What if Disney went to a no-ADR policy?

[mamacatnv]

Just a thought:

Like so many restaurants have done, seating is on a first come first serve basis. Personally IMHO I think ADR's 90-180 days out is silly. I live in a tourist town and you can't make a reservation for restaurants, you show up, get your beeper thingy and hang out with everyone else who decided to eat at a particular establishment on this day at this time.

Given the fact that Disney could estimate their guest load on historical as well as current resort guest predicitons they should be able to have the restaurants staffed as needed.

I just don't understand the craziness of this ADR system.

 

[ep4244]

I don't know about no-ADR, I think that would cause even more problems at the restuarants. Maybe a system that leaves a few tables free for walk ups at varying times during the day

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I live in a tourist town as well and they do not take reservations unless it is a party of 6 or more.. Sometimes during the summer season, you cannot eat out unless you get there early and wait.

 

[mill4023]

How would you feel if you walked all the way out of MK, took the boat over to Whispering Canyon or Artist Point and were told it would be a 2 hour wait for a table?
What if you had hungry children who were going to have a meltdown if they didn't eat soon?
What if you arrived at 7pm and you were planning to be back to see Wishes at 9pm?

As hard as it is to plan meals 90 or 180 days ahead of time, I think the ADR system is far better than the alternative. I'm willing to deal with the hassle of ADR's to know that we are guaranteed a table at a popular restaurant without having to wait long.

 

[Markstudy]

I just don't understand the craziness of this ADR system.

Change the word "craziness" to "Magic" and you see why Disney is unique.

I'm very happy that I have House-of-Blues at 8:00 on my Birthday... and don't have to worry about a 3 hour wait on a Saturday night durring a holiday weekend.

I now have 90 days to relax, and not worry about getting the table, time and resturant I want on certain nights. Very Nice!

 

[3princesses4us]

I agree. The ADR system rewards those that plan ahead- as it should be.

 

[tmt martins]

Plus Disney wants you enjoying Disney not standing outside waiting to eat but standing outside waiting to ride and exit into a store.

 

[hubby_of_newtodisney]

...but you must be kidding!!! I am a golf professional and I sell time on my course in the same way that a restaurant sells time at its tables. If I could report to my boss that I was going to book all of the available tee times at my course 6 months ahead of time (and I did it) he would think me to be a genius.

As a consumer, I positively refuse to go to restaurants that don't : at least take "call aheads". My time is far too valuable to be spent in the waiting area; I could be raising havoc somewhere!!!

When I am at Disney, I truly seek to carpe funum!!! Every minute spent in a waiting area is a minute when I am not doing something more fun. With your thinking, perhaps fast pass should be eliminated as well when it is busy? I would rather be: swimming, or riding rock & roller coaster, or (which I tend not to do in extremely crowded lobbies with a 2 hour wait staring me in the face) or .... need I continue?

Also, think about arriving at a restaurant with tired kids at 5 PM or 6 PM who won't get fed. Worse than that, imagine that the lobby has 40 or 50 tired, hungry, impatient children who DONT BELONG TO YOU!!

Reservations, fast pass, golf tee times...god bless america!

 

[raidermatt]

Yeah, sorry mamacatnv, but I have to go with the crowd on this one. Maybe 180 days is a bit much, but without some kind of reservation system, there's no way we would eat at a lot of the sit down restaurants. It would be a huge negative to us to constantly have to choose between waiting an hour or more for a table or skipping restaurant we really want to eat at.

From Disney's pov, yes, there's the point that they prefer you buy things, not wait in lines (hence, the intent behind Fastpass...).

Plus, I think handing out those beeper things would be an unmitigated disaster. If I'm at the Outback at the mall, I'm not going to venture too far, and likely won't have a problem dropping what I do when the beeper goes off. If I'm in MK, on the other hand, I'm not going to sit in a waiting room for an hour or more. And if I'm in line for Space Mountain, or decided to stop and watch a parade, I'd be far more likely to just say forget it. And while I would at least return the beeper later, I'm not so sure a lot of other people would.

While the ADR system does have its drawbacks, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives.

 

[sunkissed212]

My family went to WDW every year for the first 17 years of my life and all the way through 1995, we never made reservations for any of the "casual" type restaurants. Dinner shows (HDDR, Luau, etc) yes but the other restaurants didn't have ADR system at that time and things seemed to work out just fine!!

I'm still a bit confused by the whole thing. How do I know, 180 days in advance when and where I want to eat on a specific day. I like to relax and "just do it" on my vacations...too much planning ahead and structure stresses me out.

 

[patsal]

Well, while I don't usually plan to the minute detail at 180 days out, I know for certain if they went to a first come first served, wait for 2 hours seating I wouldmost definately not eat onsite. Park admission is far too much and my vacation time too precious to stand around and wait for two hours.

 

[k&a&c'smom]

sunkissed212 - we used to be able to go without worrying too much about AR's, too. I made a few, but would change them on the fly, or book in the morning for dinner that evening. Not so any more, the last couple of years the sit-down restaurants have been steadily gaining popularity. This past July, we made some AR's, but left a few days open. Unfortunately, we found that if we didn't have an AR, pretty much everything was full at dinner for the park we were in, and we ended up doing CS.

We were able to grab something last-minute for lunch, but we had to be flexible. For instance, we tried SciFi, nothing open, asked the cm to check the other MGM restaurants and got into '50's PT.

It's hard to choose so far in advance, but we at least make one AR per day, then adjust as our vacation approaches.

Oh, and with all it's flaws, I much prefer the AR system than no system at all!!

 

[Peter Pirate]

The degree to which this has escalated is ridiculous and I don't feel that just because someone is so anal that they know where they're going to want to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner 180 days out should warrant reward. Does spontenaity count for nothing?

Neither does this relate to the traffic on a golf course. Golfers know tee times are required and the game will take half the day. Theme Park goers are not held hostage by 18 holes nor should they be left hungry by vacation planning zombies pretending to be enjoying life.

I think ADR's should be cut to 30 days maximum and only a percentage of the restaurants should be included. I think On site resort guests should get first crack followed by AP/DDE members and the general public after that. Further, I think a table reserved in the name of Peter Pirate should be permenently on file at all restaurants of my choosing. Then I'd have no complaints.

 

[dcgrumpy]

Personally I like the old system, same day reservation except resort guests could make them up to 3 days in advance. I hate planning my meals so far in advance, but that's JMHO.

 

[StephSalyer]

I think Disney is pure Genius on this one.............ever heard of supply and demand? You know, Cabbage Patch dolls, laughing Elmo's etc??? The more hype and the less likely we think are to not get something, the more we want it. I don't think the restaurants at Disney have ever had the crowds like they do now. Whoever came up with the free dining was a marketing genius. It seems the restaurant craze all started there......JMO The dining plan has been around for years and has never been this popular, they just finally figured out how to market it and we all bought into it.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Steph, I don't think we all bought into it but what an interesting point you bring to the table. We (generally) speaking are a bunch of lemmings and disneyphiles even more than the average. It WAS pure marketing genius to create a demand when there wasn't one before and watch the treasured guests scratch and claw to spend even more of their vacation dollar...

 

[StephSalyer]

I must clarify - I myself have never purchased the Dining Package and didn't mean to imply that we all had. However, I found myself mysteriously (or should I say "Magically") calling Disney Dining over and over trying to book TS meals that I have never been interested in booking before because of all the recent hype. What I meant to say was we had all bought into the need to get all of these ADR's when we never thought about having them before.

Oh and thanks for thinking I brought an interesting point to the table.

 

[hubby_of_newtodisney]

Neither does this relate to the traffic on a golf course. Golfers know tee times are required and the game will take half the day. Ha!!!! If you only knew how many angry golfers are sent on their way on a booked solid Saturday morning because they thought that they should live impulsively and only geeks make tee times! Theme Park goers are not held hostage by 18 holes nor should they be left hungry by vacation planning zombies pretending to be enjoying life. Don't confuse the restaurants with the theme parks. You don't have to pay 180 days ahead to enjoy the parks or a turkey leg or any counter service.

Sidebar - I do think that 180 days ahead is too much, even for my "Julie McCoy" planning maniac wife. With that said, she is making reservations for dinners for our upcoming trip only 15-20 days ahead of time without any problems.

I think ADR's should be cut to 30 days maximum and only a percentage of the restaurants should be included. I think On site resort guests should get first crack followed by AP/DDE members and the general public after that. Further, I think a table reserved in the name of Peter Pirate should be permenently on file at all restaurants of my choosing. And PGA Members, too!!! Then I'd have no complaints.
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[jann1033]

Plus Disney wants you enjoying Disney not standing outside waiting to eat but standing outside waiting to ride and exit into a store.

so true

 

[jann1033]

I think Disney is pure Genius on this one.............ever heard of supply and demand? You know, Cabbage Patch dolls, laughing Elmo's etc??? The more hype and the less likely we think are to not get something, the more we want it. I don't think the restaurants at Disney have ever had the crowds like they do now. Whoever came up with the free dining was a marketing genius. It seems the restaurant craze all started there......JMO The dining plan has been around for years and has never been this popular, they just finally figured out how to market it and we all bought into it.

never before have so many paid so much to eat so so food...just like the old crt morning brawl