Do the "Early Morning Hours" factor into your dining reservations?

[egoldber]

My kids are early risers, but my dh is not.

LOL! And I don't give him any choice. If the kids are up, so is he. I'm not dealing with squirrely kids in a hotel room for 3 hours by myself so he can sleep until 9.

When they go to college he can sleep in.

[g-mama]

LOL! And I don't give him any choice. If the kids are up, so is he. I'm not dealing with squirrely kids in a hotel room for 3 hours by myself so he can sleep until 9.

When they go to college he can sleep in.

No kidding. It's one of those marital things I have learned to sort of accept over the years...sort of...and remind myself that the good far outweighs the bad.

[Moneypenny]

Corie,

What we did on those days (because we LOVE EMH hours because we get so much done) is have a quick breakfast in our room (I brought cereal bars, instant oatmeal, etc) or pick up some muffins or something from the food court the night before (we stayed on-site). Then I scheduled our character dining for the last breakfast time (11:20 usually) and it also served as our lunch. Since we'd been at the park since 8:00 a.m., it was the perfect time to take a break.

We'd have a snack mid-afternoon and a regular dinner. It worked out really well for us.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Corie,

What we did on those days (because we LOVE EMH hours because we get so much done) is have a quick breakfast in our room (I brought cereal bars, instant oatmeal, etc) or pick up some muffins or something from the food court the night before (we stayed on-site). Then I scheduled our character dining for the last breakfast time (11:20 usually) and it also served as our lunch. Since we'd been at the park since 8:00 a.m., it was the perfect time to take a break.

We'd have a snack mid-afternoon and a regular dinner. It worked out really well for us.

Ooh, I like that idea!

Beth

[egoldber]

have a quick breakfast in our room (I brought cereal bars, instant oatmeal, etc) or pick up some muffins or something from the food court the night before (we stayed on-site). Then I scheduled our character dining for the last breakfast time (11:20 usually) and it also served as our lunch. Since we'd been at the park since 8:00 a.m., it was the perfect time to take a break.

This is what we do most days. We like the quick breakfast in the room or food court (we all tend to wake up hungry) and then get going into the park.

We have a mid morning snack and then (if we do a sit down at all) do a late lunch (around 2) and that tides us over until evening.

We usually only have one breakfast reservation per trip because I find it really interferes with our early morning park time, which is pretty sacred.

[clc053103]

This is what we do most days. We like the quick breakfast in the room or food court (we all tend to wake up hungry) and then get going into the park.

We have a mid morning snack and then (if we do a sit down at all) do a late lunch (around 2) and that tides us over until evening.

We usually only have one breakfast reservation per trip because I find it really interferes with our early morning park time, which is pretty sacred.

ITA with this! Breakfast does eat up good early park time! We usually do one character breakfast and one regular sit down breakfast for a 1 week trip on days when we are in no hurry to get anywhere (or early before a water park, as their gates open later), the rest of the time, we eat breakfast in the room- if you are on the dining plan, you can get things like bagels and muffins at counter service that count as snack credits and bring it back to the room.

I am an "overplanner" for Disney- but that's simply our touring style- we like to get the most out of our park time so we plan our schedule and meals. We also like a sit down meal so we plan our ADRs as we are there during free dining promotion, it's the only way we are getting in. We are still flexible- last year kids wanted to do another water park day, we cancelled our ADR's and park plan and did that and some shopping instead. Lots of people go with no plan and have a great time- it's a matter of personal preference I guess!

[Corie]

Seriously, do people really plan their trips to the minute like that?? My dh would be ready to kill me if I tried to schedule our days to the minute like that. We've done WDW three times and we just get out of bed when we get out of bed and go to the park we chose to go to that day. It is a vacation, after all. Right?

Yes, people really do this!!

My only concern is the dining reservations. I want to make sure to get
our favorite locations. My kids love the character meals. It's a great way
to interact with the characters and get some 1:1 time.

Also, we are early risers. The kids are up early. My DH and I are always
up early. We never sleep in late. DH doesn't want to "waste the day".

My son could not keep it together if we had to wait in long lines for dinner.
It would NOT be pretty!