do you make dining reservations?

[quandrea]

Just finished reading some BOG reviews and many of them are BAD. Just wondering if many of you choose NOT to make many ADRs. I find the more we go, the less inclined I am to make reservations. I find we just need to cancel them as we find we aren't in the mood for what we planned six months ago or we aren't in the area of that restaurant after all. We have a trip coming in January and I haven't booked anything yet. Don't think I will. I figure we'll eat when we're hungry and surely we'll find somewhere to eat. Am I alone on this?

 

[TSMMANIAC]

No we rarely make dining reservations. We hate to plan our day around food. The food at Disney is mediocre at best. We eat when we get hungry and don't miss expensive table service meals at all.

 

[quandrea]

No we rarely make dining reservations. We hate to plan our day around food. The food at Disney is mediocre at best. We eat when we get hungry and don't miss expensive table service meals at all.

That's where I think we are headed. I find that the preplanned meals often end up a disaster--the twins are in a bad mood, we had to rush to get there, we had to wait to be seated, etc, etc. Some of our most restful meals have been at the McDonalds or the Earl of Sandwich. Tangeriene Cafe is also a favourite as were the tacos at Cantina San Angel. I think for January, we'll just go with the flow. If we feel like a sit down, I'm sure Sanaa at AKL will have an opeining, or many of the other resorts. There are also plenty of counter service that we find satisfying. I guess once you've been going three four times a year for many years, you realize it's not all about one more photo op with Cindrella. We also enjoy pizza and home made food in the villa.

 

[a742246]

We like to eat a late lunch 2-4 and find that we (almost or maybe never) had a problem with getting into any disney rest.

 

[DizBub]

I'm another one who is going next month (for 9 nights) with not 1 ADR.

Totally sick of planning my days/time around dining reservations. If we feel like eating at a certain place I'll call or get on-line and check availability. If I can't get into one I'll try another. There's always decent counter service.

Too much stress and I'm on vacation.

 

[Maleficent53]

We are part of the "no reservations" camp. We did the dining plan only once, and did not like it. We do not like to plan our days around where we have meal reservations.

We do not pre-plan what day we will go to a park - we like to go where we want that morning depending on factors like weather and group preferences. I know some people live for structure in their vacation plans and spend weeks planning for every minute of the day, but for us - no way!

 

[quandrea]

We are part of the "no reservations" camp. We did the dining plan only once, and did not like it. We do not like to plan our days around where we have meal reservations.

We do not pre-plan what day we will go to a park - we like to go where we want that morning depending on factors like weather and group preferences. I know some people live for structure in their vacation plans and spend weeks planning for every minute of the day, but for us - no way!

I think this comes from going many, many times. My SIL told me of a time they walked through EPCOT in a thundrstorm just to make it to a meal and then head home to the resort. Sounds crazy to me. I think ADRs in advance are a thing of the past for me.

 

[cseca]

Depends on the type of vacation we want.
If we don't mind eating at the villas or counterservices most of the time then I will make minimal ADRs.

But honestly I've always make at least 1 TS ADR per day.
If we think we won't use it then I would cancel it the day before.
It doesn't cost me anything to make them and might even save me some waiting time.

I think if your family doesn't care about character meals and such anymore then ADRs are overrated. However, in families with younger kids or young at hearts who wants to do character meals you almost have no option but to make some. Now whether you can actually use it by the time you get there is a different story.

I don't get the bad reviews at BOG.
I did lunch and dinner and had good experience (except for the waiting in line for lunch part). I would've stayed longer at dinner if my kids weren't so restless to do one last ride before we head home the next day.
The food wasn't 4-star restaurant food, but it was decent for the location.
If people are expecting some fancy restaurant food I think they'd be disappointed. It IS a park restaurant... you go more for the experience not for fancy food.
Personally my opinion is:
Food - I would go for lunch
Ambiance - I would go for dinner

If I were to go again, I would pick dinner just because it's a lot more relaxing than lunch. Lunch was very chaotic with the servers wheeling carts everywhere and people walking around and then there's the waiting in line part...
But if they end up doing the FP+ type ordering system for it, I might just try out lunch again to see if it has gotten any better.
But that's just me.

 

[bakenatj]

I do all the planning for our vacations. Our family likes the dinning experience at Disney. Is it the best food on earth? No, but we enjoy going to the restaurants and it is part of our vacation. With hopper I don't feel its a big deal to go to the park you have reservations for that night. We normally go to the park right away in the morning and leave after lunch and hang out at the resort pool or rest. Then back to the park we have reservations at to enjoy our evening. Not really that difficult.

I think Disney restaurants take an unfair beating here on the Boards. Has every meal been our best meal ever....No, but come on.... even great restaurants have bad meals once in a while. Just relax, take a chill pill and have fun and enjoy your vacation.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We make them. I've a 9 night stay with DH coming up. We enjoyed Chefs de France so much for the CP last weekend, I cancelled Narcoosee's and booked Chefs for my birthday!

With girlfriends, I make about 2 ADRs for a 5 night stay.

Bobbi

 

[rpk1951]

We always make them. We like a break in the day to sit down, coll off, and talk. It is the time we pull the entire group together.

 

[erinclemmer]

We are going in January (4 day Military Salute) and the only ressie we have is for BOG. Traveling with 2 girls, ages 6 and a 9 year old Birthday girl means we are following the kids lead.

 

[Mom B]

Half the fun of my vacations are in the planning, and I like planning my meals so I have some specific details to look forward to. That's not to say that we never change our plans or cancel a ressie, but I feel better knowing we have something pre-arranged. Besides, DH hates standing in line for the CS food and with ADRs we can usually get in without a long wait. (I know sometimes that's not the case, but we've had pretty good luck with it most of the time.) Sometimes I overplan, but we can always make changes if necessary. I just don't like standing around waiting for everyone to DECIDE what they want to eat...you know, "what do you want," "I don't know, what do you want," etc. etc. etc..if they don't like my choices, at least they're forced to make a decision!

 

[AnnaS]

I usually make 3 of them (give or take one) - for a week stay. I don't like to have to be somewhere at a certain time once, twice a day, and/or almost every day of the week.

 

[dvcterry]

We make adrs but I have cancelled them. We don't eat out everyday. After a while the food gets to be a bit much. We love to use the kitchen and the family absolutely enjoys going back to the villa for a little r & r, a dip in the pool, and eating in the villa. It's funny how having a kitchen and laundry in our villa seems so luxurious.

 

[bwvBound]

Totally sick of planning my days/time around dining reservations.

Too much stress and I'm on vacation.

These describe my thoughts on recent WDW visits, also! I *hate* booking ADRs and have gone without for the past few trips.

 

[jekjones1558]

ADRs? Not. Disney food is mostly mediocre and overpriced. We often eat off-site and love the flexibility this offers. One exception is CP. We do Chefs for that.

 

[cseca]

Lol! If you think planning ADRs is a chore wait until FP+ is rolled out and people plan for tides 6mo in advance

 

[Kidanifan08]

Put us in the camp of still doing ADR's. In fact, we still do ours at 180+10. We have a 6yo, so we still do at least on character event, and we like to do the breakfasts when we can get in the park before they open. That seems to require advanced planning. We also have a few regulars, although I was pretty disappointed in LeCellier on our most recent trip. I expect that we will have fewer ADR's as time passes, but I think we will always schedule a few of our favorites. It's easy to cancel them at this point if we don't think we are going to use them.

 

[kirstenb1]

We don't. Annual passes don't work for us, so at the current price of park tickets, we eat a quick breakfast at the villa, counter service for lunch, and then a late dinner, either back at the room, counter service or offsite. I'd be the first to admit to not having a "foodie palate" which I'm sure is part of it too.