Do you NEED ADR?

[KenziesMommy85]

I told my boyfriend today about the ADR, and since he's a fly by the seat of your pants type of person he totally blew it off. Said he didn't want reservations and wanted to be able to go and eat where've and check places out since we don't know anything about the different restaurants. We definitely want to do sit down dinners every night. At cool/nice/awesome places (lol)... Will it be virtually impossible to get a table without an ADR? How long would a wait be without one? We are going from July 3rd-july 10th, fwiw.

 

[CajunMomof3]

If you want a table service meal, ADRs are going to pretty much be a necessity at that time of year. You might luck into a table at an off time, but then again, you might have to eat quick service. There are some good quick service meals, but if you want a sit down meal with a server, ADRs are the way to go.

 

[GAN]

That's an extremely busy time of year. I think you can forget any signatures -although you may be able to get something like Artist Point. If you don't mind eating early, I'd suggest arrive a little before 5 ...I've had luck doing this(been turned away as well). Your other option would be to familiarize yourself with the My Disney Experience App -you can check it throughout the day of in hopes that something might open up. It's easy enough as it will tell you anything with availability. I've used it before with lots of luck(if you're flexible, and you will HAVE to be) but that was when it was first rolled out ...there are many more users now.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Cool, nice, awesome sit-down places, probably within parks, during the 4th of July week. As far as the in-park restaurants you should probably start trying to talk him into the need to have ADRs now (except maybe for a couple of places at Epcot like perhaps Biergarten or Marrakesh). If you are good with leaving the parks to go to outlying resorts or DTD, then you will have better luck but don't hold your breath for no wait or even short waits depending on the time you try. Get the ADRS, especially if you will be dining with a child, you want ANY character meals, or you want peak mealtimes.

 

[Vernie822]

You could always compromise and plan meals for maybe 3 or 4 days of your trip, that way you get a happy in-between of being spontaneous and knowing you have a few must-do restaurants planned.

I read a dining report from a family that didn't do any ADR's, but I think they checked each morning and were able to get a dinner ADR each night. This was also in the fall where it is usually less busy than the middle of summer, but you could always get up each morning and plan your ADR's that way.. although there's not a 100% chance of getting what you want each day!

 

[Hopefully]

I told my boyfriend today about the ADR, and since he's a fly by the seat of your pants type of person he totally blew it off. Said he didn't want reservations and wanted to be able to go and eat where've and check places out since we don't know anything about the different restaurants. We definitely want to do sit down dinners every night. At cool/nice/awesome places (lol)... Will it be virtually impossible to get a table without an ADR? How long would a wait be without one? We are going from July 3rd-july 10th, fwiw.

If you want somewhere nice and fun, IN the parks, you definitely need ADR's.
With over 100 TS restaurants in WDW you will always be able to find a place to eat. But it very well may NOT be where you want to eat or when you want to eat.
I would make ADR's
Good Luck

 

[hsmamato2]

You need them. Convince him...

 

[nkereina]

Agree with PPs. You're going one of the busiest weeks of the year. Even if a restaurant WILL accept walk-ups, you could still be in for a 60+ minute wait. Unless you're willing to eat at QS locations or to eat at the moderate resort TS restaurants (arguably the least popular TS restaurants), then make ADRs. If you're on the trip and don't want your ADRs the next day, you have until midnight the day before to cancel them with no penalty.

 

[MrsDuck]

Yep, they're necessary for the summer months.

 

[HopperFan]

Without ADRs in the parks, be prepared to eat at a "nice" but maybe not "cool or awesome" = places that are not popular. Study up on the counter service restaurants for backup, some are better food and atmosphere than others. Agree with PP if you are willing to head to a resort or DTD you at least will have more options. Note: I would not travel to a resort on a chance - at that point I would try to get an ADR on MDE or the phone before heading out.

 

[ktlm]

Make some. You can cancel as it gets closer if you decide you do not want them. The chances of having a TS dinner at a cool, nice awesome TS in the parks with no ADR during July 4th week are not great. He needs to understand that this is not a matter of how long the wait would be for a table without one. There is no waiting list. They turn you away from the restaurant if the ADRs are booked up- which they often are. We see people turned away from at least some of the restaurants we eat in on every trip and we don't even go at busy times of the year. If you want any type of character meal with your child, those book up really fast so those need to be booked now. Allears.net has a dining section that has a list of all the restaurants with all their menus. There are definitely times when there are absolutely no TS available at all during the whole day at MK because they were booked in advance. We were going to switch to MK one day and called to see what was available in the early morning for either lunch or dinner, and were told there was nothing. You may get lucky enough to get a walk up somewhere, or you may find yourself going from place to place trying to get in and being turned away from all of them- one trip I heard a man throwing a fit about that in EPCOT to a hostess at San Angel Inn as his family was being turned away because they had already been turned away from several other places.

 

[Vernie822]

Once I researched a little and told my fiance what I had found, that we really did need to plan our days because otherwise, we would spend hours waiting in line/figuring out what to do/traveling to a different resort or park to find food, he understood and was much more open to planning. Maybe try telling him how much time and stress it will save. You could still have 2 days with no ADR's. Check out all of the different menus on AllEars and WDWInfo and show him all of the different places he can go.. maybe allowing him to plan with you would make it more appealing to him!

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My husband hates the whole planning thing too. He likes to be spontaneous when we go on vacation. I try and get his input on any of the planning for Disney and he basically wants nothing to do with it. In his mind it might not be spontaneous to me because I have planned everything, but to him he has no idea so its not about anything so its sort of like being spontaneous. I will never know how the man brain works lol. Anyways even though he hates the whole planning thing he is also an extremely impatient person. So he understands that if I don't book any ADRs or Fast Passes that hes going to have to wait hours in lines or even be turned away and when hes hungry he gets grumpy, lol. So for that simple fact he understands about the ADR process. Maybe what you could do is make ADRs just for dinner and then do quick services for lunch. Then you would be compromising. He gets a spontaneous place to eat for the quick service places, but you get your cool sit down meals for dinner.

 

[dachsie]

In July - yes. Like someone suggested, make 3-4 ADRs and play Russian Roulette with the rest. At least you will be assured of a few.

 

[perditax]

I told my boyfriend today about the ADR, and since he's a fly by the seat of your pants type of person he totally blew it off. Said he didn't want reservations and wanted to be able to go and eat where've and check places out since we don't know anything about the different restaurants. We definitely want to do sit down dinners every night. At cool/nice/awesome places (lol)... Will it be virtually impossible to get a table without an ADR? How long would a wait be without one? We are going from July 3rd-july 10th, fwiw.

Not sure why some guys/people are like this, but I have one of these too. You have to be able to have a conversation with them that amounts to:

"I know you think spontaneous is fun, but at Disney spontaneous will result in us spending most of our vacation standing in line." This worked for me.

If you have someone who absolutely refuses to acknowledge that they can't always do things their way, then there is a larger issue. :\

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I'll be there during this time and as I've been changing and trying to finalize plans I can say with good authority that while there is at this point still lots of availability, the better times are already starting to be whittled away.

Just the other day I decided to add a pre RD CP breakfast on the 3rd and the earliest I could get was 8:15. (Lucky for me someone cancelled an 8:05 a few days later.) Normally this far out there are plenty of early morning CP slots.

Heck, even LTT is starting to get it's decent time slots eaten up. For me that spells busy!

 

[Melanie B]

Yes absolutely make ADRS. The sooner the better. You're going during a very busy week so even walk ups will be very unlikely. After a long hot day at the parks you'll be thankful you made them.

 

[Melanie B]

I'll be there during this time and as I've been changing and trying to finalize plans I can say with good authority that while there is at this point still lots of availability, the better times are already starting to be whittled away.

Just the other day I decided to add a pre RD CP breakfast on the 3rd and the earliest I could get was 8:15. (Lucky for me someone cancelled an 8:05 a few days later.) Normally this far out there are plenty of early morning CP slots.

Heck, even LTT is starting to get it's decent time slots eaten up. For me that spells busy!

LTT is closed from July 6th until mid Nov that's why there is no availability.

 

[soniam]

Get ADRs. I have walked away from Biergarten twice for lunch, because the wait was 60+ minutes. Once I was a kid. First return trip as an adult, I got bit again. This was summer, and none of the TS places in Epcot that we wanted has less than a 1 hour wait. Got bit at our hotel too, the Poly. I thought we could walk into Kona for dinner. Wrong! Just get some ADRs

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

LTT is closed from July 6th until mid Nov that's why there is no availability.

But it's not closed during the holiday weekend. This is what I was referring to. I just cancelled a Kona bfast on the 26th of June and moved my LTT to an earlier time and noticed it's booking up just a bit. Then because I do this I played around with times on different dates before the 5th.