Dining Without ADRs

[MMouse6937]

I never thought I would be posting a question like this as it goes against everything my crazy Disney planning brain believes in ;)

But, I wanted to find out if anyone had any feedback about what it was like during free dining this year to get a table anywhere without an ADR. Next year we have the bounceback free dining special from 9/8-9/15. My DH wants to take it "easy" this trip and kinda "wing it". WHAT??? Anyhoo, we are making ADRs for the Hoop De Do and Le Cellier for dinner. We are staying at the Contemporary.

Now, I'm not talking about EPCOT WS or signature dining so much, I just mean buffets and that type of thing. Also, if I call WDW-DINE that day can they tell me what has availabilty if we decide we would like to eat something specific.

Yikes, this is going to be a hard trip to "plan" Thanks for your input, you guys are great!!

:)

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I think you already know the answer to this!

Could you get a table, somewhere at some time without and ADR? Probably, but not at the places and times you will want.

We were there the last couple of years during free-dining, and it was crazy...very, very few walk-ups were being taken that we saw.

So, I would book some ADR's...

[Mollywobbles]

I've never been during the free dining times, but I've heard the restaurants are extra busy. Even with the non-free DDP, the restaurants seem to be busier. I think that it would be best to make ADR to be sure that you get the restaurants and the times that you want. I'm sure that you could possibly get same-day seating if you called the very first thing in the morning, but even then it may not be the time that you want. Same-day reservations seem to go fast. This past trip of mine (a little over two weeks ago) I tried to get a walk-up seating for Rose and Crown Pub around lunch time. The hostess told me that they were booked up for the rest of the day.

Best wishes with your trip planning!

[#1donaldfan]

It sure looks like the trend is to get ADR's...if not, your waiting, waiting, waiting....if I'm going to wait in a line, it's going to be for a ride, not a meal. I am truly a "fly by night" kinda vacationer, and at first I loathed the idea of making ADR's, but now it's almost a must. So, we've sorta evolved into a part time "fly by nighter"...I hope I helped some...

[mermaidmarian]

I never thought I would be posting a question like this as it goes against everything my crazy Disney planning brain believes in ;)

But, I wanted to find out if anyone had any feedback about what it was like during free dining this year to get a table anywhere without an ADR. Next year we have the bounceback free dining special from 9/8-9/15. My DH wants to take it "easy" this trip and kinda "wing it". WHAT??? Anyhoo, we are making ADRs for the Hoop De Do and Le Cellier for dinner. We are staying at the Contemporary.

Now, I'm not talking about EPCOT WS or signature dining so much, I just mean buffets and that type of thing. Also, if I call WDW-DINE that day can they tell me what has availabilty if we decide we would like to eat something specific.

Yikes, this is going to be a hard trip to "plan" Thanks for your input, you guys are great!!

:)

If you want to *wing it*, unless there are substantial changes made to the current ADR system between now and your trip, you should plan most of your unscheduled meals as CS and hope to get lucky on a lark with a last minute cancellation or a walk up. We were at WDW in late August right before and going into the free dining period and not on the dining plan. We were not able to get one single TS request filled - which was okay with us as we don't do much TS dining at WDW anyway - but every time I called to check availability, with pretty wide open parameters (really the only limitation would be the number in our party: 3), we could not get anything.

You and your DH may want to compromise a little and make a couple more ADR's for meals you really wouldn't want to have to revert to CS for, and then have fun making it up as you go along the rest of the way.

[TBY2225]

I was in WDW September 22nd-30th 2007. We did have ADR's, but we asked or overheard at every resturant we ate at if they were taking walk-ups. Ohana, Kona, 50's Prime Time, Boma, Whispering Canyon, and Wolf Gang Pucks cafe were with 35-45 minute waits. I didn't think that was bad being during free dining. It might have been because these were all outside the parks except for 50's. The only 2 of ours that were not taking walk-ups were Le Cellier and Rose and Crown. If you are willing to be flexable, and you think it is worth the risk go for it! I might make a few ADR's just in case. You can always cancel them later. We are also booked again for next year!

[bkfree]

Our last trip we went in January, during one of the lowest crowds week. Crowds extremely low and very little waiting in lines for rides.
We did make ADR's for every day.
SO glad we did because even though the parks were very managable and easy, the restaurants were full each night and had a 60-90 minute wait for walkups. Every TS, every night was telling all the walk ups this. So I could not imagine going any other time and especially during free dining without ADR's.
Look, you can easily cancel them if you don't want it or see if somewhere else has an opening. But, I would be a nervous wreck each day wondering about our dining, unless I was happy to just eat CS each day.
There are so many restaurants that we do each time and new ones that we want to try and that for us is a big part of the Disney experience and a part I do not want to leave to chance. No matter how hectic or busy our days may be at WDW, I find peace and comfort knowing that at least once each day I will have a table ready and waiting for me.:thumbsup:

[septembergirl]

We were there for FD in September and decided to rearrange our planning a little. We were able to get a lunch ADR for Tony's around 10am at guest services at Town Hall in MK. The ADR was for 12 something which turned out to be perfect.
We were also able to get 50's PT upon arrival one morning at MGM (also at the guest services). The ADR was for around 11:40a.
I call WDW-Dine several times while we were there to get ADRs for Boma and Ohana but was unsuccessful as well as once for Kona Cafe. I wonder if I might have had more luck if we had actually gone to Kona and checked but we didn't want to take the time to make the trip just in case.

[MMouse6937]

I talked to DH last night and told him we should really make ADRs for places that we think we might want to eat and then if we get up and around and decide it's not what we want to do we can just cancel. I told him it would be a shame to really want to eat somewhere and not be able to get in. He agreed *whew* so I'm back to planning and hoping he'll just go with my flow!! :D Thanks for all the input!