crafting a "meal plan" help this newbie out! 😭

[DisneyMama811]

ok where are my type A people at? how do those of you who plan every detal decide where to eat every single day? especially for lunch in the parks? if you're going Quick Service do you just stop and eat at the closest place wherever you happen to be? if you're doing sit down do you plan your whole itinerary around location of the restaurants (as in planning rides for before and after the meal in the same area of the park as the restaurant) feeling overwhelmed

 

[Disneylover99]

We won’t just eat anywhere. We always have a few counter service places in mind at each park where we like to eat. We’ll usually choose the place that we’re closest to when we want to eat lunch.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

Ok, so here is my very Type A process. I have an excel spreadsheet. I go through and I look at all the menus. And I set up a data table of all the ones I think we’ll be interested in. I know my family well enough to anticipate what most of them will order. And when in doubt I’ll choose the more expensive option. So I have restaurants down the rows, my family members in the columns and I plug in the price of the meals I expect them to order and then I autosum the rows to get an estimated price for that restaurant. We generally tend to do ADRs for dinner because by then we are tired and need a longer break. So again, I set up the date,park,lunch, dinner, price columns. And I start plugging in. I try to pair heavier sit down TS restaurants with a lighter/smaller lunch. Or make sure we aren’t doing hamburgers/chicken strips/hot dogs for both meals in a day. Once I have all that planned out, and I know approximately how much the meals will be, I add 10% to cover taxes and tips (we eat at more QS than TS so it evens out to 15-20% for tips) and then I add another $100-200 for snacks for the whole trip. Example, We are going over Labor Day week, 7 days in the park, 5 TS meals, 4 people, only 1 who still eats off the kids menu and my food budget is $1500. And that’s actually pretty high for us, but we are doing some more expensive meals this trip. I also generally have at least one back up plan QS for each park just in case we aren’t feeling what I originally had down, it’s really crowded, or even closed. But I’ve been within $50 of my budget my last 4 trips. We eat what we want and don’t feel like we are denying ourselves anything. But we also don’t spend a lot on extras like pop, desserts, or more than 1 snack per person a day. We eat breakfast in the room, and carry some small snacks for long lines. We bring our own water ect.
And yeah, we plan rides around the restaurants. We utilize mobile ordering and have it set up so that after we get off one ride, we check in as we head over, eat, and then do rides in that area of the park.

 

[CynBeth]

I have family members with food allergies so pretty much eat at TS. We have our favorites and usually have 2 days in each park. I make a rough plan but then when it has been time to make ADRs sometimes have had to change things around.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Our entire trips are planned around food.

 

[danceintherain]

I used to plan very closely, but have loosened the reins over the years. When my kids are hungry, its typically better to feed them immediately, rather than wait for a place that has better options. We also only do 2-3 table service meals per trip to keep things flexible.
I do review the menus prior to our trips, so I can decide where I want to shoot to be.
For our trip in March, I probably will have a more detailed plan, because I expect to be separated from my older children. If I'm going to set meet up points, then connecting it to a meal makes sense. That way if someone arrives early, they can eat while they wait for the other group to get through whatever line they're in.
I will likely plan based on size and comfort of dining area and potential area entertainment over quality of food.

 

[purpliequeen]

I'm very type A and also used to plan very closely - but that was back when FP was a paper ticket and we knew when we'd be where. Now, I feel like the Genie+ system is really hit or miss. Also, restaurants now charge a no-show fee (which I'm totally fine) so it makes dining reservations more permanent. Like previous poster, I have loosened up over the years. We've also been very fortunate to have tried the majority of restaurants in WDW so we know what we like and are a little more relaxed.

So giving you somewhere to start: I try to plan my restaurants around park days. So I check the park calendar and figure out which park I'll be in on which day. I write down the events that I don't want to miss (parades, fireworks, etc.). From there, I figure out if there's a restaurant in the park or in a resort near the park that is a must-do. Also factor in whether or not you think you'll take a break in the afternoon to go back to your resort - if this is the case, then it may open up more options. If you are rope dropping and really attraction-focused, I'd bring focus less on quick service breakfasts and bring bananas, poptarts, etc. from home or purchase in the resort gift shop. You can always factor in a "heavy" breakfast snack in the late morning (like a cinnamon roll from Main St. Bakery). Lunch is easier quick-service, especially if you're still doing rides. I'd take a look at QS restaurant in the parks and have a general idea of your top choices throughout the park. Table services are great - and definitely recommend a few for your trip. Oftentimes, restaurants have the same or similar menus for lunch + dinner with lunches being more affordable. If you can coordinate a TS with the park you're in a resort close to the park, that's a huge win. Some ideas: Sanaa or Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani and Jambo with AK theme park - you can even take the bus straight from AK park to the resort. You can return to the park post-dinner or Uber/Lyft to your resort if you're done for the day.

 

[nw6675]

Type A as well and have a formatted spreadsheet that I reuse every trip. As a pp mentioned, I calculate out the estimated meal price, tax, and tip to just get a general budget. It has dates, parks, ADR info, etc. No rides listed other than ILL plans.

We plan around meals, but have a general park plan. I make the park reservations and then try to get the TS ADRs based on that. I have a solid plan until about the week before we leave.

Then my whole type A goes out the window and I start picking up others cancelled ADRs, changing parks, and wrecking all my planning. We often cancel with short notice by modifying first.

We used Genie +, ILL, and stacked for parkhopping using times around our TS. We did not eat at any QS our last trip. On trips we do, we just grab where we are without special plans since it all is just meh to us.

Enjoy your planning and rock your type A. However, let it loose when the trip nears/starts and use it to replan as needed.

 

[Jenis]

Type A here too. For me it was different when we had FP. Our first trip with Genie+ is coming up and I'm finding I just can't plan everything out like I'm used to because there are so many more variables with Genie+.

Once I picked our parks, I picked where we were eating based on what I know our family likes. We are rope dopers and we typically stay until the parks close. Because of that, we choose to use our meals as breaks. We'll have a sit-down meal between 10-11 and then and second around 5/6. That also gives us freedom to snack when we want. I'm struggling planning out our rides, but my thought is to make a rope drop plan and go from there based on what we're able to pull with Genie+ and what's on everyone's must do list.

I make all the plans and the list leading up to our trip and use them as a guide once we're there. I do my best, as best as a type A can, to live in the moment with my kids and not stress if things didn't go exactly as I had planned.

 

[loves to dive]

Opposite of Type A, we don't plan a darn thing. Sometimes if we are too hungry for words right now, we will go to a QS close by. Sometimes while walking around one of us will say, you know I think I want TS tonight. The other will say o.k. when and where. First person, don't know. So I'll hop on MDE and find everything that is available that late afternoon/night. Throw the options out into the wind and we book an ADR from there. We don't look at menus, there is always something we can eat any where. We like trying new places and we always have hoppers so the park doesn't matter. We rarely eat at DS just because we don't really like going there but that's it. No ADRs in advance, no looking at menus, no plan.

 

[MomOTwins]

ok where are my type A people at? how do those of you who plan every detal decide where to eat every single day? especially for lunch in the parks? if you're going Quick Service do you just stop and eat at the closest place wherever you happen to be? if you're doing sit down do you plan your whole itinerary around location of the restaurants (as in planning rides for before and after the meal in the same area of the park as the restaurant) feeling overwhelmed

If you go to the official Disney website you can filter it to show quick service and filter for a specific park. Look at the menus and decide what appeals to you. We mobile order in the morning so that we don’t have to wait around in lunch time and e plan to make our way toward the restaurant about 15 mins ahead of our mobile order time.

 

[RoseGold]

I used to be Type A, but I don't see how this works with modern G+. I know the menus pretty well, and QS is much improved after Covid. It's never an issue to order something when we are hungry.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

ok where are my type A people at? how do those of you who plan every detal decide where to eat every single day? especially for lunch in the parks? if you're going Quick Service do you just stop and eat at the closest place wherever you happen to be? if you're doing sit down do you plan your whole itinerary around location of the restaurants (as in planning rides for before and after the meal in the same area of the park as the restaurant) feeling overwhelmed

So I am totally type A but we've gone to disney enough that I'm no longer that OCD over planning every single detail and we are really loose on food since we know where we like to eat. It's also hard to be so controlling on the schedule since I will change park days based on hours/events if need be, and sometimes those are added much closer to our actual trip. Also, the advent of the Genie throws a monkey wrench in my planner spirit most of the time so unless we have some place we are dying to try that requires an ADR, we are mostly QS people. Plus, booking ADRs takes a chunk of time out of park touring and while we love to try new foods and eat good stuff, we are more park/attraction focused. And we end up snacking a lot, so we find sitting down for a meal is a waste for our family since a lot of the portions at the parks are huge.

Take some time to review the park map, what rides you'll want to do and scope out QS and TS places nearby and see what peaks your interest. You can probably cross off a good amount from your prospect list after you look at the menu and see if it appeals to you or not. Decide if you will have G+ or not for that park, if you'll stay in the park to eat or maybe resort hop or head back to your resort and eat. Which depending on where you're staying, scope out your resort/hotel dining options. We end up grabbing a quick breakfast or late night bite at our hotels so we end up really only having one meal at the parks a lot of times.

If we have G+ for a park, I usually avoid any ADRs since we have no idea what ride times we'll get. If we do have somewhere specific we want to reserve, I'll build the day around that and avoid G+/LL times around that meal. If you book any ADRs, leave yourself a little cushion for ride reservations before/after just in case you run long on the front/back end.

I usually have a general idea of where we like to eat and mobile order our meal from there. Depending on time of year and crowds, I may pre-order our meals a few hours in advance just because mobile pick up times are not necessarily when you decide it's time to eat and could be an hour or more out. You can order at the register for quick service but the line will be long since most QS restaurants will only have one register open. Mobile ordering is just a lot easier once you get the hang of it. Pick QS places that have indoor dining if that's important to you and try to eat at off times to avoid crowds, that always helps.

 

[set88]

I made a list of all the QS restaurants we might be interested in and their locations, along with the menu items from each we'd most likely order. Main reason for this was because hubby has to eat gluten free and I wanted to know which restaurants have the best GF options.

I plan to have the list with us on my phone for when we're in the parks. We'll just look at it when we're getting hungry and pick based on distance + which one has the things we most want to eat at the time.

 

[JayMass]

Not necessarily an A type but I like to a get rough estimated plan for Disney that allows flexibility yet optimizes our time. For dining I make a list of all the restaurants we have not tried but seem like they'd be good based on podcasts and YouTube videos we all watch leading up to our ADR window. I then make a doc and share with the fam (DW, DD16, DS16). I ask them to check off the ones they want to try. I then crosscheck that list with park reservations we have, and try to score as many as we can (for TS anyway.) I then go back and change park reservations if I need to depending on what I got. Then, when we get there, we sort of estimate how we aree all feeling, how much we've spent, and make decisions about whether to keep or drop reservations (hopefully 24 hours in advance).

Here's a quick example: We stayed at Bay Lake Tower this past week and a Cali Grill resi came up on our first night. We ended up grabbing it and canceling the Topolino's Terrace we had booked for later in the week. Decided we couldn't afford two big signature dinners, Cali Grill was in our hotel, and we were too tired from traveling to trek over to Disney Springs where we had planned to go earlier. Cali Grill ended up being our favorite meal of the whole trip!

So I try to be organized but also flexible!

 

[tguz]

We are mostly QS people but for our 10 day Honeymoon back in Dec 2021 we decided to do 5 TS meals during our stay. We knew we were eating at The Grand Floridian Cafe (where we got engaged) and the San Angel Inn because we always wanted to eat there. That left 3 more to choose. We ended up choosing Yak & Yeti (AK), Sci Fi Diner (DHS), and Rainforrest Cafe (DS). For QS, we generally ate at places we had in the past that we liked but that time we tried Capt Cooks at the Poly. It was great because of the pulled pork nachos!!

 

[rubyeskimo]

We are another party who plans around food. DH is a little bit fussy and has his favourites so I know that we'll have to do 'Ohana on our last night, a breakfast at Tusker House and a dinner at California Grill somewhere in there. We go through menus and make a list of places we want to try and work it around our plans for the parks, which can be flexible depending on dining availability. E.g. for this upcoming trip we're staying at Beach Club and I know that we'll want to change before we go to our California Grill reservation, so I was looking for availability on days where we planned to go to either HS or Epcot just for ease of getting back to the hotel.

When it comes to quick service I make a list of all the ones in each park that have something on the menu that he'll eat and enjoy, plus a list of snacks that he loves too (I'll always find something on a menu to eat!). Then it's a case of when we're hungry, we have a ready made list to refer to and see who has mobile ordering availability there and then.

In the before times we only travelled with the dining plan (when it was offered as a free dining package) so we were a bit more strict with planning out how we needed to use our credits. This time around I know we will probably eat 1 or 2 meals a day with a snack in there if we need it, so it's a lot more relaxed and we'll be led by our hunger rather than the expectation to eat food.

 

[snikki]

I have an excel document that has each day we are going to the park, our park reservation, which G+ we will try for first thing, what ILL we plan on buying and where we plan to eat for each meal (TS, snacks, in the room, QS). It's nothing elaborate but it keeps my mind straight.

I set up our park days, including where we are going to hop that day. Then we make a list of TS places we want to go to for the trip. I then plug in that ADR where it would work best transportation and time wise. For instance I stuck Sanaa in after our morning at AK. We will go there before taking our midday pool break. I stuck SH71 lunch in during our MK day.

For QS I plan those out if we are going as a family. This eliminates the whole "what do you want, well what do you want, well there's X over there, but I want X that's over that way, but I'm not in the mood for that." If I just tell the family "oh we're going to eat at Docking Bay 7" they just say ok and move it along. I also take into account everyone's likes and dislikes. I don't necessarily plan those around exactly where we will be in the park because with G+ I'm not sure. I do know one evening we will spend most of our time at Galaxy's Edge so I do have DB7 planned.

Next trip is just DD16 and myself. When we don't have TS meals planned I just have QS/snacks planned. Most of our TS meals are lunch so I don't know how hungry we will be at dinner. We may want to get snacks or share QS or get our own meals. But her and I have about the same tastes and she's my adventurous one so we can decide quickly where to go. I DO have a running list of specific snacks and QS places/meals I want to try. So when we are hungry I will pull that up and we will pick something or a few things from that list depending on how hungry we are.

We also have a whole F&W list going for our Epcot days.

 

[tguz]

We are another party who plans around food. DH is a little bit fussy and has his favourites so I know that we'll have to do 'Ohana on our last night, a breakfast at Tusker House and a dinner at California Grill somewhere in there. We go through menus and make a list of places we want to try and work it around our plans for the parks, which can be flexible depending on dining availability. E.g. for this upcoming trip we're staying at Beach Club and I know that we'll want to change before we go to our California Grill reservation, so I was looking for availability on days where we planned to go to either HS or Epcot just for ease of getting back to the hotel.

When it comes to quick service I make a list of all the ones in each park that have something on the menu that he'll eat and enjoy, plus a list of snacks that he loves too (I'll always find something on a menu to eat!). Then it's a case of when we're hungry, we have a ready made list to refer to and see who has mobile ordering availability there and then.

In the before times we only travelled with the dining plan (when it was offered as a free dining package) so we were a bit more strict with planning out how we needed to use our credits. This time around I know we will probably eat 1 or 2 meals a day with a snack in there if we need it, so it's a lot more relaxed and we'll be led by our hunger rather than the expectation to eat food.

Loved the free dining promotion!!!

 

[ShannyMcB]

I had a list on my phone of quick service restaurants that had food my kids would eat in each park, at springs and on the monorail loop. My kids have limited pallets so knowing which places serve food they will eat saved us a lot of time and energy.

Now ask me how many times I used that list during our week long trip....twice.

They wanted to eat at the counter service at our hotel all but one afternoon. Specifically they wanted to get pizza on our way from the monorail back to our room.

We didn't plan a lot of our schedule around eating...really just around our ADRs so we were sure we had more than enough time to get where we needed to be.