A couple ADR newbie questions...

[ltmomof3]

How in the world does one go about making dining reservations for 180 days away when I can't even figure out what to make for dinner tomorrow??? Our trip is scheduled for Jan...after reading these posts, I missed the 180 day mark by a couple days...I need to come up with a plan-fast!

My first question is what do most of you suggest as a good dinner time? I guess I'm wondering if we should plan to eat early on our way back from the parks or a little later to give enough time to swim or rest up and change?

Do you start with a list of places you would like to eat at and call the one reservation line that's mentioned? I think its 407-wdw-dine. Or do you call each restaurant separately?

Since there are so many places to choose from, I'll have to do some reading on this thread to find out which ones seem to be the MUST try meals! Isn't there a "cliffs notes" version somewhere out there?

This our family's first trip (me, DH, DD11, DD9 and DD8). My husband and I went for our honeymoon but stayed offsite.

Thanks!

 

[JulieT]

The easiest way to plan that I have found is to look up the calendar on the disney website for the dates you are traveling. They should list the days/times and extra magic hours for each park. Then, you can at least get an idea of what park you might be in each day. If you have a parkhopper ticket, you can certainly move from one park to another to eat, but it is easier if you think you might be in that park anyway.

Later dinners are sometimes helpful if you want to get a full day in somewhere (say a water park) and need to get back to the restaurant. We have some early ressies & some later ones.

Make a list of the restaurants that you are interested in. You can make all of your ressies at the wdw-dine number, but start with the ones you really want first. You can always change them (assuming they don't book full). We have a party of 12 & I've changed our reservations several times, even with the free dining.

I know there are a bunch of good restaurants & everyone has different opinions, but we really enjoyed:
Japan's Teppanyaki
Germany's restaurant
Coral Reef

Hope some of this helps! I've had fun reading people's reviews on this board and we will try a few new restaurants for our next trip (we are going back to Japan & Germany however).

 

[ltmomof3]

Checking the calendar sounds like the beginnings of a plan! I'll start there...thanks!

Oh, and I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed Teppanyaki...by the sounds of it, I think it's one our family would really like, but I haven't seen a lot of posts about it.

 

[Girldreamer02]

DF and I went last yr and some of our favorite places were :
Crystal Palace
Cinderella's Royal Table
Coral Reef
Brown Derby I belive it is called in mgm we did that with the fantasmic dinner package so we had reserved seating.

Good luck hope this helps.
P.S. Crystal palace is a character meal as well as cinderell'a royal table , but if you have younger ones crystal palace is nice becaues the characters (winnie the pooh and his friends) come around to the tables and seem to spend more time with the kids that I've seen at other places.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

The easiest way to plan that I have found is to look up the calendar on the disney website for the dates you are traveling. They should list the days/times and extra magic hours for each park. Then, you can at least get an idea of what park you might be in each day. If you have a parkhopper ticket, you can certainly move from one park to another to eat, but it is easier if you think you might be in that park anyway.

Later dinners are sometimes helpful if you want to get a full day in somewhere (say a water park) and need to get back to the restaurant. We have some early ressies & some later ones.

Make a list of the restaurants that you are interested in. You can make all of your ressies at the wdw-dine number, but start with the ones you really want first. You can always change them (assuming they don't book full). We have a party of 12 & I've changed our reservations several times, even with the free dining.

Hope some of this helps! I've had fun reading people's reviews on this board and we will try a few new restaurants for our next trip (we are going back to Japan & Germany however).

I would second this thought. This is how we go about ADRs everytime. I have yet to find a better way.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I agree with JulieT. Plan what park you want to be in that day, and then see what nearby dining options interest you. IMO, planning the dining helps to anchor the rest of my plans, so everything doesn't seem so overwhelming. Having ADRs also solves the "so where do you want to eat" question when you are in the parks.

I like to plan early dinners so I have some time to walk it off. And also so I don't miss the fireworks/night time shows.

Call WDW-DINE and you can make all your reservations at one time.

There is a lot, but you'll get the hang of it. I reccommend getting a guide book so you know what we're all talking about. The acronyms alone can be maddening to a first timer!