Walt Disney World Part 2: Dining and FastPass+ Reservations

 

This post is finally live!! Thanks for the patience -- I traveled for work this last week, and after sitting in conference sessions for 8+ hours, I’m generally pretty much on brain-overload!

(How do we expect our children to learn that way?! Ugh - another topic for a different day…) And honestly y’all - this anti-blog is for FUN for me, so I’m going at my own pace ;)

Before we dig in, I have to congratulate Rebecca Simpson for being the winner of the Disney ears! Thanks to ALL of you who have subscribed so far and were entered to win. Keep an eye out for another Disney giveaway at the end of this series!

 

Today’s post is part 2 of the Walt Disney World series: Dining & FastPass+ Reservations

A quick reminder that this series will be broken up in 6 parts:

  1. The Planning - part 1
  2. The Planning - part 2 - dining and FastPass+ reservations
  3. The Packing
  4. Departure day: our travel experience flying and arriving at Disney
  5. Our review of our resort, Disney Beach Club
  6. The Parks

And to wrap it up, one of my BFFs, Kelly, went to WDW with us - so she’ll be doing a guest blog post to share her perspective, since they drove with 2 small boys from Pennsylvania to Florida, and targeted a lot of their activities towards the boys.

And of course, DISCLAIMER: I am NOT being compensated for any of this content. This is an UNBIASED review of OUR EXPERIENCE as first-time WDW visitors, with 3 kids under the age of 5. If you were to be visiting WDW as say, a honeymooning couple, I expect your experience will be vastly different :)

Dining Reservations:

Since we were staying at a Walt Disney World Resort (on property, at Beach Club) then we could book dining reservations beginning 180 days before our arrival date. Booking online starts at 6 a.m EST online or on the My Disney Experience app, or at 7 a.m. EST by calling (407) WDW-DINE.

RESERVATION TIP: I had much better luck using my laptop to book dining, than the app. (I honestly found the Disney app to be super glitchy throughout all our planning and trip... don't worry, I offered that feedback in a Disney survey ;))

There are also different “categories” for your dining reservation:

1. Quick service - walk-up to counter, order, get food on a tray - but it’s DELICIOUS FOOD!! Not just hot dogs and fries lol. My fav quick service was at DLuxe Burger in Disney Springs.

Photo from our dinner at DLuxe Burger in Disney Springs - a frickin' amazing quick service meal, if you ask me.

 

2. Table service - restaurant with a server. And some fancy restaurants are worth TWO table service credits.

3. Snacks - like from a cart, etc.

A great resource for dining plan is here: https://www.undercovertourist.com/blog/ins-outs-disneys-advance-dining-reservation-system/ and don’t forget that my friend Jen Archer is here to help! Message me for her contact information.

Our travel agent did offer to make dining and FastPass+ reservations for us, but sometimes I’m a little OCD and just want to do things myself - like this. Haha!

Like I mentioned in post 1, we had purchased the Disney Dining Plan, so I originally really wanted to make sure that we were getting “the most” out of it. My warning, though: you can find a lot of YouTube videos and blogs on “how to get the most of your dining plan”, but in my opinion, don’t get too caught up on it ESPECIALLY on your first trip! Just focus on eating good food.

For allllllll the Disney dining tips, follow @DisneyFoodBlog on Instagram and scope out their website for all the vlogs/blogs on Disney food. They also have amazing YouTube videos and reviews that I literally would just lay in bed and watch every night while planning!!

 

FastPass+ Reservations

Now that dining was booked, I had to wait a few weeks to book FastPass+ reservations. FastPass+ reservations can be made 60 days in advance of your trip, IF you’re staying on WDW property. These can be used on select attractions, shows and Character Greetings - but not all.

You get 3 FastPass+ reservations at a time - but a tip to keep in mind when you are THERE, is that once you’re in line for a FastPass+ reservation, you can book another one. So keep your app handy while in the lines at the park.

I did some research on the best rides for kiddos around the ages of ours, and settled on rides like Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo (in Magic Kingdom), Frozen Ever After (in Epcot), and Kilimanjaro Safaris (in Animal Kingdom).

When you get to the park, there are 2 lines at the entrance - the FastPass+ line and the regular line. They will display wait times for each line, because even if you have a FastPass+, you may still have to wait. Luckily, that didn’t happen to us! You’ll then scan your MagicBand and head down the appropriate path!

For more FastPass+ tips (because I ain’t trying to recreate the wheel here, you guys): visit 5 FastPass+ Tips You Need to Know!

 

My biggest tip when it comes to booking dining and FastPass+:

Try to be organized!

I LOVE a good list. I made a Google spreadsheet to outline which day we will be in which park, which helped guide me in where to book reservations. But we also wanted a little flexibility with the kids - so we left most of our dinners open. I’ll share my format below that I stole from my friend Kelly - so feel free to steal, too. ;)

Sidenote: while I’m a planner, my husband definitely is NOT.

(If you’ve taken the Enneagram test… he’s a 7 and I’m a 2. We’ll get into that in another post… but basically, he “likes to party” and I “like to help”. Ha!)

I literally had to force him to sit down with me the day before we left to review all the dining and FastPass+ plans. So you aren’t alone if you feel like one if you is doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to the planning!

 

1/29/19

Magic Kingdom

Meals:

 

Breakfast

In room

Lunch

Be Our Guest (1 counter service credit) at 11:30am

Dinner

Room service

Parks, Etc:

 

Early Morning

Magic Kingdom

Late Morning

Magic Kingdom

Early Afternoon

Leave after lunch at Be Our Guest

Late Afternoon

Hotel Nap 1-4

Evening

Magic Kingdom

Late Evening

Magic Kingdom

Notes:

 

Parade

 

Evening Show

Fireworks at MK

FastPass to

Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Meet Ariel

   

1/30/19

Animal Kingdom

Meals:

 

Breakfast

Cape May (1 TS credit) 7:45am

Lunch

Yak & Yeti in AK (1 CS credit) 11:30

Dinner

DLuxe Burger in Disney Springs

Parks, Etc:

 

Early Morning

Beach Club for breakfast

Late Morning

Animal Kingdom

Early Afternoon

Animal Kingdom

Late Afternoon

Hotel Nap 1-4pm

Early Evening

GIrls' Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Late Evening

 

Notes:

 

Parade

 

Evening Show

 

FastPass to

Kilimanjaro Safari, Na'avi River Journey, It's Tough to Be A Bug

   

1/31/19

Epcot

Breakfast

Akerhaus Princess Breakfast (1 TS credit)

Lunch

Snacks

Dinner

La Hacienda de San Angel (1 TS credit)

Parks, Etc:

 

Early Morning

Epcot Akerhaus

Late Morning

Epcot/nap

Early Afternoon

Epcot

Late Afternoon

Epcot

Early Evening

Epcot

Late Evening

Date night in Epcot - in room babysitter

Notes:

 

Parade

 

Evening Show

Epcot Fireworks

FastPass to

Frozen ride, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush

   

2/1/19

Magic Kingdom

Breakfast

in room

Lunch

Casey's Corner

Dinner

Ale & Compass at Yacht Club

Parks, Etc:

 

Early Morning

MK

Late Morning

MK

Early Afternoon

MK

Late Afternoon

swim/nap

Early Evening

dinner

Late Evening

 

Notes:

 

Parade

 

Evening Show

 

FastPass to

It's a Small World, Meet Mickey, Meet Tinkerbell



Hopefully this “organization” helps you a bit in your WDW planning!

Always feel free to comment below or send me a private message on social media for more tips or suggestions!

 

X

Kirsta

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