One of the most common questions I see on the PassPorter discussion boards is “how do you plan it all?”

The Disney Queue - planning your dining reservations

Recently, dolphin041599 asked:

“I’m wondering how to best decide which day for each meal and where. And with all the ADRs needed, how do you organize yourself? Does anyone use a chart or spreadsheet?

 What things do you take into consideration? Park hours, type of meal, etc. Since the only ADR I ever made before was for Cinderella’s castle (which got cancelled due to the hurricane), I don’t know what else to consider. We’ve been studying our Passporter and deciding restaurants that sound good, but I just don’t know the best way to figure out when to eat where.

And then of course, to keep it all organized to make the ADRs”

 (See her original question, and the subsequent responses of our members, HERE)

Hmmm… let’s just say I’m a “PLANNER.”

It’s in my blood, this planning mania. I like charts, I like spreadsheets, I like figuring stuff out and developing visual tools that let me get my arms around something as potentially disastrous,  massive, and expensive  as a Disney World vacation.

Anyone traveling with me has to accept that. (Or have their own planning method that I trust enough to be willing to cede planning to them. And, if you’ve read any trip reports that I’ve been a part of, you know to whom I’m referring. )

Everyone has their own organizational method for planning their trips, touring, and dining. My husband, for example, would just show up and say “I’m hungry, let’s eat.”

Any other SANE person will probably want to do a little more planning than my husband when it comes to a Disney World vacation, especially if they’ve purchased the Disney Dining Plan and want to make sure they don’t wind up using up their credits too soon, or worry about having tons of unused credits on their last day.

Let me give you MY approach to planning our dining. It might just work for you too.

Start with your touring plan.

Why? Because you’ll waste precious in-park time traveling back and forth to restaurants that don’t fall in line with your touring plans.

And touring plans, for me, start with crowd calendars.

My favorite is the subscription-based one at Touringplans.com (and, for a measly $10.95 per year –as of the time I’m writing this blog post– that’s a steal!) Yes, you can see some free information on the site, but you won’t have the data for dates 180-days out, and you’ll NEED that info in order to snag ADRs at the times and places you want them. (Yes… people really do make their dining decisions 6 months prior to their vacation! Trust me, they do — and you should too.)

Here’s a sample of how Touringplans.com organizes their data:

They give you a date, tell you what ‘crowd level’ they assign to the expected crowds (and you can get info on what a ’5′ means compared to a ’10′ HERE), plus they outline what they consider your best park of the day will be, and what park(s) they feel will be much more crowded: what they call a “park to avoid.” If there are any special events — like a hard-ticket party, a holiday, or a special event — it will be listed in the notes column.

If you click on an actual date (highlighted in blue), that will bring up even more  information on that individual day, with details on special events in each park like the parades, fireworks and shows. It’ll also list if that park has an Extra Magic Hour.

Here’s what it looked like when I selected one of the days to get detailed information:

I highlighted the “Park to Avoid” and “Best Park” info — this is key information to me.

Ok, great. Now how do I *use* that info?!

Make a chart

Why? Because I love charts.

You can make a list. You can make a folded bit of origami. Whatever floats your boat and helps you organize.

This is what my standard chart looks like:

I then use the crowd calendar to fill in the park hours (as they stand at the time of my planning) and what park will have Extra Magic Hours, and – this is the important part for me – the “park to avoid” and “best park” info from Touringplans.com. I feel they’re spot-on and they’ve never steered me wrong.

One caveat: we always get park hoppers and are early risers, so we’ll get up and go to EMH mornings and then hop to the recommended-park-of-the-day.

It works for us…

Choose your park for the morning, afternoon, and/or evening

Assuming you have park hoppers, you’ll need to figure out if you’ll hop to other parks or would like to take down-time at the pool, or go shopping at Downtown Disney, or play mini-golf, or… well… there’s so much to DO at Disney, you’ll never get bored!

But you do need to plan it out if you’re at all persnickety like me.

When I’m planning out the days, I try to figure out when we’ll see the parades, fireworks and Fantasmic, with options for seeing it later in the trip in case of a rain-out.

With that info, I know which park we’ll be in for breakfast/lunch and which park we’ll be in through dinner.

(Note that my family frequently eats something in our room as we get ready in the mornings and don’t tend to do breakfasts in the parks — when the crowd levels are low in the early morning, taking time to stop and eat will seriously impact the amount of things we can get done.)

Choose your restaurants for each meal

I make a list of restaurants my family would like to try that vacation, so it’s just a matter of, for example, seeing that I have us planned for Epcot at dinnertime. Aha! Plug in Coral Reef for dinner. Oh… and we’re at the Magic Kingdom for lunch that day? Plug in Cosmic Rays.

 And so on and so forth until I have plans for every day and every meal. When I’ve filled in every open spot, it’s time to review the chart.

For those worried that planning out meals so far in advance will take the spontaneity out of the trip, I would advise “letting it go.” Make the plans now, and then tuck them away. When you pull out your planning chart a week before the vacation, it’ll all be a fun surprise again. And, if you can keep from pestering your family about it over the months of waiting and anticipation, it’ll be a surprise to them too!!

Make sure you’re getting your money’s worth if on the Dining Plan

If you’re on the DDP, make sure that you account for every table service (TS) meal and every (CS) meal and every Snack that comes with your reservation (remember: one set of credits per person per night of your stay.) You have through midnight of the day you check out to use up all the credits, but you don’t want to run short a day early, or end up with 12 leftover counter service credits on your last day.

What I do to avoid that sort of hiccup is to make a list with columns for each type of credit (TS, CS, Snack.) Then I pencil in hash marks for each credit that will used for each meal or snack I’ve planned out. That way, I  know what I’ll  have to pay for out-of-pocket and what I’ll have to shift around to use up all my credits wisely.

With that chart (or list, or origami swan!) filled out, you have what you need to make your ADRs.

Don’t forget to write down all of your confirmation numbers and, if you’re as detail-oriented as me, mark them on your chart or put them into your smart phone so you’ll have them in the park. Having them will help you if, for whatever reason, you have trouble checking in for that ADR — I’ve learned this first-hand!

Et voila! You have a viable plan for your vacation meals!!

Here’s what two days of an actual planning chart looked like for one of my family’s trips:

This approach might work for you too.

Or… maybe you like spreadsheets better (I know a few people like that! )  So… got to town with Excel and plan like crazy.

Or… maybe you like a legal pad and pencil. Good on ya! If it works for you, it works for you.

And with whatever works for you, have a blast. Enjoy it — for me, planning is part of the fun.

So, good luck planning!

And eating!!