How do you plan your meals?

[Mommytink20]

Hi! I am a total WDW newbie! My Husband, DS (6) and I, are planning our very first trip for next year! (April 27 to May 4, 2008) We are Disneyland AP's and are not sure if our the way we do meals at Disneyland will work for us at WDW. We usually do a big breakfast (Sit down or charchter meal) Then maybe a small snack in the late afternoon, then a small dinner in the evening. My husband wants to try the dining plan so we can try places we might not normally try. Some places we want to try for dinner, but I cant imagine using a CS at lunch time then having such a big dinner too? which leads me to my question.....If you are planning a nice sit down dinner, how do you plan your breakfat/lunches? Thanks in advance!:mickey:

[Harriet]

I make ADR for breakfast and Dinner . Lunches I do on the fly. Remember you don't need to eat a big meal just beacuse you have a ADR. I sometimes only have Bagle and coffee. But I get to try the new place out at the same time. The only exception here is buffee's or Charater meals you are paying a set price for these.

[faline]

Welcome to Intercot! :mickey:

Sometimes, we will do a big breakfast and an early dinner. Sometimes, we'll eat a small breakfast, have a large, late lunch, and eat appetizers or something small in the evening. It all depends on what we want.

What you raise is partly why I feel the dining plan doesn't suit my dining style. We only did it when it was free and I'm not sure that I would purchase it.

[kakn7294]

Usually we don't eat breakfast or have a light snack for breakfast, eat an early CS lunch, and then have a sit-down dinner at about 5 or 6 pm. On the days we have a TS breakfast scheduled (usually one per trip), we skip lunch (maybe have a light snack) and have either a CS dinner or a late TS dinner.

[FenwayGirl]

We make a few reservations for things that we really want to do (ex:Cinderella castle breakfast, Fantasmic dinner, Crystal palace) The rest of the meals we do on the fly. That is kind of our way of touring the parks. We always have kids with us ( range from 11 mos to 11 years)The dining plan seems great, but too restrictive for me. Also toooo much food. The portions at WDW are more than generous and most time we all share.. Always more that enough food:crowd: :thumbsup:

[tinksmom02]

We really enjoy the dining plan--prior to it, we would have 1 or 2 meals (usually character) and then do CS all the way, not because we don't enjoy eating out (we eat out all the time) but because it's cheaper that way. Now, we can try out all sorts of great places and experience all different types of food!

Generally, if we have a sit down breakfast, we'll skip lunch altogether, and then have a CS dinner. If we have a sit down dinner, it's usually early (5-6pm), so we'll do a light CS breakfast at the resort and a CS or some light snacks at lunch. And since it appears we can only ever get into LeCelllier at lunchtime, we just have a light breakfast, TS lunch, and then snacks throughout the rest of the day (yes, lunch at LeCellier will hold us that long).

For us, using the TS and CS parts of the DDP wasn't the problem...it was the snacks. We just weren't that hungry enough to want to snack! I also made the mistake of "saving" my snacks. For example, DH wanted a soda so I paid OOP, trying to save my snack credit for something more expensive, to get the most for my $$$. Won't be doing that again!

By the way, welcome to Intercot! :thumbsup:

[kathymk616]

Welcome to Intercot!

I think you'll be fine sticking with your DL mode of meal planning. That's the way my family has always done it, even when my brother and I were little kids.

The downside is that, unless you eat VERY early, you may not be the first ones in the parks/on the rides. The upside is that you're not hungry for most of the rest of the day.

I still go every year with my Mom, and she and I usually have a big breakfast (often, the Kona Cafe or the Yacht Club buffet) at which we stuff ourselves pretty well. Then we have a good-size very late lunch or a small snack at lunch and a good-size dinner. It works well for us.

Have fun!:mickey:

[prttynpnk]

We usually have a big early dinner-TS, use CS at the resort for breakfast and lunch is something snacky to tide us over. Then around 6pm my Sweetie starts subtley herding me toward the patisserie.....

[sleepingbooty]

Hi, and :welcome: to Intercot!!!

We love the dining plan. We make ADR's for all our dinners, then plan on using our CS credits either for breakfast at the hotel foodcourt, using a snack credit midday and having dinner early, or using the snack credit at breakfast and eating and early counter service lunch at the parks. That's what works for us. Of course, you could also do what you've been doing at Disneyland and make a ressie for a table service breakfast, use a snack credit midday, and then counterservice for dinner. Some people would tell you that that is not the best way to use the plan to get the most for your money since breakfast is the least expensive sit down meal - but I say do whatever works for your family. Since this is your first time, maybe plan a few TS breakfasts, a few TS lunches, and a few TS dinners, and see what you like the best. Its all good!

[mouseketeer mom]

We usually stay concierge, so we have the lounge offerings for breakfast, usually lunch on the fly (counter service) and an ADR for dinner every evening, usually early, between 5-6pm. That always works great for us!

[Mommytink20]

Thank you guys for all of your input!! You guys have helped a lot! I think we might do one or two TS breakfast and the rest we will probably use for dinner! It just is a little overwhelming trying to plan ADR's. Disneyland has only a handful of resturaunts and the rest of the resort is all CS, so trying to figure out what places to try is become quiet difficult because EVERYTHING sounds great at WDW!! But that gives us another reason to go back!! Thank you guys!:mickey:

[cvzdesign]

We got to enjoy some new places because of the dining plan, but I don't think I would pay for it again.

Making all the reservations was too much trouble for us to stick with.
We can't plan months ahead when we will be hungry every day of the trip.
It just doesn't work that way.

We found that the breakfasts were the best deal for us. By the time our character meal for dinner came around, our 3 year old had fallen asleep and missed Mickey and the characters. (they didn't charge us)

Making one or two reservations for sit down meals for the week would have been much better.

When we were dealing with going back to the room in the middle of the day, to help with the heat and resting, it threw off the times for when we would have dinner.

That said, I would have to say the best meal we had all week was at Liberty Tree Tavern in MK.
-And our 3 year old fell asleep again.