Her husband also thought that they didn't need ADR's because they were on the dining plan and that they could just walk up to any restaurant.
Ouch.
People don’t think things through. If the dining plan is advertised enough that a newbie knows about it, and if you think about how many hotels are at Wdw, and if you realize how many people are at a park at any given moment, HOW could they leave enough tables open that this sort of thing could be accommodated? It’s just impossible.
It is total BS but here’s the thing - the idea that you have to make ADRs 180 days out is also BS.
There are always openings somewhere. I don’t do walk ups but same day ADRs work fine if (and granted- it is a big “if”) you aren’t picky about which restaurants you want. It also helps to be flexible about times - like if you are ok with a 9pm dinner a lot of things open up.
Anyway , your friend won’t starve or be stuck with only QS. They will only be disappointed if they have their heart set on specific restaurants and times
That’s a “way of doing vacation” philosophy thing. I have a limited diet so I won’t just hope something is available. I’ve had the experience of never getting a desired place for a given trip no matter how often I looked or used touring plans. I don’t want to go with just anything.
But philosophy aside, this thought process isn’t right for the OP’s friend, who obviously wants what she wants when she wants it, because she’s happy with the idea of the dining plan meaning she can just walk up to desired places.
I’ve never booked a reservation 180 days out because I’m at the mercy of AP resort rates, which are available only a couple months out.
You know that you *could*, however, make hopeful reservations for the timeframes you’re looking at, at 180 days out, though, right? (And then cancel the ones that aren’t right for your dates as soon as you book the resort)
Or ask for the name of the TA because they must be AH-MAZING!
I vote for that idea.
Disney makes it super convenient to lump everything together and people think they are set for their trip.
Yes, but with that said, every single WDW-newbie I know IRL has managed to read through the emails Disney sends and then they have made ADRS and FP+s and had terrific trips.
I firmly believe that if one is using a TA it is reasonable to believe that the TA is giving proper information.
Ah, if only.
Twice we relied on TAs for my then-husband’s work trips. They first sent him on a flight from SEA to Sydney to New Zealand. They put him on a flight to NZ leaving under 1.5 hours from landing. She didn’t realize that the way she booked it meant he would have to go through customs claim bags etc, drop bags again, go through security, to get to that flight. He was in line for the NZ bag drop, outside security, when his flight left.
Second time she booked in such a way that caused a one day gap in his flight and hotel plans. He messed it up in a different way and had to scramble, but when we looked at what she had booked there was going to be a problem anyway.
And the same TA booked a coworker an hour’s train ride away from where the employee was conducting business daily. The employee nearly got fired bc the bosses thought he’d done it on purpose to stay in a nicer hotel. Thankfully he’d booked it all though the corporate TA and there was an email trail.
After those experiences I became his TA.
And if that CM was caught, they would be separated immediately. Bribery is not allowed.
Not to mention it’s unnecessary. Money doesn’t make a table appear. Money doesn’t make a server able to take another table.
It might work outside of Disney where they do reservations differently, but not at disney. So the poster is giving money away when the table was already available.
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