To ADR or To NOT ADR

[steamboat willy]

Does anyone do this? :unsure:
I know I need ADR at Ohana's :tikki: if I want to coordinate with EWP and WISHES, as well as getting a show time for the Hoop Dee Doo and for our SPECIAL Anniversary Meal to be decided. :wine: but do you make ADR every meal of your stay? We are thinking about not making ADR for all of our meal and just catch what we want if we can. Like lunch at Big River or Lunch at Cap'n Jacks, or even 50's PTC, etc....
I will make ADR's for Ohana's, Hoop Dee Doo, Yachtsman and California Grill, but we are thinking on leaving the others open to times that work for us wherever we are Park wise and whenever we feel like eating. That way if we choose to not go to DHS that evening or weather sends us Resort Hopping we are not tied to a time,Park or Resort for a 1:15 ADR. I love to plan, but I do not like being tied to a day by day and even hour by hour schedule for our vacation.
Are we making a mistake? :help:

[limegreenmonorail]

Yes, you need to make ADRs for EVERYTHING! Because so many people have the dining plan, restaurants are completely booked way in advance now, and if you don't have ADRs at every restaurant you want to go to, there's a very good chance you're not going to be able to get in at all. I mean, there's a possibility, if you walk up to a restaurant without a ADR you might get lucky and they'll have something available, but I sure wouldn't count on it if you really wanted to eat there! :mickey:

You need ADRs!

[BMan62]

If you want any table service (TS) meal, you will need to make ADRs or be willing to wait until cosing time to get seating.

Since the DDP was instituted, walk-ups are going to be walking away, for the most part.

[tink179]

I would definitely be making ADR's. I see you're going during FREE dining. This will be my first time going with that promo, but what people have said here on the boards about the restaurants being really busy and hard to get into I wouldn't risk walking up.

[Scott C]

Yes, I tend to agree with your logic. I am going in 23 days -- I have 2 adr's Le Cellier and Biergarten. The rest of the week I will be living on lousy pizza -- Bacon Double Cheesburgers and columbia Harbour house fish as per the rest of the family's wishes. However I really don't like to be tied down by excessive adrs -- I like to play a little looser than that. There are two sides to this argument.

Thanks
Scott C

[ElenitaB]

If there's someplace you really want to eat at, make an ADR. If you're willing to be more flexible, don't make ADRs. I would recommend that you stop by guest services on your way into the park where you think you'll be eating and asking what openings the restaurants have for the meal (i.e., lunch or dinner) you want though... so you won't be making your ADRs 90 days in advance, but you also won't be walking from restaurant to restaurant when you're ready to eat either, and not finding room at the proverbial inn.

[cer]

If you wish to eat at a table service restaurant, I would definitely make sure I had ADR's for each table service.

[bretski99]

It's a real frustration, but unfortunately not one you will be able to avoid. In fact, I called right at my 90 day window - and I was on hold for 20 minutes - and I could not get 8:00 or later for the english pub in Epcot (everyone wants it so they can sit on the balcony and watch illumibations - if they can even get the balcony). I had a little trouble at California grill for the same basic reason (everyone wanted to be there at a certain time to see wishes).

It really stinks to plan your vacation around meals, but with the meal plan you almost feel like you have to in order to get your money out of it.

One thing to consider - we found it WAY easier to get ressies if you are going to make lunch your big sit down meal of the day, and if you eat early (like 11:00). I don't know if this translates to being able to walk up to some restaurants at those times......it might not. But it's something to consider.

(As a side note, we are using the meal plan this time too, but we will be keeping receipts for everything we buy, to see if it actually comes out better for us. We'll report on that after our vacation in August. Without appys or dessert, I'm going to guess it's a push)

[estein80]

Last time DH and I went, we made ADR's for the places we really wanted to go, but decided to keep a couple times free to see what kind of mood we were in. In these instances, at some point during the day, we picked a restaurant and made an ADR, either by phone or at concierge. This did give us a little more flexibility.

[sassafras]

We just returned from DW and YES you need to make ADRs! We had made ours at the 90 day mark and tried to change our Le Cellier to an earlier time for any evening- NO WAY! Everything (and I mean Everything-included the Biergarten) was overbooked. The Maitre de at Le Cellier said the new system, which was going into service the next night, had went kind of nuts and they were overbooked by 2-3 times what they should normally have. He was dreading coming to work the next day. We did manage to change one of our reservations to Trails End, but that was our only option unless we wanted to eat at 9 o'clock at night. I agree it inhales to have to book and plan everything around ADRS, but it seems that's the only way to do it!:(

[Zippy 1]

Since you are going during free dining I would say any chance of a walk up at any resturant is slim. If you don't mind counter service as a backup if you can't get in anywhwere I would say just book the few you really want. I to do not like to be tied up with exact eating times but DH likes a sit down meal for dinner every day so that is the way we go.

[renecat]

You do get dessert with the regular meal plan and you get appies with the deluxe plus three sit downs and two snacks also refillable mug from your resort. Since dinning was free we upgraded to deluxe. Made our ressies yesterday and only problem was Le Celle.
We will be there Sept. 7-13

[Bluesky481]

I would also recommend making the ADR's. Look at it this way...you can always cancel an ADR the day-of if you change your mind (with the exception of a handful of TS locations that may institute a financial penalty), but you'll most likely be out of luck trying to find a decent TS opening on a whim. Essentially--make the ADRs, but still "go with the flow". :mickey:

[IloveDisney71]

Yes, you need to make ADRs for EVERYTHING! Because so many people have the dining plan, restaurants are completely booked way in advance now, and if you don't have ADRs at every restaurant you want to go to, there's a very good chance you're not going to be able to get in at all. I mean, there's a possibility, if you walk up to a restaurant without a ADR you might get lucky and they'll have something available, but I sure wouldn't count on it if you really wanted to eat there! :mickey:

You need ADRs!
:exactly:I feel the same way! If there is somewhere that I really want to eat, I always make sure to make ADR's. :ditto:

[Magic Smiles]

Since we do mainly CS, we make very few ADRs. DH and DS do not like to be held to a timetable. We have never gone hungry:mickey:
We have never done the dining plan as I don't think that we could eat that much food.

[faline]

If you're willing to be flexible with where and when you eat, it might work well for you.

[forever a child]

Thanks for posting this question. I have never gone during free DDP either and we usually only made 2-3 ADR on any of our previous trips...but now I am wondering if EVERY day has to planned out. I have no clue what I will want to eat 3 months before...Oh well....gonna give it a try and see if it is worth the savings and lack of flexibility.:mickey:

[megustamex]

Don't forget you can also use your TS for breakfast and lunch as someone indicated. Unfortunately with the dining plan you really do have to be on a meal schedule if you want to get into the TS restaurants. The best thing to do is look at park hours or EMH's and try and guess where you might be on those dates. I always make reservations for almost every night and then just call and cancel if we change our minds. If there is somewhere I really want to go I make two reservations during the week for that restaurant if possible, then call and cancel one for whatever date we don't go. During free dining, forget walking up and getting in, it is really next to impossible.