Are your dinner ADR's earlier or later than you would usually eat?

[Alice Sr.]

Do you prefer to eat at the same time as you would at home or do you find it better to have earlier or later ADR's? I of course, did not attempt to make my ressies for our May trip until yesterday and the available choices are earlier or later than we would typically eat. I went with the later for the most part thinking there is no shortage of snacking options if we are starving before dinner. Now I kind of think earlier would have been better. No children in our group so that is not a consideration.

Thanks

 

[dworldlovers]

Early of later dining kind of depends on what kind of park-goers you are! Eating early allows more time in the evening to return to the parks or catch the fireworks. We were at BC in Jan. and never got to see Illuminations because of our dinner reservations. If you like to end your day with a relaxing meal, then eating later might be for you. If you eat later, keep in mind your transportation from restaurant to resort. Good luck with your planning and have a magical time at Disney!!!

 

[3pletprincesses]

We try to stick to our home schedule because of our girls. At home they arrive from school starving and they usually eat before us at 4:30 therefor I make our dinner reservations for the earliest dinner time which is 5-5:30 depending on the restaurants.

 

[Anal Annie]

Our vacation schedule runs a lot different than at home because we usually eat a very light breakfast in our DVC villa very early then stop on the early side (11:30ish) for a CS lunch. That sort of throws our dinner times off a little bit by eating early. We usually need a snack. We eat dinner REALLY late at home (like 9:30-10:00) so I usually plan for later ADR's (unless it's the Fantasmic package or something where you HAVE to eat at some odd time). I will sometimes book a 7:00 or 7:30 time if that's all that's available but usually we go for more like 8:00-8:30-9:00. That way we have time to spend the afternoon at the resort pool and can shower & change before heading back out for the evening and not feel rushed.

 

[LilyWDW]

Usually we eat earlier. I find in Disney that I need that break and that meal earlier then I would need it at home. Plus, it gives us plenty of time to get in place for the night time events.

 

[disneybliss2]

We eat earlier. We stay in the parks from rope drop until early evening. After all that walking, we're beat and ready for an early dinner. Another reason is my girls want to have pool time at the hotel. We would rather have swimming time after dinner vs. middle of day so that we don't lose park time traveling back and forth from park/hotel. Plus, they can just take a bath after an evening swim and be ready for bed. Too much time lost on mid-day swimming not only in transportation back and forth & cleaning up before dinner. So that they have plenty of swim time, we set our reservations early. Also, my youngest will take a nap in her stroller while daddy takes oldest on rides. She wouldn't take a nap if we were swimming, so it's better for everyone's sake that she has a nap while I stroll her around. That forces swim time for the evening, which means we have to have the meal reservations earlier. We've had a full day of park activities, so we're ready to eat early anyway.

Even if I didn't have kids I still would set reservations a little earlier so that you can take advantage of light shows/parades, etc. better (stake out curb positions, etc.). I also would still tour the park throughout the day and leave pool/relaxing time of the evening which would require earlier reservations.

 

[NWmom]

I'm not the OP but the respponses helped me so I wanted to say thank you.

Another plus of the early dinner and swimming after-- fair skinned kids that burn need to stay away from the pool mid day.

The reason it was convenient reminded me of why it is necessary for my redhead. Sunburn avoidance.

Thanks again.

 

[dledger]

My answer really depends on the plan for the day/night. For example, on my upcoming trip I have Ohana reservations for 7:50 which is much later than I'd normally eat because we are spending the day at Universal and don't want to feel rushed. On the other hand, I also have Coral Reef at 4pm one day which is much earlier than I normally eat because we want to, after dinner, head over to the magic kingdom for wishes....so it really depends on what the plan is for each individual day that determines it... Good luck figuring out what will work for you!

 

[momtwoboys]

we go with earlier too, less chance of the ADR's being backed up. We always get seated within 10 minutes of our time. Then we have time to enjoy the rest of the evening without being cranky!

 

[raidermatt]

We also go with earlier, around 5pm. We don't leave the park though. We visit in the summer and we like how an earlier dinner gets us out of the heat. By the time we come out, it has started to get more comfortable.

Of course this also means an early lunch so we are hungry by 5:00.

 

[DisneyDreamingInMI]

Our ADRs tend to be earlier than we would normally eat. We usually grab something super quick for breakfast and then have an early lunch. This means we are hungry for dinner around 5 pm or so. Plus, I find that eating earlier means that the restaurants are not as backed up as they might be during the later hours. It tends to minimize our waiting to be seated at TS meals which is great when we are hungry and really need a break!

 

[aripantaloon]

We eat a little earlier, for the most part, since we have a little one. She usually goes to bed very shortly after dinner and given the fact that TS dinners would be a good bit longer than our dinners at home, we don't want her to melt down before the end of dinner.

I we didn't have the kids, I think I would still want to eat earlier so that my food has a chance to really digest before I go to bed. I like to get up early for the EMH, so we don't stay out super late.

 

[Sheaboys]

We are eating right around the time we normally eat, between 5:30 and 6:05 are all our reservations.

 

[.:allisonr:.]

Ours are pretty close to when we'd eat at home. We try to eat between 5:30-6:30, and all but one of our ADR's in in that time frame. The one that's not is at 6:40.

 

[mcd2745]

Our dinners tend to be earlier while at WDW because we rarely have a full lunch. We normally go with a TS/buffet breakfast and some snacks during the day and then (ADR availability permitting) an early-ish dinner around 5:30-6pm. At home, with DW and I both working, we usually do not eat dinner until 7pm or so. In general though, I'm not a big believer in trying to keep the routines/schedules when on vacation (WDW or anywhere else). It's vacation afterall and I want it to be different from my daily routine - including meal times, bed times, etc.

 

[shell8558]

We normally schedule them earlier- around 5:00. Like the other poster has said , there are not as many people and better chances to get seated faster and back to parks!

 

[mince]

Last trip we made all ADRs between 5:00 and 5:30. That turned out to be way too early. We have to go during the summer, so we head to the parks early. Then around 2-3 we return to the hotel to swim and relax. This time around I made the ADRs ~7:00. Still plenty of time to catch EP, Wishes, Illuminations or Fantasminc.

 

[ladylinda65]

I always found that I never thought far enough in advance to get the hour I really wanted so I always ate later. Now I am so used to that it doesn't bother me.

As far as a comment I saw that said earlier is better cause reservations run later as the night goes on. I can tell you that while that is sometimes true, depending on the restaurant, later works out better. By then some people haven't shown and the restaurant is seating quicker.

Either way good luck and have a great time!

 

[Don Disney]

Earlier is good for us.Like someone else said,it makes it a bit easier getting seated,and also allows sufficient time to get to whatever nighttime activity is going on.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Our ADRs are much later then what we normally eat at home. We eat anywhere between 5pm and 6pm at home but when we are in Disney our dinners are either 7pm or 7:30pm. This is mainly because we on on the DxDP and therefore we are eating a lot of food so we are not even hungry for dinner until then. Then of course you have all the wonderful snacks between the meals too .