How to plan dining?

[cateyes]

We've got our vacation set for the last week in September (Thanks Pam at KingdomKonsultants:wave: ) Now the family is trying to decide where they'd like to eat. How do we make the most of the dining plan? I've got a 5 year old and a 10 year old. So far no one has said "we HAVE to eat at this place" (except for the House of Blues for Sunday Gospel Brunch). I can't get the kids to even agree on a character meal at this point. I hate the thought of being in the middle of a park and saying "we've got to leave now to make our reservation". Part of me thinks a lunch sit down meal would work well because it would give us a break and be a natural time to change venues. Leaving counter service for an eveing meal. But as I've not been to Disney in almost 15 years (our honeymoon) I'm not sure if MY logic is on track at all.:veryconfu
Any tips on how to do with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[prprincess]

I will use the dining plan for the first time in May, and hopefully the logic that I used in planning will be successful--we'll see. I first figured out what parks we'd be doing on what days. Then I made a list of what restaurants we wanted to try. I then picked and made ADRs according to which parks I was going to be at and their proximity to the restaurant so that we wouldn't have a hard time getting back and forth. For example, the day that we're going to MK we're having dinner at the Kona Cafe--we can hop on the monorail to get there.

As for which meals, we usually eat smaller meals for breakfast and/or lunch. We we're using all of our CS for those and then our TS for dinners. Hope that helped!

 

[RonAnnArbor]

I would say that there are two things that you should take into consideration when it comes to meal planning. The times of day don't matter as much.

1) YOU, not your kids decide where and when you are going to eat
2) You make reservations as soon as you have decided where you are going to eat and don't wait until you get to the park. Some sit-down restaurants actually book up months in advance, especially for your character meals. If your kids don't seem too enthused about the character meals to begin with, don't plan one.

That way, you have some idea of the layout of your day. Structure is better for everyone, adults and kids included. The kids are always going to say they are either hungry or not hungry at certain parts of the day, and they are certainly going to be less than thrilled about sitting down for an hour to relax. YOU need to keep charge of that and build in breaks for them (and yourselves) before you have meltdown in the afternoon.

 

[jim1051]

meals

We plan which parks to visit on which days of our trip first based on EMH and park hours.

On days at MK when it closes early we try to hit Hoop dee doo or a restaurant in DTD.

We dine at parks if they are open later, combining dinner with show like Fantasmic or Candlelight processional.

We are early risers, breakfast in room, then counter service lunches. We go back to resort in afternoon for rest, swim whatever. Then go back out in evening for more park stuff or dinner as stated before.

We have few restauraunts we won't miss.

Rose and crown for Epcot Fireworks, Artist Point in WL, Le Cellier, Narcoosees in GF. MAma melrose or Brown Derby in MGM. Throw in Chef Mickey's fo character meal.

The basics mean a little planning about where you will be on a given day and make dinner essies accordingly.

 

[GoofyMom2]

We just went in April with a 6 and 9 year old.

Honestly, the sit down lunches seem to work better for us with the kids. After a morning busy at the parks, it was nice to sit down and have a fun and filling meal. Then for dinner, we could sort of "graze" at whatever counter service struck our fancy. For some of the sit down dinners, the kids were too worn out to enjoy dinner, especially our 6 year old. This is even with rest breaks during the day.....

For info on our dining experiences, I posted a trip report for picky eaters....this will give you an idea how some of our dinners went! :lol:

Wherever you decide....make your ressies as soon as you can.....my DH and I are going in Sept and some places are filling up........

 

[LaughingGravy]

Blissful Breakfast

We did the dining plan and ended up using some of our counter service meals for breakfast.
Family of 4 is my example.
Have a wake up call every day a 1/2 hr. before the resort kitchen/food court/whatever is open. They're fun. I think you have to call from the room to arrange it every night beforehand, each night, though.

The phone will wake up the family slightly.
You'll have the bathroom area to yourself while everyone else sleeps.
That in itself can be a reason to do this.


Make sure you're at the breakfast place at the resort as soon as it's open ( only need one adult to do this), pick up a couple of breakfast platters to bring back to the room. It's more than enough food to share to get the rest of the family started for the day. It's also just enough food that breakfast won't take an hour.

Everyone smells the nice warm breakfast when you go back to the room and gets up. Maybe turn on the TV to help, if you can stand their "Top 10, 7 or whatever things to do at Disney."
For our kids it was a race to see who could change the start up channel first.

You end up with everyone up and out sooner and you still have a couple of lunches for counter service , if maybe you want to save the table services for dinner.

The best part is going to the busses after your nice relaxed breakfast in your room and seeing the food court packed to the gills, knowing you'll be at your destination first with a refreshed family.

Between the counter services, table services, and snacks, we had plenty to eat.

If you're driving, it's worth stopping one place before you get into WDW to pick up some Lenders bagles as a supplement, just in case.
If not on the driving, it's even worth picking up some and packing them with you before your flight. We bought 2 bags of bagles while we were there and there was so much food on the dining plan, we still had a whole bag of bagles left, which we took home. They were still fresh and delicious tasting a week after we were home:lookaroun, so it was a kick to eat our "disney trip bagles".
It made the magic at home after the trip last longer.

 

[eeyoremum]

Do more than one character meal

If you have dinning plan why not book a character meal each child will enjoy. When we went 3 years ago both my boys picked who they wanted to see the most. I booked 2 character breakfasts. It was great fun and expensive because they are not cheap.

We are going in September again with free dinning. My 6 year old loves Eeorye so we are going to the Crystal Palace again and my 12 year old wants to see Goofy so I think we will go to AK for that. Mum (me) wants to see Stich so we are doing that too. Thanks to Disney it is free. Now a question DH wants good roast beef. Where is the best place?

 

[swimmom]

I wouldn't wait too long to make your ADR's for your table service meals. I remember threads from last year during the free dining promotion that some people were having trouble getting ADR's. You may want to make a plan of which day you plan to be in which park and plan your meals accordingly. We will be going next March and that is what we are planning to do. I would rather use our TS meals for dinner, but we will be 4 adults and my 17 year old daughter. If your kids aren't that interested in the character meals, maybe just do Chef Mickey or Crystal Palace.

 

[Sweetums]

We are doing "the plan" for the first time on our upcoming trip (Leaving Monday--Woo Hoo!).

Here is how I planned it out (This is for my wife, my almost 3-year old son and me):

Monday--arrive Staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge so we are eating dinner at Boma.

Tuesday--going to EPCOT because of EMH and since EPCOT has the most choices for dining, decided to use two sit-downs there. Garden Grill for lunch--it's a character lunch and will be a good break. Chose Coral Reef for dinner--It's really expensive so we get a lot of "bang" for our buck there also, seems like a good place for our son 'cause he can look at all the pretty fish.

Wednesday--going to AK and will also hang out at AKL. Gonna do two counter service meals. I heard that Flame Tree and Tusker House are really good counter service places so we will do lunch and dinner at those.

Thursday--EMH at MK. Lunch will be counter service. Dinner will be at Whispering Canyon--my favorite place to eat, kid-friendly, and it is just a boat ride away from MK.

Friday--1/2 day at Studios-counter service lunch. Other 1/2 at MK. Dinner at Chef Mickey's--another character meal, plus it's just a monorail ride (or even a walk) from MK.

Saturday--don't really want to think about Saturday, as that is when we leave...

I mostly scheduled the sit-downs for dinners since it seems to me like that's where you get the most for your money.

Anyway, best of luck to you as you plan! That's been 1/2 the fun for me--can't wait to test it all out! :sohappy:

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Looks like a good plan to me with one observation/suggestion:

For your Wed. at AK, Tusker and Flame Tree are fine casual dining places, but it would be a waste of a dinner option there. Why don't you pay for the one and use your extra dinner on a 2X dining location.

I personally think Living Seas is an average menu and too expensive for what you get, but on the plan it's OK, and I agree about the little one enjoying watching the fish. I would prefer Flying Fish or Fultons for my seafood.

 

[shoppingnut]

If you're driving, it's worth stopping one place before you get into WDW to pick up some Lenders bagles as a supplement, just in case.

I would buy Thomas' bagels, they are soooo much better than Lenders and don't have that frozen taste because they aren't frozen. You will find them in the regular bread aisle. After I tasted the Thomas' for the first time that was it for me, went right to the freezer and tossed the Lenders bagels right in the garbage.

Coral Reef I found the food and service were not good at all, and I wouldn't go back there even if it were for free.

 

[gboiler1]

We did the free dining plan promo last September and were so happy with it we are purchasing it for our November/December trip.

Here's my question. Last year our receipt didn't have a total price on it. Can one ask for a receipt w the actual totals on it or do you just need to pay attention to the register total or check at the table before it is picked up?

 

[Sweetums]

Looks like a good plan to me with one observation/suggestion:

For your Wed. at AK, Tusker and Flame Tree are fine casual dining places, but it would be a waste of a dinner option there. Why don't you pay for the one and use your extra dinner on a 2X dining location.

Not sure I understand...

I get 5 sit-downs and 5 counter service

Boma, Garden Grill, Coral Reef, Whispering Canyon and Chef Mickey's are my sit-downs. I would have to give up two of those to get to go to a "signature" dining place, right? I don't think I can trade up with the counter service ones, can I?

Coral Reef I found the food and service were not good at all, and I wouldn't go back there even if it were for free.

I personally think Living Seas is an average menu and too expensive for what you get

I have to admit, after reading a lot of negative comments about Coral Reef, I am a little worried about that one. I called yesterday to maybe change it to Le Cellier, but it was all booked so I kept my Coral Reef res. I noticed yesterday, though, on the Deb's Unofficial site that the menu has changed--it looked good. Here's hopin' anyway...:slurp:

 

[Sgt. Broomstick]

Try this link if you havent already. http://www.wdwmagic.com/menus.htm. It should help. My plan is to book a table service meal in or on the way to whichever park I'm going to. For example, on the day we're doing AK we'll be having dinner at Boma. On the way to the Magic Kingdom, we'll be making a pit stop at Chef Mickeys for Breakfast. Check out the menus, read the reviews and which ever one seems most appealing to you and your family you should go with.

 

[Raven66]

We didn't do the dining plan (I know, I was dumb. Next year) but what we did was we each picked out a place we wanted to go. DH was ESPN, mine was 50's Prime Time and my DD was Liberty Tree Tavern. As a special surprise I booked the princess lunch at CRT for my DD. There was a couple of days we planned our day around the ADR's. If the EMH was at a different park, we went to that and then just hopped. Have a great trip!:wave:

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Not sure I understand...

I get 5 sit-downs and 5 counter service

Boma, Garden Grill, Coral Reef, Whispering Canyon and Chef Mickey's are my sit-downs. I would have to give up two of those to get to go to a "signature" dining place, right? I don't think I can trade up with the counter service ones, can I?





I have to admit, after reading a lot of negative comments about Coral Reef, I am a little worried about that one. I called yesterday to maybe change it to Le Cellier, but it was all booked so I kept my Coral Reef res. I noticed yesterday, though, on the Deb's Unofficial site that the menu has changed--it looked good. Here's hopin' anyway...:slurp:

No you can't trade up, but think of your points as a bank account, not related to individual days. If you are there for five days, you get 5 sit-down, 5 counter and 5 snacks. If you want, you can get all five of your snacks on one day. Likewise, for dinners, many are 1 use, but "signature" dining uses two dinner "points" for one meal.

Let me complicate it a bit more....if you have three adults for the five days, you have a total of 15 points that any of you can use in any manner.

See the nice Disney summary for a full application and restaurant listing:
http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...gespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/MYWDining.pdf

 

[ClemsonTigger]

We've got our vacation set for the last week in September (Thanks Pam at KingdomKonsultants:wave: ) Now the family is trying to decide where they'd like to eat. How do we make the most of the dining plan? I've got a 5 year old and a 10 year old. So far no one has said "we HAVE to eat at this place" (except for the House of Blues for Sunday Gospel Brunch). I can't get the kids to even agree on a character meal at this point. I hate the thought of being in the middle of a park and saying "we've got to leave now to make our reservation". Part of me thinks a lunch sit down meal would work well because it would give us a break and be a natural time to change venues. Leaving counter service for an eveing meal. But as I've not been to Disney in almost 15 years (our honeymoon) I'm not sure if MY logic is on track at all.:veryconfu
Any tips on how to do with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry, seems the thread drifted from your original question....

I would suggest you and your husband make the choices. Unless the kids have a clear favorite...you pick some that will be fun for them. I would suggest Sci Fi (for a sit down lunch), possibly 50's Prime Time (both are unique venue's)

Possibly Liberty Tree, Cinderella's Castle or Tony's in MK

Whole lot of options at Epcot and nearby Boardwalk area

AK doesn't have a real sit down dinner location.

Then you have the hotels, Boma would be a treat, O'hana, Whispering Canyon would be enjoyed by both you and the younger ones.

I suggest checking out the following website as it provides menu's for you to compare: http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Also look at Beaches and Cream for a real fun time.

Some folks don't think you need to make reservations early, but I much prefer making res. at some of these to be sure. If you want to change your mind while there, just call and cancel.