Making ADR's

[becpee]

I'm able to make my ADR's tomorrow night, and to be honest i'm overwhelmed
Would it be a bad decision to make ADR's for dinner only?
I'm going to need to know what i'm doing each day to a degree and i'm just not that organised

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I think it would be a good idea if you knew where you were pretty much going to be each day. Have you considered buying Touring Plans. It's only around $12-13 dollars and it gives you crowd projections and recommended parks for 18 months I think. I bought that last time and then worked my days around that prior to making my ADR's. It can be so tiring getting around all day and getting to dinner time, if you can minimise travel times that really helps.

Do you have a list of where you would like to eat?

 

[battymum]

For my mind, I was so glad we had a plan, WDW can be so overwhelming, if we had gotten up each morning and said what do you feel like doing, we would have all been fighting. Double that, if we had waited until we were hungry before deciding where to eat. I was so grateful that I had done that research 6 months earlier.

I also subscribed to touring plans, and worked our schedule out using that, and the dis - then made ADR's according to which park we would be at. They have really detailed plans, things like which parks have EMH hours, MNSSHP, and Fantasmic determine which parks will have the lightest crowds.

TBH Going in September, crowds are pretty light, so you dont really need a ride by ride plan, but you will be thankful to have an itinerary. If it is your first time, and possibly only, you will want to try and fit as much in as you can so pick a park per day and then make your ADR around that.

Oh and remember if you have a reservation within a park that you havent toured that day you will need to add park hopper option to your tickets.

You will only need to make ADRs for your table service meals, so only one per day - your choice - breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I made most of mine for dinner at an earlier time, around 5:30, at restaurants that were either in the park we were at that day or close by - ie we ate at Wilderness Lodge on our Magic Kingdom day as it was easy to get to by boat and Boma at the AKL on our Animal Kingdom day.

 

[queendisney]

yes def makd ADR for dinner other wise you may find your self eating at very strange times if you just do walk up escpecially if there is somewhere you really want to eat! Personally we are not planners but there are only two of us and we genrally just go with the flow and decided that morning where we are going and sometimes don't decide until we are at the bus stop This year, however, I have subscribed to Touring Plans but only for the parks to avoid on the days we are there (felt like I had to because so many of you use it and I thought I was missing out)
But, Yes, do ADR for your dinner.

 

[aussietravellers]

I would definately do a little organisation about where you will be each day before making your ADR's. I used Tour Guide Mike and it was awesome. I had which parks we would be at each day, then which days were rest, shopping, outside WDW days. I worked it out by finding which days were EMH days. Tour Guide Mike has green, yellow and red days for each park (actually he has it split up with morning and night, as some mornings might be green but nights red). Green days are the best to attend that park as the crowds are lighter than yellow and red are busy so best avoided. It worked perfectly. I didn't have a ride by ride plan, but I did have a which park which day or which park in the morning and then another park at night plan and I stuck to that as it worked to a tee for the whole 3 weeks.

I would also book some lunches if you want them. If they are not the meals you have to pay a deposit for (like CRT or a character meal/signature), then you can easily cancel if you decide not to use it. But at least you will have something booked. We cancelled a few of our ADR's when we didn't end up wanting to go or our plans changed, but we had the ADR there if we wanted it. You can still make all your dinner ADR's, but make some lunches or breakfasts too. We made three ADR's a day (we are big TS eaters though, we had the tables in wonderland card so wanted to make good use of it). Sometimes we would have an ADR at a TS and because we had a big breakfast or had a big dinner coming up, we still went to the TS and had a nice sit down meal, but just had something light, like a salad or just a starter.

 

[australiankaren]

Me too...touring plans, tour guide mike etc are what i use to plan my time....also i draw up the days on a manila folder [I like the cardboard and the size] with emh etc marked down for each day and then work out where i am each day including
DTD, outlet shopping, pool hopping, resort hopping, MNSSHP, DVC open house, putt putt, universal studios, walmart etc etc....so we have a fair idea where we are going.
But we can also then flip days around as we need them, as sept is a light on month, so the parks are fairly much empty ish [except Hollywood studios on a saturday]....
Booking Dining at the moment for sept is empty..I got le cellier the day and time I wanted..shock horror....so dont stress if you dont book right on the 180..with the credit card holding, people are tentitive to book..all the more spots open for MEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[becpee]

Me too...touring plans, tour guide mike etc are what i use to plan my time....also i draw up the days on a manila folder [I like the cardboard and the size] with emh etc marked down for each day and then work out where i am each day including
DTD, outlet shopping, pool hopping, resort hopping, MNSSHP, DVC open house, putt putt, universal studios, walmart etc etc....so we have a fair idea where we are going.
But we can also then flip days around as we need them, as sept is a light on month, so the parks are fairly much empty ish [except Hollywood studios on a saturday]....
Booking Dining at the moment for sept is empty..I got le cellier the day and time I wanted..shock horror....so dont stress if you dont book right on the 180..with the credit card holding, people are tentitive to book..all the more spots open for MEEEEEEEEEEEE

I just got on TourGuideMike, great detail

We get there Saturday and i'm decided up to Tuesday...procrastinate much?
I've fully cleaned my house rather that tackle ADR's LOL (well, cleaned my house, been to Gloria Jeans, Target and BigW) because i'm just so

I'd better just bite the bullet and get on it...

 

[becpee]

So, I just tried to make my ADR's and, like everybody else, I can't do it online

And the wait time is 45 minutes

Now what?

LOL

 

[Toy Story]

Get up early in the morning and do it

 

[becpee]

I got it to work LOL

But now i'm a bit stuck, and DH hasn't had any input (God help me if I book something wrong )

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

It can be so annoying when your partner doesn't want to be involved in the planning but god help you if something isn't right .

My husband doesn't help with the planning and he wouldn't mind about where we ate so long as something nice but the accom is important to him and he would be the first one to complain if it wasn't nice enough. Which is frustrating because if I ask him to look at the places I'm choosing he's always too busy .

It places a little pressure on me to get it right but he always says, nothing he says would change my mind if I have decided on somewhere so he could also be right there .