Dear Meghan,
Thank you so much for stopping by to visit us here at the Disney Parks Moms Panel with your great question about planning ahead for your upcoming Walt Disney World Resort vacation!
It can be a bit of a challenge to plan out some of these specifics, based on the 180-day calendar. Most times, the parks are open similar hours as the days preceding the days that you plan to travel, so you can begin to get an idea. I usually plan out my
Advanced Dining Reservations, book them, and then adjust them a bit if the park hours change. For most restaurants, you should have no problem adjusting things slightly. For the "hard to get" reservations, you may end up changing your park choice and planning a bit around the reservation itself. Either way, it always seems to work out just fine! It's kind of an "imperfect science," as they would say.
Hope that helps with your magical planning!
- Jan K.