My 180 days is open and Im not prepared!

[Ld1978]

My 180 day slot is now open and I am woefully unprepared with all that has been going on!

Any advice for me (with a 6 and 3 year old) on what to get booked? I started a plan on here but didnt get too far.

My heart isnt it but know I need to incase it all goes ahead ok

[BigPetesWife]

I would look at the character meals. Some of our favourites are Crystal Palace (MK), Tusker House (AK), Hollywood and Vine (DHS). Garden Grill at Epcot gets good reviews. You haven't said whether you've been before, but you might want to consider Cinderella's Royal Table and Be Our Guest (breakfast or lunch) as well (both MK).

The thing I tend to do, is plan out where I will be spending each day and then book ADRs to fit our plan. When mine were the age yours will be, I also booked our meals for a similar time to when we would eat at home.

Finally, you don't need to stress. Although a few restaurants will be fully booked at 180, most will be or become available before you travel.

[Ld1978]

Thanks, booking a few now but only really started planning which parks on which days.

We have never been before so its hard to know what order to do things in and how to pace ourselves

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Ld1978

Thanks, booking a few now but only really started planning which parks on which days.

We have never been before so its hard to know what order to do things in and how to pace ourselves

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If you don’t have a plan then I would leave it, do the plan and then book ADRs. There are only a tiny number of ADRs that will go quickly at 180 days.

If you want California Grill Brunch I would definitely get that in now, also pre park opening breakfasts at BOG and Garden Grill tend to go quickly as does Storybook Dining.

[Ld1978]

I booked cali grill for dinner - should I of done brunch?

What time should I aim for bog? Is that a 7.30?

I’m trying to have a rough park idea and do adrs but I must admit I have no clue

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Ld1978

I booked cali grill for dinner - should I of done brunch?

What time should I aim for bog? Is that a 7.30?

I’m trying to have a rough park idea and do adrs but I must admit I have no clue

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I don't think there is any should about it. I mentioned the brunch because it is one day a week and it therefore gets booked up super quickly. CG dinner is lovely and is also very popular but I would say slightly easier to get than the brunch.

BOG will open at 8am. I would be happy with anytime between 8 and 8:30am.

[Ld1978]

Thank you - I did dinner as thought it could be good for the fireworks.

I just tried storybook but for some reason the dates stop at 9th Sept which seems odd!

[BigPetesWife]

So, roughly for two weeks I would go with 3 days MK, 2 days at Epcot, DHS and AK, 2 days waterpark, which leaves a couple of spare days to go to your favourite or take a break if you need it. I would then look at the busy day guide and try to balance a rough rotation of parks with the suggested day to visit. I go 2 or 3 park days and then a rest day (rest days include waterpark visits for us). Sometimes we've gone into a park after going to a waterpark, do our 3 FP and leave. Depends how we're feeling. To start with you will be up early (and your kids even earlier), so plan to leave the park mid-afternoon before the crankiness kicks in for the first few days. If you (and they) have energy you can always go to the resort pool. Leave evening park visits to later in the trip when the kids are more likely to be able to stay awake, but then plan later/less rushed starts the following day. We haven't done extra magic hours as it just hasn't fitted in with our plans.
Pre-park opening breakfasts, aim for as close to 8am as possible (8am is the earliest for in park meals I think).

Cali Grill brunch is only available on a Sunday. Grab it if you can get it, but keep your dinner reservation until you've firmed up your plans.
Hope that helps a little

[Ld1978]

Thanks so much, I guess at least if I have a few things booked and a rough idea I can tweak as necessary. Mainly booking lunches and brekkies with the odd dinner due to their ages.
We move to BLT after 13 days so no dining plan then so loading it up to the front where possible.
Thanks for all the tips.

[Tiggerbelle]

We just came back and as for “kids” places here are my thoughts based on our experience

Akushus - this was ok, kids not hugely keen on the food but a good option if you can’t afford Cinderella’s royal table or can’t get in. The food is still better than CRT so don’t feel as though you are being short changed by going here instead. My kids had better character interactions etc at this location.

Cinderella’s Royal Table - we booked this for our last night and got a 7.20 reservation (last of that day) for an 8 o clock fireworks. The food was ok, not 2 dining credit worthy but it was fine. The Princesses were ok but my kids weren’t that bothered with them as we had seen many during our holiday. We requested and moved to a window table so my kids could watch the fireworks and this was magical for my 11 year old, he loved it. It was a lovely way to end our holiday but if it wasn’t for timing it right for the fireworks I would have said it was not worth it at all.

Tusker House - breakfast/lunch - we did this twice because my kids loved it. We found that having fussy eaters they had more options at breakfast than lunch so check the menus. We arrived one day during the crossover between the 2 and I can confirm they would have struggled with lunch.

Storybook Dining at Wilderness Lodge - this was by far the best character dining experience we had, we went twice! My husband and youngest weren’t keen on their first meal choices but really enjoyed their second. The character interactions were good, food was FAR better than CRT and was probably one of the best meals we had at Disney. VERY good value for just 1 dining credit, definitely need to book in advance to get in.

We did tarottoria al forno (probably spelt that wrong) breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was meh, standard, not very filling and Tusker house was better value. Characters were cool and different from other locations, with the exception of Ariel. We hadn’t intended to do a character breakfast and had thought we were booking lunch so we hadn’t planned to do the experience. Dinner is not character dining but this was another one of our absolute favourite dining locations so we did breakfast here and dinner twice. My kids loved the food and the service and youngest liked to watch them cook in the kitchen

Be Our Guest - Lunch - I was so looking forward to this but it was a bit of a disappointment because of the waiting. We had to join a VERY long queue to order our food that was out the door and across the bridge. We then had to wait for over an hour for it to arrive as it included an allergy meal and they realised it had been forgotten. When it arrived it was cold where it had been sat on the side. They did give us our dining credits back, fast passes and character cups for the kids but we didn’t leave until nearly 3 hours after our reservation time. I loved the setting but honestly I can tick it off my to do list now. Lunch options were pretty good for quick service though