ADR Planning without Missing Park Time

[Frozen2014]

Starting Disney planning for our trip in August and trying to figure out park days and when to book and how many ADRs. We are staying at Contemporary. We arrive on a Saturday, in the parks Sunday - Friday and leave Saturday.

We are having 1 park day at Epcot and Animal Kingdom, and 2 park days at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

• We know for sure that we want to book Boma breakfast, which we will do prior heading to AK.
• We are also going to book Chef Mickey's breakfast on our departure day.

Without the dining plan, we'll be doing more quick service restaurants but think it would be nice to add one more table service. I'm thinking to maximize park time, it makes sense to pick another ADR on one of the parks we are doing twice, or even our arrival day (no park). Thus, looking at MK or Epcot, or leaving the park and trying Steakhouse 71 at our resort. (Or something at Disney Springs on arrival day is another option). Looking for lunch or dinner.

Questions

1. How many table service ADRs do others book without a dining plan (and how long is your trip)?
2. Do you leave the park for an ADR and return, or book at current park and stay there all day?
3. How do you coordinate ADRs with Genie+ / individual ride booking? It would suck to have to skip a hard to get ride as we have an ADR booked (from 2 months earlier)

 

[Her Dotness]

Questions

1. How many table service ADRs do others book without a dining plan (and how long is your trip)?

Not much help for you from us because eating is an attraction for us two.

We typically book 3 TS per day (1 week stay). DH needs a powerchair and finds someone setting food in front of him easier and more enjoyable than juggling QS to a table. Besides, TS food is generally soooooo much better.

1. Do you leave the park for an ADR and return, or book at current park and stay there all day?

Occasionally, though we usually get ParkHoppers so we can go wherever we want to have dinner. Stinks that the after-2:00 PH restriction means we can't do that at lunch and must stay in Park #1 or go to a resort.

1. How do you coordinate ADRs with Genie+ / individual ride booking? It would suck to have to skip a hard to get ride as we have an ADR booked (from 2 months earlier)

We don't. We detest the Genie+/ILL$.

You're better off, IMO, eating QS during your active park time than booking ADRs for the reason you stated.

Sounds like your aim is "going commando," that is, getting as many rides/shows/meets as you can pack into a day. I probably wouldn't book any ADRs but arrival day dinner and a very early breakfast or two in that case.

 

[Smugpugmug]

It sounds like you're approaching the parks in a "theme park warrior" way where you want to be on the go, nonstop the entire time. In a scenario like that I probably wouldn't book any table service breakfast so that you can fully take advantage of early theme park entry. Personally that's what my group and I plan on doing for our upcoming trip in May. The only table service breakfast we're doing is Boma on our checkout day; all other days we will be making breakfast in our room and taking it with us to the parks.

As for your questions:
1. My trip is May 7-15 and we have a TS dinner booked almost every day except for our arrival day, 1 HS day and our Universal day. For Universal we're doing 2 parks in 1 day so we really want to maximize our time, kind of like your plan at WDW. We wanted to have TS per day because it's a guaranteed way out of the sun and serves as a solid 1 hour break from crowds. Despite our group being in our early-mid 20s we all want a break with some nicer food rather than QS or else we'll get cranky lol
2. Depends. For our second MK and HS days along with our only AK day we booked ADRs outside of the park and we are leaving both parks late afternoon/early evening and do not plan on returning. Our group thinks all of the TS restaurants in HS are mediocre/bad so we want to eat somewhere else (we have Jiko for that night) and our goal for the second HS day is not necessarily to do everything but to choose which rides we want to do again and leave when the crowds get really awful.
3. Your third question is why we didn't book a TS for our first HS day. We plan on buying Genie+ that day and HS specifically is a difficult park to use it for. I don't want to take a chunk out of my day waiting by the blue umbrellas and beg a cast member to help me. Last time I went to HS the blue umbrella line was VERY long so I assume everyone was in line because they have an ADR during a Genie+/ILL time. We want to buy Remy for Epcot since none of the people I'm going with have ever ridden on it and we have an ADR so we'll see what happens.

I agree with Her Dotness on this though. If you really want to maximize your park time (in MK and HS specifically) you should not book a TS and do QS instead. Epcot and AK I think you could do a TS since you can get A LOT done in those parks by dinner time.

 

[Frozen2014]

Not much help for you from us because eating is an attraction for us two.

We typically book 3 TS per day (1 week stay). DH needs a powerchair and finds someone setting food in front of him easier and more enjoyable than juggling QS to a table. Besides, TS food is generally soooooo much better.

Occasionally, though we usually get ParkHoppers so we can go wherever we want to have dinner. Stinks that the after-2:00 PH restriction means we can't do that at lunch and must stay in Park #1 or go to a resort.

We don't. We detest the Genie+/ILL$.

You're better off, IMO, eating QS during your active park time than booking ADRs for the reason you stated.

Sounds like your aim is "going commando," that is, getting as many rides/shows/meets as you can pack into a day. I probably wouldn't book any ADRs but arrival day dinner and a very early breakfast or two in that case.

Thanks. We're a mix of what you listed.
Like you, we do enjoy sit down meals and honestly, we barely go out these days with covid so it's a nice treat. We just got back from a cruise and the kids most fun "activity" was the main dining room for dinner...lol. If it wasn't for the cost, we would book a table service every night. We did that on our last WDW trip as we had the dining plan.

We do plan on using Genie+ and LL....this is a special trip as it's a milestone birthday for our DD. It's our second time at WDW (and we went to Disneyland once) - but this is most likely our last trip so want to make it special and have time for our priority rides, etc. For both WDW and DL, we went to the park and stayed there all day. This is our first time at WDW in August so weather is a factor too (which is why we may do lunch over dinner when it's the hottest).

Sounds like you are similar to what I'm thinking....3 ADRs for a week trip.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Frozen2014]

It sounds like you're approaching the parks in a "theme park warrior" way where you want to be on the go, nonstop the entire time. In a scenario like that I probably wouldn't book any table service breakfast so that you can fully take advantage of early theme park entry. Personally that's what my group and I plan on doing for our upcoming trip in May. The only table service breakfast we're doing is Boma on our checkout day; all other days we will be making breakfast in our room and taking it with us to the parks.

As for your questions:
1. My trip is May 7-15 and we have a TS dinner booked almost every day except for our arrival day, 1 HS day and our Universal day. For Universal we're doing 2 parks in 1 day so we really want to maximize our time, kind of like your plan at WDW. We wanted to have TS per day because it's a guaranteed way out of the sun and serves as a solid 1 hour break from crowds. Despite our group being in our early-mid 20s we all want a break with some nicer food rather than QS or else we'll get cranky lol
2. Depends. For our second MK and HS days along with our only AK day we booked ADRs outside of the park and we are leaving both parks late afternoon/early evening and do not plan on returning. Our group thinks all of the TS restaurants in HS are mediocre/bad so we want to eat somewhere else (we have Jiko for that night) and our goal for the second HS day is not necessarily to do everything but to choose which rides we want to do again and leave when the crowds get really awful.
3. Your third question is why we didn't book a TS for our first HS day. We plan on buying Genie+ that day and HS specifically is a difficult park to use it for. I don't want to take a chunk out of my day waiting by the blue umbrellas and beg a cast member to help me. Last time I went to HS the blue umbrella line was VERY long so I assume everyone was in line because they have an ADR during a Genie+/ILL time. We want to buy Remy for Epcot since none of the people I'm going with have ever ridden on it and we have an ADR so we'll see what happens.

I agree with Her Dotness on this though. If you really want to maximize your park time (in MK and HS specifically) you should not book a TS and do QS instead. Epcot and AK I think you could do a TS since you can get A LOT done in those parks by dinner time.

Thanks for sharing your plans. What's a "blue umbrella"?

Based on feedback with Genie+/LL, I can see two good options:

• We probably will only purchase Genie+ on one of our Epcot days. So maybe we book ADR the day without it (thinking Via Napoli as really good feedback) - one day may also be extended hours if it continues to August so that would fit nicely.
• Book Steakhouse 71 on arrival day (although lunch looks better than dinner - plus cheaper)
• Also have some good options at Disney Springs (as we "may" head there on arrival day), although offhand nothing stands out

Or...maybe a break from the heat and just to re-energize is a good idea.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Thanks for sharing your plans. What's a "blue umbrella"?

Based on feedback with Genie+/LL, I can see two good options:

• We probably will only purchase Genie+ on one of our Epcot days. So maybe we book ADR the day without it (thinking Via Napoli as really good feedback) - one day may also be extended hours if it continues to August so that would fit nicely.
• Book Steakhouse 71 on arrival day (although lunch looks better than dinner - plus cheaper)
• Also have some good options at Disney Springs (as we "may" head there on arrival day), although offhand nothing stands out

Or...maybe a break from the heat and just to re-energize is a good idea.

Sorry, I should've clarified with that. They're the Guest Relations team and if you have an issue with Genie+/ILL you can ask them for assistance. Their stand has a blue umbrellas with the words 'guest experience team' on it. Aka they're the ones you ask to help fix a ILL that is during your ADR. I know the one in Epcot is right across from the France pavilion and the one in HS is close to the Animation Courtyard/on the path towards Toy Story Land.

All of those are good options, though I wouldn't buy Genie on the day of extended evening hours is unless you want to ride the big rides multiple times. Personally I wouldn't be able to last in the heat without at least a little time to re-energize but that doesn't mean you HAVE to do a TS every day.

 

[Boopuff]

We always do one TS a day, time for us to re-group (we don’t travel in a pack) I usually do one character breakfast, the rest are usually dinner. Now we have a toddler in tow, so we have to move our meals up, eating super early dinners.

 

[mistysue]

We do a table service meal everyday in the park that we're in, for lunch. We specifically do this at lunch time because the heat during that time of year is completely unbearable and the air conditioned break out of the heat refreshes all of us. The act of leaving the park, going somewhere and getting back to the park would take away any of the benefit of getting that break from the heat. When a LL and your dining reservation are at the same time they want you to go to the dining reservation and use the LL late. In addition to visiting the blue umbrellas, Disney's site does actually say that you should visit the podium of the restaurant you're eating at and they may be able to help you, I know that last year when people were in boarding groups they would accept a screenshot of your boarding group and a screenshot of your ADR as proof that you should be allowed in, most cast members would accept this for a lightning lane.

Another good reason to make those dining reservations at lunch is that that meal costs significantly less than dinner does, my priorities for trying to save money include the plaza, rainforest cafe or yak and yeti, sci-fi diner, and there are a number of good choices at Epcot if you compare menus and think about what kind of food you like. If you're in the right area Sunshine seasons can actually be a good choice for Epcot lunch as well because it's inside a huge air conditionied building.

 

[erinch]

How about a late dinner ADR on AK day, since it closes earlier?
We also usually book a TS around 2 or 3 after lunch rush does down, and it is Linner—lunch and dinner, during the worst heat of the day.

 

[Frozen2014]

ose dining reservations at lunch is that that meal costs significantly less than dinner does, my priorities for trying to save money include the plaza, rainforest cafe or yak and yeti, sci-fi diner, and there are a number of good choices at Epcot if you compare menus and think about what kind of food you like. If you're in the right area Sunshine seasons can actually be a good choice for Epcot lunch as well beca

Thanks. That's great to know if an ADR clashes with a LL. They don't question "then why did you select the LL time?" as we would already know the ADR time. LL and Genie+ seems so much more stressful as you have to select so quickly and at the moment, vs pre-booking.

Good point about leaving the park....as if we did Steakhouse 71...it would be a walk from MK and back, which would be hard in the heat.

Agree about lunch. We've splurged on the hotel (and we're Canadian so it's more for us), which is the main reason we aren't doing a table service every day. We typically eat our heaviest meal at dinner but for this trip, lunch makes much more sense (heat and cost)

 

[mistysue]

Thanks. That's great to know if an ADR clashes with a LL. They don't question "then why did you select the LL time?" as we would already know the ADR time. LL and Genie+ seems so much more stressful as you have to select so quickly and at the moment, vs pre-booking.

Good point about leaving the park....as if we did Steakhouse 71...it would be a walk from MK and back, which would be hard in the heat.

Agree about lunch. We've splurged on the hotel (and we're Canadian so it's more for us), which is the main reason we aren't doing a table service every day. We typically eat our heaviest meal at dinner but for this trip, lunch makes much more sense (heat and cost)

I always worry about it too, but I keep having to remind myself once you're there in person those cast members do understand the experience of selecting a time and having it changed before your eyes. They know because they deal with thousands of people that happens to and have probably had it done to themselves. There was a mom's panel question when genie plus first came out where they said "simply select a time that's not your dining reservation" and I laughed out loud thinking about what getting a lightning lane has been like for people with rides like ROTR or slinky dog.

Real life people tend to be smarter than that. So be kind, ask nicely, and I would try talking to the blue umbrella people if there's not a line so you don't even have to deal with the conflict but the cast members are generally trying to help you have a good day.

I also make my kids drink water at our table service meals because $4+tip drinks add up really fast. I let everyone get a soft drink at quick service, so if they order water and we go to the less expensive places, table service isn't costing us a whole lot more.

 

[3gr8boys]

First, a disclaimer- I skimmed the previous responses but didn't read carefully.

We were in the parks April 3-8 (party of 5). We had a fantastic trip utilizing Genie+ in every park very much to our advantage. We do park hop.

We plan an ADR everyday as a time to relax, regroup, plan, enjoy table service, sit in AC etc. This past trip we had:

Sunday MK- Steakhouse 71 late lunch (all agree it wasn't worth leaving the park for)
Monday AK- hopped to Epcot for Via Napoli, which was enjoyed by all (really liked lunch at Sa'tuli Canteen)
Tuesday HS - late lunch at 50s Prime Time (will remain on our favorites list!) and nighttime visit to Oga's
Wednesday Epcot- early lunch at Space 220 (very relaxing and enjoyable, partially because the restaurant wasn't even half full during most of our time there)
Thursday MK - hopped to Epcot for Rise&Crown dinner (our first time there and was a great experience)
Friday HS - morning visit to Oga's (IMO the Blue Bantha is a great breakfast) and lunch at Sci-Fi (enjoyed by all, the Salmon pasta was my husband's favorite entree of the week)

I never found myself stressed about genie+ times vs ADR times. I think that is primarily because the genie+ windows are a full hour (plus a few minutes grace) and I always double checked our next ADR time before we were eligible to book a genie+ so it was fresh in my mind.

 

[CamillaF]

Thanks. We're a mix of what you listed.
Like you, we do enjoy sit down meals and honestly, we barely go out these days with covid so it's a nice treat. We just got back from a cruise and the kids most fun "activity" was the main dining room for dinner...lol. If it wasn't for the cost, we would book a table service every night. We did that on our last WDW trip as we had the dining plan.

We do plan on using Genie+ and LL....this is a special trip as it's a milestone birthday for our DD. It's our second time at WDW (and we went to Disneyland once) - but this is most likely our last trip so want to make it special and have time for our priority rides, etc. For both WDW and DL, we went to the park and stayed there all day. This is our first time at WDW in August so weather is a factor too (which is why we may do lunch over dinner when it's the hottest).

Sounds like you are similar to what I'm thinking....3 ADRs for a week trip.
Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for all of this information. It really helps a first time planner.

 

[Frozen2014]

I always worry about it too, but I keep having to remind myself once you're there in person those cast members do understand the experience of selecting a time and having it changed before your eyes. They know because they deal with thousands of people that happens to and have probably had it done to themselves. There was a mom's panel question when genie plus first came out where they said "simply select a time that's not your dining reservation" and I laughed out loud thinking about what getting a lightning lane has been like for people with rides like ROTR or slinky dog.

Real life people tend to be smarter than that. So be kind, ask nicely, and I would try talking to the blue umbrella people if there's not a line so you don't even have to deal with the conflict but the cast members are generally trying to help you have a good day.

I also make my kids drink water at our table service meals because $4+tip drinks add up really fast. I let everyone get a soft drink at quick service, so if they order water and we go to the less expensive places, table service isn't costing us a whole lot more.

This is great. Thank you.

 

[Frozen2014]

First, a disclaimer- I skimmed the previous responses but didn't read carefully.

We were in the parks April 3-8 (party of 5). We had a fantastic trip utilizing Genie+ in every park very much to our advantage. We do park hop.

We plan an ADR everyday as a time to relax, regroup, plan, enjoy table service, sit in AC etc. This past trip we had:

Sunday MK- Steakhouse 71 late lunch (all agree it wasn't worth leaving the park for)
Monday AK- hopped to Epcot for Via Napoli, which was enjoyed by all (really liked lunch at Sa'tuli Canteen)
Tuesday HS - late lunch at 50s Prime Time (will remain on our favorites list!) and nighttime visit to Oga's
Wednesday Epcot- early lunch at Space 220 (very relaxing and enjoyable, partially because the restaurant wasn't even half full during most of our time there)
Thursday MK - hopped to Epcot for Rise&Crown dinner (our first time there and was a great experience)
Friday HS - morning visit to Oga's (IMO the Blue Bantha is a great breakfast) and lunch at Sci-Fi (enjoyed by all, the Salmon pasta was my husband's favorite entree of the week)

I never found myself stressed about genie+ times vs ADR times. I think that is primarily because the genie+ windows are a full hour (plus a few minutes grace) and I always double checked our next ADR time before we were eligible to book a genie+ so it was fresh in my mind.

Thank you for sharing. Great to hear that you didn't feel stressed about ADRs and Genie bookings. You have listed some of the places we're looking at and good to see how it worked for you.

• Steakhouse71 - good to know it's not worth leaving the park (I guess unless we are planning on returning to the resort anyways)
• Via Napoli - have narrowed it down to this one
• Space 220 - theming looks amazing so was thinking of this one too but wasn't sure if it was worth $55 pp

 

[Smugpugmug]

Thank you for sharing. Great to hear that you didn't feel stressed about ADRs and Genie bookings. You have listed some of the places we're looking at and good to see how it worked for you.

• Steakhouse71 - good to know it's not worth leaving the park (I guess unless we are planning on returning to the resort anyways)
• Via Napoli - have narrowed it down to this one
• Space 220 - theming looks amazing so was thinking of this one too but wasn't sure if it was worth $55 pp

If you want to do Space 220, do the lounge instead of the restaurant. You are not required to do the prefix menu (you can if you want to, they give you the option but you are not allowed to order specific items from the prefix menu without doing it). The food, in my opinion, is not worth $55 per person and especially not worth $79 per person at dinner. The lounge takes reservations just like the restaurant and they show up as two different things when booking.

 

[3gr8boys]

Thank you for sharing. Great to hear that you didn't feel stressed about ADRs and Genie bookings. You have listed some of the places we're looking at and good to see how it worked for you.

• Steakhouse71 - good to know it's not worth leaving the park (I guess unless we are planning on returning to the resort anyways)
• Via Napoli - have narrowed it down to this one
• Space 220 - theming looks amazing so was thinking of this one too but wasn't sure if it was worth $55 pp

I posted in the Restaurant Review thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/some-brief-reviews-april-3-8.3879262/

Space 220 definitely earns a lot of debate. While I can totally understand the appeal of the lounge for many, it was not an option for us as I did not want to split up our group of 5. I will also say that, while the restaurant area was rather empty (a factor in our enjoyment), the lounge looked full. We went for the experience, we liked the ambience and had great service.

For context, our trips have been 4-6 years apart. If we were frequent visitors, we certainly wouldn't consider Space 220 a regular must do.

 

[Frozen2014]

I posted in the Restaurant Review thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/some-brief-reviews-april-3-8.3879262/

Space 220 definitely earns a lot of debate. While I can totally understand the appeal of the lounge for many, it was not an option for us as I did not want to split up our group of 5. I will also say that, while the restaurant area was rather empty (a factor in our enjoyment), the lounge looked full. We went for the experience, we liked the ambience and had great service.

For context, our trips have been 4-6 years apart. If we were frequent visitors, we certainly wouldn't consider Space 220 a regular must do.

Thanks for the review. You covered a lot of the restaurants on which I'm debating.

 

[Her Dotness]

I really don't get all the raves for Steakhouse 71. We had seen several great reviews by vloggers shortly after it opened so booked dinner, lunch and breakfast. Dinner was adequate (Yachtsman far better!), lunch dreadful, and breakfast pretty good.

DH's lunch steak was badly cooked, and our server never reappeared until we'd have been ready for dessert if not furious that we couldn't flag down anyone to send his steak back.

The place is incredibly noisy when crowded, too. It makes "WDW restaurants are always loud" seem an understatement. Dreadful design in that respect.

Maybe we'll return for breakfast but unlikely for anything else. There are too many far better places for our tastes.