I love this part. Mostly because I love food.
Disney has this fantabulous idea that they can make us believe that it's worth it to be up at 5am at 180 days in advance of our trips to make dining reservations. And ya know what, they're right, because we fall into their elaborate scheme and we do it - because we think we need to. And if you want those super-coveted reservations, you better do it too. The most popular restaurants fill up with reservations quickly. It also depends on the business of the season you are headed down, as to how easy or how hard it will be to get your reservations. These are called Advance Dining Reservations, a.k.a. "ADRs"
First decide...
1. Disney Dining Plan or not? There are three different levels of the Disney Dining plan, but the most popular and the one that we use is the "Regular" Disney Dining Plan. Each member of your family gets One Counter Service Meal, One Table Service Meal and One "Snack" per night of your reservation.
There are a lot of calculations you can do to decide if it's financially worth it to you or not. There are many ways to save while eating out on Disney property. We could probably save money by not doing the DDP. HOWEVER - the reason I opt in for the dining plan is to NOT have to worry about it. I'm on vacation, relaxation is a major factor for me. I don't want to have to worry about getting the cheaper entree, or sharing one to save money or (GASP!) cooking a meal. So with DDP, I get what I want, when I want it, and it's the one time of year where we all get to do that and really spoil ourselves. So the dining plan is a plus for us.
Also to figure in....
2. How many meals you are going to eat at Disney restaurants (you can bring all sorts of food into the parks if you want, and you can also get suites with kitchenettes in your resort to make your own food)
3. Do you want any "Character Meals"? This is where while you're dining, random characters will come and visit you at your table. This is a great way to save time in your touring schedule and killing two birds with one stone.
4. Lastly you decide which restaurants you want and work it into where those restaurants figure into which park you're going to be when.
There is a great overview of all the on-property Disney World Restaurant Menus Here. I use these in my calculations so that we get the most "bang for our buck" on the dining plan. There are reviews here as well, and they are updated very frequently and are a great resource.
Josh @ EasyWDW also has his own personal recomendations, which fall really well into my own recomendations as well. Josh and I are cool like that, he's a genius because he agress with me. Here are EasyWDW's Table Service Recomendations & Quick or Counter Service Recomendations.
Once you decide where you want to go and what day it fits into your itenerary, there is one more thing to consider before you make your ADR .... The time you will be eating. We opt for a bit of early times when dining, because no matter the season you are visiting Disney, there will be crowds bigger than what you're used to at your local Applebee's. That said - we typically go for 11/11:30 for lunch and 4:30/5 for dinner. This get's us seated before most of the crowds show up, which is nice. Plus, you are doing an awful lot of exercising just walking around, so our family is typically very hungry much earlier than normal.
Just be ready to call (or go online) to make your ADRs 180 days in advance. If not, you can still get many through dillegence and repetetive calling and checking. So get to making your Dining reservations and choices, and we'll move onto individual park Touring Plans!!!
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