Are ADRs essential?

[Antigua08]

Hi all, we have a family holiday booked for sept 2011. There will be 9 of us inc my DD who would of just turned 2, my nephew 5 and my niece 9. Just wondering will ADR be needed or will it be quiet enough to book say on the day?

I've previously been back in 2006 and the only wait for a table we had was at The Crystal Palace, and that wasn't for too long. As there are kids with us this time tho we just want to be a bit better prepared.

Also are there any restaurants within Disney or Downtown Disneythat you would say are not to be missed? So far we've decided on Chef Mickeys and The Crystal Palace, don't want to over do the character dining tho just incase my little girl gets a bit scared!

Have posted this on the UK board aswell but thought l might get more response here
Thanks

 

[Pumbaa_]

Things have chenged since 2006

Now, especially with the size of your group, if you want to eat at ANY ts location, you will need to plan ahead (at the 180th daypreferably) and book

Sept is free dining period for the last few years. So while attendance is lower, the people eating at TS is higher

Chances of getting a TS same day for your group size is highly unlikely

I would recommend keeping an eye on the boards as people return in September to get a feel for what it is like

Have fun planning!!

 

[mrspopeye]

They are absolutely necessary. We are going in Sept and I did not get some of the days or times I wanted when I booked 150 days out. I would certainly book as much as you can 180 days ahead, on that day. Most of them you can cancel with no penalty if your plans change. Disney has run a free dining promotion around that time the last few years, which makes the restaurants much busier.

 

[Antigua08]

Wow. and l thought l was asking a silly question bet def glad l did!

Had no idea you could book that far in advance, think some research is needed on my part! Will definitely be doing some reading over these threads to try and get an idea of where we'd like to go.

Thanks for the quick replies

 

[TandLMommy28]

We are going at a very low crowd level time and I still can't get reservations to many of the places we wanted! Definitely make them in advance! It's easy to do on the website. I had to put in a credit card number but it didn't charge me anything so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Another person here that seconds making ADR's. We are going in October and I did most of ours 180 days out. I took a weekend trip to Las Vegas; came back at the 177 day mark for some of the ADR's we wanted, and I was unable to get some of the dates and times we wanted. I didn't think they would book that quickly, but I thought wrong. I forgot to book at the 180 day mark while in Vegas.

Kept checking back regularly and was finally able to get most of the ADR's we wanted, but there is one that eluded me. Even to this day, I still can't seem to get lucky enough to get an ADR. I keep checking everyday, but still no luck. So yes, it wise to make ADR's at the 180 day mark. Especially for a party your size.

 

[Antigua08]

Thanks for the advice, am going to mark of on my calender 180 days before we travel to make sure i get the ADRs booked in plenty of time.

My personal only real must go to restaurant at the moment is Chef Mickeys for my DD, so l would be very disappointed if we miss out on that.

Have started to look at some trip reports on here and quite a few other places are looking appealing, so will plan to get a short list for the others and go from there. The men in my family all love a good steak so somewhere good for that will probably be another booking

Thanks again

 

[kevgraub]

Since your daughter will be 3 when you go, I would absolutely try to get an ADR either at CRT or Akershus to dine with the princesses. Our daughter was 3 when we took her, and dining with the pricnesses was absolutely the highlight of her entire trip.

Although you have to be a little careful if you hype it up to much. We kept telling our neice who was going with us (age 8) that we were going to have breakfast with Cinderella, and she was a little let down when she realized (a couple of weeks before we left) that Cinderella was not actually going to be sitting at our table eating along with us.

Our son was 7, and he actually enjoyed the CRT meal (although he probably won't admit it). One morning we sent the girls over to Akershus for breakfast with the princess and the guys all went over to 'Ohana for breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. We are so glad we did it that way, it worked perfect. Our son loved Stitch (and had enough of the princesses by then) and our daughter had a blast as well (and would not have enjoyed 'Ohana nearly as much). We then met up at Epcot after breakfast.

Given the age of your nephew, I would also think about possibly doing Garden Grill. Boys that age seem to really enjoy Chip and Dale. We thought the character interaction there was fabulous and the food was pretty good (not amazing, but we had no problems eating it either).

As you said, Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's are must do's for us. We all really enjoyed 50's Prime Time if you are looking for somewhere at DHS. The picture of the waitress feeding greens to my wife is one of the best we took the whole trip.

 

[mfd25wife]

It's definitely better to get them. The first time we stayed on property a couple of years ago, we didn't because we didn't know any better . We were able to get into pretty good places, but had to be very flexible with times. The concierge was the one helping us get reservations for a couple of days. Tusker House seated us for dinner without them. They told us it would be 45-60 min but we decided to wait just in case. It took about 15. It wasn't our favorite meal, but it was good. We were at CSR and got into Maya Grill fairly easily. I forgot the other that let us walk up. The concierge got us in at WP in DTD and Chefs at Epcot for late dinners.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We've gone in Sept. (with free DDP) for 5 years now. Definitely get ADRs. I usually made at least one TS ADR for each day. Now since our schedule was never set in stone I knew going in that many of our ADRs would change. That's why I made a lot of our ADRs at non-park locations. Just in case we didn't go to the parks that day.

Every year I've noticed it's been a little harder to get some ADRs but that being said I have always been able to get a new ADR while at WDW (even the day of) once I knew our plans were changing. But that maybe because we typically eat dinner late. 8 or later is fine with us.

This year is the first time we've gone since the window was increased to 180 days. Last year it was only 90 days. We haven't booked our Sept/Oct. trip yet so I don't know when we are going. I also don't know if we will be doing many TS this time (if we stay at POP we'll get the Quick Service Plan only). I don't see many ADRs in our future this year but you should definitely do it with your party size.