Some people recommended Touring Plans for hard to find ADRs. I thought Disney shut all of these services down nearly two years ago. Is it because Touring Plans is free? I went to their website and they still offer a membership. Does the membership get you anything better than the free service?
As for planning in advance, I just realized we are 3 months out from our Beach Club Club Level reservation. I could have the Concierge book everything for us, but planning ahead like this is difficult as we like to be more spontaneous on vacation. We've been to WDW many times so feel less pressure to experience "everything". But, quite honestly, having to plan ADRs 6 months out and FPs, 3 months out, it discourages us enough we'll probably do what we did last year -- cancel WDW completely and spend our week at Universal. For a while, Spice Table at Epcot was walk-up only, but I think it takes reservations now. Oh well. Nice while it lasted.
Finally, I can speak to the "Good Old Days" -- and they were great. When our twins were about 7 or 8 (some 14 or so years ago), we walked up one evening to Chefs de France. It was around 8:30 pm and the place was nearly empty. A hostess took us to our table and we ordered. Since Illuminations was starting, the sweet waitress set up a table near the window for the twins and they ate their entrees there while watching the fireworks. The place was quiet and civilized. Of course, that would never happen anymore.
Our boys also used to love Cinderella's Castle. We would do that for lunch. The boys tolerated the princesses, but there was a waiter at the time who would spend time with the boys, tell them Disney trivia, etc. and they loved having lunch with him. Every year the insisted on going to the Castle for lunch so they could talk to David. One time David even brought out boxed champagne flutes as a gift for us when we mentioned it was our anniversary the next day. Again -- nothing like this would ever happen anymore. The Castle lunch reservation was easy to get and the lunch was actually worth eating, with things like Prime Rib. We gave up going here for lunch some years ago when I took my parents who were elderly and a manager came by and said, "Hurry and sit down". My parents were doing the best they could but they were fouling up the timing. At that point lunch had become a set menu and a fully programmed event where Disney would rush you in, seat you, serve the food, run the princesses around the room and repeat -- no time anymore for a waiter to provide a bit of fun and personalized service. Everything now is pre-packaged, pre-planned and totally lacking in spontaneity or, dare I say it, "magic".
So, yes, the good old days really were better.