No room for spontanity?

[Corine]

We are more "going with the flow" type of people... who normally doesnt decide where to eat and what beforehand.
This board scares me a little, as is seems like everyone book tables months in advance...? Are there no room for us who doesn't plan this beforehand? Or can we just forget about going to the nicer restaurants when we are in WDW?

We'll be there sometime between june 22- june 27th.

Thanks,
Corine

 

[Jennifer823]

We were at the MK last August and didn't even know you needed ADRs! (We hadn't been to Disney in 10+ yrs, and I had never heard of these boards!) We ate at Tony's at the MK, we had about a 10 min. wait. I think if you aren't going during free dining you'll be OK. We are going back next month and we didn't make any ADRs because we don't know where we want to eat yet!

Maybe we can get some more "seasoned" members to weigh in...

 

[Maggi May]

I know what you mean, it seems crazy to plan out when and where you're going to eat months ahead of time. Then, when you've done all that planning, you feel like you're locked in and must do everything you've booked and planned.

We try and split it down the middle and make ADRs for 2 or 3 places we really want to go to or that are popular. (Next month it's Jiko, Raglan Road and Donald's Breakfastasaurous) Everything else we just wing it. We are usually able to call Disney Dining while we're at the parks and get an ADR for an hour or two later. For example, right before Thanksgiving, which was a pretty busy week, we were able to call at 5 p.m. and get a table for the Kona Cafe for 7:30. Sometimes you have to be flexible, but it usually works. Just keep the WDW Dining number handy!

 

[fla4fun]

I am also a spontaneous Disney guest. I don't even like to plan which park I'm going to until I wake up in the morning (sometimes I just hop on whichever bus comes to the stop first). I went on a trip in February for 10 days and didn't make a single ADR in advance. A lot of it depends on when you are going (slow or busy season). I even did some walkups during free dining last year, so it's not totally impossible.

First of all, you need to be OK with counter service if you can't get into a table service restaurant. Disney has really worked on putting some variety into their counter service restaurants, so it's not all burgers and hot dogs like it used to be. So long as this is not a problem for you, you can be spontaneous.

Try to think opposite of most people. I find that it's much easier to get into TS restaurants for lunch than for dinner. People on the dining plan, whether free or not, tend to try to maximize their meals, so they either go for the character breakfasts, or big dinners. Also, don't forget to try resorts that are close to the park you are in. It can be a nice break from the park to go to a resort TS for lunch, and they are seldom crowded (unless there's a convention in house). It's so easy to go to one of the Epcot resorts from MGM/Epcot or a monorail resort from MK.

It's good if you have a cell phone with you. Once you've picked your park for the day, and have an idea of whether you may be hungry for lunch or want to wait for dinner, call Disney dining from the park and see what's available. I've made reservations for the Rose and Crown from the payphones across from the restaurant, less than an hour before the meal. Sometimes restaurants will turn away walkups, but you can still get a last minute ADR by phone.

I have to admit, when I went last December for another 10 day trip, people here on the DIS had me thinking that I HAD to make ADR's for every day. So I did. Halfway through the trip, I cancelled all the ones I had left. I just couldn't stand working my day around my dining ressies. I'd rather work the dining around the fun.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Maggi May

Does what we do most of the time when it's just us 3.

But we had a party of 5 last June with just a few ADR for breakfest. Dw would go check as a walkup only to be told nope,nothing. I would call DD and we would get something afew hours later.

So yes it is possible but for some of the higher end stuff it's real hard.

 

[Christine]

I would say that during the time you are going--no--there isn't *much* room for being spontaneous.

I booked a last minute Easter trip and couldn't get much in the way of ADRs. I got what I could before I left so I would have some backups and then I had two nights open.

I did what people suggested and called Disney Dining a few times while I was down there. They were totally unable to help me.

So, I just walked up to a restaurent (1900 Park Fare) at 5:00 p.m. one night (according to Disney Dining 2 hours prior to me walking up they were booked). Anyway, the seated my party of 5 right away. Now, this wasn't a place I particularly wanted to eat, but I got in. I don't know what would have happened at other restaurants. My guess is that I would have been shut out of the smaller and/or more popular places.

So, my advice is to call and make some ADRs right now. No one is holding a gun to your head if you don't use them. Decide that morning if you will be going to make it. If not, call and cancel. If so, then you've done good and got something.

Or don't make any ADRs and be prepared to eat somewhere/something that you might not be crazy about and be okay with that.

 

[mousehouselover]

I made ADRs for our last trip and for our next one as well. I was scared not to make them but since my DH has health problems that require him to be able to slow down and rest and we will be taking babies on our next trip I felt it was necessary to have planned sit down and re-group time. That said, we were a bit flexible and didn't plan every meal, we got a few walk ups in Jan and cancelled a few ADRs along the way. Guest services in our hotel and in the the parks were really good about checking availability and making ressies if we needed something changed.

 

[Corine]

Fla4fun: You sound so much like me

Thank you all for taking the time, and for the good tips. I might try to book a table at one or two of the nicer restaurant....and for the rest: I will go with the flow

Again- Thanks a lot!

 

[n2mm]

This is an issue that CMs are dealing with too. We just returned and had a few of our WDW CM friends join us for dinner on several occassions (I had made my ADRs months in advance). They said that they are now having the worst time getting into places to eat at the last minute. They said when the relatives show up, they can no longer take them to their favorite places to eat now. We took them to the 50sPT for dinner, and they said they hadn't been there for months because they can never get last minute ADRs anymore. They said they tried to take family to Ohana and it was a no go when they tried recently. So not only are the spontaneous visitors having problems, the CMs are having difficulty dining last minute too. Our CM friends love when we visit, because it gives them a chance to dine at the resort and park restraurants because they said they can never get in anymore.

 

[eliza61]

We are more "going with the flow" type of people... who normally doesnt decide where to eat and what beforehand.
This board scares me a little, as is seems like everyone book tables months in advance...? Are there no room for us who doesn't plan this beforehand? Or can we just forget about going to the nicer restaurants when we are in WDW?

We'll be there sometime between june 22- june 27th.

Thanks,
Corine

Hey Corine,
Last March, I toured the world without ADR's and there is no way I'm ever going back. It was absolutely wonderful not having to clock watch during the day for a meal or plan our park day according to what meal we picked 6 months ago. I can barely plan dinner 3 days in advance for my family, let alone 180 days out.
Anyway, we go in August and we're staying for 10 days and I've made 1 adr so it can be done.
1) My kids are older so I don't have the hassle of worrying about them getting cranky like they did when they were younger, if we didn't eat on schedule.
2) Be flexible. We found it very easy to eat where ever we wanted during off hours. Some days we did a late dinner 7:00 pm (what was also great about eating later, the noise level at a lot of park restuarants was much lower because the dinner crowd was gone, we actually spent a long meal eating and talking) or some days we had our biggest meal in the afternoon around 1:00 pm and then ate lightly for dinner.
3) We checked out a lot of resort restaurants. They usually have more openings than the park restaurants. The Yacht club galley and Olivias were almost empty when we decided to try them.

Good luck.

 

[rentayenta]

Even for this true Type A, deciding where to eat 6 months in advance proved to be a challenge. I am an organized person but making reservations for restaurants that I have never been to, let alone 6 months out, felt weird. I am going during free dining and from what I have read, it was a must do to make ADRs or we'd be having hotdogs every meal which my DS would have loved.


If I wasn't going during free dining, the only ADRs I would make would be for character meals for the kids.

 

[PlutoLuvr]

I think even during what used to be slow times, it's getting harder and harder to be spontaneous with dining.

Our family is another one that (a) doesn't know what we're going to eat in a couple days, let alone six months away; and (b) due to our jobs, can't book any kind of vacation until about two months out.

How we've still enjoyed WDW:

Book just a couple ADRs, any must-dos for your group. If you have a favorite steakhouse, seafood place or character meal, call and see if they have any openings. It's not to hard to work around one or two dining reservations over a whole vacation -- at least opposed to every day for us spontaneous folk. At this point, you know your dates. If there's any particular meal you just have to have when at the World, go ahead and book it.

Focus on resorts. IMO, the food's better, the atmosphere is better, you're not taking away from precious -- and expensive -- park time, and they're easier to get into.

Don't turn your nose up at the CS. It's vastly improved over the last five years, at least for adults, anyway. And I remember the '70s where you ate CS at your own risk; most families brought in sandwiches. We're to the point where some CS we actually prefer over some TS, i.e., CS at Epcot instead of the TS, Tusker House (soon to be changed, tho), and Pinocchio Village Hause CS over any TS we've had at MK.

Have a bit of a plan if there's just nothing available. We now hit the parks early so that our evenings are free to try new places offsite, go to Citywalk or the resort restaurants at Universal for dinners. At first I was a bit frustrated when there just weren't a whole lot of options on WDW property for a nice-sit down meal for those that didn't plan months in advance. Then I started trying places off site and was extremely pleased. It's affected how we tour the WDW theme parks, but all in all, we've been able to explore off site options and still enjoy the parks in the mornings and early afternoons. We also save quite a bit of $$$ by doing this

 

[jcpuppy.com]

We make ADRs
We have been known to change our ADR the day we are at WDW. So, we wake up and say " i think I want to do..." and then we call and see if it's available and if so we book it and cancel the other. You walk up folks can have that cancelled ressie
However, if we can't get our change for the day we at least have a back up.
We have been flexible at times when we call on the day we want a ressie.
I do suggest trying to the resort places if you are having last minute troubles
I have yet to see what is so hard about making an ADR, it isn't written in stone and you can change it if things change that day for you.
If all else fails and you simply can't make ADR's you will never starve at Disney, plenty of counter meals, plenty of Kiosks and you can always bring food from home with you.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Someone said to be flexible, they sometimes ate a "late dinner" at 7! I laugh because this shows how diverse we all are. Our family never eats dinner even at home before 7 (usually 8)!!!

As for the spontenaity, don't do it. Too many obsessed planning folks have gobbled up the time slots, just like the lounge chairs at the pools and any decent parade location hours ahead of the parade. It's not my way and it's changed my touring drastically but that's the way it is and it isn't going to be changing any time soon as this was Disney's goal.

Plan at least a couple must do's and try winging the rest if you must but I definately would plan a couple just so you are assured of something really nice.

 

[fla4fun]

I think some of it depends on how often you get to Disney also. I live close, and spend most of my vacations there, so there's not so much urgency. If I miss a restaurant this trip, I'll get to it next time. I don't do character meals, which are one of the meals you really should book in advance. It's different if you only get to visit once a year, or once every few years. In that case, it makes more sense to book ADR's in advance. It just doesn't work for me.

 

[Maggi May]

Just wanted to add one more suggsetion: Make ADRs for your home resort restaurants, tf you're staying at a hotel that has TS restaurants. These can always be canceled the day of your ADR, but give you a good fall back if you decide to stay in and eat breakfast or dinner at your hotel.

Some friends of my stayed at AKL last year and didn't make ADRs and were never able to eat at Jiko or Boma!

 

[Tiffany]

We are more "going with the flow" type of people... who normally doesnt decide where to eat and what beforehand.
This board scares me a little, as is seems like everyone book tables months in advance...? Are there no room for us who doesn't plan this beforehand? Or can we just forget about going to the nicer restaurants when we are in WDW?

We'll be there sometime between june 22- june 27th.

Thanks,
Corine

If you are looking for a table service meal at a traditional meal time you could have issues. We are big planners but last September we decided to go to the ST on a night that we originally planned to go to the MK and had ADRs at Tony's. So we could not find an ADR at the ST on that night and we did not want to do counter service. We ended up having dinner at the YC Galley. We knew that changing at the last minute would cause an issue and it did. So if you do not mind eating counter service or at odd times you should be okay.

 

[sotoalf]

Spontaneity? at Disney? Impossible!

 

[bigbabyblues]

DH and I were at WDW from 2/1-2/6 of this year, and we saw people without ADRs being turned away at every table service we went to.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I are not the type of people to make any ADR's at 180 days out because we just don't know where we want to eat that far out, besides sometimes we don't know until the last minute which parks we will be going to. Sometimes because of weather we decided that we will not go to the park and wait until the next day, when it will be a little warmer. Plus sometimes around the afternoon or evening our plans totally change and we do something else.

Last August we made ADR's while in WDW for lunch at the very last minute at 50's Prime Time Cafe and the Plaza. We were given any choices of times that we wished to eat at and get this, we made these last minute ADR's when WDW was having their free dinning week in 2006.

So if you are flexible with your times there is always a chance to make last minute ADR's, because if you don't ask you never know what might happen. I think a lot of people are scared when they read posts here about ADR's filling up and guests turning away, so they are scared to making ADR's at 180 days out even though they don't want to. I am not saying that stuff does not happen, however to say it's like that at WDW for 365 days a year is totally wrong and false.