Disney World Planning – Family Meeting Nights

Hey folks! Thanks for keeping up with my Disney World Planning Series as I plan my September family vacation to Walt Disney World! If you missed the other articles in this series you can check them out here.

I am now  172 days away from my vacation. This means that we have selected the restaurants we wish to eat at and made our dining reservations. Guests are able to make your dining reservations 180 days before your arrival and it is highly recommended that you do so. Check out Chip’s Post on 100 Disney Foods to Eat Before you Die.

There are over 100 dining locations at Disney world and picking which ones you will dine at can be a daunting task. This is why our family has a meeting to discuss our choices. My husband enjoys our trips, but he’s not a super fan as I am. He used to get sick of my non stop Disney talk so our solution was to have a few pre determined Disney planning nights where I could gush and talk Disney all night long.

Our first meeting for our September trip was to determine our dining choices and our must dos. Leading up to family planning night I make sure I have the park hours and dining menus available. Since I know the park hours and have already determined where we will be each night we can plan our dining choices accordingly.

During a family planning night it is important that everyone gets to voice their opinions. It is not just my vacation and I have to be careful to listen to the wants of everyone in my group!

Quick Tip: it is extra fun to have a Disney themed meal on a planning night! I use Disney themed place settings to add to the fun!

This trip will include our son who will be 16 months, my sister and brother in law, my mom, my husband and Me. We determined that since it is my sons first trip, this will be a trip of firsts! Too often we get stuck in a rut of doing the same things over and over. Each individual in our group picked a place to eat they had always wanted to try and never had! We ended up with some great reservations including Le Cellier, Citricos, Boma, Tusker House, Liberty Tree Tavern, and Cape May Cafe. By including everyone in the decision making we are each able to look forward to trying something new!

The next thing we did is we each submitted 2-3 must do’s.

Here they are:

Me: Splash, Kali River, Rock n Rollercoaster

Husband: Everest, Big Thunder Mountain

Sister: kilimanjaro safari, barnstormer

Brother in law: mission space

Mom: Living with the Land, Small World

Baby: Dumbo, Pooh

Quick Tip: make sure you force yourself to try a few new things during your trip! You’ll be surprised how quickly your list of favorites grows as you try new rides or attractions.

These choices become our master list of must do attractions. With this list I can do something super cool using the Lines app on my iPad. Lines is developed by the creators of Touring Plans and is my favorite planning tool. On the app they not only supply you with pre made touring plans, but you can design your own as well! Simply plug in the attractions you wish to see and it will generate a touring plan just for you!  The only feature I wish it had is a place to plug in your dining reservations so it would know when and how long your breaks would be. There is an optimize feature so when you do break you can refresh your plan. I am creating our plans right now!

How do you plan what attractions you will visit? Have any tips you’d like to share?

Related articles

• Disney World is Not Just for Kids (chipandco.com)
• Disney World Dining without Reservations (chipandco.com)

Let our friends at Destinations to Travel help you book your next Disney Vacation. They are the preferred Travel Agency of Chip and Company and Disney Addicts, and who we use ourselves.

Get started below for your FREE No Obligation Quote.

Book With our friends at Destinations to Travel

Who is your Travel Agent?(Required)

Let us pick for youEric HilesStacy ReedAbbey JohnsonAlisa SullivanAlli WillisAmanda FolsomAmanda VannAmber BrillhartAmber FisherAmy SieburnAndrea SmithAngela AndersonAngie BaycuraAnna PetrilliAnnabelle DuboseApril StefanskiAshley RamseyBeth ParsonsBetsy SantoroBrandie McQueenBrian BuckleyBridget HatchBryan SchwartzCandice SneedCarrie ButlerCarson DockumCasey BoltCharleen HortonChelsea RoyChelsea WuebkerChris BoyerChristie GrubeChristina FratturaChristina SmithCourtney WhiteCraig YoderDan MercedDanielle NorcrossDarby MouritsenDavid ForrestDeborah AlvaradoEmilee BiegelEmily MorrisFaith HakesGail HatchGreg MatzkerHelen HummerHolly CurryJackie CavistonJaclyn PepitoneJamie SwansonJeanine JordanJeff CallahanJenni MaierJennifer BrownJennifer StephensonJennifer StoessnerJessica HatfieldJessica HuffJessica WunderJoe GuertinJon CarpentierJoseph SliwaJulie McCombJustin BrownKat AttridgeKathryn EberhartKathy AndersonKatie HarrellKatie PrevotKayla CookKelsey SullensKim HelmsKimberly HutchinsonKristi GallagherKyle RamsdenLauren DewlenLeanne MonterLinda DurhamLindsay AckermannLindsey VromanLissette BritoLori HardyMallory MorrisonMandi QuinnMaranda PerkinsMarisa AlvaradoMegan TeismannMeghan BlairMelissa ReedMichele KlineMike BeyerMissy McCormickMisty DickersonNancy CasteelNicole ThorntonPatrick O'ConnorPaul SulPeyton Ward-KubikRaylene CooganRegan OstranderRobbie BulusRobert ThomasSara SolbergSarah McCandlishShanna BrowningShelley BennettShelly MetzStacy CristStacy KrzyminskiStacy SmithStephanie DraganoStephanie FerencStephanie WalshSusannah McCordTara SlusserTerri MillerTiffany DobraskiTiffany DrenkhahnTina FarmerTonya LesiukTracy DaneTroy DuncanVeronica RenteriaVicki FesslerWendy CarllWendy HauserWendy KellehanWendy Shelley

Name(Required)

First Last

Email(Required)

Phone(Required)

Destination(Required)

Walt Disney WorldDisneyland ResortDisney Cruise LineAulani, A Disney Resort and SpaAulani, A Disney Resort and SpaUniversal FloridaUniversal HollywoodRoyal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian or other Cruise LineI don't know yet

# of Adults(Required)

# of Children(Required)

Check-in-Date(Required)

MM slash DD slash YYYY

Check-out-Date(Required)

MM slash DD slash YYYY

Comments, Questions or Special Requests

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

For the BEST in Disney, Universal, Dollywood, and SeaWorld Theme Park News, Entertainment, Merchandise & More follow us on, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Don't forget to check out the Chip and Company Radio Network too!