Tips and tricks for ADRs. How do you plan your days?

[Gothemi]

Planning my first WDW in over 10 years so ADRs, FP+ and all this is new to me. I've been searching around the forums gathering great info.

But I had a question on how you plan your trips. What takes priority for you when selecting a park to visit for that day? We do not have park hoppers (though I'm considering upgrading upon arrival). We want BOG dinner of course since my little one is looking forward to that, but without the ability to park hop, I don't want to get dinner at BOG on a projected busy day (per some of the websites that estimate crowds) and then, at my 60 mark, thats the only day I can get...FOP or FEA or something in another park.

What strategy do you use in planning your meals vs crowd calendars vs rides you want to do? Based on info. I've seen, its best to go straight for the hard to get items towards the end of your trip (60+6, or 7, etc.). So that is my plan of attack. Anything else I should be considering?

Thank you!

 

[chris benton]

I just wouldn't stress TOO much about an overpriced meal. Maybe one or two, depending on length of stay. Look at historical calendars and come up with a hypothesis on which day for BOG dinner. OR, pick a few days for BOG dinner, or pick all of the days you can for a BOG dinner, and then drop the ones you don't need. Also, reservations get dropped all of the time, not very surprising to get exact reservations you want by checking often. Someone's gonna mention the reservation finder, too. Just do a quick search for Touring Plans reservation finder. It works. Lots of folks here and on the TP boards have praised it. Worked for me as well, and I'll use it again for my next trip. No need to stress about adr's, imo. (Then again, I don't have to worry about bog, well, only a PPO, or crt.)

 

[KenHutch]

Its a bit weird but I pick where we will be that day a year out (been lucky so far). Then I contact the 2 supervisors (the girls) and find out where they want to eat. At 180 days out I make reservations and have never failed to get everything I want. And as the above poster noted touringplans.com can be your best friend. I have friends who cannot make up their minds to save their souls and they use touringplans with a lot of success. They get most of what they want even scoring BoG the day before they wanted togo.

 

[GrantMcR]

I typically pick our park days based on crowd predictions. Then plan meals and FP based on those. If not successful initially, keep checking. I ended up getting the days and times for everything I wanted (or at least close on the time). However, having a park hopper does take out some of the stress, as we take a break in the afternoon anyway, so it doesn't really matter if we go to a different park in the evening.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Planning my first WDW in over 10 years so ADRs, FP+ and all this is new to me. I've been searching around the forums gathering great info.

But I had a question on how you plan your trips. What takes priority for you when selecting a park to visit for that day? We do not have park hoppers (though I'm considering upgrading upon arrival). We want BOG dinner of course since my little one is looking forward to that, but without the ability to park hop, I don't want to get dinner at BOG on a projected busy day (per some of the websites that estimate crowds) and then, at my 60 mark, thats the only day I can get...FOP or FEA or something in another park.

What strategy do you use in planning your meals vs crowd calendars vs rides you want to do? Based on info. I've seen, its best to go straight for the hard to get items towards the end of your trip (60+6, or 7, etc.). So that is my plan of attack. Anything else I should be considering?

Thank you!

I think it varies on what is most important to you. Is it getting hard to get FP+ or food? A lot of times, I am planning only 2-3 months out so FP+ and park days are top of list for me since I choose park days based on past experience with crowds, crowd calendars and what FP+ we can get. We are not as strict when it comes to dining and feel like we always get the ADRs we want even in a short time frame. Between the MDE app and a few other third party apps that search for ADRs, we've always been successful.

 

[Tksolomom]

I normally plan my days based on crown calendars, EMH, and just the rotation I want. I try for the hard to plan reservations based on those days. If I am going to the park multiple days, I normally pick the later one for trying for the reservation because of the 180 + 10 makes it easier to get, although if it is that important you might want to book both days to be safe in case your plans change for that day. I then normally book the FP when it is available. For me, a hard to get FP like FOP would take priority over dining, but that would be up to you. I think it is easier to get dining day before or brought the touring plans app, then to get the FP.

 

[rosiebean]

I travel with extended family, so the first thing we do is get as accurate a headcount as we can for the days we're there (i.e., we'll start off with four people and end the trip with 10). The second thing we do is look at the crowd calendar and confirm which parks we'll spend the majority of time at on which days. Then we discuss park hoppers...some years we use them, some not. Sometimes, family members have requests for certain TS places (i.e., they'd love to get either Brown Derby or Sci Fi on one of our DHS days). We'll also discuss how many (or if any) TS meals we want over the course of the trip...for example, during F&W, we'll go to Epcot more than once, but only have one TS meal there.

NOTE: this works pretty well for us for a number of reasons. 1) We go at least once every year, so we know what we as a group like to do in the parks, where we like to eat, and have usually discussed trying new places ahead of time. We know how many days we can 'go go go' before needing a slow day. We know that when we have a buffet breakfast, we're fine without eating much until late that night, etc. 2) My sister and I make most of the decisions (based on feedback from family) during planning, and that's worked out really well so far. My parents, when they go with us, are fine with our choices...and know that we take their likes/dislikes into acct. Same with nieces, nephews, other siblings, etc.

So based on our expected crowd, what park we'll be in on which days, park/no park hoppers, and requests/tentative plans, I sign in at the 180 day mark and start making ADRs. I usually have a rough, handwritten chart next to me when I sign on. Most of the time, we get what we want. Sometimes, we don't. Sometimes, I'm able to get an ADR for part of our crowd (say, a table for 6 but no more) and my sister will sign on soon after to find a table for 4. Sometimes, I make an ADR on a whim because it fits in with our plans and check with the family to see if others are interested...if so, we keep it, if we decide on other plans, I cancel it well ahead of time.

Also, sometimes, our plans change as we get closer to the trip (say a couple of relatives are able to join us), and we change plans based on the group. That may mean changing ADRs or even changing what parks we visit (or even adding Park Hoppers that day b/c the relatives want to visit two parks, and we want to be with them).

We've become a little more flexible over the years, making ADRs for about half the days we're there for places we really "must do." Then we'll make other ADRs during the stay depending on who is with us that day and who wants to join us. We've grown to be more flexible with our plans over the past few years, and we are almost never disappointed.

 

[3gr8boys]

I will preface this by saying we get hoppers....does take some of the stress off.


SO...I would decide which park on which day (group's desired first park? what park will you do on days, if any, reduced by trave! time? want to take advantage of EMH? avoid EMH? what do the crowd calendars predict? does the group want to finish the trip at a particular park?)

I then like to pick a TS restaurant in each park. Aside from PPOs, I like to plan a lunch (or late breakfast) as we sometimes leave evening planning to the last minute....letting the kids take the lead after a planned early part of the day.

After scheduling the ADRs, I used Touring Plans to help me map out a plan for the park. (I put desired attractions in "geographic" order. )

With ADRs booked and line estimates from touring plans, I am able to create a FP+ wish list to guide me through FP+scheduling ..... if you will be able to schedule 60 days out and are aware of which FP+ you need to look for first, you will likely be able to maintain your plan. (I would monitor the dis for info regarding availability of FOP and Toy Story Land FP+....you may want to have AK and HS days later in your trip.) Having a hoped for schedule and a list of FP+ days/times that I wanted made the process painless. Got through my list with times that almost matched and then went back and tweaked each day until it was just about identical. ( I am traveling in April, party of 4. We got 7DMT at 60 and 60+ 2, FOP at 60 +4)

ADRs can be cancelled after you make FP+ (and found "last minute "). For me, making them at 180 at least helps give my days a framework. Plus, some of the ADRs are priorities for me.

 

[GillianP1301]

I start by putting a framework of which parks on which days. I get a hopper though, so that does give me flexibility. I don't use the crowd calendars a lot really, but I do look at projected EMH and any special events like MNSSHP and EMM (both of which we go to on our trips). I plug in the projected dates for those events and build my park days around that. Then I start to fill in my meal plans. We typically eat at roughly the same time each day (normally a PPO breakfast, 12:30ish lunch and 6:00ish dinner) so I start plugging in my must do ADRs first and go from there. I pay the most attention to the ADRs that I know will be difficult to shuffle around (i.e. Ohana dinner, BOG, etc...) and try to makes sure I put those on days that I'm least likely to want to make changes to. For everything else, I make as solid a plan as a I can, but undoubtedly I shuffle ADRs around several times between 180 days and our arrival.

 

[richkaryn]

We ALWAYS get park hoppers, mostly because we like to eat at many of the Epcot restaurants, but also because I know that making dining 180 days out and FP+ 60 days out can be a hard to make all the stars align perfectly by the time FP+ window rolls around. And there are some parks we know we just won't do a full day in.

 

[Wildflowerz]

My number 1 priority is projected crowd size. We use TouringPlans.com and we choose our days based on the crowd size. We don't worry too much about EMH, but take advantage if they have them on the days we pick. Then, we decide if we're doing any of the nighttime entertainment (Happily Ever After, Fantasmic, Illuminations, etc.). We always do parkhoppers, so we don't necessarily go to the same nighttime entertainment as the park we did for the day. Then, we decide where we're going to eat on which days based on what's more convenient for where we're at or where we're going. We also factor in that AK, HS, and EP can be half day parks for us. We do most of our TS meals for dinner and don't generally plan out our QS but decide on that when we're there and ready to eat. We also try and remember about transportation and how long it will take to get somewhere. For instance, if we're at MK or EP, eating at anywhere on the monorail is going to take MUCH less time than eating at a resort where we'll have to take a bus. Sometimes, we even just go back to our hotel and drive to the resort we're eating dinner at. We got stuck at the Polynesian one night after the late SoA when neither MK or EP were having late hours, so the monorail wasn't running. After 2+ hours of bus rides via Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs), we decided we'd never do that again!

Oh, also with Touring Plans, we do a preliminary personalized plan for each park. We pick all the things we think we're going to want to do and plug them in. It will tell us about how much time it should take to do all the things we want to do. Then we plan food accordingly. Nothing sucks more than a long day when you'e done all you want to do and are SO TIRED, but you've still got a few hours to go before your ADR. It's not enough time to bother going back to the hotel, but it's a LONG wait.

 

[mckenk]

I usually use TouringPlans.com to figure out our park days. After that, I like to plan mostly of our reservations for lunch meals, that way we don’t have to worry about getting up early if we stayed up late the night before, or staying in the park or a certain area when we are tired and just want to got back to our hotel. There are a few exceptions, though - we usually schedule a few early dinners. Our kids are 5 & 7, if that let’s you know why we do things this way.