do you make dining reservations?

[quandrea]

We've had similar luck with last minute ADRs. Our first visit to 'Ohana was booked with two hours notice for 5pm for a family of five. This was during Spring Break season. Just think it's better to see what's available when we are in the mood for a sit down meal.

 

[helloirishkitty]

We make one a day- either a character breakfast or sit-down dinner.

 

[Golden Rose]

We make them for every day, often two a day. We prefer to dine at signature restaurants, although there are a few others we go to either because we really enjoy the place, or for the kids. Typical for us - Cali Grill, Jiko, V & A (if we have babysitting), Boma, and Cinderella's RT. In Epcot, we like Bistro (although who knows what it will be like after the redo), Marrakesh, Akershus, and my son absolutely adores the Coral Reef. None of these, except Marrakesh are easy to get into without an ADR. We sometimes cancel our ADRs on the day of, but we always make them 180 days out. I'm unwilling to eat at most of the CS restaurants. That is where I really feel like the food is very overpriced; several of the sit down places are still good and not too out of line for pricing.

 

[disneycrazed139]

We always make reservations for each day. For us, this is an important part of our overall experience, and with a little planning, we can settle on where we want to go each day. If weather messes things up too much, we have switched things around, but we have our favorite places, and it's always nice to be assured a spot and look forward to it as part of the day.

We've never really tried it any other way, but I suspect not being able to get in where we want, approximately when we want, might be more stressful for us than not planning!

 

[BabsBunny]

My husband used to be in the no res camp, but it only took one evening to change his mind. It was during Feb break and the night that the Daytona 500 let out. We walked all over DD and SSR looking for someplace to eat that didn't have an hour and a half wait. After waiting (in silence) 30 minutes for a boat from SSR back to DD, we got in the car and picked up a pizza and a bottle of wine at Crossroads. Of course this is the stuff vacation memories are made of. It wasn't funny that night, but it is now.

We usually make dinner reservations except for one or two nights when we hang in the villa and either get take out or order a pizza.

 

[Mariep26]

We usually book a few ADRs for things we really want. We are new DVC owners so we will see how that will change over time. For our upcoming trip we have booked Chef Mickey (B), Via Napoli (L), Crystal Palace (B), Tusker House (B) and Ohana (D). We love the character breakfasts and have never done Chef Mickeys and we are also new to Via Napoli and O'hana.

 

[bakerworld]

We usually make 1 ADR at a hard to get place (usually le celliar) - find the rest can all be walk ups. We finally ate at Flying Fish and I thought we needed an ADR but I was wrong - there was plenty of room.

 

[mickeymom629]

We have no reservations for our trip in a few days. I have alternative touring days depending on how we feel. I rarely make any ADRs unless I am positive of the day we will be somewhere, and then I only make one or two at the most. I can't remember the last time I made ADRs.

We love CS restaurants anyway - less time away from rides and we can be flexible.

 

[KiminChicago]

We only make ADRs for restaurants that we would be disappointed to miss. We started going to WDW when my son was almost 3 and daughter was only 7 months old and one of DS's favorite meals was breakfast at Chef Mickey's so we always go to Chef Mickey's on every trip and I will make an ADR there. Sometimes I haven't been able to get breakfast so we'll do dinner, but we do always get there at some point.

For our upcoming trip in June, I only have two ADRs for a week-long stay: Chef Mickey's for breakfast one day and Be Our Guest for dinner on another day, because it's new and I really wanted to see what the dinner there is like.

I just really wish they hadn't changed the photo spot at Chef Mickey's when they redecorated and expanded. I have all the pictures from our many visits over the years on my refrigerator and it was so neat to compare how big my kids were compared to the giant plate. Last time we were there the plate was gone and there's now a little Mickey statue that we posed with.

 

[Buckalew11]

We have one ADR for our January trip. I had two but gave BOG up.