Did you make it to all of your ADR TS meals?

[DisneyGlider]

This will be our first trip to WDW and so will be first time on the DDP. I just finished making all of our TS ADRs and I just wondered about the folks who already completed their trips. Did you make it to all of your ADR TS meals?

Or did you miss any due to:
1. Insufficient travel time planning so arrived too late?
2. Too caught up with park activities so decided not to go?
3. Any other reasons?

Though we fully expect to arrive early to all of our ADRs, I just wondered. Is there any grace period before the ADR is void?

 

[kaybird]

We made it to all, and each one was great. We have a loose plan when I make ADRs based on EMH and which park I think we will be at and the best mode of Transportation. We park hop a lot, so the transport thing we have down pretty well.

 

[LErin26]

We also made it to all of ours as well. We don't go commando and the food is a big part of vacation for me, so our days are planned around where we'll eat.

 

[darlak]

We've only missed one, ever. This part April, it was pouring down rain on the day we had our lunch ADR at Le Cellier. We just decided that waiting out the storm in our room would be better than getting soaked enroute to Epcot. In addition to the rain, it wasn't very warm that day, only getting to about 67 degrees for a high. I called to cancel and while I wasn't able to reschedule at Le Cellier (of course), I was able to get in at Nine Dragons that evening. It actually turned out to be one of best meals of the trip. I probably would have been more disappointed if I didn't know I would be back there in September. The important thing to remember is to just roll with the punches. We went to the food court and took lunch back to our room and ate while we just sat on the beds, watched TV and waited on the rain to let up.

 

[srdipert]

We had an 805am reservation for Crystal Palace and we didn't make it. Our son woke up at 230am vomiting so needless to say we were all to tired when the alarm went off at 630. Plus we wanted to make sure he was better and thankfully he was. But we had planned on paying for that meal oop so we had plenty of other ADR for our TS credits.

 

[Dizneydaz]

I think we made a little over 1/2 last Sept. But then I knew when we made them that that would mostly likely be the case. The reason for us-my DM!

Actually, the main reason we don't keep about half is, when we go to WDW I have to make the agreement that we won't spend everyday on property! We always have a rental van and so we are able to leave when we want-whether it's to visit with my DM's uncle (who was at Pearl Harbor), just to check out other Florida sights, or go to Sams Club and/or Walmart. Another reason is for the days we go to the water parks. I don't over plan our days so we aren't on a strict schedule (Mon. MK, Tues. A.K. and Mgm, Wed., TL, etc.). When I put our schedule on a spreadsheet I put the park hours, EMH, etc. on them and then make an honest attempt to figure out which park we'll be at and make and ADR for that park, or a nearby resort. There are always a few ADRs that I tell me DM we really need to keep. This year they'll be CG, Narcoossee's, LTT, and PSB.

On the days when I've scheduled a meal in a park, and it's a non-park day, I will cancel that ADR as soon as I know we can't keep it, and schedule another one. This has worked for us the last few times, we've always had an ADR for dinner, each night we needed it. (We mostly do ADRs for dinner, especially when on DDP). We like to do the water parks and usually go to both so this leaves us with 2 days when we won't be in a theme park. Since the weather can be a factor as to which days we go to TL, or BB, even if I tried to make our schedule cast in stone, it wouldn't work. After all, we are on vacation, and over scheduling can be very stressful.

By making at least one dinner ADR for each night of our tirp, it means if I can't get another ADR, we at least have an option to eat at a TS for dinner. One thing I never do is book 2 ADRs for the same night at different locations.

On our last trip 2 of our best meals were at restaurants for which I made ADRs, while there. One was Raglan Road on a night we had been to TL, I had an ADR for an in-park restaurant, so that wasn't going to work. We were able to get into RR at 8:30 with no problem (we like to eat late, since we're from CA and we have a 3 hr. time difference awyway, eating late is no problem for us). The other meal was at Narcoossee's. After next to a family at Kona Cafe, earlier on in our trip, who heartily rec. Nar., we decided to try to get an ADR-I couldn't get Sat., or Sun, but I was able to get Monday night which was our last night there, and turned out to be our favorite meal.

So....when I make our ADR's I make at least half of them for outside the parks; Transportation is never an issue since we drive ourselves; Luckily we've never had anyone sick (with exception of a migraine once, but we didn't have ADR's that night-pre DDP); and again, I can't overschedule or my DM will balk!

 

[Katiebell]

We made all of them except Rose and Crown on our last night (DH was sick ) and we had a late night ADR for Flying Fish another just for dessert and coffee, but we were too exhausted to go. We changed one ADR in the afternoon from Wolfgang Puck's Cafe to Raglan Road because we stopped into Raglan Road for a drink before La Nouba and really loved the atmosphere -- I'm sure WPC would have been nice, but we really loved the food and entertainment at RR We overslept our first morning and thought we would miss Akershus -- got ready in 10 minutes, called a cab, arrived in what we thought was "just on time" -- not realizing the lonnnnnnnng hike from the parking lot, through Future Showcase, all the way to Norway in WS Even though we were about 20 minutes late, they were still very gracious and seated us anyway

 

[Mickey-4-Me]

We missed our ADR at Chefs de France. It was scheduled for our first night. We didn't plan for how tired we would be. We had a 6:25am flight. We weren't prepared for the heat or stamina required to tour the parks. We ended up leaving Epcot midday and returning to the room for a nap. We got back out for Evening EMH in MGM and ate at a CS.

 

[ReneeA]

I've never just "missed" them. In one case, we decided we didn't want to leave the resort during a scheduled relaxation day for dinner. So, I called and cancelled so that someone else could use our spot if need be.

Also, last year we were at MGM the day that Tropical Storm Ernesto hit. It was wonderful - the place was a ghost town. We decided we wanted to stay there instead of leaving for our ADR. We walked into Sci-Fi Diner for a late lunch, and I asked the CM there to cancel my ADR for dinner that evening.

 

[Colleen27]

We cancelled one at Epcot at the last minute because we decided we didn't want to wait for dinner to get a break from the ridiculous heat and instead found someplace accepting walk-ups for a late lunch. It worked our really well too, because we then burned up some snack credits at the Food & Wine booths for dinner once the evening cooled off some.

Other than that, we made it to all of them, but we planned our days and ADRs so that we weren't travelling for meals - we had 1900 Park Fare on our MK day, Boma on our AK day, Le Cellier (the one I cancelled in favor of lunch at San Angel!) on our Epcot day, Sci-Fi on our MGM day, Boatwrights on our check-in day.

 

[Donaldduck66]

We also made it to all of ours as well. We don't go commando and the food is a big part of vacation for me, so our days are planned around where we'll eat.

I have to agree

 

[lonegungirl]

I've gone late to a couple of them because of traffic, etc., and if you call the reservation line, they always tell you that it's up to the restaurant's discretion whether they want to take you or not. Virtually every time, however, we've always been seated pretty quickly anyway--it seems as though even though there may be no later ADRs available, there's usually a lot of empty tables (but I wouldn't try it at, say, Le Cellier or at a busy time.)

The only time we didn't get in, was when we had a reservation at Artist's Point for after MK closed, and our boat got delayed by the water parade. By the time we got there, the kitchen had closed.

 

[dreamn_Disney]

We missed one last time for breakfast. We waited for the bus for 35 min. and then when it started on to the park the back door wasn't closing correctly and so until the driver got it closed we couldn't leave the resort. It was our last day and we always did a character breakfast at CM. Now we will be doing a character lunch the last day just before we need to leave.

 

[mkycrzy1971]

We had ADRs for Concourse Steakhouse one night (8:30pm) during our May 2007 trip...around 2pm that afternoon, we decided that our 2 year old would not be able to hold-out that long (even with a nap)...I called and changed our ADR to Maya at Coranado Springs (6:30pm)....it was GREAT...however, I still wish we could have done Concourse..never had the opportunity to try it or LeCellier and we LOVE good steak...next time I will make earlier ADRs.

 

[thunderbird1]

10 night trip--12 reservations--cancelled 3.

1. Duplicate reservation, in case we wanted to go twice. We didn't.

2. Second to last day, ADR at a steakhouse, dh nearly shrieked "no more steak!!!" Apparently, you can have too much of a good thing.

3. Had a TS lunch and a TS dinner scheduled on the same day, and couldn't do both. Later in the trip, we had to "double up" to use up the extra TS credit and confirmed that we can't do both lunch and dinner TS on the same day. When he overeats, my 3 yo still clutches his belly and moans, "too. . . much. . . dining . . . plan!"

 

[Brygida]

This will be our first trip to WDW and so will be first time on the DDP. I just finished making all of our TS ADRs and I just wondered about the folks who already completed their trips. Did you make it to all of your ADR TS meals?

Or did you miss any due to:
1. Insufficient travel time planning so arrived too late?
2. Too caught up with park activities so decided not to go?
3. Any other reasons?

Though we fully expect to arrive early to all of our ADRs, I just wondered. Is there any grace period before the ADR is void?

Yes, I've made it to all ADRs. 1. is never a problem as I always have a rental car and that travel time is consistent. If you count on WDW, which varies widely, you may not be so happy. 2. is not a problem because the rental car gives us the quickest to & from times we can possibly get.

 

[DisneyGlider]

Thanks folks for sharing your TS experiences. Gives us a better feel for scheduling and making it to our ADRs.

DisneyGlider

 

[Mad4Dizne]

Which is pretty typical for us. We did add one, as one morning some of the group wanted to go to Spoodles and the other Cape May.

We always plan our days around the ADR or plan the ADR around our day. We really like at least one break during the day to all sit down together and talk about the day.

 

[ronandannette]

I've gone late to a couple of them because of traffic, etc., and if you call the reservation line, they always tell you that it's up to the restaurant's discretion whether they want to take you or not. Virtually every time, however, we've always been seated pretty quickly anyway--

Last August I don't think we made it to any of ours ON TIME**, but at each and every one we were seated at the next available table after we arrived - Boma, Garden Grill, Sci Fi (too bad they didn't turn us away at this one ). We did have about a 30 minute wait at Ohana, but even the people scheduled well ahead of us had the same wait.

** we're talking anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes late. We hadn't purposely disregarded the times; for the life of us we just can NEVER seem to get where we're going...

Annette

 

[winterman]

We had free dining the last two Sept. We made it to all of our ADRs. On at least two occasions we were too tired to wait til our scheduled time and asked to be seated early. Each time they were able to do so.