Hollywood Studios - When to Book ADR

[Frozen2014]

We're coming in August and my ADR selection opens Tuesday morning. We are mostly doing Quick Service but decided to try to book a Table Service on our Hollywood Studios day. This particular restaurant place fills up so may not get it but I do have a backup.

My initial thought was to try to book 1pm or so to get out of the heat at the worst part of the day. But now I'm panicking as what if it conflicts with Rise of the Resistance or Millennium Falcon LL? I'm looking now (It's 7:30am...I missed checking at 7am) and ROTR is 12:40pm and MF is 1:20pm.

Is it better to book dinner ADR instead? I know SDD usually gives evening times but the others seem to be afternoon and the Star Wars stuff is a priority. (Also don't want to to book the Star Wars rides earlier in case they go down as we only have one HS day)

 

[nursejackie]

I'll be interested to see people's responses, as this is our first trip since they introduced ILL, Genie+ etc. In the good old days the fastpasses were booked at the 60 day window, and we knew how to plan our day around ADR's booked at the 180 day window.

We've booked Sci-Fi diner for lunch, and I've made a back up booking on our 3rd HS day, so depending on the above we'll change our lunch plans accordingly.

 

[CynBeth]

I have family members with food allergies so we have most meals at TS and when we went in November we were able to work around our ADRs for lunch which is usually around 11/11:30 and dinner usually around 4:30/5 and the ride reservations. I would refresh the LL for a time that worked good and for the paid LL picked the times we wanted. We did have many issues with error messages and kept asking for a password so could not get ROTR on our HS day but tried the next day for a late afternoon or evening time after our day at AK and landed a 6 pm. We arrived and it had broken down but luckily waited around and it came back up in an hour. There was one dinner for Space220 we were late to by maybe 15 or 20 minutes can’t remember the exact because we had a LL for TT at 3:30 and it took a half hour to get on the ride and then in the middle broke down for 10 minutes and they were understanding and still let us eat there.

 

[Frozen2014]

I'll be interested to see people's responses, as this is our first trip since they introduced ILL, Genie+ etc. In the good old days the fastpasses were booked at the 60 day window, and we knew how to plan our day around ADR's booked at the 180 day window.

We've booked Sci-Fi diner for lunch, and I've made a back up booking on our 3rd HS day, so depending on the above we'll change our lunch plans accordingly.

Lol...that's the restaurant we want to book. That's good you have a backup. We only have one HS day so don't have the option. But if it conflicts...won't you have a $10 pp fee if you cancel on the day of?

 

[Frozen2014]

I have family members with food allergies so we have most meals at TS and when we went in November we were able to work around our ADRs for lunch which is usually around 11/11:30 and dinner usually around 4:30/5 and the ride reservations. I would refresh the LL for a time that worked good and for the paid LL picked the times we wanted. We did have many issues with error messages and kept asking for a password so could not get ROTR on our HS day but tried the next day for a late afternoon or evening time after our day at AK and landed a 6 pm. We arrived and it had broken down but luckily waited around and it came back up in an hour. There was one dinner for Space220 we were late to by maybe 15 or 20 minutes can’t remember the exact because we had a LL for TT at 3:30 and it took a half hour to get on the ride and then in the middle broke down for 10 minutes and they were understanding and still let us eat there.

Good point. For ROTR, I guess we can try at 7am and if that has a return time of 1ish...then just keep refreshing until it goes up past our ADR time. I would just be worried that we would miss it all together and it would sell out. For the regular Genie+ it's harder as it's a 2hr window once you book (unless your next booking is before the 2hr window).
That's good that it worked out for you and the restaurant was ok and still gave you a table even though you were late (due to ride issues).

Am still questioning if it would be safer to just book dinner over lunch?

 

[nursejackie]

Lol...that's the restaurant we want to book. That's good you have a backup. We only have one HS day so don't have the option. But if it conflicts...won't you have a $10 pp fee if you cancel on the day of?

I found out several years ago that if you 'move' the reservation when it's within the 24 hours to another time/date there is no charge, then that reservation can be cancelled as it's more than 24 hours away. I've only done it twice, as I don't like hoarding ADRs when others want them. But you never know what happens e.g. illness, change of park plans etc.

 

[CarolynFH]

We're coming in August and my ADR selection opens Tuesday morning. We are mostly doing Quick Service but decided to try to book a Table Service on our Hollywood Studios day. This particular restaurant place fills up so may not get it but I do have a backup.

My initial thought was to try to book 1pm or so to get out of the heat at the worst part of the day. But now I'm panicking as what if it conflicts with Rise of the Resistance or Millennium Falcon LL? I'm looking now (It's 7:30am...I missed checking at 7am) and ROTR is 12:40pm and MF is 1:20pm.

Is it better to book dinner ADR instead? I know SDD usually gives evening times but the others seem to be afternoon and the Star Wars stuff is a priority. (Also don't want to to book the Star Wars rides earlier in case they go down as we only have one HS day)

Word here is that if a LL or VQ conflicts with an ADR, give precedence to the ADR and go late to the LL/VQ. Tell the CM at the ride that you had an ADR, and they’ll let you ride. It’s easy to work you in to a line, not so easy to work you into a busy restaurant.

 

[Frozen2014]

Word here is that if a LL or VQ conflicts with an ADR, give precedence to the ADR and go late to the LL/VQ. Tell the CM at the ride that you had an ADR, and they’ll let you ride. It’s easy to work you in to a line, not so easy to work you into a busy restaurant.

That's really good to know. This is one of the disadvantage of current Genie+ over the previous FP+ since we can't coordinate the times beforehand.