31 Days:: Meal Planning Trackers

{Dining Series}

Welcome to today's topic: Meal Planning Trackers! Today I'll be sharing two printable trackers that I find are very useful for planning out your meals. These trackers will be most useful once you've decided whether you'll be bringing your meals, eating at the parks, or a mix of both. Over the next week or so, I'll be sharing about my favorite meal spots at the parks, as well as sharing some of the perks of bringing your meals. I'll wrap up the mini "Dining Series" with how I use these trackers to actually meal plan before heading on vacation!

Tracker 1:: Bring/Buy
Most useful if you'll be mostly bringing your meals to the parks or a combination of bringing/eating out.

{download tracker 1 here}

In the Meals column, I write down what we're having or where we're going for that meal... ie. rice and beans or Be Our Guest Restaurant. If we're eating in or bringing that meal, I put an "x" through the Time and Confirm# columns. If we're eating out that meal, I fill in our reservation time and confirmation number in those columns! The Notes column I may use to jot down what park we'll be at that day or order# if we have to pick up tickets in the park (ie. Dining With Shamu tickets at Sea World) or maybe write down the Quiet Place where we want to eat our meal that we brought with us to the parks that day. Here's a sneak peek of how I'm using this tracker for our upcoming trip...

Tracker 2:: In Park Eating

Most useful if you're going to be eating mostly at the parks. This tracker has room for your reservation numbers. It also has an area to track what type of meal you're using (Quick Service or Table Service), which will be useful to have if you're on the Disney Dining Plan (more info about that on the 19th!).

{download tracker 2 here}

In the yellow column, I write down which day of the trip it is, the date, and perhaps what park we'll be going to that day. Then I fill in our restaurant names and confirmation numbers for each meal. In the grey column, I fill in what time our meal reservation is, and if we're on the Disney Dining Plan, I plug in a "Q" or "T" to keep track of our Quick Service meals and Table Service meals. If there was an evening show we were hoping to catch (and make sure we planned our meals with enough time to stake out a good seat for said show!), I filled that in in the last columns along with the showtime(s). Here's an example of how I used this meal tracker on our last trip...

If you have any questions about these trackers, would like a customized version, or would even like an Excel spreadsheet version to fill in on your own computer, please leave a comment or send me an email!! Check back in tomorrow when I'll be sharing some tips about bringing your meals to the parks!