Tips for planning FP+ around ADR times?

[BradyBrenMom]

Our trip this October will be our first since FP+ was started--can anyone share tips and suggestions for scheduling FP+ around existing ADRS? Thanks!

 

[ghtx]

IIRC you can't schedule FPs that conflict with ADRs.

 

[nilla]

I tried to not book anything less than 2 hours after our ADRs. Dinners typically don't go that long, but you never know.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Dinners typically don't go that long, but you never know.

PLENTY of our dinners have gone that long!!!!

PLENTY of times we've been seated WELL PAST our ADR time. It REALLY depends on many variables: party size, time you are dining, popularity of location.

We can reliably predict we'll be seated late at 'Ohana and Boma dinners, especially when we opt for the 6:30pm - 7:30pm time frame, even on slow weeks. Sometimes we've been seated a full hour past our ADR.

Sometimes we go to WDW in small groups, sometimes large groups. All have been seated well past ADR times, but it is especially true during free dining promo and when our party is large. With a group of 10+, hour waits are sadly not uncommon. Places that aren't full will typically do better.(lunch, places like GF Café, early time slots: 7am breakfasts or 4pm dinners)

The BIGGEST unknown though is transportation. If your ADR and FP are together- like the WS paired with TT, transportation isn't likely to be an issue. Busing (resort to park) commonly takes an hour- ONE way after dinner. Getting to DTD also takes a long time.

These days, like all this summer, the monorails are EXPECTED to be down. If running, getting from Poly/GF to MK is quick via monorail. Via bus, it's another beast entirely. The monorail is going to be down quite a bit this summer!

The drive- just the bus drive, no waiting - between Contemporary/MK/Poly and DTD (before the construction) takes a full half hour via bus (with traffic lights and water park stop).

Typically, once seated, single credit meals take 90 minutes, signature meals reliably take more like 120minutes (just eating), but it also depends how many courses. Seeing ALL the characters at character meals sometimes also means allowing extra time. If you just want to eat and go, and don't want dessert/appetizers, some meals can be finished in an hour.

Oh, if you plan a dinner show, like Hoop de Doo, just relax and allow the whole evening for it.

Coming for your resort, via WDW transport, timing is going to vary widely.

Our ADR's tend to be dinner, and we tend to finish our 3 FP before dinner, but even some of us experienced folks run into mishaps!

Now Fastpass usage: most only take 20min, but some take more like an hour...maybe much longer if you add commuting time.

 

[Jennytoon]

I think this is answering in a different direction than others have been so far, but we usually try to group our FP around the ADR, including overlapping the ADR. Lots of people report that between FP and ADR they feel very scheduled, and we find that this leaves us feeling like we have a scheduled-but-efficient block of time and a also a large block of time to be spontaneous.

Example:
FP Jungle Cruise 10 - 11
Lunch ADR Liberty Tree Tavern 11 AM
FP Splash 11:30 - 12:30
FP BTMRR 12:30 - 1:30

In this instance we would use the JC FP around 10:40 or a little earlier to put us at LTT right on 11 AM, then whenever we are done with our meal we just head straight to Splash and basically as soon as we are done with Splash our BTMRR window is open.

or
FP Jungle Cruise 10-11
FP BTMRR 11-12
Lunch ADR Liberty Tree Tavern 11:30 AM
FP Splash 12:15 - 1:15

Here we would again do JC about 10:40 and then go straight to BTMRR, arriving around 11 and finishing in time for the ADR; when we're done with ADR we'd be within the window for Splash and could ride right away.

The advantage of this strategy is that you only have to remember what time to show to your first FP and are then fairly organized through the end of your "pre-planned" section, the rest of your day can unfold either according to your pre-planned touring plan or completely at your whim, whichever you prefer.

Obviously you can adjust these windows wider if necessary for your comfort level or the estimated length of meal; in the first example if I had a 12:15 ADR I would tend to give more time for the meal (start the Splash FP+ window later in relation to the ADR time) as the likelihood of waiting a bit to be seated would be increased.

This works for out of park ADRs too, you just have to calculate the overlap with the whole window that you expect to be spending on the ADR including transport and as previous posters have mentioned, if using WDW bus transportation the variability of the window increases significantly.

Obviously there is a bit of risk involved with things that could go wrong with the ADR taking a truly extensive amount of time but
1) once your ADR has run more than a half hour over what you thought your plan requires some adjustment anyway
2) you may be able to reschedule the missed FP+ (if you have one you know can't be rescheduled it might be best to make it the one of the ones that doesn't overlap the ADR)
3) I would never count on this in my planning, but it's quite possible that if you are very near the time of your overstepped FP+ and you explain nicely to the CM, they will let you on anyway.