How do you make ADR's if you have no idea where you will be?

[connorlevismom]

My DH and I do not do comando style WDW. We relax, sleep in and do what we feel like doing day by day. How on earth do you make ADR's this way? I have no idea what days I will be in parks with the exception of 2 days. This ADR thing is diving me nuts!

Is it wrong to make several ADR's and then cancel the ones on that day you are not planning on using?

Kristine

 

[jcarwash]

Disney discourages you and supposedly will look for and cancel overlapping ADRs, so yes, it is "wrong" to make multiple ADRs for say dinner time and then choose one later.

One approach you could try is to make ADRs for non-theme park restaurants, for example Ohana at Polynesian or Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. If you don't have the park hopper option then your TS meals aren't tied to a particular theme park on those days.

 

[DaniB]

Since we wanted some TS meals in particular restaurants that where IN certain parks, we just had to figure out which parks on which days.

 

[Huff]

If you like the flexibility of not having to schedule your days then maybe the QSDP is for you. You eat when you want at the quick service restaurants rather than table service.

We really enjoy a nice TS meal each night. So I look at each parks schedule for the week we will be there noting various show and closing times. I then plan ADR's around those. For instance, on a night I want to see Fantasmic at 8:30pm I make an ADR at Epcot for 5 to 5:30. That will give us plenty of time to eat without being rushed and make it to DHS's for Fantasmic. The rest of the day I do not plan. We decide where to go when we wake up.

If I want to see Wishes at MK then I plan dinner at Kona or Ohana's 2-3 hours before.

Again, if having to plan your evenings won't work for you then many people have found the QSDP works much better for them.

 

[connorlevismom]

If you like the flexibility of not having to schedule your days then maybe the QSDP is for you. You eat when you want at the quick service restaurants rather than table service.

We really enjoy a nice TS meal each night. So I look at each parks schedule for the week we will be there noting various show and closing times. I then plan ADR's around those. For instance, on a night I want to see Fantasmic at 8:30pm I make an ADR at Epcot for 5 to 5:30. That will give us plenty of time to eat without being rushed and make it to DHS's for Fantasmic. The rest of the day I do not plan. We decide where to go when we wake up.

If I want to see Wishes at MK then I plan dinner at Kona or Ohana's 2-3 hours before.

Again, if having to plan your evenings won't work for you then many people have found the QSDP works much better for them.

Yeah - that might work. I do have ADR's on the days I know we are going to be in a park due to Wishes DP and things or that sort.

We are not doing a dining plan, they don't work for us. But we still have to make ADR's or we might not get a place.

Kristine

 

[itchin2go]

There are some days where I KNOW which park we'll be in. Those are the easy days.

Then, for some of the days, my plan says, for instance, AK or DHS, because each are equally good choices in terms of no EMH, etc. On those days, I do want to preserve our ability to make a spur of the moment call, so I book us at a DTD or resort restaurant. The resort restaurants tend to be our favorites anyway, so it works out. For instance on this next trip, we're hoping to book Ohana, Boma, Flying Fish, Sanaa and possibly Hoop de Doo. Thinking about booking WPC or Raglan Road in DTD.

That said, once we get there, all bets are off for whatever reason. I plan the trip to death and then when we get there, the non-planners all of a sudden have their own ideas! So, a couple of ADRs get adjusted later on.

Good luck!

P.S. I really only make ADRs for dinner and maybe a few breakfasts. We usually eat a CS lunch, so that part of our day can still be spontaneous.

 

[Huff]

I make ADR's but really do not plan which park to be in for a particular day. We park hop and only plan where to have dinner such that we can get to a show in time. For wishes or spectro magic we'll have dinner at one of the monorail resorts but not necessarily spend the morning or afternoon at MK. We decide that when we wake up!

 

[daisygirl902]

We basically don't worry about which park we'll be in - we normally go to the parks for a few hours in the morning, go back to the resort between 2 and 4, and then off to dinner...we try to hit dinner at a time that also allows us to make it to a show in the evening, but if you do dinner at 5:30 or 6, even if you aren't near the park where the show is that you want to see you can often get there in time (well, this works for illuminations and Wishes - but not for Fantasmic!)!

I find it easier to do this than to try to micromanage it so that I am always in the right park for the ADR- I am already an OCD planner - I don't want to add in that level of detail

 

[Kimi313]

We pull up the park schedule and plan which park which day. We don't do a dinning plan, it doesn't work for us, but we have our favorites so we make at least 3 ADR, 1 is the day we arrive, so at least 2 days is set in stone and we hope disney doesn't change park hours or EMH nights.

 

[connorlevismom]

We pull up the park schedule and plan which park which day. We don't do a dinning plan, it doesn't work for us, but we have our favorites so we make at least 3 ADR, 1 is the day we arrive, so at least 2 days is set in stone and we hope disney doesn't change park hours or EMH nights.

I think that is what we will end up doing. Making ADR's on the days we are absolutely going to the parks, and then trying to get them the day of once we decide what we are going to do.

Kristine