Looking for thoughts on ADR times....

[BigGreen73]

My DW and I are heading to WDW in May to celebrate our 12 yr wedding anniversary. We are staying at POFQ for the 1st time (been to WDW 5+ times) and are looking to make 7 ADR's (5 breakfast and 2 diners). We have only ever done 1 ADR during a trip, so I am looking to the ADR experts for advise.

I was curious on what folks thought about the best times for breakfast and dinner ADR's. What are usually the slowest times or times to get the best experiences. Earlier or later? We have 4 days planned to do rope drop at each park, but the rides etc are not a huge priority this trip as we have gone on everything a dozen times or more now. We are more looking to enjoy shows, FW's, characters, and great dining etc.

We are looking at 9:30am-10am times for breakfasts, and 5:30pm-6pm times for dinners. We want to allow time to get from our resort to the breakfasts or from the Parks to dinners etc.

We want to eat at:

Chef Mickey's (B) (Already booked @ 10am)
Crystal Palace (B)
Ohana (B)
Tusker House (B)
Akershus (B)
1900 Park Fare (D)
Boma (D)

Thanks

 

[An_Island_Girl]

If you are morning people at all, most all of the breakfast buffetts that are inside the park open up one hour prior to park opening. S if you have an 8-9AM breakfast reservation, they will let you into the park before the rest of the crowd!

 

[onelilspark]

I think a lot of it depends on what time you eat at home. I like to schedule late breakfasts because I'm not a huge breakfast eater, but I love brunch. With dinners, I usually don't eat until 7:30 at home, so it wouldn't make sense for me to eat at 5:30 on vacation, I probably won't be hungry. That being said, if you DO eat at 5-5:30 usually, it doesn't make sense for me to sugest making ADR's for 7, does it?

So my advice? If you were going to cook a meal at home, what time would you aim to have it on the table? Schedule it for then. And for breakfast, if you eat a big breakfast on a daily basis, schedule them early. If you don't, schedule them later and make them more like brunch.

 

[ShannonMB]

We tend to eat a little differently on vacation, to try to maximize our fun time!

I saw you had Boma on your list. We are going to Boma at 7:20pm the day we go to AK. That way, we can stay till the park closes, make our way over, then hang out at the resort for a few before the meal. Last time we had to leave the park before we were quite done because of our ADR time. For 1900Park Fare, you might want to think about what park you'll be at that day and what will be the time you leave. You can always go back after dinner, so take that into consideration.

For the breakfasts, I personally would get the earliest times they had for me! Especially for Ohana, your only resort choice. You might not want to burn up your whole morning. Depends how much you like to sleep, I guess!

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[BigGreen73]

We tend to eat a little differently on vacation, to try to maximize our fun time!

I saw you had Boma on your list. We are going to Boma at 7:20pm the day we go to AK. That way, we can stay till the park closes, make our way over, then hang out at the resort for a few before the meal. Last time we had to leave the park before we were quite done because of our ADR time. For 1900Park Fare, you might want to think about what park you'll be at that day and what will be the time you leave. You can always go back after dinner, so take that into consideration.

For the breakfasts, I personally would get the earliest times they had for me! Especially for Ohana, your only resort choice. You might not want to burn up your whole morning. Depends how much you like to sleep, I guess!

Good luck, and have fun!

We are looking at going to Boma after AK as well, most likely after the parade time I think. We always have AK done by 3pm - 3:30pm. So we may head out at 4-4:30pm. How long id the trip from AK to AKL? 15mins? Less?

I think that Ohana and 1900 park fare are going to be on our last day. Ohana for Breakfast, hang out at MK for the day and have 1900 park fare for dinner. I think that will work okay. We'll be able to take the ferry or monorail to the resorts and back and be able to spend some time checking out the resorts too.