How do you all make ADR's when..............

[wendypooh]

I am just wondering how all of you make your ADR's, before you know the park hours?? We are going in Jan./Feb. and I have heard that park hours, EMH, etc... are not out until sometime in Nov. Well, my 90 day point is Oct. 31st. If I have no idea which parks have what hours, etc.... how do I decide on ADR's?? Anyone have any advice??

Thanks!!

 

[Frantasmic]

You either guess based on historical trends, pick a time you would probably be hungry if you really want a specific restaurant, or plan your trip down to the finite detail.

Some people cannot fathom knowing what they will be hungry for on a given date and thus bristle at the thought of ADRs, others know exactly what they want on the day they want it and can make minor adjustments on a schedule they have worked weeks on.

It really just depends on you.

When I planned my ADRs, I had a rough outline of what I wanted to do at the parks, didn't care that much about EMH and scheduled lunches around noon and dinners around 7 p.m. My dinners are what is scheduled and my park attendence can be adjusted. Others don't follow that same pattern of behaviour however and want to be more or less tied down.

 

[crow11ad]

I would do this. Figure out what days you want to go to what parks. Book what you can for those days. When your hours come out, rethink your plan and change if needed.

 

[annameg]

Go ahead and make the hard to get ones by looking at historical information and any other info that you can come across on these boards. Then I ended up changing almost everything else when Disney started shifting hours and parade times around. It is very annoying, but hey, at least you'll be at WDW. Woohoo!!!

 

[srfrgrl07]

Here are some suggestions that I have:

1) Like others have said, base it on historical park hours. The EMH schedule is available on other threads here, but always subject to change. If you want to take advantage of EMH, book your restaurants based on that. If you want to avoid them, again I would use that schedule.

2) Get a park hopper! Then you don't have to "worry" so much about where you plan to be that day, because you can always visit AK during the day and hop to Epcot for dinner/fireworks. (as an example)

3) Plan your meals at the times you normally eat. Leave yourself an hour or so leeway, so if you call for a 6pm dinner but all that is available is 7pm, you're not *too* disappointed.

4) You could also book resort restaurants as they do not require admission. That way once the park hours come out, whether or not you have a park hopper doesn't matter as much. If you plan on dinners around 6 or 7 every night, then you'll plan your park visits around that.

5) Don't stress about it! Park hours are generally published 60 days out, but they have been known to change at 59 days, 30 days, 14 days, 7 days, etc. notice. Go with the flow and you'll have a great time!

 

[wendypooh]

Thank You!!! I have booked the MYW package with dining, and I do have hoppers. I'm still debating the EMH situation, I've heard arguments for going, and not going......... so, I'm still undecided how we'll do that, but I think in Jan. / Feb. the parks close fairly early anyway....... so, maybe eating early, then going to EMH won't be an issue anyway? Do you think?

Anyway, I appreciate the replies. Thanks a lot!!

 

[srfrgrl07]

As far as EMH is concerned, I personally would visit the parks during the extra hours because I like to sleep late and stay up late (no am EMH for me except for maybe the first day .) I don't consider the crowds as much when I decide that. But as you said, everyone has their opinion on that, and also during non-peak travel months (Jan and Feb) it might not make as much of a difference. Disney has added additional EMH nights at MK during peak travel times in order to offset the crowds, in my opinion, so I would base my decision on that.

Either way, I think that you'll have a fabulous time and any time spent in the parks is worthwhile, but I live in Orlando so maybe I'm spoiled by convenience .

 

[Camping Griswalds]

I have the same dilemma. Our vacation is 1/27 through 2/7. i plan on going by old EMH hours ( we love doing the am hours) and then making dinner plans every night around 6pm. i might book at a couple of different parks in case we park hop. We are using a TA for the first time and I will go over ideas with her. Two big things I want to try to get is breakfast at CRT and an Illuminations cruise. i can work my days around those things. i figure if Disney changes the hours I can either change the resservation or just go with the flow that given day. i'm more worried about feeling like my whole day is planned around eating, than which parks to go to. We're used to camping and fixing our own meals when we get hungry, so this will be different disney experience for us. We normally eat breakfast at 7-7:30, lunch 11:30-12 and dinner around 6. My DD will only be 17 months so I don't want to mess with her schedule too much. So by being concerned with her needs, it kinda makes the rest of us on a schedule as well. We've been in Jan lots of times though and just walked into Poohs Crystal Palace for lunch and dinner and Coral Reef and Rainforrest at AK with no resservations and never waited more than 20 min, so don't stress too much.

 

[pooh2001]

We go by when our family eats (kids stomachs).

We do breakfast by 9 AM, Lunch around 11:30 AM - NOON latest, Dinner any where from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM.

So it does not matter if early or late hours - we do our ADR's and let WDW figure out who's open late or early.

We have squeezed in a Chef Mickey breakfast (early lunch) at 11 AM (we ate a snack at 8 AM) - when MK was open earlier. Then after breakfast we went to EPCOT (monorail). But we made that ADR (PS back then) only 1 month before our magical adventure.

Unless the places you are trying to make ADR's only have a few tables - Like Tony's, Cindy's, and some EPCOT eateries, you most likely will not have a problem. Just watch any holidays when even locals come to WDW to eat - Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July, Easter, New Years Eve ...(no offense to those who live in Florida)

 

[Shinji]

I guess I am out of the norm here. About as far ahead in the future we make ADRs is possibly 2 days in advance. Of course, We do go off season most of the time. Basically, we decide where we want to eat dinner either the morning of or the day before. I did not even mess with ADRs until November 2002, when we had trouble getting a table at San Angel Inn or Le Cellier on a moments decision. We never had any trouble getting a table on previous trips.

 

[Viki]

I look at historical data for that time of year and match that with what we want to do. If it turns out things are really different, I make a few changes.

 

[BrerMama]

I'm with Pooh2001. Park hours aren't a major concern for me because I know when our family normally eats, and we don't eat in the late evening. We do early lunch, dinner at 5:30-6 pm. Breakfast I'm going to try to schedule before the parks open because I don't want it to interfere with touring (and dh would have a fit if it did!). So even though I'm not going until next June, I could predict where and when we'll be eating.