Do I have to make reservations for every night?

[brober]

When y'all talk about making reservations ahead of time, is that in weeks or months ahead?

 

[kimberlym4]

When y'all talk about making reservations ahead of time, is that in weeks or months ahead?

The sooner the better. You are allowed to make reservations up to 180 days before your trip. I called for my June trip in late February (and have made a change or two this month) and I've gotten everything I wanted.

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

Usually months. We started making our ADRs in February for our May trip. As for planning, this is how we did it. I used the UG's best days to visit each park chart during the time that we'll be there and then plotted our TS meals accordingly since we ended up choosing all but one 1 TS either in or connected to a park. I never planned a meal in a park that was supposed to be crowded that day. And yes, the night I did most of the charting and planning my mind was fried by the end of it all. However, when my mom called me the next day to let me know that they were all made, it was a huge relief.

One final piece of advice. Have backup plans. It saved us more trouble in planning ADRs. We were unable to get our first night choice for every TS meal, but we were able to fit every TS meal we wanted to in on the trip. This is where the park plotting paid off. We wanted to do LTT on Monday and Boma on Thursday according the UG's schedule, but they didn't have any ADRs available on those respective nights. Uh oh, right? Fortunately not. Because I had mapped out the good days to visit certain parks, I had backup days for LTT, Boma, and the others, so it all worked out in the end.

I know that I spent tons of time figuring all the ADRs out with my mom, but there is a tremendous upside to it. When we go, we know that we'll be eating at all our first choices. We won't get there and find out that a certain restaurant we have our hearts set on eating at is booked solid. And we won't lose valuable park time trying to find an ADR.

 

[Pluto's Honey]

butterfuleyes Here's what I reserved with the help of the Disney lady:
Mama Melrose's w/ Fantasmic
Le Cellier
Rainforest Cafe for lunch and Wolfgang Puck's for dinner
Cinderella's Royal Table
1900 Park Fare
'Ohana



Those look good but I am also new and worried about not having enough.

Dinner confirmations:
June 22 Thursday : Garden Grill 8:00 PM In the land
June 23 Friday : ‘Ohana 6:30 PM At Polynesian
Coconut races and hula hoop contest
June 25 Sunday : Rainforest café 3:00 PM AK
June 25 Sunday : Chef Mickey 9:10 PM contemporary resort
June 26 Monday : Sci Fi theater 11:05 AM At mgm
watch old clips of sci fi movies, antique cars, free popcorn
June 26 Monday : Hollywood & Vine 6:30 PM CC HOLD
Free guaranteed seating to Fantasmic At MGM
June 27 Tuesday : Princess Storybook Breakfast 10:25AM CC HOLD (48hr)
June 28 Wednesday: Ohana Lilo & Stitch 10:50 AM


Again, I am worried we don't have enough. Do we need others...still hoping for the mgm breakfast and beyond. I have heard of tonga toast but... How do these look? I have a DS12 and DD9 and my DH. have an AP so we we do not have the dining plan but are getting the DDE.

 

[investgirlmd]

We are going in April and it will be our first time. I must say this was the mos stressful planning for me was the dining. We are on the dining plan and I had a hard time trying to figure out what time and where. What I did was had a list of the places I wanted to go and what days I wanted to go and I called to see what they had available. Somedays they didnt even have any openings for that day. The person I had taking my ADR's was very helpful and really tried to help me decide. So if you have an idea call and let them help you. Some of the days I had to use TS as breakfast instead of dinner cause they didnt have any openings.

I would call and get ADR's for sure. I would call as soon as you can.

 

[honeybee213]

You could also look into subscribing to Tour Guide Mike. I'm planning for my first trip in June, and used his advice to plan what parks on what days, so I could know what to plan for TS ADRs. He has great advice on timing as well. You can get a discount at the top of the Dis boards home page. And you have plenty of time to get through all his wonderful advice (in between planning your wedding, that is )

 

[themudd4]

One of my Disney planning books makes it sound like you have to make reservations for any table service restaurant you want to eat in. I thought you could just get hungry and go in to a random restaurant. Please tell me I'm right.

Also, this will be my first Disney trip and I don't know those restaurants.

YES YES YES...BOOK BOOK BOOK! If you plan on eating something other than burgers and hot dogs you will want to have ADR's. Go through and get a rough idea of where you are going to be each day at a time you normally eat dinner. Then go through your guidebook and select a few places to ask on here about. Then call ASAP to book.
We didn't book every dinner last year, and after being denined at more than a few TS meals I got on the phone in the resort and did the only thing I could do...booked for the next day at times that we would not normally have picked, but we wanted to eat!