Under 100 Days - A Vent About WDW

[lugnut33]

Let's have some real talk here, some of you are just overplanning. If you need to, don't eat at the parks!! Can't you eat at any of the monorail restaurants when planning on touring at the MK or EPCOT Center? How about any of the Boardwalk restaurants when touring Epcot or DHS? Eat at Boma if you're going to AK. Take a taxi and eat off site.

We are heading down for a DVC right at the start of free dining and we are NOT eating any of our meals inside WDW, except for one dinner at DTD and a few lunches at the Earl of Sandwich. I didn't have to make any ressies, I didn't have the stress of calling in at 7am right at 90 days and hoping I get my ressies, and I'll pay less for my meals.

What about leaving the parks? No big deal for us, we were leaving during the afternoon anyways.

If you don't like what Disney is doing, take the stress out of and make an alternate plan like we did.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Well, it's official. I am under 100 days until my next trip. Since my first trip in the early 90s, I have gone to WDW over 20 times. I am a DVC member and an Annual Passholder. I also belong to D23 and spend a lot of my spare money on Disney collectibles like Precious Moments figurines, paintings, jewelry, etc. I'm constantly online looking for news about the parks.

But I am very frustrated.

I have been waiting for November's park hours to come out for a very long time. I am absolutely 100% aggravated about this 90 day ADR policy and the fact that the EMH schedule/park hours are not being released like they used to be. How am I supposed to plan dining reservations without this information? I am one of those people who uses the EMH schedule religiously because we typically go to Disney during the peak seasons (November isn't peak, I realize this...it's a new strategy I'm using to get time off of work...aka Jersey Week). How can I pick a restaurant if I do not know what park I am going to? How do I know what park I am going to without knowing the EMH schedule?

I am thoroughly annoyed about this situation. I make my ADRs on Wednesday and they still are not up today. I really find this inexcusable. I'm tired of it. Why was this change made? I keep hearing rumblings that things are going to go back 180 days and I sure hope they do. Even more so, I hope Disney gets its act together and releases park hours like they used to.

I'm done now.

While I sympathetic and agree with you that it is ridiculous as well as hope they go back to 180 day ADRs, I'm not sure how that would solve your problem since I doubt they will put out the EMHs before 180 days.. unless you just want 180 because less people book ADRs then.

Just curious.... but I do hope they bring it back.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Sorry about this Nikki but how about packing a lunch?

-smack-

Much more worrying than the parks hours not being up at 90 days is that Disney keeps changing them after they post them. We arrive in 13 days and Disney is still changing the park hours. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. Add a Specto here, take a Spectro away there. They've added late Fantasmic shows but the park hours don't match. I've resigned myself that we'll have to check again when we get there. Not that we'll be able to do much about our ADRs with free dining on although as Kevin and John have shown you never know.

When I went to WDW in April this happened. I think that they are trying to save money by changing park hours up until the very last minute. We were at MK one night and it was scheduled to only have one showing of SpectroMagic. However, an announcement was made right after the first showing that there would be a second due to high park attendance. For us, this was great, but it is very frustrating not knowing when the parks are closing because it keeps changing.

I don't think it would be any better for park hours if you had the 180 day ADRs. I think the park hours should come out soon.

But do the EMH days change from month to month? I never really investigated. If you check September and October, that might be a good indicator for November. At least that should give you a guideline.

I actually don't tour the parks based on park hours anymore, so I never really gave it much thought. I tend to book the ADRs first and then match the park to the ADR (if applicable). Most of my dining tends to be at resorts, anyway.

I am really surprised you're still in "Commando Tourist" mode being an AP holder and DVC member. My attitude/touring style totally changed once I started getting annual passes and joined DVC. To each his/her own.

EMH does change from month to month at least in some cases. While EMH p.m. for Epcot used to be on Friday nights, it is on a different night in September and October (and more than likely in November).

I never said I am still in the "commando tourist" mode. However, I can't possibly make a dining reservation unless I know where on property I'll be that day. This includes for those restaurants at the resorts. I refuse to add to my travel time by booking something that is far away from where I am. Because we usually go during the busiest times of the year and take advantage of p.m. EMHs, we plan according to that. If I am going to be at MK for EMH, I want to eat at a restaurant either there or on the monorail loop. It just makes sense and cuts down on unnecessary travel time.

Let's have some real talk here, some of you are just overplanning. If you need to, don't eat at the parks!! Can't you eat at any of the monorail restaurants when planning on touring at the MK or EPCOT Center? How about any of the Boardwalk restaurants when touring Epcot or DHS? Eat at Boma if you're going to AK. Take a taxi and eat off site.

We are heading down for a DVC right at the start of free dining and we are NOT eating any of our meals inside WDW, except for one dinner at DTD and a few lunches at the Earl of Sandwich. I didn't have to make any ressies, I didn't have the stress of calling in at 7am right at 90 days and hoping I get my ressies, and I'll pay less for my meals.

What about leaving the parks? No big deal for us, we were leaving during the afternoon anyways.

If you don't like what Disney is doing, take the stress out of and make an alternate plan like we did.

I don't only eat at the parks. Much of my dining is at the resorts. How will I know I can eat near MK or Epcot when I don't know when EMH is? How can I go to Boma when I don't know what day I'm going to AK? That's the entire point of this thread. It is ridiculous to not have the appropriate information to make plans.

We prefer not to rent a car and like eating on property. It just fits with how we vacation while at the World and we really enjoy the restaurants there. I'm not going to change my plans because Disney can't get its act together and post hours. lol.

While I sympathetic and agree with you that it is ridiculous as well as hope they go back to 180 day ADRs, I'm not sure how that would solve your problem since I doubt they will put out the EMHs before 180 days.. unless you just want 180 because less people book ADRs then.

Just curious.... but I do hope they bring it back.

I liked the 180 days out, but agree that having that policy back in effect may not cause them to get park hours out on time. The bottom line is that they need to release park hours and the EMH schedule at least 2-3 weeks before an ADR date. This will give everyone enough time to plan accordingly.

 

[lugnut33]

You know, going in November you probably won't have any problems with ressies even 60 days before.

Oh, and just so you know how fluid the schedule is, we are going in 9 days and they cut 2 hours off the AK hours and added in some hours at DHS as well as some Fantasmic shows.

It's crazy, but I wouldn't stress over it.

Just take your best guess as to which park you think you might be in and make some ressies. If it works great, if not change them as the schedules change.

 

[jpeka65844]

NikkiBell, are you splitting your stay? An alternative to planning according to EMH's is planning the parks according to your hotel. For instance, if we stay at BWV, we concentrate on Epcot and DHS, which are bound to have some EMH in the time we're there. If we stay at VWL, we concentrate on MK and monorail restaurants.

Now, AKL is always the hard one b/c it's a little further out but it's not our #1 park to begin with so we can always squeeze it in from wherever we're staying......

Just an idea.....

 

[disneytink29]

Welcome to the boards. Sorry it was this thread that drew you in and that you are having such a headache with it all.

Thanks!! I've been a lurker for a while, but I felt like I had to say something about this!

 

[CAJUNWDWFAN]

It's not official yet but I found this on another thread.

http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S.../pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_Nov.pdf

 

[BriarRosie]

I never said I am still in the "commando tourist" mode. However, I can't possibly make a dining reservation unless I know where on property I'll be that day. This includes for those restaurants at the resorts. I refuse to add to my travel time by booking something that is far away from where I am. Because we usually go during the busiest times of the year and take advantage of p.m. EMHs, we plan according to that. If I am going to be at MK for EMH, I want to eat at a restaurant either there or on the monorail loop. It just makes sense and cuts down on unnecessary travel time.

Ok, I guess this makes better sense to me now. I don't take advantage of EMH days or nights. I don't mind the travel time, because I tend to change clothes before dinner anyway.

It's not official yet but I found this on another thread.

http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S.../pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_Nov.pdf

Nikki's gonna want to give you a big ol' hug if this is accurate, Todd.

 

[LilGMom]

I feel your pain. We always plan at least one WDW TS meal a day and I plan based on park hours/EMH/Hard-ticket events. Have been doing this pretty much every since the DDP went into effect. We have certain restaurants that we like to eat at during each trip and some we like to try out. We do occaisionally eat off property but prefer to stay on property as much as possible. I can eat at Chili's or Fridays any day of the week, can't eat at Mama Melrose's whenever I want. When we go down in December we are taking another family with us and this will be their first trip so we want to make sure we have at least one meal planned per day and we are going to coordinate those meals with where they'd like to eat as well.

I have no problem with WDW having the ADRs be 90 days out but I feel that if they are going to do that than they should have their park hours set at least 120 days out with little or no moving of those hours once they are posted. Come on December hours!!!!

 

[*NikkiBell*]

The park hours came out today (travel agent's site). I had to change absolutely everything I spent two hours figuring out on Saturday. Thanks again, Disney.

 

[LilGMom]

The park hours came out today (travel agent's site). I had to change absolutely everything I spent two hours figuring out on Saturday. Thanks again, Disney.

Don't supposed you found the park hours for the first half of December anywhere?!?!?! Our Disney newbie friends are coming over this weekend for us to talk about ADRs.

 

[exwdwcm]

The park hours came out today (travel agent's site). I had to change absolutely everything I spent two hours figuring out on Saturday. Thanks again, Disney.

yuck, sorry to hear that Nikki. i fear I will be doing the same when Dec hours are released.

LilGMom- i don't expect to see Dec until 9/1, or if like Nov hours, maybe 9/5! Until then, my family and I are just firming up which restaurants we want and planning based on historical Dec hours. I know we will have to change everything I am sure. A lot of our dining options are at resorts, but we still like to have the hours to really plan our day and know which resort area we will be near that morning or night like Nikki said. I know so far we plan on Chef MIckey's dinner, Sci Fi lunch, Coral Reef lunch, Crystal Palace breakfast, Norway breakfast, Le Cellier dinner (probably our hardest one to get), Whispering Canyon, O'hana, Hoop Dee Doo, 50s Prime Time and San Angel Inn (not my choice Kevin!!!! lol)