do you make dining reservations?

[OurDogCisco]

I wish, we didn't have to plan ADRs but we travel Christmas/New Years', Thanksgiving week or summer. So, I usually make one 1 ADR per day. We really don't like the quick service as much. But we have to eat as the kids need 3 meals a day. So, usually, we have fruit, yogurt, bagels, cereal for breakfast in the room, lunch quick service but dh and I split the meal instead of eating the entire meal and then, early sitdown dinner around 5 pm. Sometimes we do a character buffet breakfast and then, on those days we usually make dinner back in the room like tacos, shepherd's pie, pasta, etc.. I don't cook as much as I use to at WDW as my kids have gotten older. When they were younger I made more breakfasts like bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, french toast, etc.. And, we definitely did one other meal in for them like grilled cheese, quesdillas, etc. But now they are much older and prefer to hang out at the parks.

 

[dsneygirl]

We make one for every day but we usual cancel a couple. I get tired of eating out all the time. We are not DDPers either.

 

[Chellymouse]

We make a few ADR per trip, but that's just to ensure we eat in the couple of places that we can't stand to miss. The super important ones are made at 180 days and the rest are by the seat of our pants.

 

[heynowirv]

With California Grill being revamped until Aug. i don't think we'll make any ADR's this July trip. I love the 1 bedrooms for the full kitchens 2 parents and 4 adults "kids",so we'll all take turns making our favorite meals and catching up on the days activities.

 

[honeymo78]

We make at least one if not two for every day. I do not cook while on vacation and I prefer sit down meals. We have gone often enough to know when we generally will get hungry. Sometimes it is for a full meal, other times apps and dessert. There are still plenty of places that we enjoy on property and the cost does not bother us. I don't mind planning in advance and we have always had luck if we need to make last minute adjustments.

 

[Sammie]

We make one for each evening meal.

 

[mac_tlc]

Same here. We book 1 bedrooms for the additional space (DD sleeps in her PnP in the extra bathroom ) not for the kitchen like a lot of other people!

Add me to this list. The washer/dryer is more important to us than the kitchen. We usually do 5 or so ADR's a week - usually lunch since the menus are similar to dinner, but cheaper. We have been to WDW enough that one more trip on Space Mountain isn't critical -- we would rather enjoy a nice sit down meal in a restaurant that we like. We enjoy the planningm and try to make it to a new restaurant every trip if we can.


mac_tlc

 

[Murron]

Count me in as another who never makes ADRs.

 

[mmmagic7754]

Don't like being tied to a certain time and place. We have always had really good luck if walking up before 6:00pm to most table services.

 

[bwang123]

I think ADRs in advance are a thing of the past for me.

how else can you make ADRs rather than advanced?

 

[quandrea]

how else can you make ADRs rather than advanced?

I will book same day only based on availability.

 

[Judique]

how else can you make ADRs rather than advanced?

The poster may be referring to making ADR's the same day of the planned meal.

If we feel like eating at a restaurant that takes ADR's we will check for a time when we are deciding where to eat. Since we've dined just about everywhere over the years, this suits us fine. It's not going to bother us much if we can't get into the popular places.

That said, I'd like to try BOG in January and I can't get in. Has anyone successfully done a walk up here?

 

[jpeka65844]

We love DVC for the w/d, the extra space, and the full-size fridge for adult beverages...... I hate to cook at home; you're not gonna see me do it on vacation.

We usually do breakfast in the rooms (bagles, yogurt, toast, cereal, etc....) and a combo of lunch or dinner ADR's throughout the rest of the week.

When taking family/large parties, we usually have one every day. If for nothing else, just so everyone can converge and talk. It's always a "fun" one (50's PT, WCC, etc....)

When it's a smaller party, we always do at least O'hana on arrival night, CP for departure morning.

And we're not DDP people either (unless traveling with a large party which is just for the convenience). We're TiW people.....

 

[boBQuincy]

For some restaurants ADRs are a necessity, Be Our Guest is currently one of those. We have found that on some evenings without an ADR there are no options other than counter service. Because of this we make ADRs and rarely cancel them. This fits our touring plans which are loose but we usually know which park we will be in on which day.

I really liked the food at BOG, I had the ratatouille and it was quite good. BOG is certainly the best food in MK, before this we avoided any table service in MK because it was overpriced and not very good.

We make breakfast in our DVC room so we can get to the parks and be ready to go, other than that we usually eat at parks or resorts.

 

[18sprint]

First off, I love planning our trips. Not every minute, but I think it's a good idea to have a plan where to go each day. At least I used to think so. For dining reservations we decide if there is a specific place we want to eat. The most important is where it is located. If it is a place in MK, AK, or HS then it will need a reservation. The parks selection of table service dining is quiet limited given the number of people in these parks on a given day. I have been witness to too many people trying to get into the Brown Derby and/or Sci-Fi without reservations just to be turned away. You have a much better chance of getting in at Epcot without a reservation at many places....doesn't include Le Cellier or the Biergarten which almost always need planning.
In the past we have planned everyday with a dinner reservation, and what we found was we had become slaves to a time and place, everything revolved around dinner. For our next trip in April, I have made 2 reservations: Be Our Guest and Victoria & Alberts, that's it. For the remaining 11 days we'll be winging it.

 

[amyy]

We use to make a lot of ADR but would end up canceling some of them. Now we make 3 or 4. For our next trip we have Be Our Guest, Rose and Crown and the Yacht Club. The YC is for breakfast so maybe we don't need the ADR. Some restaurants we have luck getting in by calling in the morning but others we don't. Our next trip will be our first stay on the Boardwalk so I might make an ADR at the Flying Fish as we have never been.

 

[taaren]

For our first 10-park day trip I made 9 ADR's, we ended up keeping 6 of them. Some were experiences we could have not gotten otherwise and I was very happy we tried them and will probably make an ADR for again: Garden Grill, Grand Floridian Tea Room, Chefs de France. Others I was glad to have an ADR watching them turn so many away, but was glad to experience once and probably won't book again (Sci-Fi). One I would like to eat at again but won't make an ADR for is Kouzzina since the restaurant was half empty when we ate there, it was delicious and the server was so personable, we'll just walk up whenever we're in the mood for the lasagna.

DH has requested less sit-down meals, though, for future trips so I'm going to limit myself to one ADR for every two park days from hereon out ...

FWIW, we considered the Be Our Guest lunch experience to be fun and tasty, on par with some of the better counter service options at DLR (which most of the DLR CS is better than WDW), but it helped that the line we waited in wasn't very long (under 20 min). But I won't fight the crowd for an ADR for it.

 

[delaneyc52]

We had to do the dining plan and make ADR's for the first time because of family members joining us for our last trip. They like three meals per day. Oh dear lord.....it was just too too much food for us (think waddling around the park) and way way too much planning. I simply cannot plan all those months in advance as to what I'll feel like eating or doing (hear that Disney FP+ planners?) on any particular day. The relaxation and spontaneity of vacation is just disappearing! Rant over. Answer is a simple no...we never ever do ADR's.

 

[daisyduck123]

We make one for each evening meal.

So so we.

Our family enjoys a relaxing TS meal each night, where we can sit down, relax, & just enjoy being together to discuss the day's events.

While on vacation I refuse to cook or clean (eating in our villa would at least make crumbs on the counters). We absolutely never hae any meals in our villa.

** We have DVC friends who planned a spur of the moment trip to WDW less than two weeks ago. They checked in two days ago. They couldn't get a DVC room, so they are staying at a moderate. Of course, they weren't able to book their ADRs 180 days in advance as they usually do. They are just checking at the concierge desk each day to see what's available.

They've gotten in at:
Hoop de Doo (dinner Friday night)
Chef Mickey's (dinner last night 6 pm )
'Ohana (breakfast today 8am)
Cali Grille (tonight for dinner)

 

[RachaelA]

** We have DVC friends who planned a spur of the moment trip to WDW less than two weeks ago. They checked in two days ago. They couldn't get a DVC room, so they are staying at a moderate. Of course, they weren't able to book their ADRs 180 days in advance as they usually do. They are just checking at the concierge desk each day to see what's available.

They've gotten in at:
Hoop de Doo (dinner Friday night)
Chef Mickey's (dinner last night 6 pm )
'Ohana (breakfast today 8am)
Cali Grille (tonight for dinner)

Awesome last minute ADRs!! I'm glad they've had such good luck.