How many times do you change your ADR's before your trip?

[holly7347]

Hi all,

I booked all our ADR's at 180 days out like a good girl. Well I think it was actually 178 days out because 180 days fell on a Saturday and we had a busy weekend But then I started thinking I made our breakfast reservations too early. Generally my DD's are pretty early risers but I didn't want to risk having to wake them and rush to get on the bus and then them be cranky all day. So I called back and changed 3 of our breakfast ADR's to later times. Well yesterday I sign up for the Tour Guide Mike info and turns out I planned which park to go to on which day all wrong. So now I'm thinking of changing our plans again to hit the "less busy" parks on the right days. But that would mean I would need to call and change all 6 of our ADR's. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and give changing our ADR's a try.

But I'm curious how many times do others change their ADR's. I was so excited to get everything I wanted including CRT on my first call. Now I feel like a dope that didn't do enough planning ahead of time and I have to call for the 3rd time.

So please make me feel better and tell me how many times you have called to change your ADR's for a single trip.

 

[Figment's Friend]

Don't worry, my mother and I go every year together and last year I called at the 180 day mark. We were so sure we were all set in our ways and wouldn't change a thing. I think we changed certain restaurants 3-4 times before we actually went in December!
But changing Disney plans is fun! And now that you've got the hours down, it's easier for you.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Enough so that my DH threatens to eat CS food the entire trip if I ask his opinion one more time!

 

[Belle5]

Don't ask! It's sooo embarrassing! Our plans change and change again. We do the best we can but when you are trying to seat between 6-9 people each night for a 10 day trip SIX MONTHS OUT there are just bound to be changes in plans.

 

[carmie3377]

I can't even count the number of times I've called for ADR additions or changes over the last couple of weeks. Just when I think I have everything just right, I'll rethink things and want to change something. It has come back on me though as I had the perfect times for 2 of my meals. Then, my park plans changed and when I changed ADRs, the good times were already gone. I booked what they had and I was able to change one again later, but still working on the other. It's hard trying to decide on 15 days of dining this far in advance!

 

[disneychick0412]

So many times that my DH laughs at me and says "Those people are going to say...here she is again!" I cannot book my ADR's yet, but I have changed from CBR, to All Star Movies, then we pushed our trip back a week and changed to All Star Music. Then we changed to All Star Sports. Then we bumped our trip up about a month! Then I called to add a day to the beginning of our vacation!

In the past I have changed my ADR's around as well (maybe not as much as the above paragraph would lead you to believe though)! But I am paying for my vacation and I am always nice when I call so I don't feel bad about it!

 

[3"Mouse"keteers]

I called four times yesterday (my first day able to book) to change/add ADRs. You're in good company!

 

[megveg]

Ive called 6 times to change ADRs and I've only had 2, and I still have two, forme and DBF lol

 

[megveg]

whoops double post :/

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Between resort changes and ADR changes I believe the cms at CRO know me by name. I always plan well in advance, call at my 180 day mark, think I'm done, and then change, change, change!

 

[missminniemouse]

I guess I'm in the minority here....I tend to make my ressies at the 180 day mark and pretty much stick with them. Occasionally (very rarely, actually) I'll call to make a change and sometimes we'll decide on the day of our ressie that we're not going to eat at a TS restaurant. If that happens, I ALWAYS either call dining or stop by the restaurant and cancel so that someone else can have my time slot.

That being said, I spend "hours" prior to the 180 day mark working out the details of our trip and picking the restaurants along with my family. Each person (we're a family of 4) gets to pick one "favorite" restaurant to put on the list. Then we fill in from there. On our last trip in January, we filled in with some restaurants we haven't been to in a while, or ever. This was to break the rut we were in of going to the same places "over and over" again. Yak & Yeti was on the list because it was new for us. For our trip this coming November, we'll probably do the same thing....one favorite each and the rest places we haven't been to in a while.

 

[DaisyD]

I never change my ADRs before my trip. I think of what I want before the 180 days and then book it. Once down there I have been known to cancel a now too early character breakfast or add another trip to 'Ohana but that is it.

 

[aripantaloon]

We have about 15 ADR's and haven't changed a thing. We took WAY too long looking at restaurant menus and trying to figure out which parks we wanted to hit on which days. We did add one ADR recently for our last dinner and I'm hoping for a CRT breakfast because now I'd like to do it. I should have made one in the first place.

I will say that we do start many of our days in the park with the EMH, which is, I believe, the opposite of what TGM recommends. Those parks are generally the ones he says to avoid. (This is speculation on my part since I've never been to the site, but it's not rocket science.) Around lunch time, when that park starts to really feel crowded, we'll head to another park for the afternoon and our dinner ADR.

We did a similar thing (minus ADR's) on our last trip in 2000. It worked out really well because we were able to see some of the popular attractions in the less crowded morning hours and then high-tail it to another park later in the day.

 

[biscuitgirl]

I thought long and hard before I called to make ADRs. I came up with alternate schedules and checked guidebook info to make sure we were at the right parks on the right days. I thought I had everything down, then I realized there was a party going on the night we wanted to go to Narcoossee's and there would be no 8pm fireworks. So, I made sure I had a pretty locked in schedule before I made ADRs in order to prevent from having to call Disney multiple times! I have since called them twice - once to move one ADR to a different night and once to add an ADR when I added an extra night onto our trip. I really don't want to make any changes unless necessary mainly since we are going during free dining and I don't want to lose our preferred times.

 

[tmonferdini]

I think I've changed mine a gazillion times. BEFORE we added DxDP, I had a CM say, "Wow!!! Do you think you're done now?"

Do I win?

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I can never make up my mind about which restaurants I want to eat at so 2 years ago for my Dec. 2006 trip, I made my ADR's 180 days out, but changed them so many times I couldn't count. I was getting nervous that the CM's would recognize me by first name after calling so many times. Don't worry. Change as many times as you want. I'm sure they understand.

 

[Brooke4]

i too called 180 days out, got everything i wanted on the first try and called at least 20 times to make changes before my trip came around. it got so bad my husband threatened to cancel the vacation if i didn't stop calling. the cm's were very understanding with me, one even stated how disney vacations cost thousands of dollars so you have every right to make sure your trip is perfect. so i say, don't feel bad keep making those changes if need be!!!

 

[DaisyD]

I think this is one of the reasons Disney doesn't have a public 800 number. Too many people calling over and over again to change ADRS, resort reservations, and room requests. LOL!