Dining Reservation Planning

[skipperdan]

We have a week until our 180 day dining reservation and it's suddenly dawned on me that I haven't planned what we are doing

We are leaving on the 27th of Feb for 10 days with the Disney Dinning plan. We have a couple of restaurants already planned, but not sure the timings for MK and Epcot fireworks on those dates (any ideas). We are staying at Port Orleans, will probably have a car as well so we can easily get to other resorts for Dinning.

Any help or feedback would be great! Also, any ideas to make it more magical, last time we went on the Wild Africa Trek but looking through the current list of tours nothing looks appealing.

 

[JohnD]

Planned with military precision right down to spreadsheet and military time. I like it. The latest park hours that can be viewed on the website right now are February 20. MK closure is 8pm (with EMH from 8-10) and Epcot closure is at 9pm. So I'd say fireworks are approx 8pm in MK and 9pm in Epcot.

 

[skipperdan]

Thanks, so I'll move forward my La Hacienda de San Angel reservation plan slightly move forward my California grill.

I'm thinking of booking a crystal palace reservation for first thing in the morning, what the earliest do you think you can book?

If you like spreadsheets, here's my plan from last year.

 

[JohnD]

Thanks, so I'll move forward my La Hacienda de San Angel reservation plan slightly move forward my California grill.

I'm thinking of booking a crystal palace reservation for first thing in the morning, what the earliest do you think you can book?

If you like spreadsheets, here's my plan from last year.

Wow. I typically just build my plan right in MDE then print out my daily itinerary. But whatever works best!

1. Crystal Palace: Try to get an ADR before park open. The earliest MDE shows is 6:30am. So just choose that when trying to make your ADR and see what shows up. They'll let you in through an early dining reservation entrance (usually on the far left). You'll be able experience Main Street with few people in the park. If your ADR is early enough, you may still experience (relatively) short waiting times at standby.

2. California Grill: Are you planning on watching the fireworks from CG? You can either watch them from there during your ADR or, if you have an ADR at any other time of the day, you can come back and watch.

3. La Hacienda: Also planning to watch Illuminations from there? If so, try to get a window seat. (You can't do that while making your ADR but see if you can get the staff to do that at check-in). I got placed against a far wall and was craning my neck up and down trying to see the fireworks.