Co-Worker Leaving Tomorrow - No ADR's!!!

[antmaril]

A co-worker of mine (I don't know her well) and her adult daughter are leaving for WDW tomorrow morning. They are staying at the former Grosvenor Hotel. She did not ask for my help with this trip and, since I don't know her well, I didn't want to offer unsolicited advice.

They do not have any ADR's They plan to "wing it". I didn't want to alarm her and, of course, the damage is done now, but I told her she might not be able to just walk into a restaurant and get a table. I explained to her that advanced dining reservations are pretty much a must these days and that she might want to eat at odd times, rather than trying to have lunch at Noon or dinner at 6:00 p.m.

She has been to Disney before, but I think it's been many years.

Obviously, they will be able to use counter service restaurants, but do you think they will be able to eat at any table service restaurants?

 

[annie1995]

I would like to think that since free dining is over, they might a bit of a better shot at getting into some resturants. But there will be some that will still be a no go without an ADR.

 

[Tricia1972]

She may luck out, and it'll help if you can convince her to call the morning of and see what's available through the ADR line.

 

[sammax]

When I was there the week of Oct 14th, Guest relations at EPCOT had the board showing availability for lunch and dinner at the TS restaurants. A lot of places were available, just not the favorites like Le Cellier. Chefs des Frances, Biergarten, Marrakesh, all had lunch and dinner openings, so she can still find something, she just may have to look early in the day.

 

[Forevryoung]

DBF called last night and told me that he offered my "Disney assistance" to a friend of his... the friend declined because he leaves today

I asked if they had dining reservations and stuff and he said that they went through a travel agent so he thinks everything was done (DBF has NEVER been before but knows how much planning I've been doing for our Jan trip )

Then he mentioned that his friend is paying about $6000 for the same trip we are going on (spending approx. 2.5 times MORE than us) and then DBF laughed.

We went with only 1 PS/ADR in June 2005 (I TOLD them we needed to make them!!!!!!!) and they attempted to walk up to LTT and ask about dinner- they were shocked when there was no waitlist... I did a small "I told you so" inside.

They could get lucky!

 

[Samsma]

My nephew, his wife and their two boys went to WDW last year without ADR's. I guess they ate well enough, I didn't hear much about it, but when I found out, I called Disney myself and made a reservation for a character meal because their youngest loves Mickey. Some people!

 

[antmaril]

Thanks everyone. If I get a chance today, I'll try to share your thoughts.

I'm sure it will be fine. She seems very casual about the trip. They do have tickets for MVMCP.

 

[tifandjim]

Well, in May, DH and I got DDP for the first time, ever. I had no idea what I was getting into, and I made no ADRs. The only place we could not eat was Le Cellier. This year I called ahead and got ressies for Le Cellier, but I called last week and made them, and I am leaving tomorrow. I will admit I had to call 3 times last week to get a cancellation, but I was able to get one. While I was on the phone, I went ahead and made ADRs for the entire week, just so we don't have to think about it while we're there.

 

[storzo]

I was just at WDW in August for 8 days, right before free dining started. I made like 3 ADRs before we left and we were just fine. Some days we called the reservation line in the AM and some days we just walked up to places. The only place we had a problem was Cap N Jacks, which didn't accept walk-ups.

They should be fine without ADRs as it shouldn't be overly busy this time of year.

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

So what? My friend and her son have been going to Disney every summer for the past several years and has never made ADR's. She always finds places to eat and they always have a great time. I don't think that everyone needs ADR's. It all depends on how important TS places are to you. If you really need a character meal or Le Cellier then you should make ressies. If you're not too picky and enjoy disney more for the parks and entertainment rather than food, you will be just fine. I don't think there's been an instance yet where people have left Disney with growling stomachs.

 

[antmaril]

So what? My friend and her son have been going to Disney every summer for the past several years and has never made ADR's. She always finds places to eat and they always have a great time. I don't think that everyone needs ADR's. It all depends on how important TS places are to you. If you really need a character meal or Le Cellier then you should make ressies. If you're not too picky and enjoy disney more for the parks and entertainment rather than food, you will be just fine. I don't think there's been an instance yet where people have left Disney with growling stomachs.

As I said, I'm sure they will be fine. She's not worried about it all. They won't go hungry, that's for sure. It sounds like it won't be a big problem anyway. They, obviously, aren't fussy.

 

[mygr8kdz]

if she wants to eat at TS restaurants, suggest that she tries lunch instead. adrs are easier to come by - in part because many on the DDP don't feel they are getting their full value by using a TS credit at lunch.

even during free dining, i was able to switch around reservations for lunch time on the same day, whereas dinners at the same restaurants were booked solid.

 

[ziggylu]

We were thre for four nights last week. The only meal I made an ADR for was a dinner at Jiko and even that we changed it twice within 24 hours of actually eating. They were taking walk-ins th night we were there. The rest of the nights we decided the afternoon of and didn't have any issues. As it was on the dining plan we didn't like dining within a structure(we won't be doing any of the dining plans again in the future, didn't work for us structure wise)...having to have been locked into a time and place for dinner days or weeks ahead would have never worked for us. We were happy to be flexible based on what our wants were at a given time vs what as available.

Given how the dining situation sounds to be during busy times of the year we will be avoiding that like the plague and visiting only during the slower times. It will be interesting to see if the new plans makes the TS restaurants easier or harder to dine at than they are now. I don't like eating CS so personally I hope it makes availability more open at the TS but could easily swing the other way to.

 

[linda0706]

Just my opinion of course, but we never make ADR's either. I'd rather do CS and spend my limited amount of vacation money on other things. Different strokes and all that.

 

[las3888]

We will be there next week and I made changes to my ressies and got a lot of what we wanted. A few things were booked or had oddball times, but unless they're looking for all the really popular places, they should be able to find something. I imagine walk-ups will be much easier too since the dining plan is over. I don't know how many are in their party, but when it was just DH and myself, we were able to get into almost anything we wanted as a party of 2. We hardly ever made ADR's and we're Disney freaks!

 

[laura74]

We were there two years ago during spring break (a very busy time), staying off site and without the benefit of the disboards. We had no idea that you should make dinner reservations so far in advance. We were able to get reservations same day though when we inquired in the morning. Not at Le Cellier mind you, but there were options available, especially if you go at an earlier or later dinner hour.

 

[fla4fun]

It will also help that they are staying at a DTD hotel, instead of a Disney resort. There are all the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd. to dine in, as well as the restaurants in the Crossroads Shopping Center, a fairly easy walk from their hotel. I feel if you are staying off property (and I still consider those hotels "off") then the ADR's become less important. Unless you are wanting a character meal or one of the handful of difficult to get in to retaurants (and so long as it's not peak season) you can always find something. I went during Free Dining in September without any ADR's and still managed to get some last minute ADR's and even a couple walk ins. I prefer to plan my meals around my vacation, not the other way around.

 

[mdoc]

I have 3 or 4 ADRs for our trip Thanksgiving week, but it's the first time in 13 trips to WDW (trips that were VERY planned, FWIW) that we've had ADRs. Our vacations aren't about food, and we frankly didn't care whether we ate CS or TS. We did a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's a few years ago, but other than that didn't bother with TS. Now that our kids are a bit older and have seen most everything there is to see at WDW, we're more willing to give up flexibility to have a nice TS meal and we've adjusted our plans accordingly. I guess my point is that not everyone (even compulsive planners) cares about TS and ADRs. I hope for your friend's sake that she's one of those who doesn't care. I'd hate to be on DDP and show up without ADRs.

 

[antmaril]

She's there now, so I won't know until next Monday how it went. As I said, she was very casual about it. Since it was very late in the game, I just told her that if she wanted to have a table service meal in the parks, she might want to consider an off-peak time.

Thanks for all the replies.