liked but tooo many things are made with pineapple! and chef mickey's is amazing!

AK: Omg you have to try the Flame Tree BBQ!!!!

Epcot: Teppan Edo is REALLLLLYYYYYY COOOOLLLL!!!!! I have done it 3 times. lol!

Glad to read this about Teppan Edo!! I think we will really like it. As for the others, they are a don't miss for us too.

If you have never tried Kona Cafe before, you need to. I am not kidding when I say that it's better than Le Cellier. (food & service wise) Out of 9 nights of dining, it was by far our favorite.

 

[DiZBrad11]

Glad to read this about Teppan Edo!! I think we will really like it. As for the others, they are a don't miss for us too.

If you have never tried Kona Cafe before, you need to. I am not kidding when I say that it's better than Le Cellier. (food & service wise) Out of 9 nights of dining, it was by far our favorite.

wow! thank you very much! I will definitely try on our next trip if they have availability. lol! (1/21/11-1/23/11)

 

[cajunbaby1]

I definetly recom searching the menus; that way you can she if it will please "most" everyone. What types of characters do your kids like?? That way you can decide which chacater meal are best. I some people try a chac meal for bkft one day an dmaybe another at dinner time. And use their quick service for lunchtime. Also be open for mixing up your time to eat. That way your more flexible. Unless someone just has to eat at 5pm daily LOL. You can make reservations up to 180 days out. Would try to book those harder to get in to place early. And you can always change them later on ; but knowing you got into a certain place will ease you mind some.

 

[dansyr2514]

I usually have a general idea of where we're going to be and what we're going to be doing. When we do the deluxe dining plan...I usually make a breakfast adr and then head off to wherever we're going. We generally take a break in the afternoon and I make a dinner reservation near wherever we're planning to be that night. Go to dinner and then whatever we planned to do that evening.
With the regular dining plan you can be alot more flexible. Just plan either a breakfast or dinner and use your counterservice whenever you're hungry.

 

[kaligal]

allearsnet.com has all the menus and generally up-to-date on prices.

For some people, the vacation is as much about what they eat as it is about riding rides or relaxing for others. If you are big into the eating part of vacation, you will want to figure out which restaurants you'd like to try and then make ADRs for them. You won't mind that your vacation is revolving around the food, because that's half your fun!

If you really don't care much where you eat or you don't want to spend as much as Disney charges or you'd just rather focus on the rides, you don't need to make ADRs. You'll still be able to eat.

If you have a car, it is very easy to get good food and not pay a lot for it. If you don't have a car and are stuck on Disney property, you might consider spending some time figuring out where you're going to eat (even if you don't want to make ADRs and just want to know where you can go that you won't need one) so that it's one less thing to figure out while you're there.

Have fun!