How hard is it to get a table without ADR?

[mco65]

Done it many many times.. including during christmas time.. you have to be patient and not particular.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

This year we only made ADR's for dinner. Last time we had some ADR's for lunch. With being able to get FP+ and ADR's so far in advance, it was driving me nuts. I didn't want to have everything planned out. So our thinking this trip is go where we want during the day, our ADR's for dinner is later in the evening, which gives up plenty of time. So, no I don't plan around ADR's.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

We don't risk it. I always make one ADR per day, usually lunch. I plan everything around my ADRs, so unless we completely change our minds about what park we're going to (which has never happened), we're good to go. There have been days where we don't make any ADRs and just plan for QS, but we have changed our mind, especially when it's unbearably hot and we need a break from the heat and the parks. I was surprised once to be able to get BOG for the same day. I was not surprised to get Tony's for dinner once lol.

 

[rg35]

You're a party of 5 with picky eaters, so ADRs are going to be the best option for you.

Since your kids are picky eaters, figure out where they'll want to eat in the parks and make ADRs where everyone will be happy. Then plan your park touring around being in the area of that restaurant around the time of your ADR. This way you'll have something set that you know your entire party will enjoy and your husband won't have to worry about it "cutting into the flow." You also won't have to have your park enjoyment disturbed by being face down in the parks app looking for day-of ADRs.

1PM lunch isn't really an "off time" in the parks. Eating breakfast in the room is a huge time (and money) saver - we always do that except for a character breakfast (usually 1900 Park Fare) on a non-park day.

 

[elsbit]

To try to appease your husband's tastes, why don't you guys do quick service for lunch and then have reserved dinner plans? Are you staying on property? You could also remind him that ADR allows you to be in air conditioning, which will give you a reprieve from the June heat.

 

[loves to dive]

I think the furthest out we've booked an ADR is maybe two days, most of the time it's either the night before or more often, the day of in the afternoon. We've never had any problems booking them but there are a few things to consider. We have park hoppers (APs) so the sky is the limit as far as where we eat. We don't have to eat at the "must do" places, although we have eaten at just about all of them except character meals - even when my son was small he didn't like those - or buffets - I don't like those. There are only two of us, both adults but again even when my son was small we never booked far out. We actually enjoy trying new places and I can't think of many TS restaurants that we have eaten at more than once and never two trips in a row. We rarely know what park we are going to until the day of, we just aren't planners.

A typical day for us is if staying at a moderate: we get up when we get up. If it's fairly early we will go to the resort food court for breakfast (that is just about the only meal we eat at a food court) if it's later say 9 or so, we will grab something at whatever park we are going to. We go to the bus stop and get on the first park bus to arrive unless we were at that park for more than 2 hours the day before. While on the bus I'll hop on MDE and check for FPs and look at wait times. We go about our day until one of us starts complaining about being hungry. Then we decide do we want to grab something light to eat and maybe eat a bigger supper or do we want to eat a larger lupper (lunch/supper). This discussion might go on for a few hours until one of us starts whining and threatening to kill the other if they don't eat right now (usually me). We either get on MDE and find something available now anywhere if we are doing lupper or get on MDE and find something at a specific time if we are doing supper.

It's pretty much the same if we are staying in a deluxe except for we tend to stay in the Epcot resorts so our day will usually start either walking to Epcot or HS and spending time there then either hopping on a bus to another park or going back to our resort for a pool/hot tub/bar rest then going through the food discussion again.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

When we go as a family i book ADRs. I have to go in with a plan or 4 people will bicker about where we should eat and when. If i left it up to same day ADRs no one would agree to the same place. Having a set plan is easier on me!

When i go with just DD12 we are only making 3 ADRS over 9 nights. GF Tea, HDDR and BOG lunch. Other than that we are doing same day ADRS, lounges, F&W kiosks and QS. We both like to try new things and are a bit adventurous. We are very excited to just go with the flow.

 

[Colleen27]

Party of 5, kids 18,14,7 my husband and me. We are going June 16-26. Kids aren’t adventurous eaters. We eat at off times. Usually bfast in room and then lunch around 1, and a late dinner.

I would strongly recommend ADRs. You're going over summer vacation when the parks are busy so there's likely to be less last-minute availability to begin with, and you have a bigger party that is harder to book for in the first place. The kids are picky, so your list of desirable restaurant is likely to be narrower than the open-to-anything approach that makes winging it work. And it'll almost certainly be hot that time of year, and many CS restaurants have inadequate indoor seating so if you want to be sure you can eat somewhere with air conditioning, ADRs are a good idea.

If you do decide to wing it, use the app rather than trying for walk-ups. A lot of restaurants just don't accommodate walk-ups, even if they have reservations available on the app. And familiarize yourself with the resort restaurants near each of the parks, because they often have more last minute availability than in-park restaurants.

 

[Aliceacc]

You can always book ahead of time, then cancel a day or two before-- though you'll want to remember to cancel.

 

[kaytieeldr]

To try to appease your husband's tastes, why don't you guys do quick service for lunch and then have reserved dinner plans? Are you staying on property? You could also remind him that ADR allows you to be in air conditioning, which will give you a reprieve from the June heat.

Or, try the first two/three days without ADRs. Make them for the rest of the trip. See how "winging it" goes. If it works, cancel more (all?) ADRs. If it doesn't work, Your husband can see it doesn't.

 

[BlueFairy]

As an exercise, I just got on the website and search dinner for 5 tomorrow in MK (granted, it's not crowded right now).

Your choices would be Crystal Palace at 5pm, 2 times at Diamond Horseshoe, Skipper Canteen at 7pm, Liberty Tree at 6pm, and 2 times at Tonys. So it's possible to go without ADRs.

 

[bcrook]

By the way, that's still an ADR. There's no amount of time in advance that makes it advance. Any reservation is an ADR, technically.

At Disney, you need an ADR to eat TS except for the non Disney own restaurants over at DS or a couple at Epcot.
What you don't have to do is book them months or weeks in advance. Doing it when you are ready to eat is fine. That's what we do and we never eat QS at Disney. There's plenty to be had same day

Well, I don’t believe you have to have an ADR. I’ve only ran into that at Konas and La Hacienda (my least favorite place). If the restaurant is not full they will seat you. Last year during two trips I was able to walk up at Grand Floridian Cafe, coral Reef, mama Rosas, Skipper Canteen, Marrakech, Sanaa, Tiffins, yak n Yeti, blue zoo, Jiko, and many others. I think boatwrights is a stickler. Tokyo Dining accepts walk ups and Rose and Crown. The wave happily takes walkups. It depends on the time and availability.

I like to go during off times of the day. Our trips last year were in June and October.

 

[ZoZo]

I would strongly recommend ADRs. You're going over summer vacation when the parks are busy so there's likely to be less last-minute availability to begin with, and you have a bigger party that is harder to book for in the first place. The kids are picky, so your list of desirable restaurant is likely to be narrower than the open-to-anything approach that makes winging it work. And it'll almost certainly be hot that time of year, and many CS restaurants have inadequate indoor seating so if you want to be sure you can eat somewhere with air conditioning, ADRs are a good idea.

If you do decide to wing it, use the app rather than trying for walk-ups. A lot of restaurants just don't accommodate walk-ups, even if they have reservations available on the app. And familiarize yourself with the resort restaurants near each of the parks, because they often have more last minute availability than in-park restaurants.

Excellent advice! You are better off having ADRs (and canceling them the day before if you find you don't want to use them) than wishing you had made them to begin with. Does that make sense? Especially if you go during free dining, when the ADRs are snapped up way in advance. With your size group and picky eaters,ADRs make sense, rather than trying to wing it.

 

[bcrook]

Excellent advice! You are better off having ADRs (and canceling them the day before if you find you don't want to use them) than wishing you had made them to begin with. Does that make sense? Especially if you go during free dining, when the ADRs are snapped up way in advance. With your size group and picky eaters,ADRs make sense, rather than trying to wing it.

You have to cancel them the night before though. That messes up
The flow. I dislike this so much. I’ve changed my dining habits to only eat where I can get in or at 4:30 or 10:00 pm.

But my kids are grown and my group prefers to eat at lounges now.

 

[AngiTN]

You have to cancel them the night before though. That messes up
The flow. I dislike this so much. I’ve changed my dining habits to only eat where I can get in or at 4:30 or 10:00 pm.

But my kids are grown and my group prefers to eat at lounges now.

You don't have to cancel the night before. You can use the Change Reservation option on the app or online and change them up till about 2 hours before the reservation

 

[bcrook]

You don't have to cancel the night before. You can use the Change Reservation option on the app or online and change them up till about 2 hours before the reservation

You can cancel two hours before your reservation? Well hell’s bells. That’s good to know. How long has it been that way? That changes my thinking for June.

 

[AngiTN]

You can cancel two hours before your reservation? Well hell’s bells. That’s good to know. How long has it been that way? That changes my thinking for June.

Ever since they put the Change Reservation feature on the app and online.
You can't flat out cancel but if you want to cancel all you have to do is Change Reservation to a date far in the future and then cancel that.
So for example, you have a Chef Mickey's for dinner at 6:00. Sometime earlier that day you decide you don't want to eat at Chef Mickey's that night. You can go online and select Change Reservation and move it to say, a month from now. Then you can cancel that reservation.

 

[bcrook]

Ever since they put the Change Reservation feature on the app and online.
You can't flat out cancel but if you want to cancel all you have to do is Change Reservation to a date far in the future and then cancel that.
So for example, you have a Chef Mickey's for dinner at 6:00. Sometime earlier that day you decide you don't want to eat at Chef Mickey's that night. You can go online and select Change Reservation and move it to say, a month from now. Then you can cancel that reservation.

Sneaky. Disney technology has so many holes. This always works? I would be disgusted if I got nailed with a $60.00 charge. Hmm, I’m not sure I would risk it. I might try it in June just to see if it works, and if doesn’t - I’ll walk up and to podium and cancel. Let’s see I’ll try it on somewhere I won’t care to get stuck, Via Napoli maybe.

 

[AngiTN]

Sneaky. Disney technology has so many holes. This always works? I would be disgusted if I got nailed with a $60.00 charge. Hmm, I’m not sure I would risk it. I might try it in June just to see if it works, and if doesn’t - I’ll walk up and to podium and cancel. Let’s see I’ll try it on somewhere I won’t care to get stuck, Via Napoli maybe.

Disney is the one that told me to do it that way. I've never not had it work but I've never pushed it closer than a couple of hours either. Though we always know by then where we plan to eat too

 

[Deb & Bill]

Well, I don’t believe you have to have an ADR. I’ve only ran into that at Konas and La Hacienda (my least favorite place). If the restaurant is not full they will seat you. Last year during two trips I was able to walk up at Grand Floridian Cafe, coral Reef, mama Rosas, Skipper Canteen, Marrakech, Sanaa, Tiffins, yak n Yeti, blue zoo, Jiko, and many others. I think boatwrights is a stickler. Tokyo Dining accepts walk ups and Rose and Crown. The wave happily takes walkups. It depends on the time and availability.

I like to go during off times of the day. Our trips last year were in June and October.

The Wave and GFCafe may require an ADR. We've been there before where they told us we would wait for an hour to be seated at GFC and the matron at the Wave refused to seat us for a half hour, even though there were tables available.