Hi,
First foray into TP and also to Disney and Universal Studios so it’s all a bit daunting … let’s start with an easy question:
How do I link Personal Tour Plans to my Dashboard trip? I didn’t create them from within the Dashboard and do want to link them …
Now for an odd question - how is anyone supposed to be able to plan a dinner reservation 180 days in advanced? Let alone which rids to see on what days …
I am guessing this mammoth undertaking of 4 full days at DW and 2 full days at Universal ( thankfully staying on site in both ) for a family of 5 will become easier as time goes on …
Welcome @ThomasSA! When is your trip? You’ll be able to get a ton of help with your planning here!
For the dashboard - when I created my dashboard trip, my PTPs (which I had made before the dashboard) automatically populated the dashboard trip. I think that’s because when you make a PTP, you tell it what date to plan the day for, and the dashboard sees that date in your trip so it links them up. Did yours not automatically show up?
For your advanced dining reservations (“ADRs”) - I like to figure out first which days I’m going to be visiting which parks, based on the crowd calendar, special events, or other factors I care about. Then once I know where I’ll be, I plan my ADRs around that. And then I keep tweaking things until the last minute!
I planned our first trip to WDW last fall. We decided to do it in October and the trip was planned for the first week of February. We were already past the 180 day point, but we still had a wonderful trip and got to eat at excellent restaurants. I’m just saying that to let you know that your trip will be wonderful no matter what!
Definitely start out by choosing where you want to spend each day. I wouldn’t bother with getting a park hopper for your first trip. It just complicates things and costs extra. Use the TP crowd calendar to decide where you’ll go each day.
As for planning ADRs, I started by reading the restaurant reviews in the Unofficial Guide and on the [Disney Food Blog][1]
Then you have to decide where you want to eat. Depending on your family, it might be a good idea to limit yourself to one table service meal per day. It’s possible to do more, but each one takes up 1.5 to 2 hours and portions are huge. I made a list of my top two choices for each park. (We 2 days in MK and one day in each of the other three parks.) Then I realized that there are some really good resort restaurants near each park, so I added those into my considerations. You don’t want to have to travel all over the place! For example, if you want to eat at a monorail resort restaurant, you should do that on a Magic Kingdom day.
We ended up with Boma at AKL for our Animal Kingdom day, Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch at MK, SciFi at Hollywood Studios, and Via Napoli at Epcot. We also snagged a last minute Be Our Guest dinner ADR for our second Magic Kingdom day. If you read through some reviews you’ll probably find one or two restaurants that pop out as your own top choices.
The hard part is figuring out WHEN you want to eat. For first time visitors it’s almost impossible to know what sort of touring day your family prefers! If you’re morning people then an 8 am pre-rope-drop breakfast inside a park can give you a head start on everyone else. If you want to spend 10-12 hours straight in the parks, then lunch makes for a nice break in the middle of the day. If you think you’ll want to take a long afternoon break for swimming or rest, then a late lunch before leaving or a dinner ADR away from the park or after your return works well.
Thanks so much … tons of great advice. Yes the PTP did show up ( would help if I looked properly ) . I’ll look up 5 those restaurants @WeHave2GoBack …
We have a pretty rough idea that we want to do - spend 1 day in each park and split the water parks on the 2 half day’s afternoon. @SallyEpp_cot thanks
Like @WeHave2GoBack, I had my personalized TPs already made and they automatically populated into my dashboard. Make sure that you have entered the correct dates into your TP; that is the field that will create the link.
Yes, anyone should be able to make ADRs at the 180 mark. If you are staying on-site and have your reservations linked to your MDE account, then you will be able to make ADRs for up to 10 days once your first day hits 180. You’ll see this referred to here as “180+10”. There are a few (but not many) that might be gone right at your 180 (BOG, pre-RD CMs, V&A come to mind).
Slightly mis-read your original post… You didn’t ask IF you could make ADRS 180 day out, but how do you decide… Step 1 for me is to determin which park you plan on visiting each day. Although I almost always have 2 TS meals each day, I am in the minority; the “average” is one TS and one or two QSs each day. Some people do nothing but QS, with maybe one or two TSs for an entire trip; it really comes down how much time and money you want to spend.
Let’s say you decide on one TS for each day. Using the dining (and especially the menus) pages of this website, look at the various choices in the park you will be in and see what suits you the best.
There are also many excellent restaurants ate the resorts. With only 4 days (assuming 1 per park), you will probably not want to take the time to leave the park to have lunch at a resort. When I am on a short schedule, I typically eat both lunch and dinner in the parks when I’m at MK and EP. With AK I typically have lunch in the park and dinner at a resort. At DHS I always have lunch in the park and dinner is a 50/50 split.
What is you family make-up? Some dining choices are better with kids, and some are better if it’s adult only.
@bswan26 thanks - we’re 2 adults and 3 youths ( 14, 14 and 12) so I suppose they are not really kids.
My over-riding issue I m grappling with is making a reservation a half a year in advance for a dinner at say 18:45 on date X … how is anyone supposed to plan dinner THAT far in advance? Just seems to really tie you down. I would hate to be having fun and have to pull away to go and have dinner… (struggling with that thought process)
Honestly for us, we look forward to our table services as it is part of the “fun” and the experiences can be wonderful. We go a few times a year and planning the dining is just as fun as planning out special events or experiences to do each time. If you are only going to be there 4 days, I would pick maybe 1 or two table services and then go with counter service. We did that on our DLR visit in May and it worked out great. Starting your day off with a early table service can be lots of fun and I recommend that to families that like breakfast foods.
Seriously, read this & your trip will absolutely rock:
If you can wait for the 2015 one that will be out shortly (probably better to wait for it):
No, I am not a shill for the books.
Just a very satisfied customer.
I was very fortunate to discover this book back in 1993 before my very first WDW trip.
Best $$ I ever spent.
Will save you hours & hours of waiting in line so you can DO stuff.
@ThomasSA It is daunting that you have to figure out what you will want to eat 180 days out. It is the Disney machine, and you really do need to been in advance to get good tables, especially in the parks. Places like Be Our Guest (BOG) and Cinderella’s Royal Table (CRT) book fast and close to the 180 day mark.
Because of Disney Dining Plan (DDP) there is much booking in advance, and now as you said there is now fpp.
I LOVE Disney, don’t get me wrong, but it is all of their method to make sure you spend your money in Disney and no where else.
@ThomasSA. Welcome. You made the first helpful step by becoming a member of TP. It was the best advice a friend gave us for our first WDW trip. I too was of the mind how the heck can I plan this much this far in advance. But this chat/forum is a huge help and making plans using TP organizes your days in a way you will be able to determine best times for breaks. We actually do QS but we are still able to add into our plans the times and the where. Once you determine which parks on which dates (referencing the great crowd calendar) it will get you moving in the right direction. Have fun planning.
And I too will recommend UG!
Thanks @atomic we don’t have the luxury of chosing days - we’re on a month long vacation to the US and the dates we have set aside are IN 25 OUT 30 June at WDW followed by 3 nights at Universal. Thanks.
Yep - i get the idea too that onice you’re there they want you to stay there
Thanks for your input @Jedilogray, I will refer back to your post with your dinner recommendations when it gets closer to the time.
@ejj - i have gone and bought the 2015 book - more reading
@pamperedpup - I am getting the message now - not only plan your day and get your FPP etc etc but make dinner and event ! Makes sense. Thanks.
@ThomasSA completely makes sense - what I mean is you can take those days 25-30 and figure out using crowd calendar which park to visit on which of those days. it helps determine the best crowd levels for each park during June 25-30
