First time Disney goer needs some advice!

[loriribai]

Hi everyone! We're headed to Disney for the first time in January. Lots of people tell me to make sure I make reservations for things early. I'm so overwhelmed and not sure where to even make reservations so I'm wondering what you think if we just go there and figure out what we want to do once we're there?? If I'd been before I'd have a better idea on what we'd want to do, but since I haven't I'm not sure what to reserve. We're staying at the Hilton downtown Disney so I'm thinking they should have a character breakfast? If you would suggest I make reservations what would be your top 2 choices? We're not doing the dining plan and we're getting 4 day passes to all the parks.
Thank you so much for any help you can give!!

 

[pepe of ohio]

We're not ones for scheduled ADR's but we've been to WDW 39 visits and going in January too. January tends to be an off, slow time so we don't do ADR's. There are so many places to eat with so many different varieties of food cuisines, you can just about eat anywhere most times without ADR's. We don't like to vacation being ruled by our watch but eat when we're hungry wherever we pick. Remember, meals at Disney are alittle pricey but that's because they are huge, even the hamburger and fries is a full meal deal. Wife and I share even that meal. I'ld go to Deb Willis web site and peruse her menus of all the Disney resturants and look at the meals and prices and plan accordingly to what park you'll be in as to where you can eat without jumping all over a park or switching parks just to eat. Her site lists about everything, allears.net I believe.

We like Chef's Mickeys for a character breakfast but there are alot of others who like all the other character meals offered. To us, one character meal is enough, again pricey and buffet, all you can eat. We tend to lean towards the you need fuel to walk around WDW and not want to load up on buffets if we can help it, best buffet for us is at FW, Trails End for breakfast, but we stay at the WL so its just a boat ride. Traveling around the property seeking out your reservations can be tedious, huge spread, so we chow down at a park we're in or our resort. Some special places we like to dine we do on the way out or back to a park, such as Beaches and Cream is at the Y&B Club so we exit EPCOT thru the International Gateway, 5 minutes we're at Beaches and Cream, and then bus back to the MK and boat to the WL.

I know this is confusing for a first timer, just don't get caught up in all the ADR's and character meals, you'll never starve in WDW, too many places to eat from counter service, snack bars, full service. You can easily do a vacation and eat everywhere without an ADR and enjoy it thoroughly. Really suggest going to Deb Willis site and alittle research on meals.

 

[stitchlover]

I have never been in January so I can't really give you much advice on whether you need ADR's or not. The only thing I would suggest is if you are going over MLK weekend you should definitely make any ADR's for anything you have your heart set on...like character meals. I have read that MLK weekend is quite busy and that might limit your ability to just walk in and be seated.
If you are going MLK weekend just go to your local bookstore and pick up a tour book. Read up on the restaurants that are classified as Table Service, those are the ones that need reservations. If you find something in there that tickles your fancy call dining and book it.

 

[raven69david]

ADR's are always great and they do offer peace of mind. This will be our first trip with 8 days worth of ADR's. We'll see how that goes.

If you don't get ADR's, then you can request a priority seating reservation at the beginning of your day. This will put you in front of the line from all of the other walk-ins at any Disney restaurant.

 

[Unregistered]

This will show how little I know about all of this: What is an ADR? Thanks!

 

[Melissa_E]

An ADR is an advance dining reservation. You call the dining reservation phone number at Disney, 1-407-WDW-DINE and you can make reservations at any Disney restaurant (table service).

I am going in February, not during President's week and had a hard time making reservations at some of the more popular places, Le Cellier, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Chef Mickey's. If you want those places, I would highly recommend an ADR.

 

[yesallmine]

I would make a reservation for a character breakfast at the Crystal palace at Magic Kingdom.You can make it for earlier than the park opens-like 8am-allowing you to enter the park early and gets you a great head start into the park.We love seeing Main Street USA straight thru to the castle almost empty--its very cool--a terrific thing for your 1st time!Enjoy!

 

[Rylee]

Hi,

Since you are new to this, I need to know what type of tickets you have... entry to one park per day or hoppers passes - entry to multiple parks per day?

This is important, because if you choose to make some ADR's, and you can only enter 1 park per day, you will need to make your reservation at a restaurant in that park or at DTD (Downtown Disney) or at another resort. Dining at a resort restaurant will take travel time, so you might want to choose a resort restaurant near the park you will be in.

We schedule one table service meal a day, whether were on the Dining Plan or not, and the rest of the day, we just eat when we feel like it. I like to know my family is not eating counter service or fast food our entire vacation and it is a nice break from touring the parks all day.

We start by looking at the park hours, choose which park we'll be in on a certain day or time, and then go from there. If you choose to schedule some meals, be sure you don't make a reservation near the time of a show you are hoping to see.

Do you have children? What ages?

Some of my family's favorites... and why.
Chef Mickey's - Breakfast or dinner. Character meal located in the CR (Contemporary Resort.) Nearest Park (and very easy to get to)... Magic Kingdom.
Le Cellier (great food) or Coral Reef (great food and atmosphere, one entire wall is an aquarium) at Epcot.
Si-Fi Dine-In at MGM... (Fun atmosphere for the kids, sit in car at the drive-in movies. We do lunch here.)
We have done the character meal at Animal Kingdom, but since that park usually closes early, we go to DTD in the evening and have dinner there.

If you have daughters, you might want to schedule a meal with the princesses. There are character meals located in all the parks... Donald's breakfast at Animal Kingdom, Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, just to name a few.

For shows - don't miss Fantasmic at MGM (Disney's Hollywood Studios)

 

[disney54us]

We have never been in early Jan. and you didn't mention ages of kids. I would suggest go on the web and check the different dinning/character dinning and events that will be going on when your there. It depends if you have DD's or DS's and their age, but I always tell people especially w/DD's if you can only do one Character breakfast The one at the GF is grand! Cinderella's Castle another favorite. O'hanna's at the Poly is lots of fun and then you can get on the boat or monorail to go to the Kingdom. As you can see from the reply's everyone has there favorites. So if you read about the different ones you can figure out which your family would like best. As far as ADR's if you decide on one you really want to go to, then make the ADR it won't hurt and you won't be disappointed. Good attitude about 'winging' it, it's nice to know what you want to see, but sometimes people forget to sit back and enjoy the magic.

Good Luck, have a great trip!!

 

[Bellamickey]

We always make ADR's when we go. It just gives us a little piece of mind.

 

[tiggerfan1]

First of all, welcome to the DIS boards! I definitely think that you should make ADRs if you plan on eating at a table service restaurant. If you'd rather not deal with having to make ADRs, stick with the counter service places. There are some really great ones in the parks. There is a thread from the Disney Restaurants forum that has suggestions for CS places. Here's the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1639965

These next two threads are about table service restaurants:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1646489

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1647382

I hope this helps. Happy trip planning!