I Think I'm Overbooking Us...Thoughts?

[Jessirip]

I am having the hardest time eliminating. Help? This is for the upcoming week after Easter, we have a 3 and 6 year olds and next time we come they may not be as into characters:

Staying at AKL on regular dining plan:
3/31 - Boma Dinner 5:45pm (no other plans but arrival around 2pm and swimming)

4/1 - Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast at 12:00pm

4/2 - Tusker House Breakfast 9:50am (ROL package)
Sanaa Dinner 5:10pm (Leaving AK around 3:00-3:30 for a break before ROL)

Switching to Poly room only - no dining plan:
4/3 - Sci-Fi Lunch 1:05pm
Star Wars Dessert Party 7:45pm

4/4 - Crystal Palace Breakfast 8:00am (Elimination Candidate - no advantage - park opening at 8am)
BOG Dinner 4:30pm

4/5 - Garden Grill Lunch 1:40pm (Elimination Candidate because we'll see Mickey & Pluto tomorrow)
HEA Plaza Garden Party 7:30pm

4/6 - Ohana Breakfast 9:25am
(In between we are going to AK for FOP FP only - heading back to Poly by 3:00 for pool time)
Park Fare Dinner 5:35pm (Elimination Candidate due to CRT, but I hear such good things)

4/7 - CRT Lunch 11:45am (Plane leaves at 6:10pm)

I am not concerned about cost, just our sanity. Also I gained 10lbs just re-reading this. Thank you for any thoughts.

 

[piglet1979]

I would keep 1900 Park Fare. We loved it. The food was just ok but the step-sisters and Lady Tremaine were awesome and you get to see the Prince.

I would drop Crystal Palace. I love going here because I love Winnie the Pooh but since it is not getting you into the park any earlier I would let it go. You would miss some great touring time.

Garden Grill would also be an easy one to drop since you have Tusker House already. I personally like Garden Grills food better but I am just a picky eater.

 

[sanapp]

I love doing 2 TS meals a day. This is really quite a few buffet meals for my preference, but nothing to bad. I personally would eliminate Park Fare. Have you thought about maybe doing T Rex at DS instead or were you not planning on going to DS? I actually like to get Dlxdp just so I can do 2 TS per day (1 being signature). Of course that it a bit much with the age of your kiddos. I didn't start that with my daughter until she was about 9 or so.
I think that you might find that the scheduled breaks might be good downtime for your kiddos to recharge. As long as you have a good park touring plan around your ADRs then I think you would be fine.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I'd pass on 1900 PF dinner. Food quality was honestly terrible. The dessert section was non existent and quite disappointing too. Yes the step sisters were hilarious and one of my faves....but its not worth the hefty price tag. Food was awful! Also, IMHO the decor needs a serious re-do.

 

[JessicaW1234]

I think you should get rid of either Garden Grill or Park Fare. You will have already done your traveling and will be back at your resort for pool time on your Park fare day.
I would recommend you keep Crystal Palace because of your little ones ages. Our DD and DS loved Pooh, Tigger, piglet & eyeore the most at that age & outgrew them first.

 

[Jessirip]

Thanks all - I'm leaning towards canceling CP since it isn't a park opening advantage and it would be a very early morning for the kids after HEA, and then Garden Grill just because Sunshine Seasons is right there and this may give us more time to head back to Poly to rest before HEA. While I really want to experience both, they may need to wait. Still thinking. Tick tock!

Park Fare I'm super torn. Since we are at the Poly it isn't that far. It may be a day before decision depending on how we are feeling.

 

[NickC]

Excluding breakfast, we like doing as many TS meals as time and logistics allow. Especially if we are going to be at the park all day. It offers us a chance to sit, relax, have a drink and take an hour break.

 

[kniquy]

You can always keep things as is and cancel the night before -- you know your kids best -- do they do well with sitting and being quiet and respectful during dinner? The 3 year old might be a little iffy, but see how it goes and cancel what you decide to change. TS meals do take up a lot of time - plan for 1.5 for meals and then travel time to and from -- so you could possibly spend 2-close to 3 hours for one meal - so 2 TS meals in one day you are looking at close to 6 hours. Do you want 6 hours of meals or just one meal and have more park and resort time. That is the balance i would be looking to figure out. 3 year old kids can tend to be a little finicky when it comes to sitting for long periods of time. What it really boils down to is how much time will this eat into your play time -- this is why i suggest wait and see and decide the night before. If you have the MDE app it is very easy to cancel.

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

You are going to get a lot of "I hate" and "I love" [insert particular restaurant]. So I'm not going to comment on types of food since that is very subjective. From a planning standpoint, Crystal Palace is scheduled at 8am rope drop time which means you've lost that first hour of less people in line. So if me I'd either cancel CP or move it to later in the morning around 10:30a. IMO, anytime you actually get up and go to a park for rope drop, you should devote at least the first hour to 90 minutes doing attractions while you can take advantage of the fact that a lot people just simply can't get there that early.

The other concerns with 2 TS a day is: 1) the hour to 90 minutes involved with each meal. Make sure you are ok with devoting that much time and 2) since you're on the DDP that includes one quick serve / counter service meal per day, I'm afraid you are going to waste a lot of counter service credits because you're going to be too full to eat them after 2 TS meals every day. If you do opt to pay OOP for some of the TS meals (since presumably you have 7 TS credits to use for more than 7 TS credit meals), do a quick glance of the costs and pay OOP for the cheapest restaurants! Remember to figure 2 credit meals accordingly. A $60 steak is actually better OOP at a Signature 2 credit restaurant vs a $45 steak at a regular 1 credit restaurant since it's $30 per credit for the signature and $45 per credit for the regular.

Other than that, your selections are fine, and regardless of what you choose is best for your family, you're going to have a great WDW vacation!

 

[JennyDrake]

I think it's a LOT, especially given the young ages of your kids and some of the late eating times. Keep in mind that with travel and wait and dining time, you are easily talking about 2-3 hours PER MEAL. _I_ would back off to one per day and before 3-4 pm. Your kids are going to be very overstimulated (as all kids are at WDW) and may be ready for quiet room or resort swim time hours before some of your late ADR's.

YMMV,

Jenny

 

[KenHutch]

I don't think you have to many reserved. Kids love them but I would not count on them no liking them in the future, we are doing our 5th trip in June and my 17 year old daughter added 2 character meals to the list I had to reserve. They never get to old.

 

[GillianP1301]

I don't consider that overbooked at all, in fact on many days you only have 1 meal planned and if that were me, I'd be looking for other dining options to cover my other meals. And where you do have 2 meals, they are well spaced. You have some really great and fun ADRs and they will definitely help to make your overall trip more enjoyable, so I say go for it!

 

[MomOTwins]

I would drop Crystal Palace if I were you. You will miss the shortest wait times of the day on attractions (they always run late to seat too, so I wouldn't plan on being out of there by 10am). Otherwise, this looks like such a fun trip! Kudos on all the planning.

We have done pretty much all the character meals and 1900 Park Fare is by far our favorite. Best kid selections, best character interactions, best food.

 

[MainMom]

I’ve been here since Sunday with 2 teenagers. I scheduled one TS/day and have already canceled 2. Day 1/arrival day Epcot, kids got tired and wanted to go back to the hotel canceled Via Napoli and rescheduled for lunch today. Today had dinner at Shulas scheduled. Weather was looking iffy, kids were tired again. We decided to bail since it was an expensive meal and we were only mildly enthusiastic. I usually book ADR’s for lunch. I went against that a few times and so far we have only made it to 1 of 3 dinners. WDW is tiring for my teenagers.

With your ADR’s I would cancel Sanaa, Crystal Palace and 1900 PF. I would probably also find something else other than Bon Voyage breakfast.

 

[gharter]

I think with your young kids, it may be over booking, but it looks really fun. You know how your kids will tolerate this kind of schedule.
I would probably cancel Crystal Palace.
If you wanted to drop one other, I would consider Ohana only because that gets you into AK earlier when the crowds are smaller.

 

[Happiest.Haunt_999]

I'd drop one of the dessert parties (if you can) and CRT (possibly Crystal Palace). Also, you might want to reconsider Tusker House and Sanaa on the same day. That is A LOT of food.

 

[Surgie2]

Great choices but that would be too much food and time spent in restaurants for our preschool grandkids. 4/6 with pool time at 3:00... you're not going to have much time since you have an early dinner ADR. Plus it's a LOT of moving around in one day...breakfast at Poly, go to AK for one ride, back to Poly, over to GF for dinner - whew! We'd just want to kick back and enjoy the Poly...maybe order a pizza for dinner and eat out by the pool.

And I'd cancel CRT on 4/7 - last day - just enjoy the MK. You can always go to some meet and greets to see characters if you're worried the kids won't be as excited next time.

 

[tbre1982]

We went in November with our 5yo daughter and 2 yo son and found 1-2 TS meals per day were great for us. My kids really stick to a schedule and really want their 3 meals per day. Unlike us gluttonous adults they didn't gorge themselves at each meal and were ready to eat again by the next meal time!

Also we really enjoyed being able to relax and take a break 1-2 times per day.

Quickly service is a pain with little kids too, since you have to wrangle the tray and drinks and condiments all yourself.

I agree with prior suggestions
To cancel the 8am Crystal palace. Way too much wasted prime park time

 

[speeb]

4/4 - Crystal Palace Breakfast 8:00am (Elimination Candidate - no advantage - park opening at 8am)
BOG Dinner 4:30pm

With an 8am opening, I'd try to move Crystal Palace to hit the breakfast to lunch turnover (10:30ish). You can get plenty done before your reservation. It was one of our favorite meals.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Just from a mom perspective we went last summer with twin 5 year olds and the buffet character breakfasts are hard and exhausting! Have to get up get food worry about missing characters. our 2 favorite breakfasts were Garden Grill and Bob voyage. They were amazing and great food. Bon voyage was a wonderful menu my hubby still talks about the food and bloody mary! G.G is family style and wonderful for breakfast not sure at lunch but the characters and staff shine here. We loved dinner at CRT so worth it! Ohana not so much food meh, busy, and you wait in line for stich we did it because we stayed at the poly. You might be better with breakfast at 1900 to get whinne the pooh if that's what you want rather than Crystal palace .Good luck no matter what you will have a great time.