Just want to vent about needing reservations for everything

[DisneyTarheel]

We travel to the world in Nov/early December so the crowds are more manageable. We don't use the DDP because we are not foodies. Not to highjack this thread but as another poster stated earlier...I wonder if the DDP encourages you to eat more?

While I love to plan my trip, I also enjoy the flexibility of being spontaneous. IMO ADR's throw a monkey wrench for those that want to wing it. If we're having a blast at MK I don't want to have to drag everyone away to make our 7:00 ADR's somewhere else.

The one exception is the Hoop-Dee-Doo. That's a special treat so we do "plan accordingly"

This year we're staying at BWI and will have access to great restaurants on the Boardwalk where I don't need ADR's. We deliberately settled on an EPCOT resort because of greater restaurant choices, easy access to them as well as EPCOT and DS.

Ah, a kindred spirit! We are also not "foodies", and, frankly, IHMO the quality of fare available at many of the restaurants is not worth the grief of having to secure advanced ADRs. I suspect the DDP has had an impact on the quality and variety of food available.

We will make an occasional exception for a character meal, but that's about it. We generally make a day-of TS lunch reservation at Epcot and have never had problems. When our kids get older we may take a greater interest in TS dining. Until then, I'm happy being spontaneous.

 

[disgram]

I do not like to plan!!! Having said that, I have discovered that I do it all the time!!! That is a part of life! Dr. appt., dinner parties, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, all sorts of things. Most of these things take alot of planning. So, when it comes to vacations, I have become a planner. Whether it is for Disney or some place else.
I get my DGDs together, (or whoever is going with me), and we decide together where and what we would like to eat 180 days prior. Just because we have an ADR at the Liberty Tree Tavern at 5:35 doesn't mean that we HAVE to stay in that park the whole day until the appointed time. We go to various parks, and when it is getting close to the time of our ADR, we get on the Disney Transportation and go to the ADR and afterward, maybe we will stay in the park and maybe not.
The thing is, I like knowing that we will be sitting down to a meal at a specific time and not trudging through the parks looking for something that may or may not be any good. And in the end, so do those that go with me!

 

[bluedoggy]

We used to have ADR's for every day of our trip. DH got tired of having to BE somewhere at a certain time, and we decided 2 yrs ago that we will just do what we want, when we want. NO ADR's for us anymore. We may call Disney Dining the day before, see if something is available. If not, no big deal. It's vacation, we don't stress over what to eat. We will do CS, or eat at off times. We have DVC, so usually have no trouble eating at Olivia's at OKW or one of the resort restaurants. Now it's just DH & I, so that may make a difference. Looking forward to F&W next weekend- that will fill us up...

 

[Southernswthrt1]

OP - I couldn't agree more!!!! I started a thread to try to get people to talk about their experience without ADRs. I'm so glad to hear there are so many of you out there who are also "disenchanted" with the whole ADR situation. It has really gotten out of hand.

If we can't walk up and get a table, I'll just eat a hamburger!

 

[connorlevismom]

OP - I couldn't agree more!!!! I started a thread to try to get people to talk about their experience without ADRs. I'm so glad to hear there are so many of you out there who are also "disenhanted" with the whole ADR situation. It has really gotten out of hand.

If we can't walk up and get a table, I'll just eat a hamburger!

Kind of how I feel. I will just choose a CS place if nothing else is open.

Kristine

 

[Mkrop]

Our probelm is with DH's work schedule we have never been able to plan any trip with more than 3 months notice, one trip we had 3 weeks notice! So sometimes I feel pressured that we would not get want we want. We did a lot of lunch ADRs this trip and CS dinners, one bc more of those were open in the short window and I never knew if DS4 would be to cranky or tired to eat dinner out. One night we did do dinner at Concord Steakhouse and he almost fell asleep in his chicken nuggets! Luckily we were staying at CR so we only had a ahort walk back to the room before he totally crashed.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Dining is an important part of our vacations. I always make ADRs or reservations regardless of where we go. I don't think any of us know what we want to eat 180 days ahead of time. Knowing exactly what you want to eat that far out & choosing a restaurant to book isn't the same thing to me. I definitely prefer that to waiting in a 2 hr. standby line. That said, I do wish WDW would go back to the 90 day ADR system. 180 days is too far out for even me, an obsessive planner. I think it's also very unfavorable to locals, & those who can't plan their vacations that far out.

 

[DVC Sadie]

I am leaving in 10 days for WDW and am so excited! We own DVC so we are lucky enough to be able to go often. We are at the point now where we just go and wander around the parks, go what we want to go on, and just kind of do WDW in a relaxing style. My problem with that is that I am sick of not being able to eat anywhere! I don't know 7 months ahead of time where I want to eat! I want to be able to decide the day of that I am in the mood for a certain restaurant. I don't do DDP because we have a full kitchen and have food at our place but we still like to eat out. It is just so frustrating to not be able to just go and have a nice lunch or dinner because everything has been booked up for 7 months! It just really sucks for the people who are not on the dining plan. Ok, I am done venting, thanks for listening.

Kristine

ITA!

We have been dining at WDW for years and never had a problem with just walking up or calling the same day for a ADR. Since the inception of DDP it has become impossible to get a ADR unless you plan 6 or more months in advance. Who the heck wants to do that, all of the time?

I do believe that the new DPs will help alleviate the whole 180 day out problem just due to the cost basis and hopefully the menus will revert back to pre DPs so the menus are no longer so "generic".

 

[jodifla]

Well, I certainly like to plan, but the DDP has made things just ridiculous at WDW.

Luckily, OP, now that the plan will pretty much be worthless next year, way fewer people will get it, and hopefully that will free up the restaurants somewhat.

 

[thunderbird1]

That is what confuddles me about people so adamantly against ADR's...do they really think that if ADR's where done away with that they could just walk up to any restaurant in the World and get seated immediately....not going to happen! There are TOO MANY people wanting to eat there too, so in most cases you are not going to be able to do it anyways.

Excellent point! I'd much rather plan and make ADR's months in advance than have to deal with hour+ waits every evening, which is exactly what would happen if there were no ADR's. We had all of our dinner reservations around 5:30, and we never had to wait more than a couple of minutes. That alone was well worth the advance planning.

Well, I certainly like to plan, but the DDP has made things just ridiculous at WDW.

Luckily, OP, now that the plan will pretty much be worthless next year, way fewer people will get it, and hopefully that will free up the restaurants somewhat.

I dunno, I think a lot of people are hooked on the convenience of being (at least mostly) prepaid, and will still get the DDP even without the huge savings. What will be interesting is seeing how many upgrade to the deluxe DDP, and what that does for availability of ADR's at the signature restaurants.

 

[Gabriel&Nana]

OP - I couldn't agree more!!!! I started a thread to try to get people to talk about their experience without ADRs. I'm so glad to hear there are so many of you out there who are also "disenchanted" with the whole ADR situation. It has really gotten out of hand.

If we can't walk up and get a table, I'll just eat a hamburger!

I agree with you.

I'm on vacation and this thing of ADRs is very stressful

Our family doesn't like the idea of avoiding an attraction/ride and run to get in time for a meal.

We do some counter service meals and if a sit-down restaurant have no tables for us, OK, we just got our car and drive to a restaurant. Orlando has so many good options ...

 

[Nancyg56]

Well, I certainly like to plan, but the DDP has made things just ridiculous at WDW.

Luckily, OP, now that the plan will pretty much be worthless next year, way fewer people will get it, and hopefully that will free up the restaurants somewhat.

I'm not at all sure that I agree with you. I think restaurants are busy and the DDP has had a lot to do with that. Families used it and enjoyed TS dining while at Disney. Is that going to change now that the DDP has changed? I'm not sure but I doubt it. As long as families save some or break even with either version of the plan some are going to use it. Others have gotten used to having most of their TS meals onsite so that may not change either.

Disney has done a good job of offering services that encourage families to stay onsite and spend their money in their resorts, gift shops and TS restaurants. There are two versions of the DDP and there is still a value to both, while not the no-brainer value that it once was.

I realize that you may believe that the DDP's offered are now worthless but I am not sure that everyone agrees with you. There is a convenience factor associated with each plan and as long as families want to enjoy onsite dining, prepaid food and advance planning they are going to use it.

Now

 

[Mkrop]

I agree with you.

I'm on vacation and this thing of ADRs is very stressful

Our family doesn't like the idea of avoiding an attraction/ride and run to get in time for a meal.

We do some counter service meals and if a sit-down restaurant have no tables for us, OK, we just got our car and drive to a restaurant. Orlando has so many good options ...

See even if we rented a car this would hold no appeal to me. This eats up too much touring time to go back to the parking lot and go somewhere to eat, unless we were done for the day but my kids cant wait that late to eat, maybe when they are older.

 

[micksterlee]

I have done trips with ADRs and without and have decided I hate being tied down by a schedule.The trip we did at Easter we ate all CS and enjoyed every meal.People that say they are stuck eating burgers at CS places couldn't have taken much time to check out the menus.There are tons of choices at CS in WDW if you end up with a burger it is by choice.

 

[Laura]

I like the CS meals at WDW. They're far better than they used to be. Especially as a vegetarian, I was very pleased on our last trip. Although, we were able to eat 7 TS meals on our last trip with only one ADR made prior to our arrival in WDW.

I've traveled lots of places in the USA and in Europe, and except for some very high-end/famous restaurants in big cities and a luau on Maui, I've always been able to wing it eating-wise without making reservations far in advance. I don't know in advance where I want to eat every day on vacation.

 

[fla4fun]

Doesn't calling Disney Dining pretty much allow you to do this? You would have the CM telling you what is available rather than an automated system, but the result would be the same.

Well, yes and no. My experience has been (and your experience may be different) is that they would only look at one restaurant at a time. So the conversation would go something like:

CM: How can I help you today?
me: I'd like to make a lunch reservation at Epcot today.
CM: Which restaurant?
me: What do you have available around 2pm?
CM: Let's try (insert restaurant name here) . . . .no nothing there. Why don't we try (insert another restaurant name here) . . . no, fully booked. (Insert another restaurant name here) usually has some openings, let's check that one . . . . no nothing today.

And one by one, we go through all of them, only to find out there's nothing available. If I change the time, we go through it all again. I've never had a cast member tell me something like "Well, we have openings at XXX, WWW, and ZZZ today. Which would you prefer?"

Maybe I just get a less assertive CM, but that's been my experience.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I agree with you.

I'm on vacation and this thing of ADRs is very stressful

Our family doesn't like the idea of avoiding an attraction/ride and run to get in time for a meal.

We do some counter service meals and if a sit-down restaurant have no tables for us, OK, we just got our car and drive to a restaurant. Orlando has so many good options ...

I feel it is just the opposite. ADR's relieve the stress. I know I;ll be eating at my can't miss places and get the chance to try new places. Sit doen meals are one less worry when we get there. Next year we're planning to stay off property and pay oop, and I'll still be making ADR's at least 4 months out. The game has changed and you can sulk and let others take advantage of the rules or you can do the same.

 

[DisneyTarheel]

Well, yes and no. My experience has been (and your experience may be different) is that they would only look at one restaurant at a time. So the conversation would go something like:

CM: How can I help you today?
me: I'd like to make a lunch reservation at Epcot today.
CM: Which restaurant?
me: What do you have available around 2pm?
CM: Let's try (insert restaurant name here) . . . .no nothing there. Why don't we try (insert another restaurant name here) . . . no, fully booked. (Insert another restaurant name here) usually has some openings, let's check that one . . . . no nothing today.

And one by one, we go through all of them, only to find out there's nothing available. If I change the time, we go through it all again. I've never had a cast member tell me something like "Well, we have openings at XXX, WWW, and ZZZ today. Which would you prefer?"

Maybe I just get a less assertive CM, but that's been my experience.

Ah, now I understand your point. Would be really cool if they could link it interactively with the in-room TV, too.

 

[Markstudy]

It is what it is. You either adapt or you have less choices.

Reminds me of what my Dad use to say- You better plan...or you better be Rich and Famous

whitch option do you like better....

1) 2 hour wait at 5:30 on Friday night at Epcot for Coral Reef

2) 30 day ADR's but you have to call at 7:00 am and it sells out in 10 minutes

3) The way it is now (WDW is busy, and the current system is a way to handle the huge crowds)

 

[Jacklynn]

I just wanted to say, that a few years ago my parents and I went to Disney, and we did not have one ADR. Well I take that back, my parents made one for themselves at Shula's (sp?) at the Dolphin. Other than that, we didnt. We ate at the Japanese place, the sci-fi, rainforest cafe Planet Hollywood and those are just the ones that I can remember, and a few other nice places. The trick is to eat at the bigger places for lunch instead of dinner, we hardly even ever had wait time. I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but we went in early May.

I will make some for this trip we are planning in May, but mostly just for anniversary dinner.