Vote & Give Your Opinions About ADR Policy

[JoePa4Ever]

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

I didn't think of this as an option!

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

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

 

[eliza61]

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.

That's pretty much us also. We don't plan much on our vacations, just not our style so they could cut it down to 60 days and it wouldn't bother me.
We're not the type that "has" to eat at a particular restuarant when we visit. None of them are that good that I would stress about it, if I didn't get an adr for it.

 

[JoePa4Ever]

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

This is a good & valid point which I agree with. Fortunately for us it was never an issue in the past when we made our adrs 180 days prior - guess we just got lucky because our adrs worked out with the park schedules & emh. But if the 180 day adr policy were back then I would like the schedules to be out then also.

 

[MinnieTink]

Either way...180 days or 90 days....is basically the same to me. We, the DIS lunatics, will be on the phone at 7 am either 180 or 90 days out.

 

[Wunderkind]

^^^ I'm generally OCD about planning vacations; however, I think in the interest of speaking on behalf of those who aren't, I do believe 3 months out is a lot more than non-OCD nutcases like us can handle. Asking someone to make an ADR 30-60 days out prior to reservations might seem a bit less crazy to the more impulsive type of vacation planners.

 

[FireDancer]

The other thing that is often lost on us in the forums is that we are very much in the minority of WDW guests. Just lurking on these boards probably puts you in the 1st or 2nd percentile as far as WDW planning goes. A lot of families that only go once or twice with their kids will not have the knowledge to book so far out. I think the shortening of the window was a way for Disney to strike a better balance between the kinds of guests that would come to this forum and the majority of them which just wing it.

When we went as kids in 1991 and 1995 we didnt' even think of making ADRs ahead of time, we would pick where we want to eat and walk up. We just didn't know any better at the time...boy have things changed!

 

[clc053103]

i agree with the PP who stated that the 180 days plan rewarded the early planners. Also in reference to the free dining coming out about 5 months ahead, thus after the 180 day mark- this would also reward those of us who were booking for that time frame without the perk of free dining. It annoys me that during free dining, people that would never spend a dime on Disney TS restaurants are now eating there and making ADR's difficult for everyone.

If they got rid of free dining and just discounted the room rates, I bet the ADR situation wouldn't be so bad.

 

[dvcdisney]

I really don't like the 90 day rule. It's 3 more months of waiting.

I also voted and preferred 180 days. As a DVC member, I plan far in advance. My resort is usually booked 11 months in advance. And I was always waiting (impatiently) for the 6 mth mark so that I can call for my adrs.

Although....if Disney decides to have the 270-360 days, I am definitely all for that!

 

[PatsMom]

I was glad when they went back to the 90 day ADR policy. I also book my DVC way in advance but don't like to do my meals until the park hours, parades, etc information is available. We have APs so hopping isn't the issue, it is the time spent changing parks that we don't like.

 

[Nom]

I would like to see a return to same day ADRs, like it was when EPCOT opened.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I liked the old policy where if you were a Disney Resort Guest you could make your reservations 60 days out and if you were not you could reserve 30 days out.

But also I would like to see the ADRs made more than 30 days out tied to the reservation and if the reservation were canceled all the linked ADRs would be canceled.

 

[Uncleromulus]

I liked the old 180 days. Our Disney vacations these days are planned mostly around where we want to eat, so we were always ready to go at the 180 day mark.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

90 days worked fine for us. Since we're DVC, we have to do some serious advance planning anyway, but that 90 day threshold wasn't an issue at all this time, and I've even made a couple of changes in the last week, a month out. We got everything we wanted.

I know plenty of folks just simply want to be spontaneous, and that's perfectly fine. It just seems reasonable to make a handful of ADRs whether you think you'll use them or not, and cancel them as a courtesy if you don't end up using them. Best of both approaches, methinks.

Maybe pure dumb blind luck plays into all this. Dunno.

 

[java]

Personally I liked when you had to be IN EPCOT to make your reservation for THAT DAY. At the little video monitors- they were so cool to me. But for now the 90 days works fine for me. I can't plan meals without park schedules and they don't release that unitl 90 days out.

I don't know what I'm having for dinner tonite- let alone 180 days from now.

 

[Mary T in PA]

I prefer the 90 day policy. I was able to see what the park schedules were and then got an idea of what ADRs I wanted. I did NOT call at 7am on the first day I was able to - I called mid afternoon, got right thru and got everything I wanted including CRT.

I figure I will get comfortable with it and then it will change again,


Mary

 

[DaveStroem]

My thought would be to have them at 60 days so that you can see the calendar to plan your days first then match your ADRs to your park days. If you go at the beginning of the month, there are times that you don't know what days are EMH when you need to book your ADRs.

Our last trip didn't matter as we had most meals at EP and we had hoppers. This next trip we are not planning on hopping and plan on avoiding EMHs. At this point we are planning each park day, and then will decide on what day of the week that day will get plugged into.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

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.

I agree with all of this. The 180 policy was a big disadvantage to FL residents who are either local or visit often. For us, WDW/USO are convenient locations for long weekends, just like others visit tourist destinations near their home. Most people don't plan their weekend getaways 6 months in advance. Similar to Colleen, we would find somewhere else to go, if we couldn't book any of the restaurants we were interested in. In our, & many FL residents case, WDW has a lot of competition for the $$$ spent on multiple getaways each year. I think the 90 day window is more fair to everyone, & wouldn't complain if it were less.

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.

I agree with this too. We don't visit any destination (WDW or elsewhere) w/o making reservations in advance. IMHO, no restaurant is worth standing in line 2 hrs. for. If we couldn't make ADRs on property, we'd find somewhere that we could.

 

[PinkPrincess4Ever]

180 for sure for us who love to plan ahead! HATE THE 90 DAY for adr's ughhhh oh and it is just going to be peachy for free dining this year oh man dreading june 6th

 

[Colleen27]

My thought would be to have them at 60 days so that you can see the calendar to plan your days first then match your ADRs to your park days. If you go at the beginning of the month, there are times that you don't know what days are EMH when you need to book your ADRs.

That would be nice, wouldn't it. Our next trip starts in Sept but stretches into Oct, so we'll have the hours and EMH schedule for half our trip to plan from. The other half will be guessing.