thanks so much for the response. I do think, however, that adr cancellations are higher then what has been posted by the DIS.
It does keep me hopeful that we will fulfill our ADR's...or some of them!
There has to be some of you out there that found that ADR;s aren't for u...Please post them too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure you are right that overall more are probably cancelled than what has been reflected in this thread. I remember for our 2006 trip that I tried to really think through things way in advance and plan plan plan how the vacation should go day by day for all of us to enjoy it. (I'm not necessarily much of a planner in other aspects of life. lol)
It turned out that for us, having a table service meal everyday was a great thing. It fit into our vacation beautifully and helped us be a little less commando in our touring style in spite of knowing we were not likely to get to go back anytime soon and my having not been for several years before that. I had booked us 8 days at "the world". We stayed on site and did the dining plan. We did not necessarily go back to our resort to swim and nap in the middle of the day, but our table service meals really felt like a great break from the sun and the crowds and the noise outside.
Partly this happened in the way it did because my son who is now 20 was 15 at the time and he has aspergers syndrome. Through our experiences with him we have also become aware of things people who have never had to deal with autism might not readily realize about themselves or their kids. Things like we all get overstimulated at times, even if not as often as an autistic person might, even if our reaction to it is better or more controlled. We all have sensory "issues" to a certain extent, even if they are not as severe as those that autistic people have to cope with. So in planning that trip partly around my sons needs and partly around my own...lol... I had extensively researched which restaurants were the loudest and and which ones were relatively quiet for a theme park restaurant and even where all the in-between ones fell along the spectrum according to other mom's with special needs children. Which restaurants were too crowded by standards of seating and table placement. And every other little thing that any special needs mom might have said about every restaurant as well as every little quiet out-of-the-way nook and cranny in the parks that a person might need.
So we mostly avoided the worst of crowds and noise in the restaurants and we planned at least one nice long sit-down in a relatively peaceful environment every day.
I highly recommend Passporters special needs book. I also highly recommend that people either plan the same type sit-downs I planned or plan to go back to their resort every day in the middle of the day as many posters here tend to recommend. Getting overstimulated at Disney is not such a hard thing to accomplish but planning to avoid it is totally do-able.
for your first trip, cut yourself some slack if you find that your own personal touring style that you can enjoy the most is a little more laid back or a little less laid back than what you planned. You'll get right the next time. Go for the middle of the road this first time and if you have to do a bit of adjusting it won't be the end of the world.
So no meal with Tigger, and no pool slide for my niece.
