When to dine?

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djvand

New Member
Original Poster
It has been a few years since I have been to WDW. For our trip in September 09' we got the free dining plan. I see that most of you on here make your reservations for your evening meal well in advance. My questios is...I assume you pick the park you are going to and then pick the restaurant? What all do you take into consideration when choosing (do you pick the park that is open late, or plan around the parade schedule)?

If you all could provide some insight into your planning I would greatly appreciate it! As you can tell I am not big on planning, but want to make sure we use our dining plan to the best!!!
 
tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
To be honest we pick the restaurants and then plan our day around that.
We always have the park hopper option and usually don't spend an entire day in one park. Since it's becoming harder to get into a restaurant we take what we can (be flexible with the date & time and you have a better chance) and then work out the rest when we get there.
 
WDWmazprty

WDWmazprty

Well-Known Member
We decide what parks we're going to on what days, then just pick a restaurant in that parks. That way we don't have to leave and it helps us do as much as we can in that park on that day.
 
Soundstage'95CP

Soundstage'95CP

Member
I tend to look at things such as which park has evening EMH, which nights DHS has Fantasmic, and what I'm wanting to do after dinner. Usually an early evening dinner in World Showcase means I'm there for Illuminations that night, just as a resort dinner means I'm going to DTD afterwards or watching the electrical water pagent from the beach of the Poly or Wilderness lodge. I also consider my transportation needs when planning early morning dining. If I do a character breakfast in a park, I'll try to do it on a non-EMH day to take advantage of being able to walk through the empty park to the restaraunt before the park opens.
 
coltow

coltow

Well-Known Member
We do it a little bit of both. We pick a few restaurants that we want to go to and then plan the park according to the restaurant. For example we knew we wanted to go to Liberty Tree Tavern so that would be a MK day. But then we also decided we would go to DHS on 3rd day so we picked Sci-Fi because of the park. Make sense?
 
ThinkTink721

ThinkTink721

Well-Known Member
We make our ADRs as soon as possible to make sure that we get most of what we want.
We don't do the park hopper, so if we want to eat at a restaurant that is in a particular park, we make sure that we will be going to that park on that day. Therefore, we do plan ahead as to which park we will be attending. This year we are leaving our last 2 days open to choose a park that we will visit when we are at WDW (we didn't make any ADRs inside a park on these dates).
We used to go by the evening EMH schedule, but we don't do that as much anymore. The parks w/ the EMH seem to be more crowded.
:wave:
 
Mr Toad

Mr Toad

Well-Known Member
We also tend to choose the restaurants based on what park we visit. But lately, we have been eating more and more at other resorts for dinner.
 
JustInTime

JustInTime

Well-Known Member
There are lots of factors for me. A big one is, "Extra Magic Hours". I planned my trip around that. I had to shift a couple of days because of Fantasmic. It is only showing once during our entire tip and I refuse to pay for the park hopper. What stinks is that I descovered this fact after I made all my ADR's. I was on the phone forever fixing it yesterday. SO, make sure that the park that has Extra Magic hours that day is going to inclue all of the fun events like Wishes and Fantasmic. Don't just assume that eveything will be showing like I did. It can mess up your trip if you don't.
 
njDizFan

njDizFan

Well-Known Member
Well like many other posters I like to plan what parks I would like to go to first. then make my ADRs around the park I will be in on that day. Sometimes it's gets very complicated so I need a spreadsheet for all the different possibilities. :hammer: Between 4 parks, 3 meals, all the resorts, off-site restaurants. special dinner shows(spirit of Aloha, hopp-de-do), Kids Pirate cruise etc...


but that's the fun of planning a Disney vacation..
 
Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
We tend to go for more than four days at a time.

About the only thing we do is try not to make back to back dinners in the same park. Of course if that does happen, its not really a big deal.

-dave
 
G

gspin2k1

Member
djvand said:
It has been a few years since I have been to WDW. For our trip in September 09' we got the free dining plan. I see that most of you on here make your reservations for your evening meal well in advance. My questios is...I assume you pick the park you are going to and then pick the restaurant? What all do you take into consideration when choosing (do you pick the park that is open late, or plan around the parade schedule)?

If you all could provide some insight into your planning I would greatly appreciate it! As you can tell I am not big on planning, but want to make sure we use our dining plan to the best!!!
Click to expand...


I made a reservation for every meal of the day while i was there in May. If we didn't feel like going to it, we tried to call to get them to delay it..or just skipped it (unless there was a penalty fee, but we also made those reservations).

Anyway breakfast tended to be early like...8 or even 7:45...so if it was at a park I could get in early and when were done we were already in the park right around the time opened. or if we ate at our resort it could be quick and we could head to the park around opening hours.

Lunch we also ate kind of early like 11:45 before the typical lunch rush..so getting tables was easy, and we got out when most ppl were eating lunch, so smaller lines.

Dinner we ate early around 5:45-6:30. Also made it easy to get tables, and we finished dinner at a reasonable ttime to either re-visit parks, hit up downtown disney, or go back to the room and sleep early for the next early day...


and yes if we did get hungry (most likely not) in between meals or late night, that's what room service or snack credits are for =).

~G

p.s. I also picked what parks I would go to based on the day, and then I made our ADRs based on what parks we would go to that day.
 
Daisy&Donald23

Daisy&Donald23

New Member
We typically plan our dinners around park schedules and nightly entertainment. For instance we might schedule dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian, or the California Grill at the Contemporary for when Wishes takes place so we get a different view point. Also, some people forget that you can see parts of Illuminations from the Cali Grill if you sit in the wine room.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
gspin2k1 said:
I made a reservation for every meal of the day while i was there in May. If we didn't feel like going to it, we tried to call to get them to delay it..or just skipped it (unless there was a penalty fee, but we also made those reservations).
Click to expand...

If you do end up deciding not to use an ADR, please, please, please call and cancel it. Someone else with thank you.

Now to the OP's question, it's a complex thing for us. We look over menus and such a few weeks before the ADR window opens. Then pick what restaurants we want to eat at. (Our last few trips have only been 1 day at each park, so not real tough) Then based on the park hours, EMH's, show times, sun flares, and the winning lottery numbers, I pick days for each park. Then get ADR's for our selected restaurant at said park. Luckily, we tend to eat at off times due to dietary needs, so we haven't had a problem with ADR's. Also, we are usually just as happy with CS at MK and DHS since the TS is a little lacking there.
 
G

gspin2k1

Member
dreamfinder said:
If you do end up deciding not to use an ADR, please, please, please call and cancel it. Someone else with thank you.

Now to the OP's question, it's a complex thing for us. We look over menus and such a few weeks before the ADR window opens. Then pick what restaurants we want to eat at. (Our last few trips have only been 1 day at each park, so not real tough) Then based on the park hours, EMH's, show times, sun flares, and the winning lottery numbers, I pick days for each park. Then get ADR's for our selected restaurant at said park. Luckily, we tend to eat at off times due to dietary needs, so we haven't had a problem with ADR's. Also, we are usually just as happy with CS at MK and DHS since the TS is a little lacking there.
Click to expand...

If we felt like skipping it and it was right before the meal, not worth calling to cancel it. Because each restaurant already over books their ADRs, which is why even though you have a reservation it's still first-come first serve around the time window and you can end up waiting 30 minutes for a table. i.e. why even if your reservation is for 6:30 show up at 6 and you can get seated right away as opposed to having a reservation at 6:15 showing up at 6:30 (which is usually still fine and you may have to wait 30 minutes for a table).

Anyway yeah I generally cancel my ADRs if I know i'm not going going by at least 24-48 hours in advance, but when I'm at the park and my ADR is coming up and we're just not hungry by that time strolls around I'm not gonna spend 15-40 minutes waiting on hold to cancel a reservation that's coming up in 10 minutes.

~G
 
disneygirl1

disneygirl1

Well-Known Member
Once the park hours come out, we typically pick what parks we are going to on which days and then plan our meals around that schedule. Now that I have been introduced to the dining plan, I generally book more evening meals b/c I think they are a better bang for your buck compared to breakfasts on the DDP.
 
forevermickey

forevermickey

Well-Known Member
Depending on what you want to do for the day and how you like to spend your day at the park. Also the entertainment schedule for the evening and a restaurant you may really want to go to. Everyone approaches there agenda's differ. for the day. Some people like to leave the park for a break- so you can get a meal at a hotel along your route. If you like to brave through the crowds for the day a meal inside the park will do for you. The days I have that may not be so full I can be a little lax and eat somewhere off the beaten path; or the morning you are leaving make sure you catch you fav. restaurant before you leave the land od magical happenings.
 
Mukta

Mukta

Well-Known Member
I usually have my favorite restaurants in mind already.
I pick my parks using the park hours, EMH and show schedule.
I don't go to the park with EMH.
I do go to DHS on Fantasmic! nights.
I do go to the MK for Wishes and Spectromagic, but I don't eat dinner there.
Once I know which park I am doing each day, I call for my restaurant choices.
Boma on AK day, Liberty Tree on MK day etc.
 

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