Are ADRs the root cause/basis to all of the planning?

[Klayfish]

As I've posted before, we stay off property and pack all of our food. So we have no experience with ADRs. We also do a bare minimum amount of planning, far less than a lot of people here. We only map out what park we're going to visit on what day so we can get our FP+ 30 days out. We don't look at crowd calendars, consider what day of the week we'll be in what park, or anything else. Our park rotation is purely for variety. We even switch those plans and FP+ last minute probably 20-30% of the time. We don't do rope drops anymore, we don't typically wait in lines more than 30-40 minutes. That's the style that works best for our family.

Before anyone wants to jump all over me, I realize that's just a personal preference, and there are many right ways to plan your trip. I'm not implying at all that our way is THE right way, or is better than anyone elses. Not at all. My question is around ADRs, because when I read threads...specifically around planning...a lot of the discussion seems to center around them. It's an honest question, since we literally have never done them.

I've read how ADRs need to be made 180 days in advance if you want to get the restaurant you want at the times you want. If that's the case, I can definitely see how that can really lock you into having a certain plan and having to stick with it.

For those who do extensive planning, is the ADR the center/genesis/root cause of it? Do all your plans circle around the ADRs you make? When you're on the dining plan (which again I know nothing about), do you chose to make all 3 meals as ADRs or do you do some QS so that you can have flexibility? If WDW could sprinkle pixie dust and make ADRs go away, would it change how you plan? Again, it's not a critical question, it's purely out of interest in knowing, because I have no experience with it.

 

[mom2rtk]

That's a big piece of it. For some, the unique dining experiences are a "must do". It generally is for us and we jump through the hoops to make sure we have the ADRs we want.

But for others, having a fastpass for one of the "hot" attractions is also a piece of it. Some even need their fastpasses at a certain time of day because they plan to leave the park by X time to do something else.

Sometimes night entertainment only shows on certain nights and that can drive the schedule.

 

[Allison]

For those who do extensive planning, is the ADR the center/genesis/root cause of it? Do all your plans circle around the ADRs you make?

No, not at all.

 

[Disney2017]

I am currently planning my family's first trip so have no clue about touring plans. I have used ADR as my rough guide. I booked a character meal for each day of our trip because I know my kids will love them!

That meal has decided which park we will be at each day. I will then book 3 fast passes for rides I think my family will enjoy and the rest of the day we will "wing it"!!

 

[rwdavis2]

Not in any way. IMHO, 90% of the restaurants at WDW are not worth going out of your way for. We are fortunate to live in the MD/DC area with dozens of eateries that match virtually anything WDW has to offer. We go to enjoy the parks and atmosphere. We eat at some the good places at WDW but it's never a priority.

 

[rwdavis2]

I am currently planning my family's first trip so have no clue about touring plans. I have used ADR as my rough guide. I booked a character meal for each day of our trip because I know my kids will love them!

That meal has decided which park we will be at each day. I will then book 3 fast passes for rides I think my family will enjoy and the rest of the day we will "wing it"!!

Character meals for the kids make the difference in how one's plan. We did the same thing when ours were younger. We're doing the book 3 and wing it on the trip next week. With 8 days we'll do everything we want and if not, we'll catch it in a few years when we go back.

 

[Dis703]

ADRs aren't the center of our planning at all. The first thing we look for is choosing dates that are "quieter" times and then we pick our park days based on crowd levels and hours/events. After we have our park days, we pick one ADR per day. And we've only once booked at 180 days out. Other times it's anywhere from 1 week to 3 or 4 months out. Our current trip we are planning was booked about 6 or 7 weeks out.

We plan our days to maximize our time. We rarely wait for more than 20 minutes for any ride and we minimize criss-crossing the parks and travel time by planning our FP and areas of the park we visit accordingly. We generally try to have an idea of where will will eat for QS as well and consider that in our plans. But we don't figure out every minute or every ride we'll do in order. And we can alter plans as we go so it doesn't feel like we are restricted in any way. But in the end we get a lot more done and spend way less time walking and waiting in line, so we love putting in a little planning effort.

 

[yulilin3]

I think the root cause/basis of all the planning depends on the family's priorities. If getting a hard to get ADR is a priority then they have to plan around that. If going on certain attractions is a priority then it's that. If meeting certain characters are a priority...well you get my point

 

[Allison]

I've read how ADRs need to be made 180 days in advance if you want to get the restaurant you want at the times you want. If that's the case, I can definitely see how that can really lock you into having a certain plan and having to stick with it.

I just checked availability for 4 people for lunch on Sunday. Magic Kingdom had 5 restaurants available, 2 were not; Epcot had 15 choices, 3 not available; Hollywood Studios offered 4 choices, 0 unavailable; Animal Kingdom had 3 offerings with 1 not available.

There are plenty of ADRs during many times of the year. There are a few restaurants in very high demand on a regular basis such as Be Our Guest or 'Ohana.

 

[gorkt]

Not all of it, but a decent part of it. I have several must do ADRs that I work around. Ohanas, HDDR on this trip have very limited availability so I did need to make those ADRs then work around that.

Personally, my biggest determination for planning these days is "flow". I like variety in which parks I am going to when, and I like to try to minimize travel time and have some relaxation and down time.

 

[klo1335]

Our last trip, which was our first family trip, the whole trip centered around the ADRs and I felt rushed the whole trip trying to make sure we got to those ADRs. Next trip we go on, I plan on staying offsite and not having a dining plan. In my opinion, the dining plan was way too much food for my family and my oldest DD will be 10 soon, which means she is an adult and would never eat the price of the dining plan.

 

[Nancyg56]

No, the ADR's are only a small piece of my Disney planning, which is minimal at best.

First, we generally use a dining plan, and choose the one that works best for us after I plan our meals preferences for the trip. I look at crowd calendars and choose my parks based on those estimates, while considering what entertainment we will probably want to enjoy. We like the evening entertainment so I need to be sure we are in the parks for the shows we want to see. I try to avoid Saturday night in the MK during a party season, if at all possible.

We do not like to bounce all over the place for meals, so after we plan the parks, I look at restaurant choices my family wants, and book them to be convenient to our plan. Sometimes we will have our meal in the parks, sometimes at resorts.

We choose CS meals on the fly. To be honest, time of year matters for us. During a summer trip, I book a TS meal in the afternoon in the park. I like that cool break planned. During winter trips we dont bother, just stop and eat when we re hungry, and unless we have a favorite spot, we pick a restaurant that we are close to.

I think vacation mentality is what you are really asking about. For me, I am chief cook and bottle washer at home. My children are all married, so I am not responsible for them now, so no more packing lunches for me. I did that when they were young. I am not cooking, cleaning, or washing dishes or laundry on vacation. We eat meals out. I cringe at the coffee makers in the room so that refillable mug is my friend. I have friends who would rather chew glass and die than have three meals out. They like the comfort of their own food, so they make provisions for that, and ADR's would push their stress level through the roof.

I have been following all of the planner vs non planner posts lately and what I think we are beginning to see is that vacations mean different things to different families. Some folks need to get the best value from their vacation investment. Others like the structure a detailed plan gives them, and others still like to fly free, no appointments in their trip. For me? It's all about the food. I love the parks, but I need to know that no matter what, I have a place to have a relaxed dinner. I make sure that getting to the meal will not stress me out, and that even if I miss every attraction but the people mover, I still get to eat. And have coffee served to me. After my glass of wine.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think vacation mentality is what you are really asking about. For me, I am chief cook and bottle washer at home. My children are all married, so I am not responsible for them now, so no more packing lunches for me. I did that when they were young. I am not cooking, cleaning, or washing dishes or laundry on vacation. We eat meals out.

AMEN! I'm still chief cook and bottle washer. There is zero chance I'm cooking or packing lunches on vacation.

 

[Nancyg56]

AMEN! I'm still chief cook and bottle washer. There is zero chance I'm cooking or packing lunches on vacation.

I have to say that even considering a beach vacation is a huge decision now. When the kids were young we did this all the time, but it was a lot of work. Yes, well worth it with the family, but I did not come home as relaxed as everyone else. I am not doing that now.

I think that as we discuss planning vacations, we also need to know what constitutes a vacation to the family. DD and I were discussing renting a house for one of our Orlando attractions vacations. It would not include Disney, so our goal would be different on that trip. DGD is very interested in Marine biology, and is an intern at mystic Aquarium. We will foster that interest in any way we can, so if that means visits to meet marine animal specialists in other areas we will do that, and use the house a a main base. But I still will do bare minimum cooking. And I will not pack a lunch to go anywhere. I do that here when I go to work.

 

[mom2rtk]

I have to say that even considering a beach vacation is a huge decision now. When the kids were young we did this all the time, but it was a lot of work. Yes, well worth it with the family, but I did not come home as relaxed as everyone else. I am not doing that now.

I think that as we discuss planning vacations, we also need to know what constitutes a vacation to the family. DD and I were discussing renting a house for one of our Orlando attractions vacations. It would not include Disney, so our goal would be different on that trip. DGD is very interested in Marine biology, and is an intern at mystic Aquarium. We will foster that interest in any way we can, so if that means visits to meet marine animal specialists in other areas we will do that, and use the house a a main base. But I still will do bare minimum cooking. And I will not pack a lunch to go anywhere. I do that here when I go to work.

We sometimes do a week long beach trip. We rent a condo so no housekeeping. We eat out a lot, but I still end up cooking several meals. So my compromise is that after the week is over, I get a day at Disney on the way out of town.

 

[AngiTN]

No, not at all. We don't even make ADR at 180 days. Heck, we haven't planned a trip beyond 180 days out in years. Ours are always planned much closer, usually even less than 60 days out.
We don't have any place we have to eat at. Now, preparing my own meals is no vacation here so that is out of the question. We never bring food, ever. Not even a snack. We may get cereal bars for the room in case we have a really early day and won't stop to eat till later in the morning, to stave off the hangry's, so to speak. But that's it.
So we do eat 100% of our meals on property. And about 90%, or more, of those are with an ADR at at TS restaurant. But few are booked further out that on the bus that morning. And we don't go hungry.
We plan our days to zig when others zag, otherwise, we plan very little.

 

[AngiTN]

I think vacation mentality is what you are really asking about. For me, I am chief cook and bottle washer at home. My children are all married, so I am not responsible for them now, so no more packing lunches for me. I did that when they were young. I am not cooking, cleaning, or washing dishes or laundry on vacation. We eat meals out. I cringe at the coffee makers in the room so that refillable mug is my friend. I have friends who would rather chew glass and die than have three meals out. They like the comfort of their own food, so they make provisions for that, and ADR's would push their stress level through the roof

Twin souls for sure. The idea of meal prep, even packing a sandwich, ruins vacation for me.
We do have group trips we do with several friends. We grab cabins for a weekend and there are no restaurants so all meals are eaten in the cabin. But that is also not a vacation. It's fun trip and we do group cooking and meal prep, with lots of drinking

 

[aviva5675]

One poster said they checked availability for the park restaurants for this Sunday-- is there a way to batch/mass check like that, as opposed to going restaurant by restaurant? When we lived far I'd plan for - crowds, then pick park, then ADR. Now we live in Fl and go with much less notice. Would like to find ADR easier.

 

[SaintsManiac]

There are a few ADRS we want and we will plan around those, but it's not the entire vacation to us. I also change them so much. Last year I had 1 a day and wound up dropping all but 3 of them. I didn't want us to be tied down to table service meals the entire trip. The ones we kept were character meals.

We were victims of A&E FP mania last year. Glad we don't have to deal with that next year.

 

[AngiTN]

One poster said they checked availability for the park restaurants for this Sunday-- is there a way to batch/mass check like that, as opposed to going restaurant by restaurant? When we lived far I'd plan for - crowds, then pick park, then ADR. Now we live in Fl and go with much less notice. Would like to find ADR easier.

Yes, go to the Dining section of the website, enter the time and the number of guests and it will pull up ALL openings, unless you filter it by location.
You actually have to force it NOT to pull up all options available