Where do I start??

[denily]

I am new to the boards and have been reading over all of the dining posts....I'm so confused!
We are going to WDW at the end of April, so I have a few weeks to figure out my dining plans and make ADR's. We are doing the regular dining plan, so I'm trying to put together a list of places/character meals and go from there...but it's so overwheming!
Any advice for a novice??
Oh...and if we're staying for 5 days/4 nights, we have 4 days worth of meals on the dining plan, right??
Thanks!!

 

[disneyfan55]

I am new to the boards and have been reading over all of the dining posts....I'm so confused!
We are going to WDW at the end of April, so I have a few weeks to figure out my dining plans and make ADR's. We are doing the regular dining plan, so I'm trying to put together a list of places/character meals and go from there...but it's so overwheming!
Any advice for a novice??
Oh...and if we're staying for 5 days/4 nights, we have 4 days worth of meals on the dining plan, right??
Thanks!!

I really don't know if you are familiar with WDW or not, but I am and have just returned from a trip and we used the same meal plan you are getting. First of all, I would make reservations as soon as you can, 180 days in advance. If you are unfamiliar with the restaurants, you can check out the menues on this site as well as allears.net. It will give you an idea of the types of food out there. We did have a difficult time in getting any of our preferred restaurants and dinner times between 5-7 pm. We made our reservations 3 months before our trip (when we reserved the trip) and like I said a hard time getting anything near what we really wanted. That being said try to check out the restaurants and make the reservations now. Yes, you receive the number of days for the meal plan based on the number of nights of stay. You do have a lot of food, or at least we thought so. We used a TS dinner the first night and a CS the last day. We actully had 2 counter service meals left over and did a take out for on the way home. The snacks can basically be used for most items $4 and under. We brought drinks so we didn't waste the snacks on that. I guess others will offer tips, but you should get started checking out menu choices. Have fun!!

 

[KKB]

If there are character meals that are important, plan around them. Plan on going to the park for the day where you eat to minimize travel time.

OR plan your park schedule, and plan your ADRs to fit...TS in the park you will be in, again to minimize travel time.

OR if you are a foodie like me, scour the reviews here, and the menus on allearsnet.com, and plan your trip around your choices! Then I planned our parks around that...EPCOT the days we have ADRs there, Disney Quest the day we eat at DTD. Our other choices are at resorts, so we will go from a park to the resort as opposed to resort to resort which taked longer.

I got all my first choices for places & times except Le Cellier. I had to change days and take an early or late ressie. (yes, this at 180 days out!) So be flexible.

Good luck! The planning sure has been fun! Only 16 days to go!