Does anyone else wish this? Just a thought as Im scrambling to schedule....

[jlk806]

That you could just go with the flow on vacation and not have your schedule monopolized by ADR's, BUT still get to eat at all your favorite places?

I have just realized that our trip is about 187 days away so I'd better get to planning.... this is the 4th year in a row we will be there around Labor Day, BUT this is the first year as DVC owners with Annual Passes... in the past we have never gotten park hoppers, but the annual pass is a park hopper, so it will be our first time with park hopping privileges.

So, as Im sitting here comparing our trip dates to park hours, EMHs, and where we like to eat and trying to come up with an itinerary, I cant help but think what a pain it is to basically have our trip "step by step" planned 6 months in advance (and how crazy I am that I am sitting here making a chart comparing park hours with EMH hours and where we want to eat) How nice it would be to just wake up each day and let our plans fall into place themselves... BUT many of our favorite, must do places to eat are the popular ones: Ohana, Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine, Garden Grill, Cape May Cafe, and we wanted to do Mickeys Backyard BBQ this trip. A few others on our list are less popular restaurants, that I could probably wait on, but for the most part since we must eat at those places, I have to get everything planned!

Just a vent!

 

[mmmcl]

YES!!!! We have always done the dining plan (except for our first trip, I think) but it seems like it is becoming more and more of a pain to be tied to ADR's. Our last trip was in November with free dining (which I know is a bussier time for dining) but it just felt like our entire trip revolved around eating or getting to/from a reservation. SO, this trip we're skipping the dining plan (unless by some miracle they release free dining for our dates...May, so unlikely).

We're staying for 9 nights but only planning to go into the parks 5 or so days and we're planning to do Universal this time around (we've been about 10 tiimes but have never done anything in Orlando other than Disney). We're going to pay OOP for probably 4 or 5 TS meals and then just do QS and snacks for everything else. We'll have breakfast foods in the room, take some healthy snacks in with us and buy our usual snacks (Dole Whip, Mickey ice cream bars, etc) in the parks. We may even venture off site occasinally to eat. There are so many places that I'd love to eat, but I just don't want to be tied to reservations this time. If we can get into places on short notice then we'll do more TS meals, if not then we'll live on QS. I'm not sure the the dining plan is a huge savings for us anyway (unless it's free) since DS eats like a bird.

 

[pepe of ohio]

I just can't get into the scheduling 180 days out with places and time....takes completely away from the vacation......to us that's what's wrong with the dining plans...we never get them....

We're seasoned WDW travelers....over 40 tirps and don't schedule ADR's...just the HDDR if we're interested.....TS meals never interested us due to blandness, time consuming and pre-scheduling.....we do fine with CS, and different resort food courts plus our lunches consist of sandwich items we picked up in route and are enjoyed daily at pool picnics....

It's been a blessing to vacation this way....we only do the MK on EMH mornings, others are not as bad going around RP.....sometimes we jump on the first bus to pull in and enjoy that park for the am, we usually have AP's so we're free to travel anywhere and hop back and forth at our whim...we enjoy it that way.....

We're early risers and like to see the resort come to life and really spend time there...we'll do breakfast in the QS, take a dip and still are dressed for a RP....if the day is feeling lazy, we'll spend the whole morning at the pool then shop around threw the heat of the day and do a park late evening.....nothing set in stone.....no regrets, no crowd predictions, no ADR's...just a total free roaming vacation....only way for us to enjoy Disney....not for all but for some, it's great...

 

[icc2515]

I have never looked at the planning part as a pain. I enjoy the planning. I have never felt tied to an ADR. Just like in everyday life it's just another appointment. I find that I cannot turn off the scheduling for vacation. Because of this, Disney is the perfect vacation for my family.

Now I do feel bad for people who just want a relaxing carefree vacation. I can see how the ridged schedule would make for a stressful day. It is too bad that there cannot be a happy medium. I wonder how it would be if Disney had a few TS places that did not accept ADR's? I remember in the old days when you could go into communicore and speak on a video phone with an agent and say I would like to eat in France tonight. They would say, what time would you like we have all times open. And that was in the middle of summer. Of course that was when all tickets were no expire and park hoppers too.

 

[sweeteypie1118]

I have never looked at the planning part as a pain. I enjoy the planning. I have never felt tied to an ADR. Just like in everyday life it's just another appointment. I find that I cannot turn off the scheduling for vacation. Because of this, Disney is the perfect vacation for my family.

Now I do feel bad for people who just want a relaxing carefree vacation. I can see how the ridged schedule would make for a stressful day. It is too bad that there cannot be a happy medium. I wonder how it would be if Disney had a few TS places that did not accept ADR's? I remember in the old days when you could go into communicore and speak on a video phone with an agent and say I would like to eat in France tonight. They would say, what time would you like we have all times open. And that was in the middle of summer. Of course that was when all tickets were no expire and park hoppers too.

I was jut thinking about that communicore thing the other day as I was obsessing over ADR's! I love to plan things, but it does get a bit crazy trying to fit in all the places you want to eat, while taking traveling back and forth, park hours EMH, etc into consideration. I have 2 months before I can make my ADR's and I have a list of all the places I want to eat made up which need to be trimmed down. I think I need to do that today because it literally kept me up 3 nights in a row for hours!! I keep trying to work it out in my head when in bed and can't turn it off. I say ok..no more Diney planning...then a thought pops back in..well, maybe if we ate here at this time, we could squeeze in that at this time etc etc. It never ends! I can't wait until I make my ADR's and can stop thinking about it.

 

[TDC Nala]

I do it all the time, but I do not travel the way most Disney trip planners do. I don't use DDP and I'm good with eating in a restaurant's bar or lounge, which can often be accessed without an ADR, and many of which serve the full restaurant menu. Of course I also don't do the popular places; I don't mess with character meals (the OP has loads of character meals, and you really do need reservations for those) and only go to 'Ohana every couple of years or so. And no I don't plan any of this six months out. Next WDW visit is the end of May and I have no ADRs and am not planning to make any.

 

[mouselike-harrier]

The most miserable trip we ever had is when we got free dining! I actually made myself sick with the heat and running out when we should have stayed put, in order to make those darn ADRs. I have since learned!
I now make some ADRs at our favorite restaurants, but for lunch only! I only do it a few months in advance when we figure out what park we are going to start off on that day. It frees us completely for our afternoons and nights to do whatever we feel like doing in the moment.Never again will I be sucked in by the "free DDP".......

 

[jlk806]

I have never looked at the planning part as a pain. I enjoy the planning. I have never felt tied to an ADR. Just like in everyday life it's just another appointment. I find that I cannot turn off the scheduling for vacation. Because of this, Disney is the perfect vacation for my family.

Now I do feel bad for people who just want a relaxing carefree vacation. I can see how the ridged schedule would make for a stressful day. It is too bad that there cannot be a happy medium. I wonder how it would be if Disney had a few TS places that did not accept ADR's? I remember in the old days when you could go into communicore and speak on a video phone with an agent and say I would like to eat in France tonight. They would say, what time would you like we have all times open. And that was in the middle of summer. Of course that was when all tickets were no expire and park hoppers too.

I never have looked it at it that as a pain until this year either. This past trip there were several occasions where we would have taken a completely different route for that day if it werent for the ADRs. And our son is young and we like to get the most out of the DP so a lot of character meals and Ohana are must dos for us. I am kind of thinking right now I might just schedule our must dos and let the rest fall into place. Last year while there (during FD) we ended up changing ressies several times and were able to get others, though choices were limited. I think since we've been so many times the joy of planning every step 6 months in advance seems out of whack with what really happens on the vacation.

I too remember the day of walking up to the kiosk in the morning to get your reservation, and I also remember 13 years ago I was visiting my aunt who lived near Disney at Easter time and my aunt called the day before we were going to the MK to make a reservation at Cinderellas Royal Table (whatever it was called then) and we got one!

 

[summermac]

Yes! While we very much enjoyed DDP on our last trip, we are going without it this time. We picked 4 meals we really want to do/try and that's it. Everything else will be counter or whatever might be available that day (if anything and we're okay with that).

And even better for us is the fact that we arrive mid-day for our first day so we are not going to a park and using that day to knock out one of our meals we wanted at Kona. I think we might resort hop that day and just chill. Maybe hit DTD. We arrive at 2:00 and dinner is at 6:00.

The meals we chose are as follows, just FYI:
Kona dinner, Saturday
Akershush lunch, Monday
Crystal Palace breakfast, Tuesday
SciFi lunch, Wednesday

Thursday and Friday are our free days with no ADRs.

 

[jlk806]

The more I think about it, the more it is making sense to me to make the majority of our ADRs for lunch, with the obvious exceptions of Chef Mickeys, Ohana, and Mickeys Backyard BBQ.

If we make our ADRs for lunch, it seems easier to stick with them, we usually take the earlier lunches, around 11:30 and then we can go with the flow after that, because last year there were times we would have liked to stay longer at a park, but had to rush off to a dinner ADR at some resort, or we wanted to leave the park but stayed only because of our ADR. Yes, I think this plan will work better for us, to do the ADRs for lunch!