Why Should You ALWAYS Make Dining Reservations

[Mackey Mouse]

I hear ya SeptBaby... I would have given up my reservation for the child.. crazy as it seems, it is not the little ones' fault that they did not make reservations..

And then to kick them away from seeing the characters?? I do not want this to start an argument rights of diners vs non-diners, but darn that hurt my heart this morning.

 

[eliza61]

At the Grass Roots concert on Saturday, April 12th. At least two guys behind us and one who claimed to have been to Epcot for these concerts several times. Fine. A bit grating since they sang every single 60s song they knew (not during the concert but before). At one break (in their "concert"), one guy said he wasn't going to come back anymore because it was too crowded. He was totally ticked because "I thought this was at the end of spring break and it was value season and the crowds would be gone". And "It *does a bodily function*es me off that we wouldn't get into that steakhouse tonight".

Translation - they couldn't get into LeCellier that night as a walk up. DUH!!! My husband is not the Disney planner at all. He just looked at me with that knowing smile.

If you don't make a dining reservation and you are turned away, the only person the blame is yourself.

I never do ADR's and I eat a TS every night so it is possible to actually have a great time, great food at wdw without planning a vacation like the allies planning the d-day invasion.

These guys were just jerks, there is a entire underground group here on the dis that rarely makes adr's, don't get to the parks at rope drop, don't swear by TGM and you know what, we manage to have fabulous vacations too.

Shocking I know

 

[photobob]

I made some adr's for the first time this year after ten trips of timely walkups. We generally do lunch as our TS meal and usually go right when a given restaurant opens for walkups and have had very good success doing that. However I had to talk me way into 50's last year and got in at Lecellier by getting there at 11:10 and being one of five walkups taken for the entire day. I decided not to chance it this year and made ADR's for each day we are going.

I agree with previous posters that people going for the first time really don't know what they are in for when they go to WDW. We all are pretty much Disney nerds that plan well in advance and have studied all the Disney information and know the place pretty much inside and out. For first timers it can be an overwhelming place. I always try to inform friends and others who seek my help as much as I can plus give them this website and allearsnet to study up. Sometimes though as I'm telling people how to handle their plans they get that glazed look in their eye and say that it sounds like alot of trouble we'll just wing it. Those are the ones that come back and complain about everything. Tried to tell you!!

 

[Mackey Mouse]

"there is a entire underground group here on the dis that rarely makes adr's, don't get to the parks at rope drop, don't swear by TGM and you know what, we manage to have fabulous vacations too."

I am not in the underground group.. I am usually very verbal that I would prefer to see where I want to be on what day before I commit to a reservation months in advance.. Also, I never really know exactly when I can go as it all depends on when my husband feels well enough to go... so, I am one of the many who do not necessarily make reservations in advance, but then I also am more lenient about where I eat and when. I do not have small children anymore so that I do not have to gear my reservations about defined eating times...also no character meals so I can be less structured.

 

[teedisney]

This our first on property stay and I would have no idea about ADRs if I hadn't come to the boards. We are doing DDP as well. I know my DH is not going to very pleased when he sees the "schedule" I'm building but I think he will appreciate having some where to eat a sit down meal.

DDP=ADR to me. Now if weren't doing DDP we'd eat CS or go offsite.

 

[babiebelle]

I got in trouble with this topic once.

Having come from New York, I don't whine about making ADR's. People who live in large urban areas understand this better than people from less populous areas.

At one point, the broadway musical "The Producers" was sold out more than two years. New Yorkers still purchased tickets knowing that two years would pass soon enough. You have to plan ahead if you want to see the best shows on broadway.

And a restaurant is deemed "hot" in New York if it is booked out months in advance. You don't complain---you call in your reservation and wait your turn. If you insist on Saturday night, well, you'll wait longer.

But in many parts of the country, people don't have to make a reservation. They pick out a restaurant and show up.

At WDW, I just make my reservations 5 or 6 months ahead. It's fine with me.

There's no equivalent to Per Se or Le Bernadin in WDW, though I understand your analogy. I just think it's ridiculous to have to book something 180 days out. For those that are more spur of the moment, it makes things tough. I guess that's the way things are though. If you chose wdw as your vacation destination you need to do the research ahead of time.

 

[Sonoma]

I agree that it's hard to book things so far in advance but that's what you need to do to make sure you can eat where you want to.

We went last September with our family, 17 people in total, and had the dining plan. I had to ask my MIL many times if we could all get together to plan any meals that we wanted to have together. She was certain that we didn't need to plan ahead; they had been 10 years ago and didn't need reservations. We don't all go out for diner locally without a reservation so I'm not sure why Disney would be any different.

She finally humored me and we planned a few meals together, but she was certain that we didn’t need them. My MIL and FIL didn't end up using all of their TS credits because they were tired of eating. They were able to walk into the Trails End at 7:00 AM without an ADR so this just confirmed to them that they were right about not needing to plan ahead.

We have 4 kids and I wanted to know when and where we were eating. Hungry kids are not much fun.

 

[centurythree]

I've been going to WDW since I was a very small child (this will be trip 25 or so for me), and my family has never made ADRS. They just aren't necessary at the time of year we go/time of day we like to eat our TS meals. We also wouldn't be at all upset to "have" to eat CS.

Now my upcoming trip is in September, a new time of year for me, and I did start to do research as if I'd never been to WDW before. Since I'm planning this trip as the "trip of a lifetime" for two first-timers, I decided to make this it very TS-heavy and there were a few key restaurants I thought they should try. So I took the advice of the official Disney website and the DISboards and made my first ADRs.

I understand people's frustration at not being able to walk up, even though reservations of some sort have always been necessary at most times of year for certain restaurants. However, that doesn't mean I have any sympathy for people behaving like screaming brats because they can't get their way. Frankly, I think that the woman who tried to charge into Crystal Palace should have been ejected from the park. The last thing Disney wants to encourage is people thinking that if they yell enough, they'll eventually get what they want. So far, it sounds like they are doing a good job of holding the line.

 

[tink fan]

We have friends who hate, hate, hate to plan. They called last month because they decided to take thier son to Disney. He was mad because so many resorts were sold out. (Three weeks out during spring break that is going to happen.) I talked him into staying at a value. I told him about fast passes (they were there about 8 years ago and waited twice for over an hour to ride on Test Track only to have it break down soon before boarding. He hadn't ever heard of a fast pass.) I explained the dining plan to him, which horrified him. I suggested just a couple of ADRs, even if they were not on the plan just to have something to fall back on. No dice. He laughed at me when I suggested that he just look over a travel guide just to get an idea of what is there.

Guess what? Yep, long lines, couldn't get in a restaurant, etc.

Disney is not a good place to wing it. Bite the bullet, force yourself to do some basic planning, and go from there.

 

[mefordis]

I hear ya SeptBaby... I would have given up my reservation for the child.. crazy as it seems, it is not the little ones' fault that they did not make reservations..

And then to kick them away from seeing the characters?? I do not want this to start an argument rights of diners vs non-diners, but darn that hurt my heart this morning.

I was thinking the same thing! I would have given up my table.

 

[disnut8]

I'm the OP on this thread (probably my record for most responses!). The thing that really got to me with those two guys wasn't that they didn't make a reservation. I can certainly understand newcomers not doing that. And I do wish there was a way for those people not to be shut out of a Disney dining experience.

What got to me was that guy who said that he had been here for the Flower and Garden Festival "many times" in the past. That time isn't exactly the quietest times in the parks. Spring break, Easter, etc. Maybe this was the first time he decided to eat at a table service and thought it was the same as counter service. I don't know. But if he was satisfied "many times" in the past, why would he condemn Disney World now based on one experience?

 

[PrincessV]

What got to me was that guy who said that he had been here for the Flower and Garden Festival "many times" in the past. That time isn't exactly the quietest times in the parks. Spring break, Easter, etc. Maybe this was the first time he decided to eat at a table service and thought it was the same as counter service. I don't know. But if he was satisfied "many times" in the past, why would he condemn Disney World now based on one experience?

I don't know if this was the case, but it sounds to me like he might be a local. Speaking as another local, there was a long stretch of time when post-Spring Break wasn't terribly busy. The F&G Fest began later and seemed designed to bring in mostly locals. And, until the past few years, we rarely needed to make ADRs. In fact, it was fairly recently that they began taking them across the board 180 days in advance - used to be 60, then 90 I'll also add that for quite some time, they couldn't give away table at Le Cellier.

I'm not condoning any kind of rude behavior, but know that there are MANY Floridians that have gotten used to "the old days" at WDW and change is always a difficult thing.

 

[aripantaloon]

I really feel for those who are on the dining plan and can't get into a TS restaurant. However, if you really think about it, what in the world made them think that they were just going to walk up and get a table? I mean, here you are in a vacation spot with a limited number of TS restaurants in the parks, TONS of people who eat in the parks for various reasons (don't have a car, don't want to leave just to eat, kids are hungry NOW, etc.), and only so many tables at these restaurants. As someone who lives in NYC said, you just know that the reservations at the good places are going to be made in advance. Heck, we can't even go to a place like Chili's (not high on my list of culinary masterpieces) without waiting over an hour on most nights and some places are even taking priority seating reservations in advance.

I understand that some people don't like to plan things like meals down to the minute since this is a vacation, but this isn't like any other vacation. This is Disney. I wouldn't go to a foreign country without doing my homework on food, customs, etc., so why would I go to Disney without doing the same? It's poor planning, IMO if you complain about the situation, but you didn't even attempt to research it in the first place. I really feel bad for the kids in this situation, though.

 

[padge24]

I agree that it's hard to book things so far in advance but that's what you need to do to make sure you can eat where you want to.

We went last September with our family, 17 people in total, and had the dining plan. I had to ask my MIL many times if we could all get together to plan any meals that we wanted to have together. She was certain that we didn't need to plan ahead; they had been 10 years ago and didn't need reservations. We don't all go out for diner locally without a reservation so I'm not sure why Disney would be any different.

She finally humored me and we planned a few meals together, but she was certain that we didn’t need them. My MIL and FIL didn't end up using all of their TS credits because they were tired of eating. They were able to walk into the Trails End at 7:00 AM without an ADR so this just confirmed to them that they were right about not needing to plan ahead.

We have 4 kids and I wanted to know when and where we were eating. Hungry kids are not much fun.

The last statement says it all.

 

[surfergirl602]

The last statement says it all.

Amen.

I planned a sit down meal for every day of our trip. We need a break - the kids need a good meal in order for me to stay sane.

 

[marmar]

We are about to do our 10th trip next week. My husband has requires me to make ADR's right after we book hotel & travel. He claims I would get so absorbed in the parks I would forget to feed him. Our first trip we made ressies for the next day from our resort room. We could get in everywhere, but not at the time we wanted. The next trip I made evening ressies, but figured I could just wander down to the resort character breakfast..... HA!
For following trips, I would call a family meeting and we would decide which restaurants we wanted during the trip.

It was alot easier to get our restaurants of choice before DDP. Side comment: we do not use the DDP, because we choose to eat at the better places and many of them require 2TS. I personally wish it would go away. It is such a pain to get behind the mother who is trying to get every snack from the DDP on their last day.

We couldn't get a ressie for LaCellier this trip. First time for us there. It was booked for our entire visit 4 months ahead. Le Cellier is where I have heard the most complaining about not getting in as walk up. Some folks are just totally shocked. Being the first Country in the world showcase, I assume this is the cause of most folks surprise. If there was a less popular restaurant first, the walk ups would be able to get in and the Disney Disappointment might not hit as many folks.

 

[beachblanket]

The annoyance for me is (ahem) having to stand behind 3-4 walk-up parties before I can get to the CM host to tell them we've arrived for our ADR!!!!

During our February P week trip earlier this year, I literally had that experience at every single TS meal, on average having to stand behind several non-planner types for 5-10 minutes, listening to them whine as they uselessly tried to negotitate their way to a table (the worst experience was at O'Hana's dinner on 2/22, when I had to listen to some incredibly rude woman with a textbook Long Island accent badger the check-in CM for (yes, we timed it) 12 minutes "Des gotta be sumptin available...c'man...c'man...waddaya mean nuttin this weeeek.....")

Mid trip, I actually started having us arrive at meals not 15 minutes early but 25, since we inevitably had to take into account the time wasted by walk up "delayers" to insure we checked in before our seating time.

Frankly, during busy periods Disney should have two lines at the entrance of every TS restaurant - an express one for people with ADRs, and another for "everyone else"

 

[DisneyWorldOct08]

I disagree. I've never booked more than a few days in advance and aside from the ridiculously popular places like Le Cellier & Victoria and Alberts have never had a problem making same days or walking in and waiting.

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

They would lose my money. I wouldn't spend my touring time waiting for an hour at my favorite place.

But, one of the big problems I see now with the current system is that even with ADR's- you can still wait over 30 minutes to an hour to be sitted. I agree, they should just make the whole thing walk-ups.

 

[crisi]

I get mad at Disney for overselling the dining plan. They should sell out the dining plan - you never hear of that happening. It is not possible for everyone staying in a Disney hotel or DVC room to eat a table service meal every day - there are not that many tables.

So sell the dining plan for each period so that 50% of the tables are taken by the dining plan, and continue doing what they are doing - tell people when they purchase the plan that ADRs are a practical necessity for using the dining plan, unless they want to take on the risk that they will not be able to get a table (this is in the small print on the DDP brochure, but few read the small print).