does anyone not do adr?

[TLSnell1981]

we're going october 21 to 25 and i didn't know about free dining so i'll have to look it up to see if it is during that time. but that's what i was planning on doing. this makes me feel better!

My mother just booked a last minute trip for October. There are quite a few ADR's she has been unable to book. The ones she can get, aren't always available at the time she wants. She was surprised at the difficulty booking a few weeks out.

We have our "must do" restaurants, so I book our ressies at 180 days.

 

[themouseforme]

does anyone just wing it regarding what restaurants they can get in? disboards make me feel like i'll have no restaurants to go into if i don't make a reservation lol but i would hate to have to schedule a time to eat when vacation is a few weeks away.

i, too, am one of those people who hates making adrs. in a theme park atmosphere i think spontaneity is part of the fun, even - are you guys hungry?; let's go on this ride first; what are you guys in the mood for?; that (building) is so cute. let's go in there! spontaneity is getting lost, and apparently with all these "you can really save money" dining plans, it seems disney wants it that way. they gotta be really rakin' it in. people are eating way more than they would have or want, people are taking food back to the hotels, people are taking food back on the planes, people are leaving with unused meal credits. i dunno. i'm old school i guess.

having said that, all along it has probably been a reasonable idea to purchase the fantasmic pkg, and certainly the cp dinner pkg.

but now, i wouldn't tell anyone not to make adr's. after all, people have to eat all the food that's already been paid for.

a third thing. i'll be making adr's for xmas eve and xmas day, peak, peak, peak crowds.

 

[ktlm]

for some odd reason, i was under the impression i COULDN'T cancel them. silly me. thank you disboards!

Glad to help! I've cancelled them 2 hours before when we decided we wanted to do something else that day. The only ones you can't cancel without getting a penalty are CRT and Akershus and maybe one or two others that require a credit card hold, and even those I think you can cancel as long as it is at least 48 hours in advance. Pretty much everything else, you can cancel right up to the time of the ADR. Some people just don't show up and don't call and cancel. I always call or drop by and cancel so that someone else can get our spot!

 

[lindsey]

We try to make a couple of ADR's, and then usually do CS. We have found Trails End at Ft Wilderness not hard to get into. Also Rainforest Cafe has usually been possible.

 

[eliza61]

FYI:

Just made an adr for 9/21/10 for 6:30 pm Il Mulino on the disney website. There were 48 TS choices for me to chose from. I punched in 6:30 pm and the time availability ran from 6:15-8:30 pm.
Tons of signature dining open.

It can be done. It did say the popular places like Le Cellier, Crystal palace, Tonys etc did not have any availability. so once again if you want a very popular place you should make an adr but you can find good places to eat.

 

[Coach81]

We usually have 5 or 6 ADRs as we are usually on the plan.. but this upcoming trip we are going to go OOP, so we are only getting one ADR..

We'll be "winging it" to a great degree.. but we plan on.. eating in the room, and doing a good bit of CS...

 

[Anthony1971]

We to rarely make ADRS we always call in the AM or just walk up... I have never been turned away BUT they can tell you to come back at this time maybe two - three hours later for places like LC and OHANA..
we have never had a problem...
there is also a lot of places not on the DP in DTD that are very good.. and use to be hard to eat at but now you can walk in...
however if you go on New years eve without an ADR you may have a problem.... or just ened up eating at 11 at night

 

[DFD]

we are at le Cellier party of 7 on Oct. 26 at 11:55AM and 3 our disfriend back out... if desperate and really want to get in that they you are welcome to join us... PM if interested.

 

[heart goes boOm]

disboards is so nice! thanks for the offer, dfd, but we are leaving disney oct 25 =(

i just wanted to bump my post up. at first i thought i didn't want adrs but after reading around disboards i was obsessed in getting the hard to get adrs. i was able to get 'ohana, chef mickey's and, last but not the least, lecellier! the only one i didn't try to get is crt because the menu didn't excite me.

 

[DFD]

disboards is so nice! thanks for the offer, dfd, but we are leaving disney oct 25 =(

i just wanted to bump my post up. at first i thought i didn't want adrs but after reading around disboards i was obsessed in getting the hard to get adrs. i was able to get 'ohana, chef mickey's and, last but not the least, lecellier! the only one i didn't try to get is crt because the menu didn't excite me.

am glad all work out... if you are at DHS on the 23rd and you see a bunch of crazy disers(lime green mickey taggers ) make sure to say Hi we have a lunch at 12:10PM that day!

 

[ppony]

If there are TS places you WANT to eat at, you really need to. It's part and parcel of vacationing at one of the most popular vacation destinations in the WORLD. I too wish it wasn't necessary but it's the nature of the beast. I've seen people on every single trip walk up to the podiums before opening thinking they will get in if they are waiting first and each time seen them turned away sad and often angry that they waited and still didn't get in. These were at the popular places. We don't make ADRs for everything and have on occasion walked up and gotten in at lunch only. Those times were went up for an early or very late lunch and not to signature places. Be prepared to walk form place to place before you actually find an opening IF you do.

I'm refining my plans now though I made my MUST DOs 180 days out. I'm 2 months away from our dates and there are quite a few places I can't get in at all, at ANY time. No biggie, they weren't critical.

 

[brergnat]

We made 11 ADRs for our week long spring break trip. We went to ONE. We cancelled the rest (figured out the times would not work, as we crossed three time zones, and our kids never adjusted).

We walked up to 3 restaurants and were seated no problem. They were:
Kona Cafe
Captain's Grill
Big River Grill

This was over the week prior to Easter, so NOT an uncrowded time...

I think I'm over ADRs from now on. I've been walking up to places for several trips and never had an instance where I've been turned away.

 

[Cee]

We will wait until we arrive to make ADRs. On any given day we will decide if we want to eat anywhere, call the dining number, see what is available and make the ADR if everyone is in agreement. We've always had great luck with this and have tried many wonderful places that I don't think we would have gone to otherwise. It does require quite a bit of flexibility and a touch of "whatever".

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I never make any ADR's before arriving to WDW or while we are there, however our reasons are different then others on here. Now since we stay Club Level we can get by on the food offerings in the lounges and later on we can then eat at a counter service location. Plus there are some offsite restaurants we like to eat at like Bonefish Grill, The Cheesecake Factory, and Sweet Tomatoes, so because we always have our own car while at WDW it's very easy for us driving to those locations. Finally we won't know 180 days in advance where we want to eat and sometimes we change our idea at the very last minute, so we like not being tied down ADR's and it helps that we never purchase the Disney Dining Plan.

 

[nanalisa]

Before the dining plan came out, it was pretty easy to eat where you wanted without and ADR. I would call dining a day ahead or that morning and had many restaurants to choose from, but I can't do that anymore. I think you would have better luck getting into a restaurant during the lunch time rather than dinner time. Those that don't have ADR's duing free dining, well I don't know how they do it. I would rather be safe than sorry. You can always cancel that day if you decide you don't want to eat there. You can make the ADR right on the Disney web site, couldn't be easier.

 

[keepmoving4ward]

Side note, you'll be there during Food and Wine festival. Last year we ended up cancelling all of our ADR restaurants at Epcot once we realized how much we liked dining around the world instead. Even just two food stops is more filling than you'd think. We bought a food and wine festival prepaid bracelet card and sampled so much fun stuff! If you like spontanaity you might enjoy that. Keep in mind though that Friday and Saturday nights are SUPER busy at The World Showcase. Date night for the locals and they liked their wine samplings