Making dinner reservations for 1st night

[Tisha62486]

I was wondering if you should make a dinner reservation for the 1st night at Walt Disney World? We will be driving down and I was gonna try to book Garden Grill for the character dining but just wondering if we would even be able to make it on time?!

 

[bweagle]

We do make ADR's for first night, but tend to make them for outside the parks. We drive from Ohio and make our first night's stop in southern GA, so we only have a 5 hour car trip on day 2. We've done ADR's at Chef Mickey's in the past.....this time our first night ADR is at Beaches and Cream.

 

[purple figment]

I was wondering if you should make a dinner reservation for the 1st night at Walt Disney World? We will be driving down and I was gonna try to book Garden Grill for the character dining but just wondering if we would even be able to make it on time?!

It all depends on what time you expect to arrive and if you are willing to pay the $10 per person penalty if you are delayed because of traffic, weather or some other problem and don't make it in time.

 

[mickeynut1]

We usually arrive late at night (after 11 pm), but when we did fly in early morning or afternoon, we never made an ADR for our first night as too many things can happen to cause a delay. With all restaurants now requiring a cc guarantee with a 24 hour cancellation policy, if it were me, I wouldn't want to risk something happening to make me miss that ADR and be charged $10/pp for being a no show.

 

[Tisha62486]

Thank you for the information! We are driving from PA so we are going to skip making reservations!!! I am so new at this I didn't even know they charge so thanks for letting me know!!

 

[NuttyDisneyMom]

We do make ADR's for first night, but tend to make them for outside the parks. We drive from Ohio and make our first night's stop in southern GA, so we only have a 5 hour car trip on day 2. We've done ADR's at Chef Mickey's in the past.....this time our first night ADR is at Beaches and Cream.

Completely agree about outside the parks!

We drive down from VA and stay in SC overnight, so we arrive mid afternoon. We always have our late O'Hana dinner and get the ADR for 30 minutes prior to Wishes starting. We are sat by the windows to enjoy Wishes while we are enjoying our favorite dinner It's become our family tradition we always look forward to!

 

[Wendy31]

We have always made an ADR for our arrival night, & we drive down as well.

On some previous trips, we've stopped at the beach for a couple of nights before continuing to Disney. On those trips, since we were arriving to Disney before or around lunchtime, I made a dinner ADR somewhere actually in the MK.

However, on our last trip, we didn't stop at the beach & just drove straight to Disney World in one day. We normally arrive sometime mid-afternoon. Since we didn't plan on going into the parks, I made an ADR for Whispering Canyon Café.

At the time, Whispering Canyon Café was not a "$10 charge if you don't show" restaurant, so I wasn't really worried. And, we arrived w/ plenty of time.

Now, however, all restaurants are "$10 charge if you don't show" restaurants.

For our upcoming trip in September, I have an 'Ohana ADR for our arrival night. It's for 6:35 pm, if I remember correctly. I'm a little nervous about it. However, hopefully, we'll stay on schedule, nothing will happen, & we'll be able to make it!

 

[mickeynut1]

Thank you for the information! We are driving from PA so we are going to skip making reservations!!! I am so new at this I didn't even know they charge so thanks for letting me know!!

You're welcome . The cc guarantee went into effect this past fall (October, I think). Now every TS requires a cc when making an ADR. Nothing is charged at booking (unless it's a pre-paid reservation like a dinner show, CRT, etc.), but if you don't show up and don't cancel 24 hours ahead of time, you will be charged $10/pp. Hope you have a great trip .