We are headed back to Disney in six months and we are so excited!
Yesterday was our day to make our dining reservations and I was so excited! We have a Disney planner who booked our trip and yes - planners can totally book all of your dining and fast passes for you - but I'm just that crazy person who loves to do it myself. I THRIVE on researching trips and learning all I can and planning it all.
I thought I would share what we booked and some tips I'm learning. I have been to Disney a total of once as an adult so me giving any advice is like a mom of a newborn trying to give parenting advice. But I also get asked a lot of questions from newbies and I want to pass on what I do know.
(So basically - if you know nothing about Disney and are looking for ideas or if you just love discussing Disney - this post is for you!)
You can (and should) book your dining reservations at 180 days out. Not everyone gets the Dining plan but for us it works well. There are calculators that can help you decide if it's worth it or not.
I have read many articles on best restaurants at Disney. I'm also in the group Smart Moms Planning Disney on Facebook and it's helpful to me. We also love to watch you tube videos on planning. You can also just ask your friends or Disney planner.
There are several things to take in to consideration:
1. Is a big breakfast important to you?
A lot of people plan character breakfasts - this is not really our thing but we are doing one. We prefer to just snack our breakfast and get to the parks at rope drop to hit rides and then have a bigger meal later in the day.
2. Are character meals the most important to you
We are doing a couple but we also wanted to eat places that are just good food. It's our reward as parents. ha!
3. What kind of food you enjoy
There is something for everyone - from casual to fancy. From plain food to more adventurous.
4. Are you park hopping and/or do you want to take time to leave the parks for meals.
We have decided to NOT park hop this trip. I decided we would have enough time in each park and so I planned our meals accordingly - we are either eating in that park or in a resort.
So here is our plan!
Sunday - we start our week off with breakfast at Chef Mickey's. This is totally for Will Holden. I thought it would be fun to kick off our week eating with Mickey and the gang. It's at the Contemporary so we can just walk over to Magic Kingdom and spend our day after! We will eat quick service the rest of the day.
Monday - we are at Animal Kingdom. We are eating lunch at Yak & Yeti which we ate before and really liked (I know it's a chain). Then dinner at Rainforest Cafe. This is a total chain but the kids loved it last time.
Tuesday - Hollywood Studios day. We plan for this to be a shorter day where we will head back to our resort early evening and eat and swim. But we are eating lunch at Sci Fi Diner. This is new to us and I think the kids will love it!
Wednesday - Epcot. There are so many choices here for quick service so we will eat lunch at one of the countries. Our dinner is at Le Cellier. We LOVED this last time. It's 2 table service credits so you really have to love it but we do. This is also totally for me and Scott but the kids will like it. It's really good. We loved the poutine for an appetizer and everything we had was delicious.
Thursday - Animal Kingdom again. We are going to try the new Story Time Dinner at Wilderness Lodge with Snow White for dinner. I've heard it is really good food and I think Will Holden will love the 7 dwarfs and the girls will love snow white!
Friday - We are starting off with Be Our Guest breakfast. This is quick service but a reservation gets us in the park early. You can mobile order all your quick service meals on the app so you get your food quick. We will get to the park early that morning to get in and eat so we can hopefully get on Seven Dwarf Mine train before people get in the park! That night is the Mickey Scary Halloween party which we are not going to so we are leaving to eat at Ohana and then calling it a night to pack up to leave. Ohana was our FAVORITE. It's SOOO good.
Thankfully we were able to get all the meals we wanted and at good times.
Here is a tip I have recently learned that is becoming SO helpful to me. Get on the website touring plans.com - there is an app also. It's $12 for a year. You can enter your meals, your fast passes and everything you want to do - every ride and show and it will optimize a plan for you on exactly where to go in the park at what time. It's SO helpful if you want to make the most of your time. It also gives you suggestions for the best fast passes. It keeps very accurate wait times so you can adjust and refresh and optimize all day as you are in the park on the app.
Also - if you don't get one of the restaurants you want when you make your reservations - it will look for you. If someone cancels - it will notify you so you can grab it!
I hope this is helpful! I would love to answer questions in the comments or on my instagram post today!
