Do you plan your Disney Days around your ADR's?

[kimnvbva]

Now that the 90 mark is getting closer, I am trying to plan out our days at Disney. Do you plan your days after you make your ADR's? Or do you tell the cast member on the phone we are going to be at DHS on this day, so what is available? I was thinking of saying to the cast member, these are the places I want reservations for, and then work around our ressies. Is that how its normally done? This is the first time I have ever done this so I need a little help! Thanks!

 

[smep013]

Hello!
We plan our days around our ADRs. Since it's more difficult to get a meal reservation than decide which park to go to when, we let thew dining dictate the schedule.
Hope that helps!
Good luck!

 

[beccasmom]

We are not taking part in the DDP this year and only needed to make a few ADRs, so I specifically asked for the restaurants I wanted on the days/times I wanted. I was successful except for Le Cellier, which we were unable to get for any of the days we were there for lunch or dinner. The first day I was able to call, the dining system was out for most of the day, so I knew that there was a good possibility we would not get Le Cellier. We have been there before, so I will try again another time. It was not a deal-breaker.

None of the restaurants we have ADRs for are character meals and they seem to be among the toughest to book as well. Having said that, it does help to be flexible if there is a place that you have your heart set on.

 

[kimnvbva]

I figured it would be easier to plan around them. I have seen some posts where people are going in Sept and know exactly what day they will be at what parks and what ADR's they are making. I know from what I have read that it may be impossible to get the specific ressies for times you want. I planned on telling my family we have breakfast ressies at Crystal Palace on Tuesday, we are going to MK that day. Especially since its free dining everything will be booking quickly. Thanks for all of your help!

 

[stmize]

I make a list of adr's and approx what days I want them then call and tweak if needed then I utilize my ph's (that's what they are for, to hop back and forth)

 

[wdwluver]

I plan my ADRs around what parks I plan on going to for the day, which is usually dependent on the day which park has EMH.

 

[lidlfish]

I've not made reservations yet, we are still too far out for our first family trip (May 2010). Having said that, I think I will get a general idea of which days that I will want to eat where, but I will let the actual reservations dictate which park we go to on a particular day. We're only planning on about 3 or 4 reservations right now (nearly all character meals since my boys will be 7, 4.5 & turning 3) since we are staying off-site with a full kitchen.

 

[ZoZo]

To me, it's sort of a "chicken or egg?" question. As you decide which restaurants you want to go to, you automatically "decide" which park you will be going to that day. Or vice-versa -- decide which park on which day, then determine which restaurant you want to go to.

If you're planning 90 days out, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting the things you want (for the most part). You might need to be flexible with the more popular restaurants, though, and willing to change your plans around as needed if a certain restaurant isn't available on the day you want.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Since I'm guessing I won't know which parks have EMH or fireworks on which night (boy do I hope they do more shows over Christmas) when my 90 days open up, I'm figuring I'll just give my TA a list of restaurants that I want and tell him to get me as many as he can spread out over my whole trip with the time on the reservations being as close to my preferred time as possible. I'll then plan which park I'll go to based on the ADRs.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Dining does not rule our vacations. We do not do any dining plans, we don't want to be run by a schedule and who's to say 90 days out where we want to eat or at what time. We're fine with CS, it's in every park, easy to get to, walk right up and no scheduling needs to be made. We've found thru our 42 trips that our eating habits change in WDW, Florida heat, walking or whatever, we do not require 3 meals a day. We still like a good breakfast and the resort food court suffices for that, lunch time we're usually back at the resort pool and have a picnic lunch with items picked up in our grocery stop and dinner can be at many different CS places we like to eat in or buffet over at FW. So dining does not rule our touring or vacation, we go to whatever park we feel like, even gone on the first bus to pull in sometimes. We like the flexability of doing whatever we feel like whenever we want and some days we do absolutely nothing.

 

[KirR]

I waited until the "official" park calendar came out and decided which parks we were going to on what days. Then I decided where and what times we wanted to eat. I had an idea of backup restaurant incase what we wanted was booked.

I made my ADRs this morning and was able to get everything we wanted at the times we wanted. My planning was easier since we do not have children and weren't looking for character meals, CRT, Le Cellier, or any of the other "popular" restaurants.

Good Luck with your planning!

 

[Just(donald)Ducky]

I had gone 9 times before i discovered the DP, and now we don't want to go without it.

But it does neccessitate some advanced planning.

For our first trip, I got a guide book, looked at the resturants, and picked places that I knew where a good time (chef mickey's, crystal palace, and the coral reef) then decided what else to do: We like sushi, so I booked Teppan edo. I thought the hawaii lua (sp?) was good, so I booked ohana's. The rest was a mishmash of other places I wanted to try. I called and booked without a problem, then built the plan around that. Ironically, Teppan Edo is not the sushi place (hibatchi grill) and Ohana's was not the luuow (another swing and a miss on the spelling!), but those were our favorite places.

This time, with the free dining, I knew that reservations would be harder to get, especially since my 90 day window opened on memorial day. So I picked what resturants i wanted to eat at (Chef Mickey's, Ohana, Teppan edo, Flying Fish, Cinderellas royal table, Tuskar house for the brekfast, boma, as well as a few others.) then picked out of those the one's we HAD to eat at (Ohana, Teppan Edo, Chef Mickey's, Flying Fish, and Cindy's table.)

Then I put each of those resturants on the day that we could do them, so for monday, we were going to MK, so I could do chef mickey's, Ohanas, or Cindy's royal table. Tuesday was epcot, so flying fish or teppan edo, etc. etc.

Then I called and worked through it with them. Ended up getting everything on my list on some day, except lunch at Mama Melrose's, which i substitued for the cape may cafe brekfast, and boma, which I moved some stuff around and sub'd liberty tree tavern.

But with my list of what I definitly wanted, where I was going to be at what time, and my list of back ups, i was able to get everything settled in a way that made everyone happy.

Of course, I'm a closet type A personality, but don't tell.

 

[kkfisher]

Yep, we plan our best days for each park crowd-wise, and try to get our ADR on that day. It worked out for us. We will not have park hoppers, so we need to be in the right park on the right day!

 

[LisaMayTX]

We also can't make any ADR's yet as we're too far out (traveling March 2010). When we last went in 2007, we decided which park we wanted to go to what day, and then decided where we wanted to eat in the parks. I let my TA know where we would be and where we wanted to eat - way before the 90 day mark - so as soon as she could make the ADR's, she knew what we wanted. Didn't have any issues. We would typically eat a CS lunch, and a sit down restaurant for dinner. Since we stayed at POFQ, we eat several times at DTD, and I'm sure we'll do the same thing this time.

 

[JenSop]

We choose which restaurants we want to eat at (which usually includes a mixture of favorites and new ones) and book our meals at 90 days. We plan our park schedule way after that. We ALWAYS go back to the room for a break midday and always get park hoppers, so there's really no reason why we have to go to the park we'll be eating in. (Although this upcoming trip will be all resort restaurants - no TS meals in the parks this time.)

We go with a general idea of which park we want to do on which day, but that can be flexible. Everyone is different. Some don't like to be tied down to a meal schedule, while the meal is one of the reasons we go! This is what works for us!

 

[MissAndrea]

We were not on the DP but we still made some ADR's for a few character meals. I made myself a couple of calendars. There was one day that we were going to MK that was not negotiable to change but the others, I planned our park around our ADR. I had a calendar for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. Luckily my 1st choice worked out and we only went to 3 different breakfasts so it wasn't too complicated. I can't imagine having to do it for all 7 days were were there! I very much enjoyed the character breakfasts, but we are CS people. Eat when and where we want. That's the other reason I did it for the breakfasts...first thing, got into the parks early, then didn't have to worry about being anywhere at a certain time the rest of the day.

 

[cmusschoot]

Hi!!
I have gone to Disney many times and have over planned and under planned.

For my family (2 kids 2 and 4)...when the kids are with us, I tend to over plan and cancel as we get tired...etc.

Start with MUST see/dos...and work from there....

I start with the park hours, and fireworks shows and determine where I will be at night for dinner.

Sometimes fireworks/parades can dictate your schedule if they are on your "can't miss" list.

When we are there in Sep. Fantasmic is showing only once and since this is a "can't miss" show, we will be at HS for dinner...Also, Spectromagic is a must see for us and that will only be shown once (maybe twice...) So that will be one more evening we will be at MK.

This will be my daughter's first trip to Cinderella's castle (to eat)...so we are doing breakfast there before park opens...so I was trying to avoid the EMH morning...

That being said, I try to plan a few meals and then let our famiy have flexibility for the remainder of our trip.

Happy planning....

 

[kimnvbva]

Thanks for all of the help! I am trying to figure in EMH in with the ADR's. Gee, my family better be grateful for all of the "behind the scenes" I have to do before we even get to the parks. If it were up to my DH, we would just show up with ticket in hand and see what happens. I am the planner! I don't want to overplan but I want to make sure we aren't in Epcot and have ressies in MK. You guys gave me some great tips! Thanks! Wish me luck on my ADR's. Of course the one's that I want are the most popular!

 

[MissAndrea]

Hi!!

Start with MUST see/dos...and work from there....

I start with the park hours, and fireworks shows and determine where I will be at night for dinner.

Sometimes fireworks/parades can dictate your schedule if they are on your "can't miss" list.

When we are there in Sep. Fantasmic is showing only once and since this is a "can't miss" show, we will be at HS for dinner...Also, Spectromagic is a must see for us and that will only be shown once (maybe twice...) So that will be one more evening we will be at MK.

Ya, what she said! That's what I did!!!

 

[themousetrap]

I don't know why, but for some reason, on every single trip I've taken to Disney, I've always done MGM, erm, HS, then MK, then Epcot, then AK with a parkless day somewhere in the middle.

I then attempt to make my ADRs according to that. If the ADRs don't work out then I do it the other way around.