Dinner ADRs - to reserve or not to reserve?

[cyneswith]

We'll be there from a Sunday to Saturday - no reservations the last day at all, as we might actually overnight the trip back.

How necessary are dinner ADRs with small kids? On the one hand, flexibility may be good. On the other hand, waiting in lines without ADRs may be chaos with a 3 year old and a 1 year old.

We have 2 breakfast ADRs (BoG was booked for dinner during our whole stay, despite using 180+10 a grand total of 8 hours after it was available), one afternoon tea ADR, and one dinner ADR.

 

[mjkacmom]

If you want to eat at a TS restaurant, make ADR's. There are many restaurants where you won't be waiting on a lone, but told there is no availability.

 

[chelseas mom]

Make them. QS can get very busy at normal eating times. Difficult to order, wait for food, find a table, get condiments. The easiest and less stressful option is to get ADR's for Table Service. Also, BOG will most likely open up, just keep looking If you have the App then it is easy to check whenever you think about checking for openings.

 

[cyneswith]

None of the TS places that work for us (picky grandma, impatient little kids) have openings after 5:30 anyway. Ah well.

 

[Shanti]

We'll be there from a Sunday to Saturday - no reservations the last day at all, as we might actually overnight the trip back.

How necessary are dinner ADRs with small kids? On the one hand, flexibility may be good. On the other hand, waiting in lines without ADRs may be chaos with a 3 year old and a 1 year old.

We have 2 breakfast ADRs (BoG was booked for dinner during our whole stay, despite using 180+10 a grand total of 8 hours after it was available), one afternoon tea ADR, and one dinner ADR.

We always have breakfast & dinner ADR's for most days. Just takes the hassle out of it for us as we know when & where we'll eat, & not have to worry about getting a table. Since WDW meals are big, we usually skip lunch & just have a snack mid-day.

 

[blackpearl77]

You will need ADRs if you want to eat TS. Just keep checking. People changing plans in the weeks before will open some up. And especially check the day before - I found a lot cancel the night before.

 

[powellrj]

Just keep checking because things open up all the time. If you aren't picky where you eat, there is always someplace that will have an opening without an ADR, but it may not be anyplace you want to eat but there will be an opening.

 

[Gracie09]

What do you mean by picky and impatient? Perhaps people could suggest out of the ordinary places for you to try

 

[msmama]

We are more likely to do our bigger meals earlier in the day (late breakfast or lunch). Only 1 or 2 TS dinners per trip (depending on trip length). And if we do a TS dinner it's the last thing we do in the parks, then we leave. (5:30 seems like the latest we'd generally do so that'd work for me).

I don't find QS places any more crowded at dinner than at any other time (well, meal time anyway). I generally suggest have one (maybe 2 if you'll need 2 carriers) person order while everybody else goes to find a place to sit. There's absolutely no reason to have EVERYONE in the party stand in line to order (the amount of people that do this astound me)!!

You can always ask a restaurant if they have any availabilty as you're walking by - sometimes they may be taking walk ups, sometimes they'll let you wait. Also you can keep checking, especially the night before as most people will cancel 24 hours before as to not get hit with a no show fee. But I'd also have a backup plan in place as well.

 

[kboo]

I just posted a similar question in the Restaurants forum! We have usually made breakfast and dinner ADRs for most days and canceled the night before if we don't feel like having a TS meal the next night. It's also been really good because then the kid(s) don't go hungry. I see you have a 3yo DS - I'd make ADRs every night in the 5-5:30 range and then cancel the night before if it doesn't look like you'll need it or want it. Character meals are always fun. My question in the Restaurants forum was related - about making dinner ADRs at resorts rather than in the parks, because we were dealing with an over tired 4yo trying to get back into the parks for our 5pm ADRs. I think it's pretty hard to come by sit down restaurant availability if you just walk up (especially in the parks) and I'd rather not have to wait for a table, so I think we will still make ADRs and then try to manage the schedule better. (Our 4yo refused to nap, or would nap too long and have to be woken up in time to rush to our ADR, both of which made her exceedingly cranky. It was very stressful to try to get back to the parks after that.)

 

[brinkley07]

We prefer reservations at dinner because of our 2yo. It's a cool place to relax and it usually lets him have down time. I would try to make some reservations if you can ahead of time. We did a trip recently with my Dad who insisted on making very few ADR's as he isn't a big eater and it was really hard to try to get a cranky child to wait in line for food or at a table that wasn't always in air conditioning. I do make ADR times allowing for an off nap time for the little guy as he always takes late naps while we are there and sometimes they run longer than we expect. He does nap in the stroller though which makes it easier.

 

[Nancyg56]

None of the TS places that work for us (picky grandma, impatient little kids) have openings after 5:30 anyway. Ah well.

I do not want to be rude, but if you have a picky grandma and impatient kids, you either need ADR's in place, or you need to do a lot od CS research. No matter when you go restaurants are busy after 5:30, and this includes the CS, so I think that it is best to make some plans. You may choose to avoid TS ADR's but at least check out the menus at CS restaurants and plan to eat on off times.

 

[Tara1988]

Because of the way we tour, early morning to late night with no midday resort break, we prefer to have a late lunch adr. It gives us a guaranteed time to sit down and relax out of the heat and gets everybody's energy up for the rest of the day. Then we do a quick service dinner whenever we're ready because while I prefer to eat my dinner while watching the fireworks, other people in the group might get hungry sooner. This also gives us more freedom because we don't feel like we have to eat from the same place. If you take midday breaks away from the park or don't spend all day there like we do, I would skip the adrs and give your group more flexibility. But if you think you'll need a break while in the parks or want to all sit down together, your choices are reservations or quick service meals at off times. You're not going to want to fight the crowds and hunt for a table at peak meal times. Also, the places with the most variety are generally the most crowded

 

[DizzyDis]

I have kids at about the same age range (4 and 18 mos) and decided to go for some character buffet TS so that we can see characters without waiting in line and the 18 mo loves to eat, so being able to get him food immediately while his sister stares at characters works for us. Plus, he is free at buffets and we can give the kids whatever they feel like at that moment, even if they are different and not try to share meals as they aren't huge eaters, so someone ends up eating something they don't really want (often me!!) Generally, we have been looking at one bigger meal per day (buffet) and then will snack/counter service for the rest of the day. That gives us all a break, AC, no searching for tables, but also lets us snack on Mickey bars and other delicious treats! It also means we can give the kids veggies and other healthier options that aren't always the norm at CS options (or more than just the 2 choices...)

We are early eaters, so we were able to get breakfasts at about 8 am at O'hana and Crystal Palace and, I echo others on looking at the resort options, as we also have dinners at 1-900 at the Grand Floridian and Chef Mickeys at 5:15. Too early for most but works for us. I have seen other options open up since the 180 day window, so keep checking and see if something shows up, especially if you are looking at resorts, it doesn't matter what park you are at that day. Hope you find something great and completely agree with others that it is good to keep looking and you can always cancel mid-trip if you have too many or decide they don't work for you!

 

[ktlm]

We started taking DD when she was 2. When she was a preschooler, lunch ADRs worked much better than dinner or breakfast ADRS. She is not a morning person and we had a one hour time change, so the pre-park opening breakfast turned out to be a really bad thing for us. She was cranky and fell asleep at the table at Tusker House and didn't even want to wake up and say Hi to Mickey when he came by (and she was a total character fanatic starting at age 2 and was the kid who was better behaved at WDW than at home and rarely got cranky at WDW). Lunch always worked out great because we would get to the park at rope drop, go strong until lunch, and then lunch would wind her down to take a nap in her stroller and give DH and I a rest and fuel to keep going and take turns riding the big rides while she was asleep. Dinner was not as good as lunch because by that time she was getting a little tired and antsy. She would either be bouncing off the walls at the tables (the sleep sillies) or falling asleep in her food. If we just did a quick counter service at night, her adrenaline would stay up and she would keep going until closing most nights (she would crash in the stroller as soon as we walked out the park gate). For breakfast, we usually either had stuff delivered from Garden Grocer at the beginning of our trip to store in the room/room fridge that we knew she would eat (she was picky) or DH would go down to CS and bring breakfast up. We would hit rope drop and have a TS lunch ADR set sometime between 11:00 and 12:30. We would just do CS for dinner, except for the rare occasion such as 1900 Park Fare dinner to see the Cinderella crew.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you don't make ADR's in advance and want a TS dinner, I would recommend checking the MDE app on your phone about 2 to 4 hours prior to when you want to eat (or even evening before or morning of). Many people cancel the night before to avoid the no-show fee and things typically become available. While you may not be able to snag BOG, things like GF Cafe, the Wave, etc. will typically become available. You could also do a TS at Skipper's Canteen in MK which only takes day-of reservations.

 

[Minnesota!]

We have always been able to make same day reservations. Might not be at the most popular place, but it's a restaurant, with food, and air conditioning.

We enjoy long dinner service at the end of a day at WDW. With kids that little, you will either want ADR's or vast knowledge of CS meals....

 

[Crystal824]

I don't know if you have the DP. If you have that, you may want to do dinners to maximize the value of your DP.

If you don't, it really depends on if you want to eat TS dinners. If so, you should make ADRs.

I just returned for a week trip with two kids, 5 and 20 months. We decided to only do a few TS meals this trip. We did two character breakfasts, Hollywood and Vine and Chef Mickey's. We did lunch at Liberty Tree. We booked those before we left. On the last day, we had planned to eat at Contempo Cafe (we stayed at BLT) while waiting for the Magical Express. However, we ended up having more time than we thought we would so we walked up to the Wave and got a reservation for lunch. We ended up having four TS meals in a 6 night trip.

I thought we had a great mix of TS meals. We don't do the DP. We decided we didn't need a TS meal everyday because sometimes sit down meals with our kids are more trouble than they are worth especially when the kids are tired. We intentionally did breakfast and lunch as our kids are less tired during those times usually. I was happy with our choices. We had some fantastic counter service meals too. We ate counter service at Norway in Epcot, snacking at the Flower and Garden stands, Harambe Market at Animal Kingdom, Pecos Bills at MK, and BackLot Express at DHS (DH said that was the best counter service meal he had had at DHS is years- granted he generally hates counter service at DHS so that isn't' saying too much) just to name a few. We also ate at the Contempo Cafe a few times.

 

[cyneswith]

Thank you all for the replies! And sorry for not chiming back in - March was crazy for us.

No dining plan, mom is veggie-phobic and diabetic (while her new medication does allow bread again, she can't handle carbs at/after dinner, which is new since I posted), kids are no more impatient than average for their ages, but they are/will be at highly impatient ages. DD is still anything-goes in terms of food (especially grass or dirt, not that she's allowed to eat those), DS calls all veggies carrots and thinks they are torture (but still eats more varieties than my mom.) Fish is well loved by all. We are doing MK two days, AK one morning, HS one night (could do early dinner at GF, though we're doing all GF the next day), and EPCOT (Biergarten) one day. I'm very familiar with EPCOT, and the only food stop I remember liking at HS is gone. MK - I remember eating in Frontierland ~20 years ago, so I have no useful memories for food planning.

My mom's recent dietary changes make counter service seem like a better option for dinner (she can order chicken, bunless burgers, or turkey legs with no awkwardness), and we can do more balanced meals for lunch when my kids are more flexible on timing to begin with. Still plenty of time for research.