What's all the fuss?

[edcrfv]

Just got back from WDW on Sat. and don't understand the big deal of making reservations. Did not make one and never had a problem getting into a restaurant for dinner. Each night was also a different size party(2 to 7), never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Also these waits were fabricated by each place to make them look busier then they actually were. I would say that most restaurants were at minimum 30% empty, tables open everywhere as we looked in to each place.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Just got back from WDW on Sat. and don't understand the big deal of making reservations. Did not make one and never had a problem getting into a restaurant for dinner. Each night was also a different size party(2 to 7), never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Also these waits were fabricated by each place to make them look busier then they actually were. I would say that most restaurants were at minimum 30% empty, tables open everywhere as we looked in to each place.

I also never had a problem getting into a restaurant without a ressie. But of course its just my son and I. Some of the restaurants we've gotten into without a ressie include: Rose & Crown, Raglan Road, Teppan Edo, and Tony's.
Im curious, which restaurants were you able to get into??? Any of them character meals? Those are the tough ones.

 

[RMulieri]

You are fortunate.Everytime I have gone they are turning people away left and right.I go often during Free Dining times so I would NEVER not make ressies.You simply can not count on that happening all the time ,and I would rather not spend my evenings looking for a place that will take us .Especially with a cranky 7 yr old and husband in tow.Going solo I am willing to go without ressies.

 

[Rychelle924]

this is my 1st big trip and ive been told if you want certain places and on certain days you shoud make them.. if you are a play by ear person and are open to lots of options then you shouldnt usually have a problem.. but i know for us, i started making my ADRs 178 days before and there were 2 places that were already fully booked the entire week that we really wanted to go to.

 

[DEA]

Just got back from WDW on Sat. and don't understand the big deal of making reservations. Did not make one and never had a problem getting into a restaurant for dinner. Each night was also a different size party(2 to 7), never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Also these waits were fabricated by each place to make them look busier then they actually were. I would say that most restaurants were at minimum 30% empty, tables open everywhere as we looked in to each place.

I can only try to explain for myself and my family, but for us, it comes down to making sure that we can eat certain places without the uncertainty of a (possibly) long wait with small children. There are absolutely times and places where walking up works out, including that time we messed up and showed up for our CRT dinner reservation the day AFTER we had the reservation. That was mostly out of pity on their part. For the normal course of business, though, we like to know that we can do our traditional Princess Breakfast in Norway before the park opens (so, an ADR is necessary to get in the gate), to make sure that we can get a good seat to HDDR, and to make sure that we can have a date night at a signature restaurant which adds scheduling a babysitter into the mix (two hour waits become expensive if you've got somebody on the clock).

So, for me, it's reduction of uncertainty that helps the rest of the trip flow smoothly. After almost seeing fistfights at the 'Ohana check-in desk, I am glad that we did not travel over there without an ADR.

 

[JimmyV]

Just got back from WDW on Sat. and don't understand the big deal of making reservations. Did not make one and never had a problem getting into a restaurant for dinner.

There is a big difference between "a restaurant" and "the restaurant". The "big fuss" is about getting a table at the specific restaurant of choice on a specific date at, or close to, a specific time. Your post would be more informative if you let us know where you went. If you walked right in to Le Cellier, California Grill, Ohana, Chef Mickey's and CRT without a reservation, and with less than a 10 minute wait, then we have a "man bites dog" story on our hands. But if you walked into Marrakesh, Maya Grill, The Wave or The Grand Floridian Cafe, then we have a "dog bites man" story.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We were there May 19-26 and had no trouble getting into TS breakfast, lunch or dinner...even scored a last minute to Cali Grill!

The one place we could not get into was Teppan Edo.

I think it depends on what time of the year you go, how many people in your party, which restaurant and what time of the day.

Now in Oct I am not taking the chance...I know where I want to eat and I made sure to book them right away

 

[xipetotec]

Just got back from WDW on Sat. and don't understand the big deal of making reservations. Did not make one and never had a problem getting into a restaurant for dinner. Each night was also a different size party(2 to 7), never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Also these waits were fabricated by each place to make them look busier then they actually were. I would say that most restaurants were at minimum 30% empty, tables open everywhere as we looked in to each place.

Well I can tell you that one year DW and I were ALONE without the kids. And the two of us had some trouble. Of course it depended on the restaurants. Some are more open than others.

It does remind me of a great disney service story though. We showed up at Crystal Palace. DW didn't want to eat "fast food" again, at first they turned us away cause we didn't have ADRs. So we were sitting outside trying to figure out where we wanted to try next. And the hostess walked out, approached us and said "You guys wanna eat tonight?" and led us to a free table.

 

[photo_chick]

I can see it being easier to walk up when free dining is not offered.

Someone said ADR's mean you don't have to wait. Not true. We had a lengthy wait a couple of times last year. Once it was almost an hour. But every place we ate was also packed and it was during free dining. I saw the scenario many describe with the irate family trying to get a table when they just walk up while we were waiting.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

I agree with pp's that it tends to be a situational thing...we managed to grab a walk up to Crystal Palace on our last day..we really wanted to get in from the rain and sit and eat and meet a couple more characters before we left. But, I think it was partially because of the rain that we got in...the park was DEAD..until the rain stopped, and then it was PACKED...so I figure lots of people were no shows and that gave us a chance.
I would NEVER allow my whole vacation to be on the whim for dining..I can't imagine wandering around trying to find the right place that would take us...

 

[TDC Nala]

I generally don't make reservations at WDW because I don't have a real preference as to where I eat or when. You can generally find something. But if you do have such a preference as to where and when you eat (which is the case with most planners and this board draws a lot of those who prefer to plan in advance), or if you are traveling with a large group, or if you want to be sure to do something like get a sit-down meal inside MK which has only five TS restaurants, it is best to make a reservation.

ADR's don't mean "no wait." They are technically not "reservations." They are not holding a table open waiting for your party to arrive. An ADR means you get the next table for your size party to open up after you check in. You may have a wait for a table to open up, there may be same size parties that checked in before you, etc.

 

[aripantaloon]

We make ADR's because we don't want to have to stand around for 45 minutes (or whatever time it might be for a non-ADR party to be seated) when we are hungry then. We also have very specific places that we want to eat and specific times, so we do it to make sure we get what we want. If we didn't care, then we might not make ADR's. We generally do signature restaurants for dinner and if we don't eat breakfast on the fly, then it's a character meal. We also do the Castle as well as Akershus for the princesses. During NONE of our meals at signature or character dining places did we see empty tables. They were all full; or in the case of the first ADR time of the morning, they were being filled one right after the other.

I think it depends on the restaurant and the time of year for sure. We only walked into one sit-down place on the fly and that was Sci-Fi. We planned a counter service lunch and I was just so tired of "junk" food as well as being limited by what our kids would eat, we decided to see how long the wait would be for Sci-Fi. We got a nice table in about 3 minutes. One other family walked in right in front of us and got a table, too. It didn't look that empty, but I do think there were a few empty tables way in the back that were smaller.

 

[mmtska]

When we go in a little less than a month, we had some hard to get meals on the request list. I don't think I could be ok with walking up to CRT or Le Cellier and trying to eat. Since my friends want to go there, we made ADRs. I wanted to eat at CP before park opening-gotta call to get that!

 

[DisMN]

I'm gonna get heat for this but all along I've felt that the ADR system was designed to get park visitors to do the one-upmanship thing. We've gone at various times of year and at various hours and have never been turned away at a restaurant. Was told we'd have to wait a half hour and one time we had to wait an hour and a half (but we knew it would be that long so we found stuff to busy ourselves with) but we've never been turned away.
Obviously I don't make ADR's and completely see where the OP is coming from.

I'm ready for my flogging now.

 

[lilwhiterabbit]

Sorry, but your experience isn't indicative of everyone's experience. It depends on all sorts of things as to whether you can get a walk up at any restaurant and many places will absolutely turn people away. I've not only seen it happen, I've had it happen to me, and these aren't even crazy hard to get into places like Le Cellier. Two years ago I saw several people turned away from Sci-Fi Dine-In at dinner time in June because they didn't have an ADR. Last year, the couple we vacationed with were turned away from Coral Reef in October for the same reason, and we were turned away from Rose and Crown (although we knew walking up we probably weren't getting in anyway).

Can you get a walk up at a restaurant in a park while on vacation? Sure, if you're not picky about where you eat and when. But if you have your heart set on eating at a particular place at a particular time, why chance it? It's just easier to make the call.

 

[kamik86]

I usually go during September, (which is also free dining) and tend to make ADRs for 6 which seems to be a really popular time. I have seen many times where people were turned away.

Last trip I went in January and while we still didn't do any walk ups there were several times that we decided against where we had an ADR at the last min (it rained so we left AK for the room and didn't want to go back to BOMA for example) so we made a new ADR online just an hour before we went there. I noticed a lot of places had openings then.

 

[Hoopfamily]

For us it's been hit or miss. We wanted to do Rose & Crown once and went to the counter at 4pm, were told they were only seating ADR for the rest of the night. Also we usually leave a few slots open for the week, and sometimes we walk, sit down, eat and leave in under an hour, and sometimes we wait 45 minutes to be seated. The truth is it's easy to make some ressies and be assured of eating where you want. But do it enough and you will eventually get turned away from a dinner or lunch that you were really looki8ng forward to. Then you'll become one of those "Disney stinks man" kind of people who makes their downfalls other peoples problems.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I am the type of planner that has to have ADRs at 180 days out, but then again I am a compulsive planner . We also go at various times of the year, but our ADRs consist of character breakfasts before the parks open, Cali Grill, Le Cellier (for lunch), and CRT to name a few...therefore it is imperative that I wake up at the crack of dawn at 180 days out so I can get the desired times and places that we want. But with that said, we have, on occasion, been able to just walk up to a restaurant and get in within 5 minutes of being at a podium (MM during Spring Break). So with all of that said, I agree with the PPs that said that ADRs should only be fussed about if you want the hard to get restaurants at a certain time of the day, other than that, it really doesn't matter whether you have them or not.

 

[Hoopfamily]

Bottom line for us is if you don't need it you can cancel it, but you will eventually run up against a CM turning you away from where you want to eat.

 

[Uncleromulus]

edcrfv:
Just curious--how many nights are you talking about and where did you eat each night? And what time.