Vote & Give Your Opinions About ADR Policy

[JoePa4Ever]

I have seen various opinions expressed about adrs & just wanted to get a consensus on what everyone thought. Personally, we're ocd planners, so we prefer the old 180 day adr policy.

 

[dancin Disney style]

180 VS 90....basically it's the same to me. I still need to figure out months in advance.

I've been hearing that it now can take 30 minutes or more on the phone to book about a weeks worth of ADRs. I don't recall it taking that much time before.

Hurry up online ADRs.

 

[BriarRosie]

It's basically the same policy, but they shortened the time span. Everyone has the same opportunity to get ADRs on their first available booking date.

A lot of people who had the opportunity to book at 180 days hated it because they didn't know where they wanted to eat in 6 months. People are still griping for the same reason at 3 months. Others thought the opposite.

It's just one of those "you can't please everyone" things.

 

[MariDisney]

I remember the OLD 90 day policy. The 180 day is within the past 3 years or so. Before that, Priority Seating was 90 days out with 180 for some of the shows, I think. If you don't like the 90, hang around because Disney will change it again eventually.

 

[FireDancer]

My preference would be to allow guests to do online ADRs. There will be growing pains at first and of course Disney doesn't have the best I.T. track record but it would be great. You could jump on your web-enabled mobile phone and check availability at restaurants for walk up.

This would give the OCD planners the ability to reserve their own ADR's in advance while also making it easier for the people who want to eat when they are hungry and not plan everything months out.

 

[Toluca Legs TurkeyCo]

I agree with 180...

a) I can't wait to make my ADR's
b) It gives an advantage to more prudent planners since it is less likely that other people will be making their ADR's (or have their trips booked) that far out

I'm sure some people will dislike my second point since they don't want to be disadvantaged by their lack of the opportunity to plan a vacation that far out, and it's a very valid concern...On the other hand I think it rewards those people who go to WDW every single year (or at least every year that they can afford too) becuase those people are more likely to be thinking and planning their trip far in advance (like before they even leave disney or earlier)

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Well I love planning and I have had my ADRs pretty set for a while so I'd prefer the 270 or 360 day mark...

 

[peyjax]

Personally I thought the 180 was ridiculous. It is for the ocd planner. (not meant to offend) I would think that most people do not plan a vacation that far out and if they do most I would think are not ready to plan each day of thier vacation over six months ahead of time. JMHO

Our family would think about where we would want to go next year and save for it, but booking and planning every detail out is a different story.

 

[Colleen27]

We frequently don't plan our travel far enough in advance for the 180 day rule, so I much prefer the 90 day window. 60 would be even better, but 90 is fine.

 

[TillyMarigold]

I think that if Disney is going to keep making offers available in the same timeframe as now, no more than 90 days makes sense. They opened free dining to the public less than 5 months before it started—if they still had 180 day ADRs, people who booked free dining might have called as soon as they finished booking the trip, and found that every restaurant was already full! This way you have to book first and try to get your reservations later when you reach the 90 day mark.

I agree that I would love an online ADR system that would let you see what restaurants are available for a given date/time anytime—even the day of. Especially if there were kiosks in the park where you could make reservations (like there used to be, but with the online system instead of just a videoconference to the central dining line).

I wouldn't mind the timeframe being shorter, although if it was less than 30 days, that would get chaotic for people who are taking really long vacations.

Honestly if every restaurant is going to be full that far out, what Disney really needs is more restaurants!

 

[JoePa4Ever]

Well I love planning and I have had my ADRs pretty set for a while so I'd prefer the 270 or 360 day mark...

I remember your posts from the "Calling All Sept Disers" thread - you are the planner of all planners - perhaps I should have added another option for you like beyond 360 days

 

[DisneyBunny15]

I just love to plan Disney vacas! So not being able to have an exact plan 6 mos out is hard!

 

[Colleen27]

I'm sure some people will dislike my second point since they don't want to be disadvantaged by their lack of the opportunity to plan a vacation that far out, and it's a very valid concern...On the other hand I think it rewards those people who go to WDW every single year (or at least every year that they can afford too) becuase those people are more likely to be thinking and planning their trip far in advance (like before they even leave disney or earlier)

I think there are probably plenty of repeat visitors who don't plan that far in advance. We go just about every year, but we usually don't know when until a few months in advance. If we're traveling in Dec or Jan, we can book 6+ months in advance, but fall and spring trips depend on DH's workload and we don't generally know that far ahead of time. And for us, dining is a big enough part of our vacation experience that we'd postpone a trip rather than settle for eating mostly CS because there are few/no ADRs available.

More importantly from Disney's perspective, though, the 180 day window puts those who are lured in by special offers at a disadvantage, which makes the promotions less appealing for new bookings (as opposed to those who book and then apply the code later) and less likely to create new Disney addicts. Free dining is an excellent example of this - with the 180 window, in the know planners booked their ADRs months before Disney even announced the free dining promotion, leaving those who booked a trip after seeing the advertisements to find that they are completely shut out of Chef Mickey's, CRT, and other highly desirable dining spots.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I liked the old 180-day rule. It worked for us last year. Our next trip is still 15 months away and I am already seriously looking at restaurants and all the possibilities! We went for 5 nights last July but on the next trip we will be there for 10 nights, so twice the ADRs!

Most people are not excessive planners like me, so prefer the 90-day mark or even less time than that if they could. At least that is my opinion. But I am one of those OCD planners! And food is VERY important to me on vacation so it is always the first thing I look at no matter where we go! Still, I don't have a huge problem with the 90-day mark, except that I think more people would call at the 90-day mark than the amount who used to call at the 180-day mark because plenty of people book their trips less than 6 months before they go. I book mine a year in advance, or at least know where we are going! That is one of the reasons the DVC was for us...booking 11 months before we go is just our style!

Some others prefer not to make ADRs at all and hate the Disney ADR system. There are very few TS restaurants that do not take ADRs, so it is hard to accommodate these people. Like an above poster said, you can't please everyone all of the time. And it goes beyond dining...I know plenty of people who don't care for too many of the attractions at WDW because they don't have enough thrill rides and they will spend their day riding Tower of terror over and over again!

 

[1hero2princesses]

Well I think a lot of people on here like 180 because obviously if you are spending a lot of time on here you are very interested in your vacation and want to be prepared. I am not in any way ocd or a big planner, expect when it comes to vacation. I have to admit that 180 days was a nice advantage to get ADR's before a lot of people had planned their trips. I am expecting a rough ADR experience this year (doing free dining) and I fully expect to either not get what I want or have to keep calling back. I think you have to have adr's because I would hate to have to wait 2 hours for a table everytime I wanted to eat at a sit down restaurant. Last year we were not able to get LeCellier (lunch or dinner) or CRT Breakfast (although I did get a lunch). I called at open on my 180 day. Got through right away, just couldn't get a table for 5. Hopefully this year I will be more, not less, successful.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I loved the 180 ADRs.

We own DVC and book our villa 11 months out. It would be FINE with me to book ADRs at 11 months out.

90 days makes it WAY too competitive. Most of the slackers are catching up by the 90 day mark, so now there are up to twice as many people all calling at the same time for the limited number of ADRs.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I like the new 90 policy. It was too hard to sit down with my family 6 months prior to vacation and try to decided when and where we wanted to eat. I think at 3 months out my family will be in more of vacation and excitement mode and more willing to sit and help me decided on ADR's.

 

[jimmalru80]

I have no problem with the ADR's system, past or present.

 

[Disnsyncey]

Since we're from FL, AP holders, and take 1-3 trips per year, we don't have to make big plans way far in advance (flights, saving up for crazy amounts of MYW day tickets).....we usually make resort reservations about 45-60 days out.......for this May's trip, we made our resort reservation for Pop at the end of March (yesterday we just added a day!)....we got plenty of good ADRs, but we didn't have a chance at the high demand ADRs....

but not everybody plans like us, so we'll just make do with whatever Disney gives us.....

 

[kevgraub]

I would have no problem with the 180 day policy - if Disney were to announce the park hours and schedules that far out.

We are not big park hoppers and plan on only visiting one park a day (its just not worth the extra money to us to get to see more than one park a day, and we will probably only make this trip once every 5 years or so, and park hopping takes quite a bit of time). We want to use EMH's as much as possible and want to be sure to catch things like Fantasmic, Spectromagic and Wishes. I like the fact that I will have at least a few days to try and match up my ADR requests with parks that we want to visit on certain days.

I'd be pretty disappointed if I snagged a CRT breakfast for my daughter 180 days out, only to find out 90 days out that our only chance to see Fantasmic was that same night and our choices are to either miss one of those or pay $50 per person to do both.

I'm really fine with whatever the policy is - 90/180/whatever as long as they announce the park hours at least a few days prior to the ADR window opening.