Am I crazy? One week trip coming up with no ADRs?

[ameliahyde]

Hi everyone! I should start by saying that we took a one-week trip in March and during part of that trip had purchased the deluxe Dining Plan. It was a split stay trip, so we were able to do this. We ate a lot of food during that trip, and maybe overdid it a bit!

I also noticed a lot of really interesting quick-service options like the new Santuli Cantina in Animal Kingdom. I've also been reading up on all the different snacks, and it seems like there is a lot to eat without making a formal ADR.

We will be staying DVC in the beach club, and plan to have for lunch and breakfast, so we will hopefully eat in our room at least a little bit. I am a bit nervous going without any dining reservations because we've never done this before. Do you think that we will get sick of quick-service? Do you think that it will be difficult to snag an ADR if we decide we want something? We are also going during my husband's birthday, and he has said that he just wants to eat in the lounge at tiffin's. We haven't been to the lounge there in quite some time, so I assume the dining options there are the same and it's easy to get a seat, but with the new opening of Pandora I'm not sure if that's changed. Any opinions are welcome! I don't want a lack of dining reservations to potentially ruin our summer vacation. Thanks in advance!

 

[Micca]

First things first: Here on the Dis we're ALL crazy Sounds like the parks aren't just totally slammed so maybe you'll do ok for TS as long as you're flexible on food type and times. I will say it's tough with little kids who aren't so patient when tummies begin to growl. Have a great trip!

 

[Nohal]

We go in September and have the free dining since its been offered. However, we went in December with no dining plan and no ADR's. I didn't miss TS at all. I found it very freeing to just eat wherever I was when I was hungry. There are some really good QS restaurants. I'm sure if you want to do a TS you can find something if you are flexible. I would at least make an ADR for the day of your husbands birthday at a restaurant that he likes.

 

[loves to dive]

We never make ADRs any more than a day in advance and more often than not, the day of and have never had any problem finding something to eat. We probably eat a TS meal at least 4 out of 6 days and the days we don't it's just because we might be eating bar food or snacking all day. Now you might not get the "must have" places like BOG or character meals but you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[ameliahyde]

Good to hear that many people forgo planning ADRs! I'm sort of excited about just winging it. We have really planned out our meals on past trips and I like the idea if taking it easy this time. I'm crossing my fingers for light crowds to make it even easier!!

 

[CarolynFH]

We've had several trips where DH didn't want to make ADRs and insisted we'd eat CS. Then inevitably at some time in the afternoon he'd wonder out loud whether we could eat dinner at this or that TS. I'd get on MDE and never had a problem getting an ADR somewhere we liked. As PP said it wasn't BOG or other highly sought restaurant, but we were fine. So go for it!

 

[FidFam]

When we go for a week we typically do one ADR during an entire trip and spend the time enjoying the freedom of eating QS (plenty of quality if you know where to look) or the occasional TS whenever we want and it's available for our party of four. It's kind of nice to not be tied down to a schedule of dining experiences.

 

[kastoney]

We don't do many ADRs and instead just wait and see what has availability and go from there. While I'm not always a quick service fan, even the most "exclusive" of table services see cancellations and I think you will be surprised at how much is available to you

 

[disneyvoice]

We just got back last night from an eight day trip where we did very few ADRs. We typically skip breakfast, do one ADR a day plus a snack, but we are currently building a house near WDW and have decided to greatly limit our ADRs to save money during the building process. Honestly, we didn't miss our daily TS meals at all. In fact, we really enjoyed trying to some QS places we have never been to before. You mentioned Satuli Canteen - I can't recommend that place enough! It was so good - one of our favorite meals of the entire trip. Most days we ended up kind of grazing throughout the day by sharing various items as opposed to eating a big lunch or dinner. I actually found I was much happier eating this way while touring the parks so I will be rethinking our meal plans going forward after we build as well. I don't like to feel "full" when I tour the parks and I think we ate less by just sharing QS items instead of eating full meals. I think you will be just fine and will find some items that you really like.

 

[Minniesgal]

We only make our 1 or 2 must dos as ADRs and then just book something the day of. Never have we gone hungry.

 

[Disneylover99]

Sometimes we go for two weeks or more without ADR's. Love it!
It's easy to make a last minute reservation somewhere if you really want to.

 

[hammie59]

Last year we were on the QSDP and loved it. We did have 2 ADRs over a 2week period (BOG and Trex), but what a great feeling to not be tied down to dining reservations for most of our trip. We found a lot of good meals that were QS such as Wolfgang Pucks Express, DLuxe Burger, Columbia Harbor House, Cantina San Angel, Yorkshire Fish, Flame Tree BBQ as a few favs.

 

[Beer Me]

Hi everyone! I should start by saying that we took a one-week trip in March and during part of that trip had purchased the deluxe Dining Plan. It was a split stay trip, so we were able to do this. We ate a lot of food during that trip, and maybe overdid it a bit!

I also noticed a lot of really interesting quick-service options like the new Santuli Cantina in Animal Kingdom. I've also been reading up on all the different snacks, and it seems like there is a lot to eat without making a formal ADR.

We will be staying DVC in the beach club, and plan to have for lunch and breakfast, so we will hopefully eat in our room at least a little bit. I am a bit nervous going without any dining reservations because we've never done this before. Do you think that we will get sick of quick-service? Do you think that it will be difficult to snag an ADR if we decide we want something? We are also going during my husband's birthday, and he has said that he just wants to eat in the lounge at tiffin's. We haven't been to the lounge there in quite some time, so I assume the dining options there are the same and it's easy to get a seat, but with the new opening of Pandora I'm not sure if that's changed. Any opinions are welcome! I don't want a lack of dining reservations to potentially ruin our summer vacation. Thanks in advance!

We had dinner at the Nomad Lounge (tiffins lounge) a couple of weeks ago. Four of us had the cheese platter, bread service and a few other small plates plus a few drinks of course. It was a light meal but very pleasant and satisfying.

We had to wait for seating but it had been raining which drove a lot of people under shelter. Also, after finding a seat we waited at least 20-30 minutes before anyone addressed us. I went to the bar to try and order food and was told we had to order from a server. That being said - once we got someone's attention the service was excellent - truly a+. I highly recommend it buy maybe don't be in a hurry.

 

[Leelo]

You will probably be able to get an ADR last minute somewhere. When crowds are low, we can usually get ADRs on short notice or can get in by just walking up and asking. Some trips we book an ADR every night and some trips we don't book anything at all and wing it. I prefer to wing it unless there is a highly coveted ADR that probably won't have last minute openings.

 

[LvsTnk]

We walked up several times during 4th of July week without any ADR at all. You will be fine.

 

[AngiTN]

We never do ADR, in the sense of more than 24 hours in advance. And we never eat QS. And we always book reservations, never walk up.
We open the app and book our ADR each day, for whatever we feel like eating that day. Usually on the bus heading to the park, sometimes even later than that.
There are plenty of ADR out there to be made same day.

 

[DisBuckMan]

4 of us did a weeklong trip back at the end of May with zero ADR's made more than one day in advance. We ended up being able to secure reservations less than 24 hours in advance (most of them scheduled same-day) for Sanaa, BoG lunch, Rainforest Cafe at AK, Via Napoli, Liberty Tree Tavern, 50's PT, and Sci-Fi lunch, and Whispering Canyon Cafe breakfast. We also COULD have had breakfast at 'Ohana, but we wouldn't have been ready in time. We don't plan on making ADR's anymore, because we found out (1) it works without them, and (2) we're not scheduling activities at WDW around eating....we schedule eating around other activities. There's no way of knowing 6 months in advance both WHEN I'm going to be hungry, and WHAT I'm going to be in the mood for. Quite frankly, there's nothing at Disney that we just HAVE to have, as the food quality has gone downhill over the years.

I will say that if you are going to WDW during a free dining period, it might be a little more difficult to secure reservations with less notice.

 

[MrsDuck]

Hubby and I usually schedule an ADR if we know we really want something but usually we kinda go with the flow... I do tire of QS although if you're eating even some meals in your room, you may not have that issue. We almost always wind up making an ADR once we are on property. We don't struggle to find something good that we want. Exceptions: certain character meals.