Dining question

[Kelllly]

I need advice from experienced visitors please! Do I need to schedule dining on days that we are going to be in the park? Or should I do that on days when we are not using our park tickets? And what are the significance of the magic band colors? Also, are there any dining experiences with toy story characters? Thanks so much in advance for any input!

 

[Kate Alan]

You should schedule dining for any of the days of your trip where you want a table service experience, especially in any cases of character dining, signature dining, or dinner shows. This is regardless of whether or not you have park tickets (park tickets are not required to make dining reservations, though park admission is required in order to dine at any restaurants within the parks). You can begin making dining reservations 180 days before your trip (180 days + 10 if you are staying on site at a Disney resort). Counter or quick service does not take or need reservations (the exception to this is Be Our Guest).

There is no significance to Magic Band colors - they are chosen based off your personal preference. If you don't choose to customize, I believe the default color is grey.

There is no character dining with Toy Story characters, but Woody and Buzz do a character meet and greet in Disney Hollywood Studios. There are also often the green army men characters in that area who will stop for pictures.

 

[dreamfinder]

You schedule an ADR whenever you want to eat a sit down meal. Usually at the park/location you will be that day to minimize travel time out of parks unless you were already planning on hopping, or were dead set on a particular dining experience. For instance, 1900 Park Fair is character dining at the Grand Floridian which is near the Magic Kingdom. Most people would either book a meal at that location for a day they were either going to be at the Magic Kingdom or not in the parks. Otherwise you would need to add in travel time (WDW advises allowing 1 1/2 hours, usually it's under 1 hour) to get to/from the meal each way, whereas it may only take you 10 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom from there.