ADR's Not Needed

[jackmac]

I just returned from a trip to WDW and went with only 1 ADR made (Rose and Crown at 7:40 PM) and had no trouble making or changing reservations.
Our first night we went to Boatwrights, walk right in.

Second night, made a ADR for Les Chefs for 8 PM that afternoon, at 7:30 people decided that they did not want to go there so we changed it to Yachtsman for 8 PM, no problem.

Monday night was ESPN, Red Sox / Yankees, no problem getting a table.

Tuesday lunch was Brown Derby, walked right in.

Tuesday night was Rose and Crown, ADR needed for Illuminations viewing (people were being turned away at 7 but walking right up and getting outside seating at 8:30).

Wednesday was Palio's, walked right in. Had cocktails at BlueZoo first, people were also walking right in (Shula's was also empty that night).

Thursday night was Raglan Road. Walked up at 7:30 and had a table right in front of the band.

This past week was a busy week at WDW, but still no problems.

The only real difficult ADR is Le Cellier or character meals. Also if you want to eat at Rose and Crown for Illuminations then it is a good idea to have an ADR, the same goes for the California Grill if you want to be there for Wishes.

To everyone out there that wants to be spontainious, go ahead, you won't go hungry and will still have great choices of places to eat.

 

[Bambi1Fan]

I'm glad you didn't have any problems not having ADR's, but let me just say this...it looks like the times that you were dining were not during "normal" dinner times, meaning 5pm-7pm or so. Those are the peak dining hours when most families with young children are expecting to eat dinner. I'm a CM and let me tell you, I have seen people who just walk up to a podium without an ADR and have been turned away. It does happen, so I would advise people that if they know where they want to eat...go ahead and make that ADR. You would rather be safe than sorry. Usually the later dining times (after 8pm) and lunch times are much easier to find availability at even some of the more popular Disney restaurants. If you're more flexible and don't care what time you eat...then by all means, go ahead and be spontaneous. Just don't blame Disney if you can't get in to the restaurants without an ADR! LOL

 

[Barbers2005]

I have to agree with the second poster. I got back 5/23 and I saw people being turned away at a few places (Le Cellier, Whispering Canyon and CP). Also, we weren't going to make our reservation to Boma one night and called to see if we could get a later one, but there was nothing available the rest of the evening. Same situation at 'Ohana a different day and they couldn't fit us in until 9:45. We got a reservation for LTT a few days ahead to use the TS credit we didn't use at Boma, and the girl accidentally put it in for the wrong day. When we got there they told us that they weren't accepting walk-ins but they would squeeze us in since the CM had made a mistake. We still had to wait a half-hour for a table. I would definitely get ADR's ahead of time and only make changes as needed upon arrival.

 

[kaytieeldr]

And it's not just "a good idea to have ADRs for California Grill if you want to see Wishes", ADRs are required at this restaurant, along with a $10 per person credit card deposit, non-refundable if you don't cancel and/or don't show.

 

[Willowtrees]

I agree - there is no way I am eating dinner at 8:00 at night unless I plan on going to bed at midnight or later! Especially with the dining plan and all that we will probably be eating - I am going to book early dinners so we have time to burn it off before bed time.

 

[thelionqueen]

I'm glad the OP got to change and get ADR's on their trip, but agree with everyone else. The times chosen were not peak times, and, honestly, the restaurant choices are not the most popular.

I also think it's negligent to blanketly say "don't worry about ADR's, be spontaneous" when on our last 2 trips we couldn't change hardly anything and saw nearly 10 people per restaurant getting turned away because they were booked for weeks. This is just not the norm. You NEED ADR'S!!!

 

[mrzrich]

This post gives false hope to Disney newbies who come hear for valuable advice. Especially all those going during free dining.

The restaurants mentioned are not the most popular places and the time of year (Mid to Late May) is not a peak crowd time. People traveling in the next few months should have ADR's

 

[n2mm]

This post gives false hope to Disney newbies who come hear for valuable advice. Especially all those going during free dining.

The restaurants mentioned are not the most popular places and the time of year (Mid to Late May) is not a peak crowd time. People traveling in the next few months should have ADR's

I agree. I hope folks take the OP's advice with a grain of salt. Yes you might be able to get into less popular places during off times, around lunch time. But for a good dinner time, you stilll need that ADR and anyone going to WDW without ADRs is setting themselves up for more stress than a person needs while on vacation.

 

[jackmac]

Over the 2 years I have been to WDW 8 times (May, October, January) and have never had a problem with getting ADR's for the times that I want, where I want, except for Le Cellier. I've written off Le Cellier due to the dining plan, it's a good restaurant and gets booked because it's a value at 1 TS credit. The only ADR's that I have made are for California Grill at 8 PM for wishes and Rose and Crown at 8 for Illuminations.

This has been my experience. I have had twinges of doubts prior to going after reading all of the posts about needing ADR's. When I get there it's not a problem. I feel that in a lot of ways people that make ADR's for every meal are creating a self-fufilling prophecy. They have their ADR's so they don't have to make ADR's when they are there and thus don't know about the availability. Everytime they see someone get turned away from a restaurant it reinforces their belief that an ADR is needed.

What I do when I decide what my day will consist of is eithor go to the concierge desk, call WDW dining or go to guest services in the park and see what's available. I'll discuss what's available with the CM and choose based on availablility and deisre. I've been to all of the WDW signature restaurants, both popular and less popular, and I've found some restaurants that I would not have tried before (Narcossis being the most notable). This works for me and my family. If it does not work for you that's fine. But I will continue to believe that ADR's are not needed until I'm proven otherwise.

 

[richard_andmel]

I personally do not want to spend one minute of my trip waiting to make an ADR. Last May we had a couple of occasions when my nieces slept too late with their naps to make the ADR we had set up in advance. The amount of inconvenience to make new ADRs was terrible. There were very long waits on hold to get through to Dining, and then there was almost no place we could go to eat before 9PM. Not my idea of a good time.

 

[MrToad]

We have had similar experiences. We always make ADR's and typically end up cancelling over half of them and going somewhere else. I cannot recall an instance where we couldn't get into the place we wanted to eat on relatively short notice (i.e. making an ADR that same morning or afternoon). Last year the concierge got us into Bistro de Paris with 30 minutes notice...

I still believe ADRs are good to have for the more popular places, but we have even had success walking up to CRT and getting a table (although that is fairly rare as we tried on a subsequent trip and were turned away).

We like to have the ADR and then if for some reason we feel like doing something different we can typically always get a table at another restaurant...

 

[bicker]

This post gives false hope to Disney newbies who come hear for valuable advice.

I think this is a critical point.

The DIS is here to help guests have a great vacation. In that spirit, we need to be sure we're providing information that would tend to result in guests being satisfied with their vacation rather than providing information that could leave them disappointed. If anything, we should err on the side of caution, such, for many guests, a WDW vacation is a trip-of-a-lifetime, and for most others it is still a very significant expenditure which needs to be respected as such.