I need some expert advice!

Canadiana Jones (hubby-to-be) and I can start making our ADR's in about a week and a half, but are feeling totally overwhelmed! We are both WDW newbies and really have no idea where to start with the ADR process. I'm hoping that you more experienced DWers can help us out!

We do have a few vague ideas about where we want to eat - we've been going through guidebooks and whatnot to get a feeling for the table service eateries - but we just aren't sure how to narrow down where we will be on each day (making it very hard to decide where we want to eat!). So... can anyone help? How do we start the planning process? Are there any insider tips regarding dining (better times to eat, whether to do table service for lunch or dinner, etc.).

Here's some background:

Like I said before, we are both new to WDW
We will be at WDW for quite a long time (about 3 weeks). Obviously, we won't want a table service meal each and every day
It will be just the two of us for the whole trip (we'll be on our honeymoon)
As of now, we will be staying on property for the whole trip - the majority of the time at POFQ and CS, the last couple of days at WL
We don't want to rent a car unless absolutely necessary
Some places that have caught our eye thus far: Coral Reef, Chef Mickey's, Le Cellier, Crystal Palace, Tony's Town Square, Brown Derby. (These are just options, we're not really positive about any of them yet).


While we're on the topic, feel free to recommend some great places, too - TS or otherwise! Any advice would be awesome - thanks in advance everyone! :)

For the length of time you will be there, you have the opportunity to do a wide variety of table service meals, both at resort hotels and parks. There are a lot of good places, in the hotels. You can grab a bus from a park to get to a hotel, or take a cab, and, probably, if it is late just take a cab back to your hotel. Perhaps one day take a lengthy mid-day break and do lunch at a hotel restaurant (for an inexpensive meal, walk to the Beach Club from Epcot and try Beaches and Cream, for burgers and ice cream). In fact, there are lots of cool places, along the Boardwalk. One day, perhaps, try afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian, instead of a mid-day meal, which would be a romantic alternative to dinner out. Do dinner at Downtown Disney before hitting the clubs. Over the course of your trip, try both restaurants at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Boma, which is a buffet, and, for a splurge evening, try Jiko. You have some good places on your list, and I would add more places outside of the parks.

Hmmmmm..... I am sure people more knowledgable than me will chime in but I would recommend having a loose plan as soon as feesible. You should decide how many TS meals you want and can afford. I would space them out because they can determine what you do that day. If they are spaced out, you have some free days mixed with more fixed days, if that makes sense. If nothing else, I would reserve Le Celliar and Cinderella's Royal Table right at the 180 day mark. Those can book fast. The rest can wait until you decide, but not too long!!;)

FWIW we really liked Ohana and Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch!

I need some expert advice!

We do have a few vague ideas about where we want to eat - we've been going through guidebooks and whatnot to get a feeling for the table service eateries - but we just aren't sure how to narrow down where we will be on each day (making it very hard to decide where we want to eat!). So... can anyone help? How do we start the planning process? Are there any insider tips regarding dining (better times to eat, whether to do table service for lunch or dinner, etc.).


I'm not a WDW expert, but have made a few trips there over the years. The strategy we used on our last trip was to look at the calendar for the days we were there and note park hours, EMH days, etc. From there, we put together a rough plan of which park(s) we would visit each day and booked the dining from there. On a day I planned for us to be in EPCOT, we made sure to book Le Cellier for dinner. Since we were on the dining plan, we had a lot of table service to schedule and a lot of restaurants we wanted to try. It made for somewhat of a rigid schedule, but we are planners and like timelines. All worked out great for us.

I know it's a daunting process to plan those meals in advance. We were only in the parks for 7 days on that trip, three weeks is a whole different animal. :D You have a lot of flexibility and likely won't want to eat large, pricy meals every day. Like others already stated, pick a few that you absolutely don't want to miss, get ADRs, and plan your day around that...making sure to be in the right park / resort that day.

Have a fantastic trip and congrats!

For a honeymoon, my highest recommendation would be for dinner at Victoria and Alberts in the GF.

I suggest a breakfast or lunch at the Kona Cafe. When we ate their in June for lunch we didn't even need an ADR we just walked in and were seated.

if you're new to the whole experience i think i have some simple and effective advice for the trip as a whole.

1. think about the days you will be at WDW and where you "think" you will be or where you would like to be. this could be based on the "extra magic hours" in the morning or evening. knowing which parks you plan to visit each day helps you pick restaurants that are in the park or at least close by. no need to have excessive traveling if it's not needed.

2. do a little research about the restaurants in WDW. this site and others like it are a good start, but go to a book store and check out the ones they have and what they suggest. to me there are a couple of reasons to eat in ceetain places... the quality of the food, the atmosphere or uniqueness of the the building itself, and the "bonus" factor - dinner shows and special seating for other events. sometimes the dinner itself is a great experience like the "hoop-de-do musical revue" or the "fantasmic package at the 3 places in MGM/Hollywood studios gives reserved seating for the fantasmic show.

3. pick the places you want to see. by doing the above you will easily have a lsit of several places that spark your interest. not every restaurant is for everyone, so our opinions should be used as a starting point. in the end, it's your trip and there are so many cool places to eat, you are bound to hit a few that you absolutely love and few that you will enjoy but wouldn't need to do again.

Thanks for you replies, everyone!

Our list of places we would like to eat continues to grow (both TS and otherwise) so that will make things much easier once we decide which days we will be there. To that note, we plan on taking the advice about using EMH as a guide to making our decisions.

Which brings me to another question. We can start making our ADRs next week, but as of rights now the WDW calendar only goes up to July, which only constitutes three days of our trip. Not alot of planning to be done there! Will the EMHs be pretty much the same for August or do they tend to change? Any idea as to when the August calendar will become available?

I wouldn't be surprised if the August calendar comes out either this weekend, or early next week. I'd be quite shocked if it didn't come out 180 days before August 1st, which could be a few days after you can make your ADRs if you're staying on site.

But, I'd expect the EMH days to be fairly consistent (there really is little 'movement' in them from month to month), and the hours will probably be SIMILAR to the end of July.

I dint want to start a new thread on the topic, I just rad the following on another disney site...

Reservations are available 180 days out and 180 days + 10 for guests staying at a Disney Resort.. (This extra 10 days allows Disney Resort guests to book all of their ADRs on the same phone call as opposed to calling back each day as the 180 day mark passes) Be aware of the 180 mark and make your ADRs


We are staying at a Disney resort and are about 186 days out, if this is accurae we can make our ADRs now. Thoughts?

No, Jimmy1, you can't make your ADRs today if your trip is 186 days out.

However, you CAN make ALL* your ADRs when your first day is 180 days out. You don't have to call each day to get the next days ADRs arranged.

And All technically means 10 days worth (hence, the +10) but I've heard reports of people who are taking longer trips being able to do all of theirs in one call, since usually those people are from overseas and have much more expensive calls to Disney than U.S. residents.

Miss Mouse, so excited for you and your husband-to-be. First and foremost, unless money is an issue (and who isn't in this category?) I WOULD recommend a sit down dinner each day -- it's one of my favorite things about going to WDW, all the food!

I second (and third and fourth) the other recommendations about figuring out which park you'll be in on certain days; that'll limit the choices significantly. Obviously EPCOT has the most (and in my opinion, best) restaurants, so here is where you'll have to narrow some down.

In EPCOT, I love the restaurant in the Mexican pavilion (I can never remember it's name) -- very romantic, waterside, cool, great theming. I also highly recommend Chefs de France in the French pavilion. If you've never been to France or think you may never get there, this is a great opportunity to pretend. It's fancy without being stuffy and the staff is very friendly and accomodating and incredibly attractive (the women, I mean, so maybe not a great place to take your new husband...just kidding ;)) Afterward, take in the French pavilion's movie Impressions de France; you'll swear that your in France (pronounced Fr-ah-nce). If you want to take a walk on the wild side, eat at the Morraccan (sp?) pavilion; great music, dancing girls and exotic but approachable food, even for vegetarians like me. Lots of people like La Cellier in the Canadian pavilion, but being a vegie, not a big fan of the steak, moooo. The pub in the British pavilion has always looked like a lot of fun, but I've never eaten there.

In the Magic Kingdom (and things close by), I recommend Crystal Palace over Chef Mickey (at the Contemporary), mostly because the characters at Crystal Palace are more passive; they'll come by and say hi, but they don't overdo it like at Chef Mickey (a place best for kids, LOTS of character interaction and participation). Tony's is fun; many here will say that they do not like it, but I love its location and its theming. For lunch, you must try Columbia Harbour House; you won't need an ADR for this, but the food there is definitely a cut above the average counter-service meal. Also, don't forget the great restaurants at the three monorail-connected resorts, just minutes away from MK. Ohana's seems to be a real big hit here, and I had a great breakfast at Grand Floridian Cafe.

At Animal Kingdom, there's a new table service restaurant called Yak and Yeti that's themed with the new Expedition Everest ride. My mom and step-dad will be trying it out in a few weeks. BOMA, a buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge, was simply fantastic; again, a chance to eat some things that you otherwise might never have eaten (but not gross things, really, really good things).

At Hollywood Studios, Brown Derby is a great choice. Also, for fun, have lunch at the Sci-fi Drive-in; the theming is fantastic!

Well, those are my recommendations, but again, if you can swing it, eat a sit-down dinner every night; you may even be able to hit ALL the restaurants in Epcot (always wanted to try the Italian/German/Japanese restaurants but never had enough time). Congratulations and have a wonderful time!

Oh, and one last thing, the menus for all these great restaurants are available at allearsnet.com, a fantastic (I use that word too often) compliment to this fine site.

First of all WOW, I would love 3 weeks at WDW!! Are you on a dining plan? You didnt mention it, so I assume not. I would have to agree with petesimac on this but one of my favorite parts of vacation is having a good TS meal. Especially at WDW, the food is not only great but atmosphere is the best quality and most themed you will find any where. I am an advocate for the Dining Plan. That being said. I always try to lay out a tentative plan for plotting our park attacks. Things can change, and usually do some days, with out to much trouble for the fact that disney has so many great options for transportation.

I would recommend taking in a dinner show, my DH and I like the Spirit of Aloha Dinner show at the Polynesian. Great food and Entertainment. The Poly has such spectacular theming and we like to go early and have a few drinks at the Barefoot poolside bar first and relax with the views! Some other of our favorite TS's are Le Cellier, Big River Grille Brewing Works (sit outside on the boardwalk :) ESPN Zone (not totally original but good) Coral Reef, San Angel Inn-Mexico/Epcot (some say this is hit and miss for yummy-ness, we have always had good food), 50's Prime Time Cafe-MGM, Mama Melrose's (we reserve for the Dinner and show for fantasmic, it's a very slick deal), Cinderlla's Royal Table, Crystal Palace (we had breakfast), Cape May Cafe (if you like seafood), Chef Mickey's (we did character breakfast, it was a hoot, lots of fun!) just for a few :)

Counter Service we like: Cosmic Rays cafe, ABC commisary, Cantina De San Angel (we like the outdoor seating atomosphere on a nice day!), Casey's Corner, Pinocchio's Village, Pecos Bills. Also, last but not least; we always stop and have a refreshment at the Dawa Bar in Africa at Animal Kingdom! The people are so nice and there is usually some sort of entertainment right there, music and performers. It's shades for hot days and nice to take a load off!

And All technically means 10 days worth (hence, the +10) but I've heard reports of people who are taking longer trips being able to do all of theirs in one call, since usually those people are from overseas and have much more expensive calls to Disney than U.S. residents.

I booked 14 days consecutive last year from the UK but I'm not counting on it happening again. We didn't book a TS every day, but we did spread them out between day 1 and day 14.