I'm scared to make reservations

[Sugar Jones]

I hate having to make reservations so far in advance. What if we change our minds? We don't have park hoppers, so what if we decide not to go to MK one day because it's raining and go to Epcot instead? What if I over schedule our planning and we don't have fun? What if we don't' feel like sitting down for supper and just want to relax??? What if, what if, what if?????

And we arrive September 19th so I think I have make decisions and book soon right?

 

[KarenAylwood]

Well... you can always change your reservations between now and then (depending on the popularity of the restaurant and number in your party).

We never planned our trips until the Free Dining promotion, now we plan every year just based on park hours and show times (wishes, etc). We only do the regular plan, so it's one meal per day (although we do a 2TS meal so we have a day "free").

The one big difference for us though is the park hopper. We love them and swear by them. I'd cut back on other things to be able to afford the park hoppers because I don't like feeling stuck to one park each day based on our ADR's (also because we like a lot of Epcot restaurants, not as much MK, DHS, AK).

If you're thinking about weather though- most parks offer a lot to do even if it's raining, I'd say the only bad park might be Animal Kingdom since so much is outdoors, but they do have a lot of indoor stuff like shows and Dinosaur.

In the past four years of free dining we've enjoyed all of our ADRs and never found ourselves regretting making one (although the first year we made them all too early, ~5:30 so we don't do that anymore).

I'd say go ahead and make them with the idea that you can change if you need to, and maybe look again at getting park hoppers. Goodluck!

 

[Dani C]

This is really a personal decision. I would suggest that you check out the options/menus available and decide if there is anywhere that you really want to eat. If there is, make the reservation, if not and you are fine with most anything then you can always just wait. There will be some places that if you don't have the ADR you will not get in, but at that time of the year you will be able to eat somewhere else.

I always make ADRs but I also plan around them. For instance since I know I want to go to the different parks, I make ADRs at restaurants in different parks on different days (Tutto in Epcot one night, Yak & Yeti in AK another night, etc.). There is always the option to cancel to reservation if you change your mind, just call as soon as possible to do so.

Whatever you decide, please have a magical vacation!

 

[djp0630]

Plus you can cancel the ADRs while you are there, the day of, etc. However, it's better to have ADRs that you want, than try and walk-up to restaurants and settle on off-times with restaurants you don't want. If you have hard reservations (CRT, Le cellier, etc) then it is definitely best to make them now. Honestly, I always book a few more ADRs than the DDP (because I can't choose mostly), but then I know I will use all my credits even if I cancel a few. However, we did all the ones I did last time and probably will in May as well!

 

[TDC Nala]

If you don't have a prepaid dining plan, you can try winging it, as long as you are okay with the possibility that you might not get table service dining exactly when or where you want it (or that you might have to leave a park for a resort to find open table service dining). I do suggest that as soon as you pick someplace you are certain you want to eat, that you make a reservation for that place.

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

I hate having to make reservations so far in advance. What if we change our minds? We don't have park hoppers, so what if we decide not to go to MK one day because it's raining and go to Epcot instead? What if I over schedule our planning and we don't have fun? What if we don't' feel like sitting down for supper and just want to relax??? What if, what if, what if?????

And we arrive September 19th so I think I have make decisions and book soon right?

Op, I know how you feel. I'm planning our 8th trip for this Sept. and I have said the same things. My DH won't discuss dining options with me, he says he doesn't know what he'll want to eat 6 months from now Where you go each day is a personal thing, as a pp said. I can tell you that I get the park hours info and plan it out from there. I choose what parks on which days and make our adrs. We've found it very difficult to vacation at WDW without some type of plan, at least knowing which parks we will be visiting, is a major help. Otherwise, my family just sits around and says "what are we supposed to do now?" No one cares what restaurant we eat at 6 months from now, but DH insists that we have a sit down meal at least once a day. I wouldn't get too caught up in the fine details, but I would know what park I was going to each day. JMO. Have a good time!

Also, we are not park commandos. We take our time, spend an entire day of vacation at our resort, we also swim at our resort or a water park, go horseback riding, dinner shows, tour Boardwalk and golf. We do get park hoppers but generally we only park hop once. But we do like to have the option of park hopping if we want to.

 

[Sugar Jones]

Thanks you guys you made me feel less stressed. I was just caught up in reading all about everyone's ADR's and was a little panicked We are pretty relaxed eaters, so as long as ds can have chicken fingers or a burger we are pretty much happy to eat anywhere

Right now my plan is
Day 1 Magic Kingdom - Lunch at Crystal Palace
Day 2 - ?
Day 3 - ?
Day 4 - Spirit of Aloha Dinnershow (for our annivesary)


I know the restaurants that we want to eat at already. This is our first trip so character dining is our main goal I guess I just have to figure out what days to go the parks and plan from there.

Day one is obviously a no brainer - Magic Kingdom

 

[Simba22]

We do not get hoppers either, but have never changed the park we were at due to weather. On the same note, we haven't had too many issues with rain, but I have always just kept our schedule as is.

As far as dining ressies go, I have learned that I usually get very excited for our sit down meals. The first few times I went to Disney, we didnt even know that making reservations in advance was an option so it was chicken tenders and pizza for us.

I have been told on several occasions that if your name is on the list, you WILL get it. So if your ressie is for 5pm but you're hungry at 4pm, you can check in early and there is a very good chance they will be able to seat you early. I've never been turned away when we've checked in early and have always been seated within 20 minutes of checking in.

We have also shown up late for ADRs... I think 30 minutes is the latest we have been at Disney restaurants. We were almost 2 hours late for an ADR at Planet Hollywood once because our flight into MCO was delayed. However, we were still able to be seated right away with no issues.

Also, if you decide that day that you are changing your park, or you just don't want to eat at the restaurant you chose, you can call and cancel the reservation. Depending on what park you're in, and what the crowd levels are like, you may be able to get seated at another restaurant without much of a wait. It's risky to do it that way, because you might not be able to get in and then have to deal with a QS meal - but if that's OK with you, then at least you know you have the options!

 

[WizardLarz]

I hate having to make reservations so far in advance. What if we change our minds? We don't have park hoppers, so what if we decide not to go to MK one day because it's raining and go to Epcot instead? What if I over schedule our planning and we don't have fun? What if we don't' feel like sitting down for supper and just want to relax??? What if, what if, what if?????

And we arrive September 19th so I think I have make decisions and book soon right?

Today was 180, so you can make ADRs now or later. Since you're going in September waiting might not matter, but if Disney decides to do Free Dining, then ADRs will fill up fast.

 

[WizardLarz]

Thanks you guys you made me feel less stressed. I was just caught up in reading all about everyone's ADR's and was a little panicked We are pretty relaxed eaters, so as long as ds can have chicken fingers or a burger we are pretty much happy to eat anywhere

Right now my plan is
Day 1 Magic Kingdom - Lunch at Crystal Palace
Day 2 - ?
Day 3 - ?
Day 4 - Spirit of Aloha Dinnershow (for our annivesary)


I know the restaurants that we want to eat at already. This is our first trip so character dining is our main goal I guess I just have to figure out what days to go the parks and plan from there.

Day one is obviously a no brainer - Magic Kingdom

Pick your Park then pick a Restaurant.
When at MK you can also consider the Monorail Resort restaurants!
For Epcot and DHS you can look at the Boardwalk area restaurants!

 

[clc053103]

Yes, if arriving Sept 19 TODAY is the 180 day mark. I did mine this morning and got everything I wanted but not always at the exact time. However, people change plans and you can check for different openings as your date nears. Due to free dining (I haven't checked since I'm dvc but I assume there's a sept free dining promotion?) you may find ADR's harder to come by as your travel date approaches.

 

[kstinw19]

If they do offer free dining again in Sept, it may be hard to change your ADR's at a later date, but you can most likely tweak them later on if you don't have a huge party.

I just changed our dinner to three different restaurants without any problems, and one of them is Jiko, which is pretty popular. And it's for three weeks from now.

So it can be done. We usually end up canceling at least one of our ressies b/c the kids are too tired or we are having so much fun at the park that we don't want to leave. And we have also been able to walk up to Chef Mickey's dinner and CRT breakfast and gotten in. The trick for CM's was to get there right when they opened and it's typically not too crowded yet. Just be extra nice to the hostess. My dh is a salesman and is a master at it. It definitely helps!

So just pick places you want to eat now and overbook yourself. Then as you get closer you can fine tune.

Plus I think that with the introduction of the alternate CS dining package it seems to have opened up the ressies a bit more.