Confused and new to ADR's

[Lou Lou]

Hi everyone

My fiancee and I are arriving at POR on 27th August 2011 for 14 nights and will be on the Disney Dining Plan - I have several questions which i hope you can help me with

Firstly, how do i actually make the ADRs? Is it best to phone or do it online? Also do i literally need to do it immediately on my 180 day out to get the places we want as i am at work all day and wont be able to make them until the night

Secondly, last year when we went to WDW we were not on the DPP and went with the flow and ate when we are hungry, i have concerns that the ADRs will be restrictive with our usual holiday mentalility - have others had similar feelings? I am thinking of making all ADRs for 8pmish which leads on to my next question

Thirdly, alot of my reservations will be dependant upon our plans for the day e.g. which park has extra magic hours on, what night Fantasmic is on (we want to book one of the dining options at DHS with the preferred seating for Fantasmic) However, will i have the park and show times 180 days out? How can i find this information?

Finally, after reading a WDW Dining Book that i bought from Amazon i have narrowed our options down to the following, what do you guys think?


Wolfgang Pucks Café
California Grill at Contemporary (this will be the night of our wedding day, we are marrying at Cypress Grove whilst on holiday) = 2
Jiko at AKL = 2
Mamme Melrose at DHS (Fantasmic Package)
Liberty Tree Tavern at MK
Le Cellier at Epcot
50’s Prime Time Café at DHS
O’Hana at Polynesian
Planey Hollywood at DD
Kouzzina at Boardwalk

= 12 table service meals out of 14 available

Non DP places we would like to eat

Rainforest Café
House of Blues


Sorry for the mega long post but i am really confused!

Thank you so much fellow Dis-sers

Lou

 

[gem21]

Just so know, starting March 1st, dinner at Le Cellier will be 2 credits. So you will have 13 credits taken care of.

I prefer online, as making ADRs online is quite simple (and cheaper!!!). Just go to the Disney site, click on Where to Eat and it will pull up the ADR form. Just enter the info (restaurant, location, date time, number of people) and it will give you whatever is available. Then just click on "Reserve" next to which ever restaurant you choose, and then just follow the instructions. If you're not sure, you can always make some pretend reservations to practice, but please cancel them ASAP so you're not taking them away from other people.

While end of August isn't as busy as other season, it can still be quite busy, and I believe Free Dining was offered during that period during the last promotion. So the restaurants could fill up quite easily, especially some of the more popular ones (Ohana, California Grill, Le Cellier).

It's hard to say exactly how much luck you will have if you don't make ADRs until a few hours after they open (6am EST online, 7am EST on the phone). Could you manage on your lunch break? (noon England would be 7am in Orlando). Also since you are staying on property, you can do 180+10 (so on 180 days from your first reservation you can book your ADRs for the next 10 days as well, so it would only entail one day to do that, and you could wait for a weekend perhaps for the last 4 days. Just trying to think up some ideas to help!)

The calendar for August is usually out before the 180 day mark (and with you going at the end I'd say almost or sure it'll be out, although for sure changes will be made, but changes can be made to the calendar even on that day, so...). So you will be able to decide where to go on what day to fit in your ADRs.

Can't help you with the time issue... I think it's an individual thing, we pretty much eat at the same time every day whether we're at home or on vacation so. We just planned our meals around the parks and such (ie: eating at a resort on the day we're at AK and it closes at 5)

Hope this helped!

 

[catne]

Wolfgang Pucks Café Love it

California Grill at Contemporary (this will be the night of our wedding day, we are marrying at Cypress Grove whilst on holiday) = 2 Like it

Jiko at AKL = 2 never been

Mamme Melrose at DHS (Fantasmic Package) love it-slow service, good food.Highly recommend getting the Fantasmic Package--have done it 4 or 5 times now. Well worth it.

Liberty Tree Tavern at MK Not worth it, IMHO. Stouffers pre-made entrees. This was OK when it was a character meal, but once they cancelled the characters here a couple of years ago, well the food is just not good enough at dinner time (there's no menu at dinner --it's the set "Thanksgiving" style meal...but like a hospital cafeteria quality turkey/ham dinner would be.) Would suggest either The PLaza for good sandwiches or even leaving MK on the monorail and go to Kona Cafe at the Polynesian or The Wave at the Contemporary or Grand Floridian Cafe at the Grand Floridia. Heck, we'd go to Crystal Palace before we'd go back to Liberty Tree Tavern(it's a Winnie the Pooh character buffet-actually fun even if you're a party of adults only.)

Le Cellier at Epcot Love it, but it will be 2 TS credits as of March 1 2011

50’s Prime Time Café at DHS we prefer Sci-Fi for the atmosphere, burgers & milkshakes

O’Hana at Polynesian Just ate here in November...this is one of the very few Disney restaurants we would never return to. So-so service, extremely cold restaurant, irritating entertainment if you're over 5 years old, and mediocre to just plain bad food, most of which was served cold or barely room temp. Would go to Kona Cafe at the Poly, or The Wave at the Contemporary or Grand Floridian Cafe at the Grand Flor. instead.

Planey Hollywood at DD would go maybe for a drink just to see the place but the food is not all that. If you're wanting another restaurant over near DTD, I'd say try the Turf Club at Saratoga Springs (take the boat from Downtown Disney WestSide to Saratoga Springs.)

Kouzzina at Boardwalk wouldn't recommend...when we went the service was terrible and 2 of the 3 meals at our table were not good.I'd try Captain's Grill at Yacht Club, or Cape May Cafe at Beach Club or ESPN Club at Boardwalk before Kouzzina. Or go into Epcot World Showcase for Tutto Italia, Via Napoli, Biergarten, San Angel or La Hacienda

Much, much prefer the online booking system to the phone reservations...frankly, the people that handle the dining reservations are just not all that well-informed (many of them have never, or rarely, been to Disney World...they're not even in the same city!) The online system shows your options. Just make sure you write down all your confirmation numbers & reservation details...they should email you a confirm on each reservation but sometimes that doesn't happen. If you have the information written down, you'll be able to access your reservations. I suggest you go online and "practice" making reservations before your actual date...make some actual reservations for an earlier date just so you get familiar with the system (and of course, immediately go in and cancel them so the spots are available to others.)

About your timing questions...first, you will be able to see the park hours & night time entertainment schedules for August 2011 at 6 months out on the Disney website (also on this forum's informational website, wdwinfo.com, so you will be able to plan park days, etc before you need to book your ADRs. One note: the time you are going IS free dining...they were already booking Free dining for August-September 2011 this Fall (we're booked for about a week after you get there.) If past repeats itself, yes, you will need to get online as soon as you can. You do have the advantage of being a few hours ahead, so even if you're waiting until you get off work in the UK, it will still be just part-way through the work day in Florida so you should still have a pretty good range of choices. Just be prepared to switch up on times and restaurants (the online system will tell you what other times are available within 2 hours of your request, and will also tell you what else is available if your choice is not. Just make sure the alternatives are convenient...for example, if you want La Hacienda in Epcot, but it's not available the system could suggest Maya Grill at Coronado Springs. Yes, it's also a Mexican restaurant, but it's not actually convenient to Epcot!

Also, one thing to consider is that 8 PM dinners will pretty much guarantee you will not be in the parks to see any of the night shows (Illuminations in Epcot, Magic Kingdom fireworks or Electrical Parade) so if you want to see those, schedule your dinners accordingly! The Fantasmic packages do not have dinner reservations past 5:30 PM, even for the 9:00 PM Fantasmic show...and those latest ADRs go very fast...you may be offered choices as early as 3:30 for dinner on the Fantasmic package. We have taken those at times, and just did it as a late lunch, with a big snack later in the evening (like split a hamburger or something like that.) They schedule the FAntasmic dinners early because they want to make sure you will be done at least 2 hours before show time to allow for any possible glitches that could happen at the restaurants, and to give you time to hike from the restaurant to the theater...you have to be in your seats by 40-60 minutes before show time. So they won't even offer any later than 5:30 if show is 9 PM. If show is earlier than that, the latest dinner seating moves back accordingly (so 8:30, 5:00 would be the latest. 8:00, 4:30 the latest and so on.)

So, if you want to see night shows, schedule your dinners no later than 6:00 PM if you're not eating in the park with the show (this would allow 20-30 min. possible wait time to be seated after you check-in at the restaurant, then at least 60 min for the meal, then at least 30-45 minutes travel time to get to the park with the night show you want to watch and then time to find a spot to watch from.) If you're eating in the park where the fireworks show is at, can schedule meal for 2 hours before the fireworks and you should be OK...might not get "prime" viewing spot, but you'll find somewhere to watch from. NOTE: if you are eating at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian, you could have a later dinner time because when finished you can walk out on the Polynesian's beach and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from there. This would also work if you do decide to eat at 'Ohana (be aware, though, that 'Ohana has quite the well-deserved reputation for a horrendous check-in line...you can get there 20 minutes before your reservation time and have it take more than 20 minutes to get through the queue just to check in. And they also have the rep for getting way backed-up...people report waiting as long as 45-60 minutes after their reservation time to be seated there.