Can someone please explain ADRs?

[PAfirsttimemom]

Just starting planning for a Dec. WDW trip. I figured out what ADR stands for, but what are the advantages to making dining reservations in advance? Are these ADRs for the actual theme parks? I'm sure I'll learn all of this as we get farther into the process....

[Momof3Labs]

There are only so many reservations for each time slot, and the best slots (say, 5-6pm for dinner, 8am for breakfast, noon for lunch) fill up very early and very fast. If you don't mind eating lunch at 3pm or dinner at 9pm, you may be able to get away with waiting until you arrive to make your reservations. But most of the restaurants do not accomodate walk-ins at all, so if you want to eat at a particular place in a certain time frame, you really need to make ADRs (you can always cancel them if you change your plans).

And if you have free dining, you absolutely must make ADRs, or there is a decent chance that you won't be able to use all of your table service credits (or be stuck using them at bad times or locations that you don't care to eat at).

[las710]

We are going in November and I just had my first experience reserving ADRs. I think it is important to make ADRs because with Disney's free dining offer many more people are eating at the Disney restaurants and prime dining times and places fill up fast. And if you go during peak times (between Xmas and NY), you'll have similar issues.

If you are getting the dining plan and have the one that includes one quick service, one table service and one snack per day, you can use your table service meal to attend the character meals -- this is one HOT reservation at many of those restaurants.

What I did was layout our trip and figure out what character meals we wanted to do -- for us it was Chef Mickey's and some kind of princess meal. We also wanted to keep our dining time somewhat similar to our schedule at home -- 6-7pm (we have a 3-yr old and 1-yr old). Then I went on the Disney dining site... http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/restaurants/ and started trying some dates and times to see what was available and made reservations accordingly. You can make reservations 90 days in advance and I hear that prime dates/times can fill up within a few hours of release. We are purchasing the dining plan and are going in mid-November (non-peak) so we didn't have too much trouble getting the meals/times we wanted. We'd wanted to do a date night at Le Cellier in Epcot but there was no availability... that was the only reservation that didn't work out. When we made the reservations none required a credit card hold except for the princess meal in Epcot/Norway. I'd say make some reservations -- you can always change your mind and cancel them once you get there.

Oh... and the ADR restaurants are throughout the Disney property -- at the parks, the resorts and Downtown Disney.

Hope that helps!
Lisa

[MelissaDmom2i2g]

As a Disney mom (we live 15 min from WDW)... I highly, highly recommend making ADR... No matter what time of year it is for any of the character dining you have to make ADR, we have never been able to just walk up and get in, even at the slowest time of year.

If you have girls and want to do a character dining (lunch or dinner) I suggest the character dining at Norway in Epcot, they have the princesses. This one is also good for the younger children that may be too scared of the characters in the costumes, they are large and can be a little scary, the princesses are good because it just ladies in dresses, KWIM.

We went for lunch in February and it cost us about $140 for 3 adults (my 11 yr old was one of the adults, disney kids run age 3-10, 11 moves to adult pricing) and 1 child (my 6 yr old), it included drinks, an entree of choice from a small menu (they were very accommodating, my 6 yr old had Mickey Ravioli and they left the sauce off for her) , a buffet and desert. Also included with the price is an 8X10 photo with one of the princesses that you take right when you walk in. Belle was the princesses of the day so we had our pic with her. Plus while you are eating the other princesses come around and take pic's with your table and sign's autographs so don't forget your autograph book and a pen.

In Magic Kingdom there is the Crystal Palace that has all the Pooh Characters but this may be a bit scary for the little one's let me tell you Pooh's head is HUGE.. lol. This one is a full buffet and runs about the same price as the others. This one is good to do a bit later because it guarantee's you a great seat for the fireworks.

If you do not have the dining plan and really want to do a character dining and you are doing disney on a budget, go for breakfast or lunch it is cheaper then dinner, you get about the same types/amounts of food and you have the same characters.

Let me know if you have any questions. I know those parks with my eyes closed.

Have a wonderful time. IMO it is the best place on earth.