I have an exciting update to share with you about my October 2018 trip. I shared back in March that my family and I were discussing which restaurants we wanted to choose for our Advanced Dining Reservations, or ADRs. With so many options, from character dining to buffets to signature dining, choosing restaurants can be one of the more stressful parts of planning your trip.
This is one of the many reasons why I love working with my MousePros agent. She is a fantastic resource. She gives me her personal reviews of restaurants and is a sounding board as I try to figure out our plan. Having booked with her for the last three years, she knows my family well. She is even able to make recommendations and help me decide between restaurants.
As a reminder, our initial restaurant wish list included Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom for dinner, San Angel Inn Restaurante in the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase for lunch or dinner, Teppan Edo in the Japan Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase for lunch or dinner, Chef Mickey's in Disney's Contemporary Resort, and Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno on Disney's Boardwalk.
One of the tools that I use to help determine our plan are the menus for each restaurant, which can be accessed online at disneyworld.go.com or using the My Disney Experience app. This helped us eliminate Teppan Edo pretty early on. My kids aren't adventurous eaters, so once I saw the kids menu on the app, I knew this wouldn't be a great place for us to eat. We made a similar decision regarding Be Our Guest. In June, the dinner menu for Be Our Guest will be a pre fixe menu and that could be trouble for all of the picky eaters in my family. That is a big risk, so we decided if we went to Be Our Guest, it would be for breakfast again.
I also take into consideration the daily hours, which can also be accessed via the My Disney Experience app. If no park has early Extra Magic Hours, I'm more likely to book a breakfast reservation in a park in order to get inside the park before the crowds arrive. I also look for late Extra Magic Hours to decide where to have dinner. If a park is open late, that's where I want to be for the second half of the day.
With menus and calendars in hand, I was able to put together the following plan, which my MousePros agent then executed on by booking us the times shown below:
Day 1 - Arrival
We decided to go to Animal Kingdom on Day 1 after we arrive at our resort. We really want to see Pandora at night and even though the park closes at 8 pm, we won't mind having an early night after being up early to catch our flight. There are several Table Service restaurants inside Animal Kingdom, but knowing it is a favorite of some family members, we made a dinner reservation at Yak & Yeti for 4:45 pm.
Yak & Yeti menu from the My Disney Experience app
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot
There aren't any early Extra Magic Hours on Day 2, so we decided to use the strategy mentioned above to get into the Magic Kingdom before it opens at 9 am. We made an Advanced Dining Reservation at Be Our Guest for 8:20 am.
Breakfast at Be Our Guest (Photo Credit: Disney Parks Blog)
There are late Extra Magic Hours at Epcot® on Day 2. We know we will want to be there in the evening, so we made a dinner reservation at San Angel Inn Restaurante for 5:45 pm.
San Angel Inn menu from the My Disney Experience app
Day 3 - Hollywood Studios
No early Extra Magic Hours on this day, either, but we wanted to get to Hollywood Studios as early as possible so that we can go to Toy Story Land right away. We will be going to Hollywood & Vine for the Disney Junior Dine and Play breakfast at 8:15. From previous experience, we know that we can be done with this meal in 45 minutes, giving us plenty of time to run over to the Toy Story Land entrance before people enter the park at 9 am.
Hollywood & Vine breakfast menu from the My Disney Experience app
The evening Extra Magic Hours on Day 3 are at the Magic Kingdom. Since we'll have been there the day before, and plan to go there again the next day, I'm not sure yet if we'll go there or not in the second half of the day.
Day 4 - Epcot and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Epcot has early Extra Magic Hours on Day 4, so we will take advantage of our close proximity to the Epcot World Showcase entrance and we will head over to one of the Tier 1 rides that we weren't able to get a FastPass for.
We are hoping to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in the evening. Just in case we don't wind up doing that, we made an extra dinner reservation for Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano in Hollywood Studios.
Day 5 - Departure
The worst day of vacation - the day we have to head home! To ease the pain, we made a special breakfast reservation right at our resort, Disney's Boardwalk Inn and Resort. We will be attending the Bon Voyage Adventure character breakfast with Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and Flynn Rider at 8:45 am at Trattoria al Forno.
Characters at Trattoria al Forno Bon Voyage Breakfast (Photo Credit: Disney Parks Blog)
I am really excited to try some new restaurants this trip, such as Yak & Yeti and San Angel Inn. This is a huge part of the trip planning that is done, and I couldn't have done it without my MousePros agent. She was the one who got up to make these reservations at 6 am while I was still sleeping. MousePros can do this for you, too. Contact a member of our team or fill out our form for a free, no obligation quote on your next Disney vacation!