How do you plan your meals? About This Page:

[dolphin041599]

I know we have plenty of time, but still. . .

In the past, we have have only done the quick service dining. In 2013, we plan to get the deluxe dining plan. My daughter wants to do quite a few character meals, which is fine with me.

However, 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.

[jiwdurando]

Well if I'm going for five days I let my dh pick several, we go on allears.net and look at menus, and asking everybody on here about the different restaurants, as for times I try to avoid peak times.

[Oakparkveggie]

I did use a google spreadsheet so i could access it from any computer and my phone as well. I looked at menus on allears and chose depending on what park we wold be in. My kids are young and are early risers, so we made sure to get early ADRs. The biggest problem that I ran into was that my 6 year old was exhausted by 3:00 and wanted to "go home" to the resort, but we had dinner ADRs at the park. So, next time I will make only lunch ADRs and do QS for dinners.


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[JKnott17]

Before I plan my ADRs I like to look at the park calendars and choose which parks we will be visiting for each day of our trip. Once I have that figured out, then we sit down and look at the menus on allears.net and choose restaurants that are in the park we will be at, or atleast in a nearby resort.

As for times, I really don't have a system for that. It all depends, I suppose. For breakfasts I like to make the ADRs early, I don't like to stop touring the park midmorning to eat. Plus, if you make your reservation before the park opens you get the wonderful experience of seeing the park empty, like you have it all to yourselves. For lunches and dinners, I try to make them for off peak times too. We might have a late lunch (around 2) and then we'll just need a snack for dinner. Or, we'll plan to have an early dinner. It's really up to you and your touring style, the options are endless!

[chezp]

I always use a spreadsheet and I tend to use our dining as the basis for which parks we'll be touring. If we're having lunch in Epcot, we may go to another park for a few hours in the morning and then head to Epcot for the rest of the day for example. I also take account with dinner of the night-time shows/fireworks we might want to see and try and time eating accordingly, so we have time to get to them.

[HiddenMickey]

I plan out which park we will be in at the mealtime first by looking at the announced park schedules. We decide which park will work for us each day to start and end our day (we park hop). We also plan our meals for off times for the most part, with early lunches (11:30) or dinnners (5-5:30) if we can. We like to beat the crowds whether we are doing CS or TS meals. We don't plan breakfast meals, stopping for a pastry or fruit early in the day if we can't wait for lunch.

[Disneydiana]

Originally Posted by JKnott17

Before I plan my ADRs I like to look at the park calendars and choose which parks we will be visiting for each day of our trip. Once I have that figured out, then we sit down and look at the menus on allears.net and choose restaurants that are in the park we will be at, or atleast in a nearby resort.

^ Same here. I use an excel spreadsheet to keep all of my ADR info together as well asn park hours and any EMH. I plan character meals acording to what characters we want to see. If we're going in the Summer I try to plan a TS or character meal for lunch as a nice way to escape the heat. I've planned TS breakfasts before but I really find myself just wanting to head straight to the parks.

[mcc0313]

I make a spreadsheet as well - kind of slowly start adding in information such as park hours, show times, then depending on where I will be at mealtime I will choose one off our list for that area. We enjoy many of the resort restaurants so depending on what park we will be at I plan those accordingly as well.

[niccole]

I have a idea of where I want to eat well before the hours are announced, based on allears.net. I then wait (and wait) til ADR day and plan them based on what park I want for what day.

I try to space meals 5 hours apart like
Breakfast 7:30 - 8.
Lunch between 1-2
Dinner after 6 (closer to 7)

We are normally eat dinner around 5 but we are still full if we eat earlier. If we do breakfast earlier we dont get enough sleep.

Also we like resorts for breakfast. like Cape May, after its a quick 5 min (even w/ little ones) walk to Epcot. or one of the monorail resorts on MK day. Toss in a dinner show (hoop-dee-doo) and have a late (9:30) breakfast, snacks for lunch (sundeas) and hop the boat over.

If you have extra credits at the end head to DTD and grab Earl for the flight home.
Speaking of which we arrive as early as e can and depart as late. Its like an extra day.
If you want I can PM you my "list" for next Nov./Dec.

[dolphin041599]

Thanks! Lots of great tips here! Does anyone know how soon park hours are announced? Our trip is tentatively planned for October 2013.

I guess my next step is to start a spreadsheet and slowly add in information as it becomes available.

[JKnott17]

Park hours are usually listed 6 months out. Hours for October should be posted late March, early April.

[Abby Mallard]

We usually make a list of places we'd like to eat at based upon reviewing menus at AllEars, characters we want to see and the general needs of the group. We look at park hours (or historical hours if the official hours haven't been posted yet) and crowd levels and try to align our dining choices with the most sensible touring plan for us. We also try to have a mix of foods and experiences (character meals, unique setting, vary the cuisine, resort vs. park) and have back-ups and back-ups to the back-ups if our first TS choices aren't available.

Once the ADRs are set, we firm up our touring plans. We do remain pretty flexible though. If we aren't really up for an ADR we've made, we look for something else ASAP, then release our ADR so someone else can use it. We use spreadsheets to track everything.

[MichaelF]

We try do go to a few new places each trip and then hit some of our favorites too. We try to avoid resturants in parks to keep our schedule more flexible. We then make reservations for what time we want to eat and plan the rest of schedule around that.

[QuiltsbyNini]

No new information for you in my post!

I check the park hours and either TGM or EasyWDW for best parks to visit on which day. Then I start my spreadsheet. (first of several revisions) For each day, I give at least 3 possible ADRs. We have family meetings and discussions about it every time we get the kids together. (LOL)

I then make out a list of preferred ADRs (based on where the majority want to eat, and their list of must dos!) Then I list my back up and even a third choice for each day. At 180 day mark, I get up early and start online to get as many of the must haves as possible, and call at 7 if I have any problems.

We then fill in the rest of the park hours, EMH, shows, parades, etc into the spreadsheet.


Since we are coming up on trip number 9 in 10 years, I always try to add at least one new place each visit.

Nini

[EddieCVS]

This trip we aren't doing deluxe dining for the first time by choice. We are going to do the places we really enjoy, but try to stick to counter service. We are putting money on a gift card for all our dining needs. Having so many reservations the last few trips really was a bad thing. Travel time to different reservations and waiting wasted too much time for us. We will do little planning our next trip. I don't go to Disney for food only,last trip it seemed like we did.