EMH? When are hours posted? Making dining plans?? help!

[DisFam95]

We are planning our spring break trip 2018 and I can make dining reservations in 2 weeks!!! How do you plan what days you go before schedules are out? Are EMH always the same days or do they alter?

Any planning tips appreciated!!

 

[Robo]

We are planning our spring break trip 2018 and I can make dining reservations in 2 weeks!!! How do you plan what days you go before schedules are out? Are EMH always the same days or do they alter?

EMH days/nights are posted along with the park hours.
They are posted approx. 6 months in advance.

EMH days/nights are not "consistent."

 

[DisFam95]

So they post the exact time I need to be making dining reservations? How do people plan ahead? So far only Jan EMH are posted, doubtful they'll post 2 months worth in 2 weeks when my dining time comes. How does one plaaaaaan LOL!

What am I missing? How can I plan my dining in 2 weeks without knowing what days I'm going where and don;t I need to know EMH etc to do that. Or do people just wing it - good heavens!

Yes I'm panicking at the thought of planning all this. Thanks!!!

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Disney has surprisingly little regard for people trying to make plans. It is seriously frustrating to plan when they can't get schedules out in an adequate amount of time. One of the perks of staying onsite is being able to make dining reservations at 180 days, but that is nearly impossible when you don't know what's going on in the parks.

I feel your pain! I am holding out right now on the dates for November Early Morning Magic. Like you, I am getting a little panicked. The airline changed our flight time, and I can't accept the chnage until I know if EMM will be offered that day (Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was offered then last year). If it is offered, we will need to change to a later flight. If not, we want the earlier flight that we're on now. Obviously I can't hold out too much longer as the later flight I would need to move us to is already very full. Part of my morning routine is checking Disney's site for November EMM and then checking the airline for availability on the later flight.

 

[Surgie2]

How can I plan my dining in 2 weeks without knowing what days I'm going where and don;t I need to know EMH etc to do that. Or do people just wing it - good heavens!

I'm truly not an expert here but for my own peace of mind for our trip next May, I've decided to take EMH out of the equation when making our ADRs. We are a family of 10 and I'm doing all the reservations for ADRs and FP+. I've decided we will not try to do any PPO meals. We aren't having too many ADRs since it takes so much park time out of our day and four in our group are kids 13 mos.-5 YO...not ideal for sit-down table service meals. So the meals we are doing will be late breakfast/early lunch. We are going to TH on our AK day so I'll plan a 10:40 reservation. That way if there is EMH that day, we can decide if we want to arrive that extra hour early to the park but if not, our breakfast reservation won't be impacted.

Our ADR window opens Nov. 5 and even if park hours are posted by then, there is definitely no guarantee they will stick. So it worked for me just to remove the possibility of PPO meals from our plan so we don't take a chance of losing valuable "less crowded" park time by being in a restaurant eating.

 

[Robo]

Our ADR window opens Nov. 5 and even if park hours are posted by then, there is definitely no guarantee they will stick.

THIS.

 

[ppjluvsdvc]

yes it is frustrating. Our window opens Sept. 3 so we have just decided to make reservations where and when we think we want and then will make adjustments later. Unfortunately they make it that you have to make so many decisions without full information.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Definitely no guarantee the park hours will remain the same. At spring break, Disney changed the park hours (only at MK, at least) about 2 weeks before our trip. It really messed up my plans. We wanted to do AM EMH at each park when it was being offered, so I had to readjust our schedule each day and in a few cases, cancel and try to rebook dining reservations. Extremely frustrating! I try to look at historical park hours to give me a sense of what time the park might open, but even that is just a guess.

 

[DisFam95]

Thanks all! I've been many times but some reason I don't remember it being like this. I feel like I always had the schedule before my ADR times and knew my park days. Maybe schedules are coming out later now? Or maybe my memory is failing lol.

We have older kids that can appreciate a good meal which is nice - there's only a few ADR's that we really want and the rest we usually wing it and "try" not to be too scheduled

I guess I'll just research historic spring break info.

 

[DisFam95]

ok what's a PPO meal? OOP/out of pocket is in my head. I've got insurance lingo in my head now.

 

[Surgie2]

ok what's a PPO meal?

Hopefully I didn't make this acronym up but I meant Pre-Park Opening meal.

 

[DisFam95]

Hopefully I didn't make this acronym up but I meant Pre-Park Opening meal.

No i tried looking it up and saw lots of references to PPO meals but couldn't figure it out. Thanks!

 

[angyl15]

Same boat...trying to make reservations on 9/6 and am lost!