For Free Dining time, is early or late ADR's better?

[jfranklyn]

I'm going to call today to make my ADR's for 8/26-9/4. I'm hearing horror stories of last year's free dining time and people waiting for an hour even though they had an ADR. Will I have better luck if I make early evening (5ish) ADR's or late evening adr's? Also, are there any restaurants that are PARTICULARLY popular during free dining, and should therefore be avoided by us? Thanks!

 

[katiebsmom]

I'm not sure about that one. I do know that all of the "how to" Disnay sites say to book early or late to avoid the crowds. I personally book about 5:30 or 6:00pm for ALL of our TS dinners b/c I have two little ones that are HUNGRY early and also sleepy early LOL!!!

 

[Carrieannew]

Thats a good question. When I booked us last year I made alot of them for 7pm. I thought that most days we would be having a late nap and would want a later dinner reservation. I found that most days we did not we wanted to eat in the 5:30 to 7 range.

But I also never had a problem with getting there early and getting seated. We were there 9-6 to 9-12. I am a little scared about crowds this year as there are less days of the free dining. But it still is worth it for us.

 

[matt&jakesmom]

I would advise to call NOW. I made my ADR's a month ago and we are going the same time as you are and there were some times I could not get. I normally book around 5:30ish. I hope you get what you want.

 

[Carrieannew]

Yikes. Hopefully by the end of the week we will confirm up what we need to do and be able to book ADR's. We are flexable though. Thanks!

 

[eternallydisney03]

definitely call now.. but just to ease your mind a little bit, i called yesterday to make my adrs for our trip 8/31-9/9... and i got every single time i wanted, withing 5 minutes, even during labor day weekend. i made all of my dinner ressies for 6:15PM (ish), and got a breakfast ressie for 8am which is what i had planned.

i think a lot of ppl are forgetting that they only release a very small, limited amount of rooms for the free dining promo, and the number of people who will be there just because of the free dining really won't make that much of a difference in crowd numbers at the parks.

 

[vicki845]

I'm going to call today to make my ADR's for 8/26-9/4. I'm hearing horror stories of last year's free dining time and people waiting for an hour even though they had an ADR. Will I have better luck if I make early evening (5ish) ADR's or late evening adr's? Also, are there any restaurants that are PARTICULARLY popular during free dining, and should therefore be avoided by us? Thanks!

I'm going the same dates as you. I made all but one of my adrs today. I had no problem getting the times I wanted (6pm) except Lecellier. They had 7:50or 4pm. Since I have two little ones we went with the 4pm. Last trip we had adrs for 8pm it was not the bets decision I made. The kids were very cranky after having a full day at the parks plus it was very crowed. This time i'm sticking with our nornmal dinner times.

 

[penjen]

If you have young children that aren't used to eating late and staying up late. I would eat early! DS was just 3 last year and most of our ADRs were about 5pm except Ohana. I loved Ohana but it took some work because DS was having a meltdown then he started to fall asleep which was OK but not in those chairs. He would have hit his head or fell through. This year all of our dinner ADRs are in the 5pm hour.

Another benefit was every restaurant we went to led us right in (no wait) with the early ADRs.

 

[DisneyBound2007]

The availability remaining also should greatly depend on the size of your party...this Sept. it will just be DGF and myself, so I think we are getting lucky with the times we need because it is just the two of us for every reservation.

 

[n2mm]

I would choose early over late just for the reason stated. Backups do occur, but less with early seatings. I agree, you need to call. I just made some ADRs for Aug late for seatings for 11 and for 9. I could not get large tables for some of my times and they were not hot restraurants. Trails End was hard to get into for dinner, but settled for a couple of tables. Breakfast for WCC I had a choice of 7:30AM or 10:30AM, so settled for a couple of tables for that one too. I did get one big table for Yacht club galley.