How important is it to have ADR's

[Gretchen]

Before you all start laughing at my ignorance...
How difficult is it to get into a TS without an ADR? We'll be going in October. Thanks, for not laughing..well too hard!
G

 

[disnut8]

Very.

 

[jpolak]

They are only important if you plan on eating.

 

[Gretchen]

OMG? Are you kidding? Hmmm....I've only made them for the really not to be missed places such as charcter meals. We tend to eat out of the parks and in we do CS. My DH still lives in the state of Denile when it comes to having a ressie. Guess I better get crackin'.
Thanks,
G

 

[MickeyNicki]

Extremely important unless you want to eats CS for all your meals (there are still some great CS places but sometimes you just want to be catered to) or just take your chances with a walk up.

We go every Oct and make sure we have ADRs...we have seen so many people turned away disappointed that they cannot get in anywhere

 

[ciera321]

We always have ADRs and have found that at many locations (especially the popular ones) walkins are being turned away. I know some fell that having ADRs ties you down too much, but I just don't see it that way. I would much rather have ADRs at my favorite places than to have to waste my vacation time waiting in line to eat, IF waiting is even an option.

 

[KatMark]

IMPERATIVE in our opinion.

 

[hansel1]

yes, you need ADRs.

 

[Mickiethepooh]

Get on that phone NOW girl! LOL no I am not kidding get them now, IF you still can.

 

[Gretchen]

Thanks!

 

[Disney71]

Some people would never go without them (yes, I would be one of those people).... while others think it is crazy to stress yourself out by making the ressies so far ahead and they prefer to take the day as it comes (people like my brother..lol). I personally think by making the ADR's now, you have less stress within your group when it comes time to eat.. none of the "I don't care what we eat, what do you want to eat? I don't know... what do you feel like eating? ... "

 

[G's mommy]

October is a busy month at WDW. I would make ADR's for all your TS meals now.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

ADRs are important, but IMO, they're not necessarily "must have". I have found on many occasions, regardless of season, that you can get seated at Jiko (dinner), Boma (breakfast), Kona Cafe (both), and the Grand Floridian Cafe (both) pretty easily without ADRS within a 30 minute time frame.

 

[digman6]

I have a friend of mine who took her dh and 3 kids along with his side of the family so there was about 14 people. They went from 12/26-Jan2nd and made NO ADRS the ENTIRE TRIP! They did not know it would be a problem They spent the entire trip eatting PB&J from the room, bought cold meat for sandwiches and ate a total of 3 meals out at counter service they did notthink it would be as expensive as it was .

I am not sure what they thought they were going to get but HELLO its WDW and your on VACATION, not that you have to spend a ton of money but can you imagine eatting cold meat and PBJ every day on vacation while in WDW??? I can not, poor kids ( ages 5,8,11). They did no charcter meals or anything the entire time.
they made afew trips to Walmart. How can you not think of making ADRs with that many people especially at that time of year!


I know I have never met you but PLEASE OH PLEASE make some sort of ADRs for your trip ... I BEG YOU

 

[sue1013]

It depends on when you go and your party size. It's only DH and myself usually we go at slower times and never make ADRs before we go. We may make one or two when we arrive but that's it. We also don't do usually do dinners in the parks we go to the resort restaurants. The only place we've ever been turned away was Le Cellier so next time we went we did get an ADR when we arrived. When my DD who is a teacher and her family goes it's always at Easter time then we do have ADR's.

 

[lulugirl]

If going during busy season I would make ADR's.
We always travel off-peak and we have NEVER made ADR's, we always get seated w/ out much of a wait.

 

[grimley1968]

We only make ADR's for the highly popular table service restaurants in WDW. This October, we have them for Liberty Tree, Le Cellier, the H&V character meal, and 50's Prime Time. We've never needed ADR's for most resort restaurants, especially within WL and BC. One would be good for Ohana in the Poly, though. We've never needed ADR's for Garden Grille in EPCOT, nor for the German "beer hall" type place in EPCOT. We are going to Hoop De Doo, and ADR's are required for that.

But we have pretty much walked up and sat down at Le Cellier, Liberty Tree, etc. within 20 minutes of arriving sometimes, in October. This is about the wait you can expect even if you have an ADR.

Some people will say October is really busy. It's nothing like Spring Break, summer or the Holidays. It's one of the lighter months of the year.

Except for Hoop De Doo, the Luau, and other dinner show types of things, ADR's are not reservations, in the usual sense of the word. They merely reserve you a spot in line if you show up by your ADR time. If it's an hour before a table becomes available when you arrive for your ADR, that table will still take an hour for you to get. They do not hold tables for you with ADR's, except of course for the aforementioned dinner show events.

Personally, I wish they'd change this, and make ADR's actual reservations that hold tables for at least a few minutes. Require guests to secure them with a credit card like for the Hoop De Doo, for instance, and levy a certain fee (maybe the cost of a meal for 1 adult) for not showing up for the ADR or cancelling within a reasonable time frame. This would really cut down on the "ADR abuse" that seems to be such an issue, and would better promise guests that an actual table will be available for them when they show up, rather than having to wait in line just the same as those who do not have ADR's.

Also, it depends on which part of October you're going in as to whether you really need ADR's at all. We are going the 2nd week of October, which happens to coincide with Columbus Day weekend and also Fall Break for schools in many states, so ADR's made sense for the most popular restaurants, but not all of them. If you are going between that time and around November 15th or so, you could probably walk up to most restaurants and be seated within 15-20 minutes, easily. The exception would be "Jersey Week", but I'm not exactly sure when that is.

If you do decide to make ADR's, make sure you confirm each and every one of them when you arrive for your vacation, and bring your ADR # with you. Those restaurants are not the most reliable about having your ADR show up on their lists.

 

[annie1995]

If you plan on eating at table service locations, please make your ADR's ASAP!!! You can always try and tweak them, or even cancel them when you are there. Good Luck!!!

 

[wen8jr]

Don't panic too much though, just make them very soon...especially for the special ones you want. You can always try to change them later if you want something different.

I made mine over the weekend for Oct 12 - 18th and had plenty of time slots to choose from except with Le Cellier and I had to choose lunch for that one when I wanted dinner.