ADR's, Ressies, Dining Plan, insanity!!!

[Jeanieblue114]

I have only been on the Dis for a short while. However, I've been going to Disney for 35 years. I'm constantly surprised at how many people are upset and worried about ADR's. I remember a time (pre-dining plan), when no reservations were needed. All Disney TS restaurants were very good (not mass produced food) quality and you could walk-in whenever you were somewhere you wanted to eat.

It seems like with the Dining plan, it has forced people to go to TS, when typically they would have gone to Disney for rides and shows and entertainment, grabbed food when they were hungry and maybe added in a fancy meal or a character meal or dinner show here or there.....like the old-fashioned days.

How many of you find yourselves scheduling your Disney trips around your dining reservations?

When I sit back and look at the vacation breakdown, I notice this (in general)

Basic meal plan per person per day $40 or OOP average $60 bucks (that is more than I spend but I want to average for everyone).

tickets per person per day $40-80 bucks depending on options and days.

hotel per night $85-$400

plus, extras like BBB, Halloween party, etc.

The food portion of the trip is technically a small part, or can be.

Is it worth it to spend several hours a day going to restaurants with travel time, wait time, dining time? Especially when many of the restaurants aren't really much different or any better than a standard chain restaurant in any of our own hometowns?
Or is it better to focus your vacation time more on parks, rides, shows, enjoying your expensive resort and it's amenities and activities? These are the unique Disney things that you can't find just anywhere.

so why do we find ourselves booking our trips around our ADR's and getting up early to make reservations and calling 100 times to get a particular place and generally going wacky?

Since the resort is the biggest expense, why aren't we all concerned about getting the most out of our resort than our dining plan?

Are we all going about our Disney Vacation planning the wrong way? Is the food that important (ok, with the exception of the dole whip...that's worth skipping a ride or two for..i'll admit that one).

 

[zscfan]

Well.....I have to admit that I am guilty of planning the whole trip around dining ressies....I didn't start out this obsessed and certainly wasn't like this when I went last Sept.

Hopefully, I have some good meals in my future!!!

 

[MarkinNM]

Wait in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG line for a ride, ave time in line is 40-60 mins OR in that time sit, eat relax and enjoy some food.......

 

[oybolshoi]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else but since we always go during the F&W Festival the food is our primary draw. We stick to signature restaurants for dinner, and with one exception they have all been quite good - certainly better than any chain restaurant here in Stinktown.

To each his or her own ...


EDITED: we don't do the dining plan - just wanted to clarify. We use the Tables in Wonderland (formerly known as DDE) discount for all our eating and drinking needs!

 

[Jeanieblue114]

I went for the F&W festival 2 years ago....awesome time! (might have to rank that with the dole whip).

Do you all feel relaxed with the time at the ADR's?

I see a lot of people posting about feeling rushed to get there and then rushed by servers and then rushed to get to whatever is next.
Do you use the ADR's for 'downtime'?


This is all just a posting for curiosity...and observation....it is not any better doing anything one way or another.
I've just found that I've always focused on staying at a nice resort and having some fun things to do.
This year I have free dining and I'm doing this weird ressie dance.....i've never experienced this in all the trips. It's some Disney ADR blackhole!

 

[Aimeedyan]

When I went as a kid, we did a few table service spots (character, mostly) and the rest of the time was maximizing park time. Afterall, my parents saved for several years to allow us to go and we weren't going to spend time sitting in a restaurant.

However, now that we have family that works at WDW and we visit at least once a year the dining has become more important. We don't spend that much time in the parks, but instead go more for relaxation - visiting with family - trying new places. If the lines are long, we simply skip the rides and do something else. Going more often means our trip style has changed.

That said - I will never get into the frenzy of trying to get that one reservation. Honestly, there isn't a restaurant in the World worth that trouble. I think many people buy into the dining hype and the food at Disney will never live up to their expectations - esp some of the Prom Queen restaurants on this board (like LeCellier). Then they come home and post disappointed reviews.

If I was going on a once in a lifetime trip, or taking young children, there is no way we'd be spending that much time at a dining table.

 

[Jeanieblue114]

A Dis Moderator is in the middle of posting live reviews now...I think her name is Nala...great dining reviews, btw.

She called it the overhyped restaurant review.
She's going to the hyped up places (luckily so far so good for her).

But it is interesting to see the cult following for some places and how people will toss all other activities out the window to get that ADR.
I have an image of a woman in her robe with 3 curlers haning from her hair and a hot cup of coffee reading the disboards while calling disney dining and and looking at the online ressie page while her kids are going to school with their clothes on backwards and eating big bowls of chocolate chip mac and cheese (that they made themselves) for breakfast.
Could make an afterschool special about it.....hysterical image i think.
Oh, i forgot the fuzzy slippers!

 

[oybolshoi]

I went for the F&W festival 2 years ago....awesome time! (might have to rank that with the dole whip).

Do you all feel relaxed with the time at the ADR's?

I see a lot of people posting about feeling rushed to get there and then rushed by servers and then rushed to get to whatever is next.
Do you use the ADR's for 'downtime'?

Actually we're quite happy most of the time with the ADRs we make ... I do spend a lot of time planning them out so that they are "just right" for us and then we work our park time around the ADRs.

We don't let the restaurant staff rush us when we're dining and quite honestly we've never had that happen that I can recall. If a server were to dare to bring out one course before we were finished with another we'd send it back to the kitchen.

As for downtime ... the whole trip is downtime! A typical day for us involves a couple of hours at one park in the morning ... pool time and a nap ... dinner and / or another park in the evening. I grew up going to WDW and my hubby and I are DVC members ... we don't stress about attractions or rides because we know that we will always have a chance to come back another time. For us it's just about sharing time together in one of our favorite places.

Granted, that's a luxury that not everyone has, but we've done WDW commando-style before and it's too exhausting ... we end up needing a vacation to recover from vacation!

This is all just a posting for curiosity...and observation....it is not any better doing anything one way or another.
I've just found that I've always focused on staying at a nice resort and having some fun things to do.
This year I have free dining and I'm doing this weird ressie dance.....i've never experienced this in all the trips. It's some Disney ADR blackhole!

I do think that the dining plan creates its own problems ... since guests pre-pay for it they probably feel like they have to make sure they get those meals in, otherwise they lose money since Disney doesn't refund unused credits. We make a lot of ADRs but have been known to cancel some once we get to WDW ... it's nice to have that last minute flexibility without feeling like we are losing anything.