Slave to your ADRs?

[Luv2Diz]

We have always stayed at Shades of Green in the past so weren't eligible for the DDP. We did CS restaurants and were happy with that. With the great military discount Disney is offering, we are staying this trip at the POR in September and are considering giving the DDP a try.

My question is....do you ever feel like you are tied down because of your ADRs? We were on a Disney bus last trip and a family sitting near us was hurrying back to their motel room to freshen up for dinner, with one member of the group complaining they weren't even hungry and didn't want to go eat again.

How can you really predict that you want to eat at a certain restaurant, in a certain park, at a certain time.....90 days in advance?

Thanks for helping me decide whether we want to do the DDP or not!

 

[kadesha]

I don't feel like I'm a slave to ADR's. Make them at a normal lunch or dinner time and plan on being at that park on that day. It's pretty simple for us.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

It is not just people on DDP that do reservations.....The days of going without reservations are becoming more difficult to get to dine where you would like. I still do not make reservations 90 days out as I never know where I am going to be or what I am going to feel like eating..

I usually make reservations when I get there.....depending on where I am going to be on which day. If I cannot get in to the restaurant of my choice, I eat elsewhere...maybe counter service. Mostly, we are flexible on times and do ok with this method, but we are two adults and do not have to worry about feeding children on time. I choose not to DDP as I really do not want the hassle of keeping track of counter service, table service, just do not want to do it, but it works for some.

 

[nhl66pens]

I kind of did that because I wanted to dine at Epcot every night so we always had to make sure we were back at the resort by a certain time. It didn't really impact our day at the park (whichever we were at) but as the PP suggested, it is probably wiser to schedule the dinner at the park you are planning on visiting that day.

 

[Tricia1972]

I always make reservations, regardless of whether we're using a DDP or not.

What changes the 'slave' feeling for me is that when I don't have a DDP, I am free to cancel any ADR that we're not in the mood for at the last minute, and I don't need to worry about making up that credit somewhere else.

With the DDP we went to all of our ADR's, even if we weren't in the mood, because it was already paid for. I'd have been happier skipping some of those meals.

Without the DDP, we canceled some of our meals at the last minute, and I never missed them (we'd snack or grab a CS somewhere)

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Anytime we had the DDP, we felt tied down to a specific park for that day. We were always looking at our watches to make sure we could make our reservation on time. In addition, the serving sizes are large so there were times when we had a TS meal at 5-6pm when we weren't really that hungry - but we did not want to cancel as it very difficult to get the reservations we had and we alway felt we might not get another chance at the same restaurant.

The 1 time we went without the DDP (May, 2007), we felt much more free to do what we wanted and we were even able to walk up to Sci-Fi and get a table for lunch.

That being said - the DDP was a great opportunity for us to visit some restaurants we might not otherwise visit due to the cost. When we went without the DDP, we ate breakfast in our room each morning and only had 2-3 TS meals while the others were CS meals.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

We are never slaves to our ADRs. We are not park commandos, we go to the parks on EMH night hours. For example, we'll go to MK with a CP 8:05a under our belt. Eat b-fast, we are done w/ breakfast before the masses make their way down Main Street. We hit the attactions we want to make sure we don't want to miss. We will stay at MK until 2ish. Head back to the resort for swimming and a shower. Go back to MK about 7p (we used to go to LTT for a 7:30 adr, but without the "friends" there anymore, we need to look at that again). In the summer when we go, MK is open until 2am. We stay until 1a ish.

We don't miss a thing and never feel that we are slaves to the ADR. Sure it takes a bit of planning, but its better IMO than winging it.

 

[revmom]

The only time I was anxious about our ADR was when the buses were packed and we were trying to get to ADR at hotels.

 

[fterie4u]

We have always stayed at SoG in the past as well, however this year we are staying at CSR with the military discount. We have also added the DDP and are really excited about it! We have always made ADR's in the past and have never really felt like we were stuck to them. What we normally do is go to one park for half a day and then go back to the room to relax and freshen up and then go to the park where we have our ADR for the evening. We love it and have had no problems!
There was one occasion where we did cancel the ADR and just went somewhere else. I think if you realize that yes you may have an ADR, however, you can always cancel. You may be limited in your options of getting in somewhere else since the restaurants get booked up but I think you should be able to find a place somewhere else.

 

[whogirl'smom]

I didn't feel tied down by our ADRs; what I felt tied down by was the DDP, where you felt you had to use all those ADRs. Yes, in real life you eat dinner every night, but not always a big meal. We used DDP twice and it was nice to try all those restaurants and character meals, but I really feel like having 1 or 2 ADRs every day did affect our touring and I am a meticulous planner. Maybe I'm just tired of planning so much...DH really wants the DDP again next trip, but I really, really don't. I would rather pay OOP and if I don't want to keep an ADR one night I can cancel it and not be out any money. Our first trip we only made two ADRs the whole week (due to finances) and it was still one of the most fabulous trips we've had. The rest of the week we ate Pizza Hut or Red Lobster after we were done with the parks for the night and didn't feel like we missed a thing.

Everybody has a different opinion on this one; I think you just have to try it both ways and see which works better.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I didn't feel tied down by our ADRs; what I felt tied down by was the DDP, where you felt you had to use all those ADRs. Yes, in real life you eat dinner every night, but not always a big meal. We used DDP twice and it was nice to try all those restaurants and character meals, but I really feel like having 1 or 2 ADRs every day did affect our touring and I am a meticulous planner. Maybe I'm just tired of planning so much...DH really wants the DDP again next trip, but I really, really don't. I would rather pay OOP and if I don't want to keep an ADR one night I can cancel it and not be out any money. Our first trip we only made two ADRs the whole week (due to finances) and it was still one of the most fabulous trips we've had. The rest of the week we ate Pizza Hut or Red Lobster after we were done with the parks for the night and didn't feel like we missed a thing.

Everybody has a different opinion on this one; I think you just have to try it both ways and see which works better.

We've done the DDP since its inception and we never left a credit. We too have skipped meals. BUT the moment I realize that we will be leaving credits....we order room service. I order for only 2 or 3 people and its PLENTY of food for the four of us.

We've ordered room service at the pools and had a fantastic lunch and we've ordered in early dinners (but still from the lunch menus) on park nights during our resort breaks.

 

[RMulieri]

I always make adrs.It does not tie me down in the least.I decide what restaurant and thats about it.Remember no one says you need to sit and decide what entree you are going to have( though some people do that)90 days in advance.I find that with a small child the TS break is welcome every day.

 

[eagillinois]

We like the DDP and do not feel tied down by our ADRs. I have changed them the day of if it is not working out or we are stressed about it. This trip I am planning half of the TS meals as late lunches in the park we are going to that morning so we will then be free to go to a different park or back to resort later in day and wont have to get ready to go back out. I think this will work well with 3 teenage girls!

 

[mooneyda]

I agree I never felt tied down to ADR . At least you have them.There was one time I went with out dining reservations and we were very limited in choices of times and places so from then on I started making the reservations

 

[B9erSteve]

I really don't think of it as being a slave to my ADR. I think more along the lines of... "At least I've got a ressie and I'm not out waiting with all the others who didn't have a reservation." Seriously, I was surprised at the number of people who were not able to eat at their establishment of choice because it was all booked up.

 

[centurythree]

We have always stayed at Shades of Green in the past so weren't eligible for the DDP. We did CS restaurants and were happy with that. With the great military discount Disney is offering, we are staying this trip at the POR in September and are considering giving the DDP a try.

My question is....do you ever feel like you are tied down because of your ADRs? We were on a Disney bus last trip and a family sitting near us was hurrying back to their motel room to freshen up for dinner, with one member of the group complaining they weren't even hungry and didn't want to go eat again.

How can you really predict that you want to eat at a certain restaurant, in a certain park, at a certain time.....90 days in advance?

Thanks for helping me decide whether we want to do the DDP or not!

We did DDXP from 1/4-1/16.

No, I didn't feel like a slave to my ADRs for a few reasons.

First, I timed them to give us maximum flexibility for which park we'd be seeing that day.

Second, I felt perfectly free to call up Disney Dining in the morning to flip any reservations that we decided to change if we slept in late or someone was having a craving for something in particular.

For example, we started out with 7 am-7:30 am reservations at a variety of Disney restaurants. My thought was that it would give us a chance to see some new hotels and keep things from getting stale. However, my guests fell in love with Boma over the first few days and I would up switching things around so that we ate exclusively at Boma (except for one breakfast each at Chef Mickey's or Kona Cafe), except for a few room service breakfasts.

Third, everybody had an ADR schedule and we made a practice of simply dressing with the signature dinners in mind even at the parks where applicable. As we looked around, we felt that others had done the same--there were a whole lot of blouse-jeans outfits at places like Jiko and Yachtsman.

As for the complaining member of the party--we learned very quickly not to gorge ourselves at each meal because we wanted to enjoy the next meal as well.

 

[Pakey]

We have done dining plans 3 times and non dining plans many times. We always make ADR's regardless. We do not like the dining plan as we are not "planners". I make the ADR's bu we end up cancelling half of them while we are there because we find we are not hungry, too busy doing something else, too tired, etc. With the dining plan, we have come home all 3 times with a lot of unused credits. As AP holders, we much prefer the TIW discount card.

 

[BabyFu18]

I'm in the same boat as the orginial poster, we always stay at SOG so have never tried the dining plan before. This year my family is staying at the Poly with the basic dining plan, we are hoping to plan which days we want to do which parks and make our ADR's accordingly. On days we won't be visiting parks we're making reservations for the restaurants we want to try that are in other resorts.

I don't think we'll have a problem with the dining plan, but you never know until you try it. Since we haven't had the option of the dining plan before we are excited to give it a try.

I think on the deluxe dining plan, having more than one sit down meal a day would be a little taxing on our family, it would feel way to structured and since we aren't used to eating two large meals a day I know we'd be over stuffed. However, with the one counter service, one table service, and one snack per day I think it should be fine. If you decide not to use some of your credits one day you can still use them up before the end of your trip, so it's not like you are tied down to using a certain number of credits per day.

 

[whogirl'smom]

We've done the DDP since its inception and we never left a credit. We too have skipped meals. BUT the moment I realize that we will be leaving credits....we order room service. I order for only 2 or 3 people and its PLENTY of food for the four of us.

We've ordered room service at the pools and had a fantastic lunch and we've ordered in early dinners (but still from the lunch menus) on park nights during our resort breaks.

Oh, we've never left a credit, I just want more flexibility next time. I want to try some places not on DDP. But this thread is about ADRs, so I will just say yes, you definitely need to make them if you want to eat at most TS places, but it's much easier to cancel if you don't have to worry about moving credits around. Then you can just have ice cream for dinner one night, no worries!

 

[Luv2Diz]

I appreciate the input. We will try the DDP this trip since we have never done it before. Having TS restaurants will force us to sit down and relax a bit rather than "go commando" from rope drop to closing. I am looking foward to it already!

Thanks again!