Critique my ADR plan?

Headed for 5 days / 4 nights. Crowd levels are predicted to be generally light, especially on Day 1 and 2. There will be 4 adults and 4 kids ages 6, 8, 9 and 9. I welcome any comments/thoughts.

Day 1. - MK
Arrive WDW around noon
D: Chef Mickeys 5:30pm

Day 2 - HS then hop to AK
L: 50s Prime Time -11:30pm
D: Tiffins 6pm

Day 3 - EP
B: PreRD Garden Grill - 8am
L: Via Napoli - 1:30pm
D: Hoop Dee Doo Revue - 8:30pm

Day 4 - AK then hop to MK
B/L:Tusker House - 11am
D: Cinderella’s Royal Table - 7pm

Day 5 - MK
B: PreRD Be Our Guest - 8am
Leave WDW early afternoon

I’m a little concerned that it is too much character dining, or rather that CM, GG and TH are too similar with overlapping characters. I think if I changed one, it would be CM. . . .but not sure. What do you think?

On Day 2 at HS, we’d like to do jedi training in the morning. (CL 4 day predicted for HS.) Would it be better to have pre-RD H&V breakfast reservation? I don’t think I can handle yet another buffet - so really would only do this if folks thought it would help us get a morning jedi training.

Also, we really liked Brown Derby last year and was originally thinking about hopping back to HS on Day 3 for dinner at Brown Derby and Fantasmic (didn’t get to see it last year because it was raining). Instead, we decided to go to HDDR. What do you think? Is HDDR a better choice than HBD and Fantasmic?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

My first thought was - wow- that’s a lot of ADRs but I love your spacing and choices and some of them (8:00 GG) are real benefits to touring. CM does feel like a weak link. Are you on any kind of dining plan?

That a lot of dining. On the days last year that I had 2 sit down meals per day, I was VERY FULL. It’s a lot of food and hard to self regulate at buffets.

I was recently asked the same question about Tusker House and Chef Mickey’. Tusker House won, and I cancelled Chef Mickey’s. Also, factor in the amount of time it will take you to get there. The Contemporary is a bit out of the way unless you are staying there.

HDDR at 8:30 is going to be a very late night. My 5 yo fell asleep in someone’s lap at 9:00 and missed the entire show.

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Although many of your choices are not ones that I would make, I see no objective reason why this plan won’t work. But I think your day 3 is a bit of overkill. I virtually always have TS lunch and dinner, but never have a big breakfast - and all 3 selections for that day are “heavy” meals. Also, getting from EP to HDDR is not simple, and getting back to your resort after it’s over is worse (unless you bite the bullet and use cabs/uber. I’m not a huge fan of the HDDR show, and that’s the main reason to go. Personally, I would MUCH prefer an excellent dinner at HBD and then stay on for the SW fireworks and/or F!

I have no kids and have little interest in meeting characters, therefore I rarely do CMs. I find them to be mediocre food served at jacked-up prices; I also do not especially like buffets (BG being a notable exception). All of the above being said, TH is the one CM that I will go to because the food is somewhat unique, quite good (even if it is a buffet), and if I’m going to meet a character, it had better be Mickey :slight_smile:

A general observation. When I’m there on a relatively short trip (4-5 park days, which is 90% of my trips) I do very little hopping. On a 4-day trip, it’s pretty much one park per day, and if MK is open late after another park has closed, I might hop back there. If I have 5 days, I’ll use the “extra” day for a MK RD and then hop to EP for the afternoon/evening.

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PrincipalTinker - No plan. I may have one family get a deluxe dining plan and use the credits on the most expensive adult dinners, but not sure yet. I know that isn’t how the plan is supposed to work, but based on responses to another thread - it seems like we could do that with the deluxe plan.

SStottlemyer - I agree that 2, sometimes 3, sit downs seems like a lot. . . but our crew likes to start early and stay late. The sit downs serve as a good breaks in the day. My thinking in making this plan was that we will do a sit down dinner each night - so picked those first: CM, Tiffins, HBD or HDDR, and CRT. Then, I looked for Pre-RD reservations. I love the idea of getting into MK before it opens with BOG reservation; and GG reservation will allow us to use our FP in Epcot on FEA. After that, I added in lunch at 50’s, VN and TH. Both 50’s and VN seemed like casual TS restaurants that we could order light, if we wanted. Assuming service is decently quick, I think casual table service is actual easier and more relaxing for a group of 8 than fast food. As for TH, that doesn’t fit the bill for casual lunch, but I picked it because it comes highly recommended. Maybe I should flip that to something non-buffet? Yak & Yeti?

The lateness of HDDR is a very good point. I was thinking I might take the 6 yo back to the resort to rest late afternoon. We are only planning Epcot that day and starting early, so I’d think by late afternoon, she’d be willing to take a break… . but I will have to think about it. We are planning an EMH start at AK the next morning so it might be too much for her.

bswan26 - I have a feeling the adult choices may be more in line with your choices (my husband doesn’t like character buffets). . . but we do have 4 kids in our group. I’m interested to hear what restaurants you would pick.

Last year, we did not hop on our 3 day trip (Epcot, MK, HS). We found that we liked using EMH, but did not like being stuck at the EMH park all day. This year, we decided we will try hopping to see if that works better for us. I don’t mind using Uber if it helps us get around faster. Here is some additional info:

Day 1 - MK has evening EMH. We were planning to go to MK, have dinner in or around MK, then go back to MK for evening EMH. For this, I thought a monorail resort restaurant would be a good idea and picked CM. . . but CM is the restaurant in our plan that I’m the least excited about. Any other suggestions? CA Grill? Wave? BOG? It would be nice to be able to get a drink with dinner. Is BOG the only MK restaurant that serves alcohol?

Day 3 - If we went to HBD instead of HDDR, would it make a difference to know that HS has EMH that night? I think if we did that, I’d cancel VN and do an early HBD reservation so we could do Fantasmic and take advantage of EMH. I’m totally on the fence on this one. There are some who love HDDR.

I’m seeing the other family tonight, so will have to see if they have any thoughts. Thanks all for weighing in. I really appreciate the perspectives. There aren’t that many people willing to talk Disney restaurants to this detail.

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Did you try the dining calculator? If I am counting correctly you have a total of 12 credits (if you count your BOG). With what you have the deluxe plan may work for all of you. Of course that would depend on if you would get apps and desserts.

I completely agree! We do 2 table services a day most of the time, usually the first available lunch time (they won’t be late seating you at 11am, if they don’t open until 11am!) and then eat dinner around 7. We don’t find it is too much food at all.

I don’t think it makes economic sense to have everyone get the deluxe plan because 50’s, VN and BOG are bad uses of TS credits - as are Tiffins and HBD for the children. I do need to look at it more closely though. We’d save the most money if we could pick and choose using credits for the most expensive meals. . . but we may still come out ahead with the deluxe plan for everyone.

Try the calculator I have included in my post. Tiffins is not in there so I would substitute another signature. The calculator is not perfect but it will give you a general idea. The calculator tells you how much each choice: OOP, regular and deluxe plan will cost and how much more it will cost on top of each plan.