How hard to get ADRs last week in Sept?

[MeganFyne]

I'll be dining alone (first ever solo!) but I've just realized that my trip will be at the same time as free dining. Should I be making ADRs now? Again they will be reservations for one, and I'm more than likely to dine at unusual times (I'm more likely to be on attractions while most people are eating, and thus the reverse is also true.)

I've been before of course and made my ADR's a few months out, with 2 people (which would probably be the same sized table, come to think of it) however not during free dining. Does it make a difference that I'm not doing the free dining?

Thanks!

 

[aubriee]

I'll be there solo Sept 24th-Oct 2nd and plan to go online this coming Monday at exactly 0600ET (180 days out) to make my ADRs. Restaurants are usually packed during free dining ,even if the parks are not full, plus the Food & Wine Festival will be starting that Friday (Sept 30th). Being on free dining has nothing to do with making ADRs. As an AP holder I won't be using free dining and in fact haven't even decided for sure if I'm buying any of the DDPs (at the moment leaning toward paying OOP), but I still want to be able to get into the restaurants I really want. There are alot of restaurants that you just can't walk into, even as a solo diner.

Now when I get down there, there is a very good chance that I'll be canceling some and making others at the last minute. I keep the WDW dining number in my cell phone and always round up making alot of changes while I'm down there as my plans change.

 

[Cafeen]

Not sure when you'll be actually heading down there, but you should certainly be thinking about them now. I'll be arriving Thu 9/22 and make mine this Saturday morning (oh joy... I get to get up at 5am on a Saturday (I'm in central time) ><... or maybe I'll just stay up). Free Dining does clog up the restaurants quite a bit, most especially the popular DDP ones. While a reservation in general won't be impossible to get even very close to travel time, it may not be one of your top few choices of location and/or time.

As aubriee mentioned, it won't matter how you plan to pay for meals (OOP, Free Dining, paid Dining Plans, etc) as all reservations are pulled from the same source.

One tip though when making solo reservations... If there isn't availability for 1, try for 2 (unless it's prepaid or CC Held). The system sometimes has issues with odd numbers (especially 1 and 3). This was actually recommended to me by a CM awhile ago (for another trip that ended up not happening).