Green eggs and ham.......burger?

This is a question about the importance of preplanning (180 out) ADR

of breakfast locations as well as lunch locations( keep in mind I will be on the Deluxe dinner plan) .I have no interest in any character dining seeing it is going to be my wife and I during our 20th anniversary vacation. The question is do I have to be as diligent getting reservations for breakfast and lunch as I do with dinner? I hate to feel bogged down with time for all 3 meals but want to enjoy the best that can be offered. With that being said I will plan all 3 meals if need be

Thank you and in case your wondering my names not SAM

The deluxe plan can be a great value but with the appetizer included I would be planning signature dinners and then a late breakfast (you will still be full from that big meal at night) or early lunch. Three meals a day will most likely take at least 4 hours out of your day.

That being said, if you do not want to use those credits for QS (and that would be terrible) then you should make ADRs for all your credits (you could save one of two for last minute ADRs depending on your dates).

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I plan on doing signature dinners and 2 meals a day for the most part . I have to get away from thinking signature dinners are necessarily character dinner. so the question would then be are breakfast and lunch ADRS as difficult as dinner ADR’s ?

For the highly sought after restaurants, YES. 'Ohana, Chef Mickey’s, and BOG just to name a few. If a reservation can be made, make one as soon as possible. Other restaurants may have availability but if you like to eat at a certain time or have plans to see evening spectaculars, you will want to make a reservation sooner than later.

its mostly breakfast . I may want to go when I decide to go not be on a timer as far as ohana chef mickeys or bog have no interest to HAVE eat there for breakfast that is. ohana dinner for sure and will have rev. for it. I guess the example would be
I wake up and decide to go to THE WAVE for breakfast do I get in ? or hey I am a bit hungry and its lunch time maybe ill grab bite at VIA NAPOLI"S do I get in?

Yes! Disney needs to be planned. You will want to space out your meals. You will always be able to find “something” but even if you make ADRs that you later drop you will ensure you have a better choice.

Funny! I never think of a signature meal as a character meal!

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A HBD lunch/'Ohana dinner is a good combo…

I’d say you won’t be able to just get up and go and think you’ll get a table. Yes, you’ll need reservations for all meals or you may be stuck with breakfast at 10:30 and lunch at 12:00 and end up wasting credits.

I don’t know how I got signature and character either. but now that you brought that up I understand the self explanatory character meal
but SIGNATURE meal ? why the term signature, where did that come from? why signature and not a MERIT meal or Supreme Dining Restaurant? don’t mind me !
I am analytical LOL

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Lots of things use signature to mean premium, but I don’t know why.

only playing around. thanks for your input

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I agree with others that if you want to maximize the value of your Deluxe plan, that you will want to make reservations for every single meal. Many people wish that this wasn’t necessary, but it is simply how Disney has chosen to maximize their restaurant revenue. Even if tables appear to be available when you walk in, they might not have staffed to serve those tables, etc.

That being said, you will probably have some luck if you don’t schedule and are willing to be flexible. You should definitely have an ADR before you walk into a restaurant, but you can make them on the fly. For instance, wake up and pull up the app and see who has spots for breakfast. Many of the Deluxe 2nd tier TS restaurants have good availability for breakfast (think Grand Floridian Cafe) but the times might not be perfect and you will be dependent on transportation. You just probably won’t have 100% luck if you have a specific restaurant in mind.

We have a car and on our last trip with our DS1 we didn’t want to be tied to dinner reservations, so we used this approach each afternoon for dinner. We were quite happy with what we were able to get. But we also weren’t on a dining plan and were eating dinner on the early side. We have been a few times too and have done many of the more popular restaurants already.

I agree with the others that have stated you need ADR’s for TS regardless of the time of day. The caveat would be when you are visiting. If it’s a low crowd level time of year, you may be able to do walk-in’s for lunch or dinner. However, it’s not a guarantee. You might be able to get a walk-in table at Via Napoli, but you are going to have a significant wait for it. When we were there last March during Texas’ spring break, there was an 1.5 hr. wait for a table at lunch. Needless to say, we did not wait.

If you are looking for a brunch option, I would check out the Grand Floridian Cafe for you MK day. Their breakfast and lunch menu is the same and is served all day until dinner service begins. You can get a burger or lobster Benedict. We like to eat breakfast in a resort before heading into the parks. We don’t RD, so we tend to eat at “brunch” times. We really like Olivia’s at Old Key West for breakfast.

In short, you cannot avoid scheduling ADR’s for TS meals and maximize your DDP. If you are ok with using DDP credits on QS meals, then that’s really the only way you can “spur of the moment” decide to eat, especially in the parks. I would not recommend that because of the amount of money you spend on the DDP versus the OOP cost of QS meals. Like melcort10 stated, there is a way to do what you’re asking, but that’s more of a possibility at resort restaurants.

thank you kindly for your input

appreciate your time to answer back

Just a thought, but resort lunch ADR’s would probably be considerably easier to book than in park since I’d assume the majority of guests are at the parks during the day. It could be a quiet respite.

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very good point

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