Anyone else NOT planning meals/restaurants?

[AnnetteF]

We did the DDP the last two years and it felt like the ADR's were driving our vacation. We always wanted to be in a different park and had to drop everything and leave to make the ADR. No more! Especially with DD who will only be 4 this next trip, we will be very content to do CS restaurants and just a couple of special character meals for her. I have booked CRT for one day for lunch. Then we will be doing Garden Grill for dinner one night and that's it. If we happen to be somewhere and find that we can get into a TS restaurant, great. If not, we'll find something.

 

[OurfirsttimetoDisney]

Oh, I'm so happy I came across this thread!! It seemed like I was the only one who thought figuring out where I wanted to eat 180 days in advance was a bit much! We are planning our first trip for May 08 and had some friends who have been to Disney may times help us. They were making us an itineray of what parks on which days and where to eat and how to get on as many rides as possible!! That does NOT sound like a vaction to me! We have two young kids and flexiblity is key with them! We have an idea of which park we are going to on which days and have 4 ADRs but that's the extent of our planning. I think we'll be fine

 

[AnnetteF]

Oh, I'm so happy I came across this thread!! It seemed like I was the only one who thought figuring out where I wanted to eat 180 days in advance was a bit much! We are planning our first trip for May 08 and had some friends who have been to Disney may times help us. They were making us an itineray of what parks on which days and where to eat and how to get on as many rides as possible!! That does NOT sound like a vaction to me! We have two young kids and flexiblity is key with them! We have an idea of which park we are going to on which days and have 4 ADRs but that's the extent of our planning. I think we'll be fine

This is so true! It's your vacation. You definitely don't want to have to say to little ones, "You can't go in the pool today because it's Animal Kingdom day" ! You would all be miserable. Be flexible and ENJOY!

 

[BabyPiglet]

We had free dining last year, so we did make ADRs. Upon arrival, the very first day, we knew we were going to be changing our schedule around a lot and canceling a bunch of TS.

Usually we just walked out to the bus stop and picked the park that had the shortest line. It worked for us! Then, if we wanted to keep the ADR we went to it, rescheduled another one, or ate good ol' CS. We actually really enjoyed all our CS meals! Maybe more than the TS.

This year though I want to stick to our ADRs. But we'll see how that goes.

OH, we also wake up at around 9-10 every morning and I've never touched a TGM book.

 

[lindsey]

In all of our trips, we usually plan one or two ADR's and counter service the rest - I don't like to have to plan everything out.

 

[brandylouwho]

Well, I have been known to be an over planner in some respects ( I do like to make my spreadsheet but rarely follow it), but... we are not a fan of the dining plan nor being chained down by ADRs. We did it once and DH and I agree--never again.

We usually try to do a couple of TS meals, but the rest are CS or we just make something simple back in the room (pizza being our fave). If there is a TS we just have to try or there is a birthday or anniversary we are celebrating, we'll make an ADR in advance, otherwise we wing it.

DH and I are always trying to talk newbies out of the dining plan (without much success) but they think we are crazy. Oh well, to each his own...

 

[my 3 princesses]

Do you guys find that you have to wait for a long time for CS? On one of our trips we had to wait about 1/2 hour for a hot dog after not having eaten all day. That made for some cranky kids. I hate the thought of doing that again which is part of the reason why I make one ADR for each day we are in a park. This way we're guaranteed at least one meal in a somewhat timely manner and then for the rest of the day we wing it. I do hate the idea of our meals dictating how we're going to spend our day which is why we only make 1 ADR.

 

[aymekae]

This thread is making me think twice about my trip planning. This will be my first trip to WDW ever, and my honeymoon. (First trip for fiance, too.)

Pros of DxDP/ADRs: We like food, and vacation to me is eating food you normally don't get to eat. Because it's mostly prepaid, we won't think twice about trying that appetizing appetizer or to-die-for dessert. Things we never, ever do now. I'm also looking forward to character meals and some fancy restaurants. (Think: fancier than Olive Garden, which is as fancy as I get).

Cons: My DFi is a very picky eater, so many places are already off my list, and most of the ones that remain can only stay because they offer a steak or some sort. He is a simple eater: pizza, chicken, steak, hamburgers, etc. Most of these restaurants would be wasted on him when he'd just rather eat CS. I've never tried to eat 2 or 3 TS meals a day, especially for 6 days in a row. Most of the restaurants I go to now, I only eat half of what I order, and save the rest for lunch.

I guess the deal is I've never planned a vacation before, but I am the fastidious type that likes to know where I'm going and what I'm doing, so there are no awkward surprises. Can someone just tell me to relax??

 

[jamstew]

I'll be using the DDP for the first time in May, simply because I'm interested in trying quite a few table service restaurants (I normally eat CS). Last September I made two or three ADRs, but nowhere near 180 days out (more like a week). Since I'm traveling solo, it's not a big deal for me to plan around meals for one trip. This coming September, I'll probably make an ADR for Boma since I'm staying at AKV, and maybe a couple of character meals in preparation for taking the grandchildren next May. By the time I start planning that trip, I'll know where we want to eat, but it will probably be limited to a maximum of 3 character meals and possibly Coral Reef.

 

[Tatania]

I fondly remember the days when you didn't need dining reservations. You turned up at a restaurant when you were hungry and more often than not you would get in. I can't get my head around making reservations 180 days in advance because as others have pointed out, how do you know you'll actually want a meal (esp. lunch) at a particular spot when you don't even know what part you want to be in yet or what the weather will be like.

Now that my son is grown, I don't have to go in high season anymore which makes things a lot easier. When I went this January I could make reservations that morning for later in the day. You'll NEVER catch me there in July, August or Easter again.

 

[BabyPiglet]

I fondly remember the days when you didn't need dining reservations. You turned up at a restaurant when you were hungry and more often than not you would get in. I can't get my head around making reservations 180 days in advance because as others have pointed out, how do you know you'll actually want a meal (esp. lunch) at a particular spot when you don't even know what part you want to be in yet or what the weather will be like.

Now that my son is grown, I don't have to go in high season anymore which makes things a lot easier. When I went this January I could make reservations that morning for later in the day. You'll NEVER catch me there in July, August or Easter again.

Exactly. How do you know that at exactly 7:30 in 180 days you'll be craving italian food? Sounds ridiculous to me!

 

[LimeGreenEd]

Have made only 2 ADR's for upcoming trip. Not going to let when and where I'm going to eat control my vacation.

 

[TiggerDad3]

Hi my name is TiggerDad and I'm an Obsessive Overplanner

On that note in the 10 trips over the recent years we have taken, I have planned out everything, but never made ADR's....
I think we have been turned away twice, (once at CRT and once in France)but then again we travel in the off season usually.

This year we are going to try some sig restaurants and CRT, so we are going to use some ADR's and try the system out, hopefully we like it but if not, we'll just go back to the whatever is available at the time we're ready to eat.

There is no wrong way to visit Disney LOL



__

 

[deedeetoo]

Our first trip we made no reservations (didn't even know about them) and we had trouble when we wanted to eat in a TS restaurant. We tried to make a reservation in the morning when we entered Epcot and the only thing we could get was Biergarten. And this was many years ago when it was supposed to be easy to get in.

That put us off onsite TS for years. We never even tried again until about 6 years ago. By then I had found the DIS. I made a TS reservation for every night. What I had neglected to consider was the fact that we had a DD4 and DS2 who were cranky at dinner time. We kept a couple of our reservations but ended up cancelling most of them.

We've progressed through the years. Last year we did the DDP for the first time. We had a TS for every night. Frankly I grew tired of it. My DH loved it. I think the kids were OK with it.

Now, I think we are done with the DDP. DD will be turning 10 and that combined with the 2008 changes make it much less attractive. I think I will make a couple reservations at a few places we really like, but that will be it. I think I will miss it somewhat. DH will miss it a lot. But it will be so nice not to have to keep to a schedule.

 

[AnninIowa]

I've only made 3 ADR's for our May trip - breakfast at Boma, lunch at The Plaza and the Afternoon Tea at the GF. We will do a walk-up for lunch at Big River Grille (they do take ADR's, but we've never had a problem getting a table there) and might to dinner one night at ESPN Club (they don't take ADRs). The rest will be counter service. We will eat what we want, when we want, and not be stressed by trying to make all those ADR's!

 

[KorieDWnut]

we are traditionally non planners.
Normally when we go to WDW, we eat at the Rainforest Cafe the night of arrival and then CS the whole rest of the trip. We don't plan on what parks to go to until we wake up each day and all that. We will get FP on our way throughout the park but we don't do any of that running for FP thing..if we wait in lines, we wait in lines..

However, after so many trips to WDW and eating CS meals, we have grown tired of it. DH wants to try new things this time and we eat out ALLL the time at home so we are kind of used to it and love it. I would rather not wing it at TS places in August so I did the DDP because I know the kinds of things dh and I order when we go out to eat OOP ($$$) so I think we will already save money just on DH and I with the DDP. lol AND ADRs are nearly a MUST with so many TS credits.

That is about the extent of our planning..I mean, since we have 4 ADRs now, that means we have an idea of where we will be on what day but we didn't schedule when our other meals are going to be or anything like that so I feel like we still have some flexibility while also having some structure.

I could never make a laminated itinerary or anything, more power to those that do, but I do like to relax and go with how the mood takes me as much as I can.

 

[cristbaby]

We have no ADR's for our April vacation. Just don't want to be locked into anything. If we can't get anything at any of the parks or resorts then we will eat off-site.

 

[Booknut]

This has been a really interesting thread for me because I suffer from 'obsessive planning' The whole idea of NOT making any reservations makes me break out in a sweat, shake and start humming 'bare necessities'

We had free dining last time we went and although I loved it DH HATED it...he felt the whole trip was based only on dining (and the problem with that is???!!! ) and has asked that the next time we go I only make a few reservations and play the rest by ear.

You can imagine how i'm feeling about this I'll have to keep referring to this post for inspiration and strength

BTW have any of you had any huge problems getting reservations for TS restaurants? We're going next Jan/Feb and if i'm going to even attempt this insanity known as 'playing it by ear' i'm going to need some reassurances that we'll get to eat occasionally!!

 

[Miss Stitch]

We have never made an ADR before arriving, never planned our park days (with one expection, when R&R was going down two days after arrival), never tried a Tour Guide. We don't really eat big meals, especially when it is hot. There is some great CS if you choose well and you don't always have to eat Burgers and Hot Dogs every day. We choose ever morning/night before to decide which park we are going to, and except for the first couple of jet lagged days we don't leave our hotel before 9.30am. Hey we are on vacation, whats the rush. We have eaten a couple of TS meals that we have managed to book a couple of hours before. There is nothing we have ever wanted to do that we haven't managed to.

My planning consists of looking and menus and deciding what places we would like to eat and what rides we would like to ride but thats about it.

We have been twice but it does help that we go during September and have two whole week there. I can some understand people who have hardcore touring plans and adrs if they only have a few days to fit in as much as possible.

 

[Aliceacc]

I think part of the issue depends on whether or not you have kids, and, if so, their ages.

When it was just myself and my husband, we could wing it. If we couldn't get into a restaurant until 9 pm, we would grab an ice cream to tide us over until then, no big deal.

But with young kids, that wouldn't work on so many levels. Bedtimes can only move so far before the kids start to get cranky. Likewise, when it's dinner time, they need dinner. I would hesitate to do spur-of-the moment for an entire week with my young kids, especially in August when I know the crowd levels will be high and last minute walk-ins hard to get.