How many ADRs is too many? How many TS Meals do you plan?

[PinkBudgie]

Kids are adults now so just DH and I. We've only been to WDW once (we are closer to DLR) and plan to go again in 2019. For our 13 night stay, we did one TS a day except for maybe two days we left unplanned. We found we liked having TS for lunch as a nice break during the heat of the day. More than that is just too much food for us. Dinner was random and may even just be ice cream. Breakfast was usually a granola bar in the room. I have food allergies so sometimes I got frustrated with the CS choices and ended up with just a theme park burger to have something safe. (Seafood allergy). But still, don't want to spend the time or money or planning on two TS a day. CS choices at DLR are much better and varied, but we enjoy the themed TS places at WDW that DLR doesn't have for some reason.

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

We have been coming to Disney for quite awhile now so I have changed how many reservations I make. Especially now with the credit card guarantee, I find it too stressful to have too many reservations. It seems that the meals control the vacation and we are way beyond that. I used to book 2 a day. Dinner and then either a lunch or breakfast. We are DVC but we don't ever cook in our kitchen LOL! It is nice to have a kitchen though and we certainly use all the appliances ( except for the oven).

I now make 1 reservation a day max. We also like going off property for a few meals at favorite restaurants and we always have a car. So I would say 7 max. We are happier not being so scheduled. Some off property meals allows us to relax more, are much more affordable for what you get and there some great places out there.

 

[klacey1]

I think your plan seems totally reasonable! For our five night trip we have the following TS ADRs booked:

Night 1: None (plan to snack/drink around the world)
Night 2: Dinner (Le Cellier)
Night 3: Brunch/Dinner (Raglan Road/Biergarten)
Night 4: None (plan to barhop around Disney Springs for dinner)
Night 5: Dinner (Via Napoli)
Departure morning: Breakfast (Cape May)

 

[disneyvoice]

I always schedule a TS for every dinner, maybe a TS lunch or two, and then a breakfast if there is someplace we really want to eat. But then as I get into more detailed daily planning I often end up cancelling several of those ADRs. We also tend to cancel ADRs on our trip, we review our plans for the next day and sometimes decide we don't want to eat where we had an ADR. Even the day of an ADR we will cancel or change if we aren't in the mood.

 

[Dis703]

We plan for 1 TS meal per day usually for lunch or dinner. We rarely do breakfasts unless it's a non park day. The dining is a big part of the experience for us since we rarely ever eat out at home. It's too difficult with the set of food allergies we deal with.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I think when you are on the regular or deluxe dining plan, you need to make at least one ADR per day to make use of your meal credits.

On my upcoming trip, I do not have a dining plan so I just made them for the hardest places to get into, i.e., 1900 Park Fare, Ohana and Be Our Guest. We will probably eat at other table service restaurants, but we'll make reservations on the fly.

Keeping track of ADRs and then making it to the restaurants on time gets to be a pain IMO.

 

[Minnesota!]

We enjoy a sit down dinner each night. However, we only book 1-2 in advance. Everything else we book.day of. I don't enjoy making decisions on what I might be hungry for 6 months in advance.

 

[Willlyb]

We did 13 our last trip - I'll rank them on the quality of food in my opinion, although I'm fully aware they are primarily character meals where the quality of food is not the primary reason to eat there:

1. Via Napoli - Lunch
2. Be Our Guest - Dinner
3. 1900 PF - Dinner
4. Beaches & Cream - Dinner
5. 1900 PF - Breakfast
6. Akershus - Breakfast
7. Liberty Tavern - Lunch
8. Tusker House - Breakfast
9. Ohana - Breakfast
10. Crystal Palace - Breakfast
11. H&V - Breakfast
12. Chef Mickey's - Dinner
13. Tony's - Dinner

 

[anitsa123]

We (DH, DS20 and DGS23months and my self) are doing the DxDDP this time around we will be their 11 days. We are flying in so the first day I have 1 ADRs in Disney Springz. The second Day I have 3 ADRs but the rest of the trip except the last day we have 2 Adrs per day. We are doing a lot of Signature Dining this time with the last day before we leave a breakfast/lunch ADR at Crystal Palace. We are usually at the parks at rope drop and we also park hop on some days and we do not go to our room until park closes most nights. I have tend to find that Lunch ADRs for us is not a long wait actually it is about the same wait and time to eat as a QS meal with waiting in line and trying to find a table in QS. Dinner sometimes does take a little bit longer but we find the down time refreshing and relaxing.

 

[Dakota731]

[I'm starting to think we are crazy! We usually do 3 TS a day. /QUOTE]

I would enjoy that but wonder if you have enough time in the parks? There are a lot of places I'd like to try and usually we do 1 TS a day so I'd love to try the DDDP by fear it would take up the whole day.

 

[adelaster]

I like the flexibility of altering plans based on our needs that day. We'll be on property for about five days and have three ADRs, one of them for a BOG lunch, which is technically a QS. Having one daily would be too constraining for us, and there's lots of options at Disney Springs for last minute selections. Certainly have a rough idea of where we'll go when, but only schedule an ADR when it's ideal & would be complicated/hassle to try anything else. I feel like one roughly every other day gives us that balance & freedom. Plus Disney ADRs tend to be a hassle. My experience was a wait to be seated, longer wait to be served, then having to wait for someone to refill drinks, wait for check & wait for return-all while being stuck in a busy place, usually with loud kids/guests. More control makes us happier.

 

[buzznina]

We are finally down to 1 or 2 per trip now and we only schedule them on our resort days. Our family just finds that it takes to long at a TS restaurant. We do not do the parks commando style, so we do not really need to sit to unwind for a long period of time and we find it just takes to much time out of our park days. Since we have cut back on ADRs, we have found it much more relaxing. We have always found eating at QS to take up much less time, rarely have we ever been at a QS for an hour unless we just wanted to sit around.

 

[nursejackie]

It's a battle we have with ourselves every year: attractions or dining? We are always torn between them. We want to eat some lovely TS meals but then find ourselves grabbing a QS most days to give us more time on the rides. We find ADR's for TS inside the parks restricts our flexibility to go with the flow on the day (fastpasses/show times etc), but then spend all year saying 'let's eat here/there next time'. We want to have our cake and eat it!

 

[Sydney2977]

For our trips which are generally 7-9 days we like to mix it up. Some days we do a ts breakfast, CS or snack lunch, then TS dinner. Other days we do CS breakfast and dinner with a nice ts lunch as a mid day break. At Epcot we like to eat around the world. We generally go when there is mild weather. I am wondering for our trip next summer if we are going to want heavy meals mid day and if we will eat the same way.

 

[Polybound]

So for our last WDW trip, I feel like I had too many ADRs. Def planning on scaling back this time but of course have my favorites and some new spots I'd like to try. Right now I have two character breakfasts planned and dinner planned every night except for one when will be at universal.

Too much??? What does everyone else do?

We do like to sit down and have a nice dinner on most nights to decompress... we typically hit the parks early, come back to the resort around lunch, and then go back out for dinner/more park time.

Been going as a family for about 20 years now and the only conclusion we've made is that with the exception of very few, the more the entertainment for the kids that's offered, or the more the atmosphere offered for table service meals, the worse the food is. With the exception of very few, we stick to signature meals at the Resorts and CS in the parks. We do however like the Skippers Canteen at the MK and Crystal Palace "Breakfast only" at the MK as well.

 

[adisneyaunt]

We like one sit down per day, either a later lunch or a dinner meal ( more typical for us) .
We do qs for our other meals.
My family could easily skip breakfast but I enjoy grabbing a tea n something light or a full meal and journal... they'd rather sleep, so it works for us.