When Would You Narrow Down PPO Meal?

TheOneWithTheTriplets

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
I have BoG ADRs for PPO breakfast and lunch on two of my MK days for my upcoming trip (4 reservations in total). One of the days, I'd like to let the kids see the opening show and RD Tomorrowland, then work our way up to Fantasyland for the lunch reservation. The other day, we'll do the BoG PPO to get a first ride on SDMT but won't go back for lunch. FWIW, we're on the DDP, so the fact that the breakfast is insanely overpriced is irrelevant.

I know which days I'd like to do which, but I booked duplicates to hedge for Disney changing park hours. They've done the first round of park hour updates for my trip (the dates in question are 2/28 and 3/6) and my mornings haven't been impacted. Neither date has EMM, so there's still the possibility that Disney will move to an 8am open on either day.

When would you cancel your duplicates? I know Disney can make park hours changes even the week of, so part of me says that I sit on them until the last minute. Even then, if I RD on 2/28, they could change the hours after that and make my 8am on 3/6 useless. On the other hand, I'm holding competitive reservations that I know someone else would snag in a minute.

Thoughts?
 


I will be the dissenting voice here. I feel strongly that it is really unfair to “hedge” reservations. Sure they will be picked up when you finally cancel. But it is likely that another family is disappointed that they cannot book their ADR now, like you did.
I hate to read these threads.
 
I will be the dissenting voice here. I feel strongly that it is really unfair to “hedge” reservations. Sure they will be picked up when you finally cancel. But it is likely that another family is disappointed that they cannot book their ADR now, like you did.
I hate to read these threads.

I tend to agree. I know that planning can be difficult, and initially it makes sense to book what you think you may want, but how hard is it to tweak those plans and let go of the extra in a timely manner?

I used to book one PPO meal in every park but DHS> however I know that my family can only be dragged out that early one time per trip, so once I have the meals in place I settle on the one they will enjoy the most and drop the other two. I figure if planning is important to me, it is as important to others and while there is an argument that they never go to waste, it just seems so selfish to hoard them all.
 
I tend to agree. I know that planning can be difficult, and initially it makes sense to book what you think you may want, but how hard is it to tweak those plans and let go of the extra in a timely manner?

I used to book one PPO meal in every park but DHS> however I know that my family can only be dragged out that early one time per trip, so once I have the meals in place I settle on the one they will enjoy the most and drop the other two. I figure if planning is important to me, it is as important to others and while there is an argument that they never go to waste, it just seems so selfish to hoard them all.

I tend to agree with this as well. Book what you may want, but narrow it down in a timely manner so that others can plan their time as well.

Yes, someone may snag them up after there’s a last-minute cancellation but that doesn’t typically help someone who planned as if they were not going to get that reservation. For example, if I’ve planned my FP for HS at 60 days because there was no PPO Garden Grill to be had, I’m not likely to go trying to change all of my plans the night or week before when it opens up (I would possibly lose the FP doing that because I’m not going to get Slinky Dog FP a week before we go).

Some people are more flexible with planning than this and are happy to snag that last-minute ADR but I figure if I’m trying to plan ahead for my family, plenty of others are doing the same and hoarding ADR’s makes it harder on everyone.

Part of planning is deciding what the priorities are. Yes, Disney can change the opening time for the day you keep the PPO breakfast for, and in that case the decision would be “is it more important to see the opening show or to have BOG breakfast? Could we re-work the day we have BOG lunch a little to see the opening show if we skip it to go to breakfast?”
 


but how hard is it to tweak those plans and let go of the extra in a timely manner?

Yes, Disney can change the opening time for the day you keep the PPO breakfast for, and in that case the decision would be “is it more important to see the opening show or to have BOG breakfast? Could we re-work the day we have BOG lunch a little to see the opening show if we skip it to go to breakfast?”

The thing is, I don't just want breakfast at BoG, I want the PPO breakfast with getting to see fantasyland (nearly) empty and having a ride on SDMT before the crowds hit. If that day becomes an 8am open, I drop the breakfast, no question, and take advantage of the shorter morning lines.

It's not my planning that's making it hard to finalize my ADRs, it's Disney's habit of changing hours. If I knew definitely that the hours would stick, I'd cancel extras right now.

People always say Disney can change the park hours up to the day before, but how often does that actually happen? If they've made their first round of tweaks to my dates, are those hours relatively firm or is their usually a second chunk in the month, week, etc before my dates?

I don't want to keep adrs other people want, but I also got up early five months ago specifically to nab this particular experience and I don't want to lose out if I don't have to.
 
The thing is, I don't just want breakfast at BoG, I want the PPO breakfast with getting to see fantasyland (nearly) empty and having a ride on SDMT before the crowds hit. If that day becomes an 8am open, I drop the breakfast, no question, and take advantage of the shorter morning lines.

It's not my planning that's making it hard to finalize my ADRs, it's Disney's habit of changing hours. If I knew definitely that the hours would stick, I'd cancel extras right now.

People always say Disney can change the park hours up to the day before, but how often does that actually happen? If they've made their first round of tweaks to my dates, are those hours relatively firm or is their usually a second chunk in the month, week, etc before my dates?

I don't want to keep adrs other people want, but I also got up early five months ago specifically to nab this particular experience and I don't want to lose out if I don't have to.

I 100% agree with your reasoning! I’d say most hours are “set” when Disney does its big adjustment the month before - usually in the middle of the month for the following month (so mid-January for February). They might still do some tweaking after that (especially during really crowded times like Spring Break), but I’d feel pretty confident with my plans at that point. BUT, if a PPO ADR was a really big deal to me, I’d hang on to it just in case.
 
The thing is, I don't just want breakfast at BoG, I want the PPO breakfast with getting to see fantasyland (nearly) empty and having a ride on SDMT before the crowds hit. If that day becomes an 8am open, I drop the breakfast, no question, and take advantage of the shorter morning lines.

It's not my planning that's making it hard to finalize my ADRs, it's Disney's habit of changing hours. If I knew definitely that the hours would stick, I'd cancel extras right now.

People always say Disney can change the park hours up to the day before, but how often does that actually happen? If they've made their first round of tweaks to my dates, are those hours relatively firm or is their usually a second chunk in the month, week, etc before my dates?

I don't want to keep adrs other people want, but I also got up early five months ago specifically to nab this particular experience and I don't want to lose out if I don't have to.

I understand the reasoning for the PPO BOG. The park hours typically don’t change after the adjustment that gets made the month before.

I also got up early 6 months before my trip, as did many others. At 60 days prior I will have to get up again to book my FP, just like many others. I will book my FP based on which park I plan to go to for that day, which is sometimes (most times) based on where I was able to get an ADR. At that point, it’s done. If Disney changes their hours around 30 days before my trip, I have to make a decision (change park days? Possibly lose FP? Give up an ADR?) because there just isn’t always a way to have it all.
 
The thing is, I don't just want breakfast at BoG, I want the PPO breakfast with getting to see fantasyland (nearly) empty and having a ride on SDMT before the crowds hit. If that day becomes an 8am open, I drop the breakfast, no question, and take advantage of the shorter morning lines.

It's not my planning that's making it hard to finalize my ADRs, it's Disney's habit of changing hours. If I knew definitely that the hours would stick, I'd cancel extras right now.

People always say Disney can change the park hours up to the day before, but how often does that actually happen? If they've made their first round of tweaks to my dates, are those hours relatively firm or is their usually a second chunk in the month, week, etc before my dates?

I don't want to keep adrs other people want, but I also got up early five months ago specifically to nab this particular experience and I don't want to lose out if I don't have to.
Agreed!
Disney has been making it less and less possible to really "plan". We all do our due diligence, and it's sometimes for naught!
Keep your PPO breakfast ADRs until you know which one you'll be using. And don't let anyone else guilt you into changing your plans. You did the work, enjoy it and know that if and when you do drop an ADR, you will be making someone else's day!
 
As long as you follow Disney's cancellation policy, I'd keep them. When our kids were little, we actually would dine at the same restaurant multiple times during our trip as they so loved the restaurant dining experience. So we've had multiple reservations for the same restaurant and used them!
 
They've done the first round of park hour updates for my trip (the dates in question are 2/28 and 3/6) and my mornings haven't been impacted. Neither date has EMM, so there's still the possibility that Disney will move to an 8am open on either day.
3/6 has EMH at night, so I doubt they’d open at 8am. I’d stay with that and release the 28th.
 
It's weird, MK doesn't have a single 8am regular open for the rest of February or any of March. They've done late extended hours, and certainly there are EMM and EMH, but no general opens at 8am. Have they moved away from them in favor of these ticketed events, or do you think it's just the time of year? Later in March usually gets pretty extended hours for Spring Break, right?
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top