Tomorrow begins our first completely ADR-less trip...

[DisBuckMan]

Bucking the trend and conventional wisdom on this trip.

We decided to avoid the ADR craze this trip. Tired of being "locked down" by ADR's while on vacation. Our plan is to simply wing it...make plans as we go, and no ADR's made more than the previous day out. We've gradually cut back more and more on ADR's made months/weeks ahead, but this is the first trip we've gone in with ZERO reservations made in advance.

Tomorrow is check-in day at AKL, and also my wife's birthday. I asked her this morning where she would like to do dinner for her birthday, and she said that since it's a long travel day, why not just try to get Sanaa there onsite. I've now booked a prime-time 6:55pm reservation for us, one day out.

Saturday is a day at AK for us, and our son and nephew want to eat at RFC for dinner. We don't have reservations, but we are Landry's Club members, so that one is taken care of, too.

No other reservations made at this point for the 6 nights at Disney (2 nights at AKL, 4 nights at Poly...spending one night at Hard Rock Hotel at Universal, as well).

I'll update (probably after the trip, but may update some while in lines) as to how it went and where we ate and times we got).

 

[JerseyJanice]

I did almost the same thing our last trip and enjoyed the freedom. I had Ohana booked and that was it. We wound up eating at the Food & Wine Festival a lot.

I think if you have the regular or deluxe Dining Plan, you need ADRs to make sure that you use your table service credits. But if you're paying OOP, no need to tie yourself up with dining appointments.

 

[alex9179]

Sounds like a dream. We have a 10 day trip soon. I started off with an ADR every day, but as time went on I cancelled almost half of them. I have six but only because 3 are by request and I wanted to account for them in our touring. The others are what we'd like to try. I can see myself cancelling a couple more, once we've arrived.

Dining plans really change when you don't have must-dos or aren't trying for the hard to get ADRs. It's so much easier!

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

You are staying at two great resorts that offer lots of QS/TS choices - we have done all QS trips and found lots of good food that wasn't all burgers and fries -- since you are on the monorail you might check out Contempo at CR, Gasparilla Grill at GF, Kona at Poly, and watercraft to Geyser Point at WL---lots of options! Looking forward to hearing where you wind up dining - also hope you will enjoy Sanaa -- it's one of our favorites restaurants!

 

[jdisnut]

You're going to love it. Not only will you appreciate the freedom, you'll be shocked how easy it is to snag reservations a couple hours before you want to eat. When my wife and I travel alone, without any other family, we tend plan little in advance and just check the app before we want to eat and see what's available. We always find something good.

 

[disneyvoice]

You will have a great time. We have done this once or twice and have found it to be a very enjoyable and relaxing vacation, even during pretty crowded times of year. When we have done this we have always been able to get into a TS restaurant if we decided we wanted to sit down over a nice meal and relax.

 

[ppjluvsdvc]

We are doing that this time too. The only reason I can is my husband is not coming with us. He likes to have a real meal every night and is picky about where. This will be an interesting trial for us. If it works out well maybe next trip I can try at least a couple of nights with out I may be able to convince hubby to try it!

 

[brooke789]

We went without aDRs last trip. This time were going to make a dinner reservation just to hold it but will likely cancel almost all of them

 

[gillep]

DH and I much prefer to vacation in a similar way at WDW. For a 7 night trip we will usually make about 3 total ADRs (and often change or cancel those), and we rarely end up eating full CS meals, as we mostly use CS places to grab a snack or split a meal to hold us over. We are usually able to make day-of reservations for the table service restaurants we prefer. We also love getting appetizers and small bites in the various lounges, such as the one at Brown Derby, Nomad Lounge, or Tutto Gusto.

 

[nco91590]

Nice! On our last trip it was pretty short and not very food centric. We could've totally done without ADRs. I really liked not having to race out of the park for a dinner reservation. I think for longer trips, I'll still make ADR's as we we likely be a bit more relaxed at the parks.

 

[robinb]

Happy birthday to your wife!

We gave up making ADRs a long time ago. We will usually only have 2-3 for an entire 7-10 day stay. Disney food is simply too expensive. Our family of 3 hd an ADR at Tusker House for the Rivers of Light meal last week because we were visiting Pandora late in the day and I didn't want to stress about getting a seat for ROL. It was $180 for 3 character buffets, 1 beer and we were snubbed by Mickey who never came to our table. Wow. Never again.

 

[Elleshoodat]

We do that, too, and wouldn't have it any other way. We don't have any must-dos as far as table-service restaurants, so we wait and see what's available and sounds good at the time.

Enjoy!

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

Enjoy the freedom! It's the only way we tour now.

Very few plans (if any) is so much more relaxing for us.

 

[MochaDrinker]

I thought about not doing adrs but it's our first trip and everyone had somewhere they wanted to eat that was ts.

 

[Micca]

Enjoy & please let us know how it goes. I certainly can appreciate the more freewheeling vacation style but we almost always have one ADR for each day. It keeps us grounded

 

[Nancyg56]

What fun!!! I would do this if I went with my DGD. When we travel as a large group I need to make ADR's but if I can go with just my teen DGD we wont want to be locked into anything.

Please keep us updated, and please wish Mrs. Disbuckman a Happy Birthday!

 

[DisneyaHolic23]

I can't wait to hear how it goes. I am scared to death to eat at all counter service and Morocco (no disrespect to Morocco - love it - but I don't want to eat every meal there!) I do have to admit that part of the fun for me in planning is getting those reservations....

 

[loves to dive]

Welcome to the very small no plan club. We have never made ADRs more than then night before, normally it's the day of. Our favorite thing to do is go to guest services in whatever park we are in (we don't make FPs early either) and ask them to either find something at that park any time or anywhere else during a certain time frame. We've had CMs actually competing to see who could find us something.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Bucking the trend and conventional wisdom on this trip.

We decided to avoid the ADR craze this trip. Tired of being "locked down" by ADR's while on vacation. Our plan is to simply wing it...make plans as we go, and no ADR's made more than the previous day out. We've gradually cut back more and more on ADR's made months/weeks ahead, but this is the first trip we've gone in with ZERO reservations made in advance.

Tomorrow is check-in day at AKL, and also my wife's birthday. I asked her this morning where she would like to do dinner for her birthday, and she said that since it's a long travel day, why not just try to get Sanaa there onsite. I've now booked a prime-time 6:55pm reservation for us, one day out.

Saturday is a day at AK for us, and our son and nephew want to eat at RFC for dinner. We don't have reservations, but we are Landry's Club members, so that one is taken care of, too.

No other reservations made at this point for the 6 nights at Disney (2 nights at AKL, 4 nights at Poly...spending one night at Hard Rock Hotel at Universal, as well).

I'll update (probably after the trip, but may update some while in lines) as to how it went and where we ate and times we got).

no ressies does not work for our group of 14 but with a group of 4 I would try it

 

[bumbershoot]

See, having adrs doesn't feel locked down or held back in any way for us. It sounds like we'll spend a lot of time trying to track down food at a place with food we want to eat. Ah, that epic day when dh needed to eat an hour before but family didn't want an adr then the line for via napoli was long and the cranky ones wouldn't wait and then sunshine seasons was closed and and and...not fun.

Having adrs gives structure to our day and makes sure we get to eat at places with food we like! And it makes sure the ones in the group who, whether they want to realize it not not, need to eat regularly so they feel better and don't drive the rest of us batty, get to eat regularly.

So to me it just sounds like the work you listed putting into it at 180 days will get down on the fly. While hungry. If you don't have family members like mine I'm very glad for you!