New here...and haven't been to WDW 17 yrs! HELP!

Welcome! Picking a resort and choosing a dining plan are the big ones, and you've already got those covered. Next would be to start thinking about where you'd like to eat while you're in the world. You'll find we love to talk about food here. You can make your ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) 180 days before your trip. What types of food do you and your husband enjoy the most?

leslie this is a great forum everybody here is very helpful. what in particular are you wanting help with, places to eat, things to do like what i will be happy to share whatever info i can

Welcome Leslie!! We'd be happy to help!

I agree with Kris, you've got two of the biggest things already in the bag. Next I usually plan on which park I'll be in on which day, then pick my choices of where I want to eat! How many park days will you have, are you going to get park hopper tickets? I think it's pretty important to get ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) made at the 180 day mark. So again I'm echoing Kris! What sort of food do you like to eat?

u should know which dinning plan you are going to purchase before you make you adr's so you know what kind of adr's you should make. the quick service plan you don't really need adr's if you don't plan on actually going to a table service (sit down restaurant) but any other plans definetley would recommend adr's. so you guy's should probably sit down and decide where you want to eat, go through the menu's of the different restaurants, quick service, table service, signature or special themed dinning, then pick your plan so you can get what you want

Oh my goodness, where to start!?!

ADRs can be made at 180 days out from your arrival date. You will have 1 Table service Credit, 1 Quick Service Credit, and 1 Snack Credit per day per person to budget for your food. There are some restaurants that cost 2 table Service Credits for just one meal. Those tend to be the fine dining establishments, and the dinner shows. If you use an "extra" Table service credit at a 2 credit establishment, that means you will have to pay for an extra meal one day with cash. If you don't want to do that, there are plenty of 1 Table service restaurants that you can have a wonderful romantic meal at.

The Disney Food Blog has a great page explaining all the details of the dining plan here http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/disney-dining-plans/

Some of my favorite places to eat are at other Resorts like Kona Cafe, Cape May Cafe, and Whispering Canyon for Breakfast. I love Via Napoli in Epcot, and Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom.

California Grill & Yachtmans Steakhouse are my favorite 2 credit restaurants.

This is a link I like to use to see a list of all of the restaurants and copies of their menus. http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

I'm with KristenK. I love the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort and the California Grill (2 dining credits) atop the Contemporary Resort. Both are easy to get to especially if you're spending the day at the Magic Kingdom.

Christmas time is a great time to go.

We love to talk about food, so we'll be happy to give recommendations! The link Kristen gave you should get you a good start. You can't actually "trade in" credits -- There are Table Service and Counter Service credits and they can't be interchanged, but some of the more expensive restaurants costs two Table Service credits. Does that make sense?

The #1 time I have for when to go is: If you're a morning person, take advantage of it. The early hours are by far the most consistently non-crowded.

Fastpass is pretty easy. You just go get a pass and it tells you when to come back. When you come back at that time you get to stand in a much shorter line.

Park-Hoppers mean you can go to as many parks as you like in one day.

Also:

Make reservations as early as possible to get in where you want, california grill is nice for a romantic dinner, find out what time the fireworks are the night you want to go and make your res. for like an hour before that so you can watch them while you eat. dinner shows are the hoop de doo review at fort wilderness which is fun it is a show with comedie singing dancing, it is a lot of fun. the food there is salad, fried chicken, ribs, corn bread, beans, some of the beer and wine is included with your ticket. another dinner show is aloha show at the polynesian village. this is a show that tells a little history about the natives with a cool show with fire juggling and dancing and singing, the menu is similar to the hoop de doo review with an island twist. both shows are really cool!! most of the restaurants in wdw are fantastic you almost can't go wrong anywhere.

fast passes are easy just go to a ride that has a long wait and has a fast pass option, insert your park ticket and the fast pass will give you a time frame to come back to ride the ride. there is a separate line for the fast pass and regular line, the fast pass almost lets you right to the front of the line.

Also, here's a list I've compiled of the forum favorites. There are so many topics around food, that everytime more than one person recommends a restaurant, I jot it down on my list.

Kona Cafe - Polynesian Resort (my pick)

Boma - Buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge

50's Prime Time Cafe - Hollywood Studios

Whispering Canyon Cafe - Fort Wilderness Lodge

Cape May Cafe - Clambake dinner buffet - Yacht & Beach Club Resort (also a good option for a character breakfast if we want to do one)

The Wave - Contemporary Resort

Biergarten - Epcot Germany

Tutto Italia - Epcot Italy

Restaurant Marrakesh - Epcot Morroco

Chefs De France - Epcot France

Rose & Crown - Epcot England

Wolfgang Puck - Downtown Disney

Tony's Town Square - Magic Kingdom

Tusker House - Animal Kingdom for a Character Breakfast Option

Boatrights - Port Orleans Resort

We love planning WDW Trips ....Half the Fun is mapping out your vacation and picking out dinners and what parks to go to .. the biggest thing is planning your meals around the Park your visiting that day...less time traveling on boats and buses = more time in Parks we will be there December 9 thru the 16th

Hi! leslie1106 and welcome to WDWFG, you should be able to find the answers to ALL your questions here and in the rare case that you can't, just ask, someone will know the answer. We are a very friendly and knowledgeable bunch of Disney lovers.

& because going to the world at christmas time is an awesome experience. All the lights and decorations are amazing. You won't want to miss seeing the osborne family spectacle of dancing lights at night time in HS.

if you look around the web you can find some disney planning sites that will give you the best days to visit which park, and what time of year is typically the slowest crowd wise, one sit is wdwplaning, or you can google dis, the other is vacationplaning.com i think. they are not always totally accurate but they are pretty good. the best part is you have the park hopper so if you go to one park and it is crazy you can always leave and go to another. i have found that typically the parks with the early magic hours are usually a lot more crowded during the early part of the day

Welcome Leslie. An important date to remember is 06/19 - this is the day you can start making your ADRs. Since you are staying on property, you can make them for your entire stay.

Here's another link listing Disney restaurants.

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/disney-world-restaurants-guide/

I would like to suggest Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom.

Welcome to the best Disney board around Can't wait to hear all about your trip What made you and your hubby to decide to go back to the world after not being there since you were little?

Hi Leslie1106, I'm late to the party but to WDWForGrownUps! We think it's one of the friendliest forums on the net, and we hope you enjoy being a member. Have at it with your questions, we're here to help!

Welcome Welcome Welcome! So glad your here and your heading back to one of the greatest places on earth!

In all honesty... the easiest answer to your question is this forum. I have learned so much by being on this forum that even though I have been to Disney a bunch of times before... I learned so much on how to plan the next trip and the next and so on. Also... biggest answer to your question is to ask TONS of questions. I would say we won't bite, but Hub would say otherwise.... So ask us anything... seriously. If one of us don't know the question... someone else does... thats whats so great about this forum. There isn't a stupid question, you won't get mocked for it, and all questions are great questions.