How do you plan ADRs when you have no clue what the park hours will be?

[jjhardy]

We usually eat dinner at the park having the EMH so after dinner we don't have to rush to see what we want to see. Since the hours for Sept won't be released until June and June is when I need to make my ADRs how do I know where to eat? It's just so frustrating!!!!! We're going Sept 10th so I can start my ADRs on June 12th! That's only 12 days from the time the park hours are released to figure out where to go...any suggestions?

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We are in the same boat as you. We will be checking in Sept 19th, and I agree that waiting for the park hours will make it hard. I am planning my nights & days for the week and the places that I would like to eat too, and I will make adjustments once the hours are posted. Don't forget, you may also need to plan around MNSSHP too. It is being held twice the week that we will be there.

 

[goofy4tink]

Surely you will have some idea as to where you want to eat. Just make a list of the spots you want to eat. Then, when you can see the park hours, plug the spots you want to eat at into the appropriate park, depending on it's hours.
I have to say that you should be able to do that within 20 mins of getting the park hours. Why in heavens name do you need more than a week or so to figure out where you want to eat???

This is what my list would be like...
Chef Mickeys
Crystal Palace
50's P/T
Mama Melrose's
LeCellier
Goofy's Beach Blast Breakfast

As soon as I see what the park hours are, for my visit time, I just plug in the date next to the restaurant.

 

[di19]

It gets even worse for us. We also like to dine in or near the park we'll be visiting that night. Without knowing the hours you can't really know what park you'll be visiting. For us, we will be making ADRs for 6/30 - 7/5 on April 1 which is our 90 day window. That means I will be on the phone at 7 am on April 1. That is the first day that the July hours will be posted (probably not even posted by 7am and obviously even if they were posted at 7am - not time to change any plans). It's really aggravating to make reservations that way. I wish they would go to a 4 month advanced notice of park hours so that those of us reserving 90 + 10 days out would be able to make an informed choice

 

[JenSop]

We just go ahead and make the ADR's. Then we go to whichever park we want - that's why we get park hoppers. So even if we're having dinner in Epcot, it's easy enough to get to MK for EMH if we want.

On this coming trip, though, all of our ADR's are at the different resorts!

 

[nicknamy1996]

Surely you will have some idea as to where you want to eat. Just make a list of the spots you want to eat. Then, when you can see the park hours, plug the spots you want to eat at into the appropriate park, depending on it's hours.
I have to say that you should be able to do that within 20 mins of getting the park hours. Why in heavens name do you need more than a week or so to figure out where you want to eat???

This is what my list would be like...
Chef Mickeys
Crystal Palace
50's P/T
Mama Melrose's
LeCellier
Goofy's Beach Blast Breakfast

As soon as I see what the park hours are, for my visit time, I just plug in the date next to the restaurant.

The issue is that you can (and sometimes need to) make the ADRs 180 days out but the park hours are not out yet.

I'm in the same boat. I'm building my list of restaurants now and I'll pick my parks based on last years hours and EMH schedule. I think I'll go ahead an make my reservations and then call back when the hours are out and make the needed adjustments... if possible. We are going without hoppers again and we like to do the evening EMH's. Unless we are dining at a resort that night we will need to pick our park restaurants to match the PM EMH parks.

 

[eliza61]

We usually eat dinner at the park having the EMH so after dinner we don't have to rush to see what we want to see. Since the hours for Sept won't be released until June and June is when I need to make my ADRs how do I know where to eat? It's just so frustrating!!!!! We're going Sept 10th so I can start my ADRs on June 12th! That's only 12 days from the time the park hours are released to figure out where to go...any suggestions?

Very easy. Have a list of must eat at. When your 90 day window opens up, get those adrs first and then make the adjustments accordingly. Not sure of the frustration part, you've got 12 days in between. If you don't get exactly the time you want you'll still have a good time, I hope.

 

[Tricia1972]

I make my list of where I want to eat and if it's time to make my ADR's and hours aren't out yet, I base the basics on last years hours for the same days of the week (not dates). I check the months prior to my arrival to make sure that Disney hasn't changed their EMH pattern and go from there.

 

[Ziggie]

The issue is that you can (and sometimes need to) make the ADRs 180 days out but the park hours are not out yet.

You can't make ressies 180 days out.

 

[kevgraub]

The issue is that you can (and sometimes need to) make the ADRs 180 days out but the park hours are not out yet.

I don't believe that is true anymore. All dining reservations are now 90 days out - including Chef Mickey's and CRT.

 

[Ziggie]

I don't believe that is true anymore. All dining reservations are now 90 days out - including Chef Mickey's and CRT.

LoL! I just said that!

There are no 180 day ressies

 

[disdrmg]

I understand your frustration - it drives me crazy too! I guess it doesn't bother everybody, but for compulsive planners it does!

As one other person pointed out, and it will apply for my family, if you are buying a special event ticket like MNSSHP or MVMCP in May when tickets go on sale , it would be nice to know what the other park hours will be - EMH at other parks and what nights Fantasmic will be compared to Spectromagic since Disney is now not doing them every night. If you buy your ticket on a Fantasmic night it may be hard to fit it all in - another frustration from someone who likes to do and see it all!!! If it was like other years when Fantasmic ran every night and Spectromagic ran on non party nights it wouldn't be as big of a deal, for me anyway.

 

[Eventer98]

I made our late June/early July ADRs this morning with no park hours avail. for July. We tend to avoid EMH during the early summer (and esp over a holiday!!) so I just went with what I thought they would be based on June. I am sure they will be extended for the holiday..I just did the best I could.

 

[Colleen27]

We usually eat dinner at the park having the EMH so after dinner we don't have to rush to see what we want to see. Since the hours for Sept won't be released until June and June is when I need to make my ADRs how do I know where to eat? It's just so frustrating!!!!! We're going Sept 10th so I can start my ADRs on June 12th! That's only 12 days from the time the park hours are released to figure out where to go...any suggestions?

What I do is figure out how many days we're likely to spend at each park and where I want to eat on the day we visit each park (either in the park or at a nearby resort) without assigning those plans to specific days. So I'll have a plan that looks like this:

EPCOT (2 days) - Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, Chefs de France, Tutto Italia

Magic Kingdom (2 days) - Cinderella's Royal Table, Chef Mickey, Plaza, California Grill

Hollywood Studios (1 day) - Brown Derby, Flying Fish

Animal Kingdom (1 day) - Yak & Yeti

I also make a list of resort restaurants I'd like to keep in mind for dinners on non-park days or days when we're at a park with an early close like AK or the waterparks. Then when park hours are released, I have the days pretty well planned and just need to plug them into the right dates.

 

[jjhardy]

I will be putting together a list of places we really would like to eat at this trip with my parents when we see them at Easter. We try to limit the amount of bus trips we need to make in a night because of my 2yr (wow she'll be 3 when we go!!! ) and my mom who uses a wheelchair.

I agree you can do it but as someone else said for those of us compulsive planners it's frustrating! When you travel with a little one it takes a lot of the surprise out of the day for meals! If it was just the adults it wouldn't be a big deal .

I guess I'll just make the wish list and once the hours come out hope that I can move things around and ADRs will still be available with the free dining offer

 

[connie1042]

I have mine ready to go when my 90 day window opens. We are not leaving until Sept. 19th, so we should be fine. I just went my the projected hours for our time slot. Here is what I have planned. Sept 19-26
Fultons Crab House (D)

Big River Grille(D) HS

Crystal Palace (B) MK
Ohanna's (D)

Narcossee's (D) TL

Chef De France (D) EP

Boma (B) Beach

Raglan Road (D) AK
We are paying OOP for Fulton's (Have a 75.00 gift card), and Boma's breakfast. We will have Breakfast food in our room and CS for the other meals.

 

[05MM08MM]

I understand your frustration - it drives me crazy too! I guess it doesn't bother everybody, but for compulsive planners it does!

As one other person pointed out, and it will apply for my family, if you are buying a special event ticket like MNSSHP or MVMCP in May when tickets go on sale , it would be nice to know what the other park hours will be - EMH at other parks and what nights Fantasmic will be compared to Spectromagic since Disney is now not doing them every night. If you buy your ticket on a Fantasmic night it may be hard to fit it all in - another frustration from someone who likes to do and see it all!!! If it was like other years when Fantasmic ran every night and Spectromagic ran on non party nights it wouldn't be as big of a deal, for me anyway.

How can you find out what nights Fantasmic & Spectormagic will be, I don't see it on the park hours calendar on Disney's web site?

Right now I have a pretty good idea of what parks I am going each day, but I should have a couple weeks to figure it all out after the September hours are posted and can change things up accordingly.

 

[TillyMarigold]

I am making a list of plans that don't involve a date but are specific, for example "get breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express, souvenir shop, do Disney Quest for awhile, then head over to Epcot for dinner at Rose and Crown to watch Illuminations, then do EMH." Then when I find out what night is EMH on June 1, I can decide what date to follow that plan on.

You might want to make a couple alternate plans or do half-day plans that you can put together, so that (for example) you don't plan to do two things back-to-back that don't work out once the park hours are announced. But you can start thinking now about what things will work with what other things.

05MM ... the fireworks schedule is on wdwinfo.com or also on the Disney World page ... click on the park and then "Calendar" and then when you click on the date you want to know about, it will show the exact schedule for that day (assuming that the schedule has been announced).

For example: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/magic-kingdom/calendardayview/?asmbly_day=20090331 Tomorrow at MK there is Storytime with Belle 5 times, Dream Along with Mickey 6 times, the afternoon parade at 3, Spectromagic at 8:15 and 10, and the fireworks at 9.

 

[Leni-J]

We're going 9/26 - 10/3. Our 90 day window opens on 6/28 but Oct hours won't be on the calendar until 7/1, three days after I have to make dining reservations. So I'll have plenty of time to look over September's hours and make a plan but I guess I'll just have to wing it with the last three days.

 

[Tink561]

So are you all basing your day/times on last year's calendars? What about EMH? I'd like to get some idea. Where do we find that?