ADR, Fast pass and F&W planning stress

[lilfaeriebrat]

My husband and I will be traveling in September to enjoy the F&W festival. This is my husbands first trip to WDW and mine first in prolly 7 years. Last time I went there was no preplanning for fast passes so this part is new to me. My last trip I was just getting the hang of picking where to eat 180 days out let alone picking which rides 60 days out. Since this is his first trip we are going to try and see everything but his main focus is the F&W and mine is seeing all the new stuff since my last trip.

How do you veterans of WDW plan your ADRs when you don't know which days you'll be able to get your 3 fast passes for the rides you want? I have 3 breakfast ADRs scheduled on different days for BOG hoping that one of those three days I'll be able to get fast passes for 7DMT. When my 60 days out for fast passes opens up will there be lots of options? Am I stressing about this for no reason? We're arriving on a Saturday with a departure the following Sunday so I have my MK ADRs planned for Wed-Fri hoping that the later part of our trip there will be more fast passes open.

Now add in the F&W seminars, celebrity chef demos and whatever other things that happen at F&W that we need to schedule and reserve for I'm crazy stressed. If I plan all this MK stuff for Thursday and then my husband hears Robert Irvine will be at F&W on Thursday I have to go back to the drawing board.

Anyone have any advice to help me keep my sanity? This is a vacation after all and I shouldn't be stressed over it.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

This is why I am taking a break from Disney this year. They want you to plan EVERY minute months in advance, but they want to release their plans as late as possible!

 

[tobikaye]

Well, I rarely make more than 2 ADRs per trip and I usually wait until about 1-3 months before the trip. I have not been since FP+ was in place, but I am not too concerned. I would be more likely to just schedule them and change them as I get closer to the date of travel. If there is something I really want to see, I probably would just plan to hit that attraction at opening or plan to wait a little longer than I normally would.

Even with F&W, I found that I liked hitting WS at opening and stop by a few spots in place of lunch. I still went back for a short time some evenings to hit a few more spots.

 

[disneyseniors]

Don't know if this will help you, but; I always pick my park days first according to crowd calenders and other factors important to us. Then I pick our fp's and adr's. We have switched to OOP for dining, so we only do a few must not miss adr's per trip. This makes it easier for us. I never book a restaurant for several days in a row; just never thought of it. It works out fine the way I do it. But we don't do F&W, so that's a whole other subject.
I guess I would do the best you can do and just go with the flow, cancel what you must, wait in line if it is a must do attraction, and have a stress free trip

 

[Hopefully]

Our strategy is as follows:
Check out the crowd calendars for best parks on which day. Then decide where we want to go on which day using the crowd calendars as a guide. Then - before 180 days - we plan our ADR's in or near that park. Traveling distance to ADR's is a huge waste of time. So first we know which park which day, then we know where our ADR's are for each day. Then at 60 days out we plan our FP+.
It has always worked great for us.
I am generally able to get both the ADR's I want - within a few minutes plus or minus my goal, and the FP+ I want.
We go during F & W as well. The schedule will not be released until mid to late July at the earliest. You have to make your best guess and plan from there. Then, if necessary, you make adaptations later.
It doesn't need to be that stressful. Just get started on a reasonable plan.

 

[loves to dive]

Unless you are wanting A&E or something else that is in high demand, FP and ADRs can be booked even the day of. If you know there are rides you really want to do, I'd plan on booking your ADR in that park. F&W is fun and frankly, I only book maybe one TS meal the entire 4 or 5 days I'm there. I tend to eat all my meals around the booths, yes they are small portions but you'd be surprised how quick you get full. I try to do one culinary demo and one wine tasting every day at the Festival Center and then just kind of fill in around those. I have an AP for parking hopping helps, I do the other parks early in the day then hop over to Epcot for F&W.

 

[nemofans]

We don't book any ADRs for the days we do F&W at Epcot. We eat around the world which takes care of lunch and dinner. There are so many foods to try that the last thing we wanted was to have a full meal.

 

[donac]

We are early risers so I picked my FP for the park opening the earliest. Except for one day. We went to AK very early one day and had FP for DHS later in the day. I picked out our ADR's for dinner and where we wanted to eat. Once the Fp's were used we could go to any park we wanted to go. We usually went back to the room about 2 to rest and change and then went out to dinner. One day we had an early dinner planned so we stayed in the parks, had dinner and then went back to the room.

 

[minnie mum]

I would never book the same ADRs for multiple days. Why would I book an ADR for a park I didn't want to be in that day? A good plan starts with knowing where you want to be. The crowd calendars ( I like easywdw's) give recommendations for each day. Like Hopefully (and many others), once I know which park I'll be in each day, I figure out which restaurants in or near that park I want to eat at. If I can't get exactly what I want, I book my second choice and then check periodically for availability for my first choice. I've never not gotten it eventually. Once I have my ADRs I've got plenty of time to figure out what FPs I want, and when I want them. Since we always use our FPs in late morning/early afternoon, changes in park hours won't affect them. It doesn't have to be stressful, unless you let it.

Now, go check a crowd calendar and release 2 of those BOG ADRs so someone else can have them. And relax.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you are doing a BOG pre-park opening breakfast, I wouldn't worry too much about the 7DMT FP+. They typically let the BOG pre-park opening breakfast people line up early and get on the ride quickly when the park opens.

 

[maxiesmom]

I do what many others have said, plan which day I am going to be in what park, and go from there. I make my ADRs and then work my FPs around those.

As far as the 7DMT goes, decide which day works best for an ADR. As DisneyWishes14 has pointed out you will very likely get on the ride without much wait right at open. You can ride that way at least once, and then use your FP for it later on. Cancel the other ADRs for Be our Guest, it really isn't nice to hold on to those hard to get ADRs unless you plan on eating at BoG multiple times. If you wish to hit the 7DMT on another day, get to the Magic Kingdom 45 minutes prior to park open. That will put you at the head of the early morning crowd, and you will be able to ride the Mine Train again with little wait.

 

[AJA]

I know for me I can get too wrapped up in planning. I do look at crowd calendars and make any ADR's based on those. Add park hoppers to ease your stress about dining/park days.

My family has been two times since BOG and 7DMT have opened and we still have not done either one. Guess what, we never missed them! They didn't fit into our plans. It's our vacation, they have to fit our schedule, not us stress and plan our entire day around them.

Disney has tons of unforgettable experiences and some of my most memorable meals has been pizza in our room. My advice is make plans but be ready to toss them aside if the plans get in the way of what you or your hubby really want to do that day.