Am I crazy, I cancelled all of our ADRs for our upcoming trip?

[Remy is Up]

You can generally find an ADR for almost anyplace day of or day before with exceptions: Cali Grille around fireworks time, Narcoosees or Cali Grille Brunch, Castle Breakfast, Ohana can be a bit tough as can some of the other sig restaurants like Yachtsman, Flying Fish, Jiko, Monsieur Pauls, Citricos. But even with those out of the picture, there are always good places to try available day of or day before.

 

[Lisa F]

agree with those who say if certain in park locations are important to you, you should book an ADR. If you can take it or leave it then you can just get whatever is available.. or nothing and go to counter service. There is no right or wrong, unless you expect to walk up to popular locations without an ADR. That is wrong and will just lead to frustration. But the decision to leave it if no ADRs are available when you decide you want to go is personal.

 

[crabbygal902]

You are not crazy at all! The FREEDOM of having no ADRs is wonderful.

Some tips:

Bars and lounges are great for a quick bite and a beverage or two, often with zero wait and terrific food especially if they are tied to a signature restaurant. We have never been turned away or had to wait more than a few minutes with the one exception of Citricos. No worries, we hopped the monorail over to the Contemporary. California Grill Lounge has been very easy for us to access, no ADR needed, with the full menu available. We've shown up at least on 8 different occasions at various dining times and have been seated.

Using the app to make ADRs the night before or even just an hour before is very convenient. Everything, even the most popular, shows up at some point.

Is the "no plan -plan" good for getting your value out of the DDP? No.
Is it good for folks who have their heart set on a specific day and time at any particular restaurant? Certainly not.
Is it good for folks who want some flexibility and don't know what they want to eat 6 months before their meal? Yes!

It is so easy.

 

[Beachmom0317]

We have two small children so we just “winged it” this past trip every day. I am a planner- so it was stressful thinking about it before the trip, but on our actual trip I was pleasantly surprised by how much availabity there was the day of or day before! Availability was limited right before the time we were looking for, we had to book a few hours in advance but had no problem!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Our last trip (12/20/18 to 01/03/19) I only made ADRs for arrival night (FF), holiday dinners (FF, bluezoo, and Wine Bar George) and places known to have limited availabilty like V+A and CA Grill brunch; everywhere else was either a walk-in or same day ADR/opentable.
Worked out fine for us.

 

[aml3679]

Well we are back from our vacation already. While we were there it was important for me to eat at Art Smith's Homecomin and my husband for Frontera Cocina - the only ADRs on My Disney Experience were 10:15 at night. We decided to go to the restaurants themselves and we were able to make reservations. This thread is not a dining review, but, I am going to take to opportunity to let you know our experience.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and the food court was nothing to write home about. We did buy reusable mugs for $20 each that were were able to fill during our resort time.

We ate many of our meals in Disney Springs:

House of Blues: My husband had a fried chicken sandwich and fries which he loved. I had friend chicken, mashed potatoes, and the best coleslaw I have ever had. Wonderful meal not matter what you get.

Art Smith's Homecomin: Best meal of our stay. My husband had a whiskey flight with a beer chaser and candied pecans which he thoroughly enjoyed. We both had the fried chicken with creamy mashed and a cheddar biscuit. Best friend chicken ever - buttery and crispy at the same time. My husband had their chocolate pecan pie with vanilla ice cream that he loved and I had the donuts which I did not enjoy.

Frontera Cocina: We loved it here. My husband had 2 drinks and a salad. I had a chicken covered in a cheese sauce - very delicious.

Magic Kingdom:

Skipper Canteen - One of the best meals we had all trip. I had jasmine rice with a crispy fried chicken breast and vegetables in a teriyaki sauce (the sauce was a little thick) and my husband had pad thai noodles - it was delicious.

Hollywood Studios:

50's Prime Time Cafe: A favorite. My husband had fried chicken and onion rings and I had meatloaf, fried chicken, and pot roast. We loved it.

Animal Kingdom:

Yak and Yeti: We loved it our last trip but this trip did not really enjoy it. It was not bad but for the price it was not good either. Should have eaten at Tusker House instead.

Epcot:

Via Napoli - we had a pepperoni pizza for lunch and each got a 10" but in reality could have shared one. I ordered the chocolate hazelnut cake for dessert and found it dry and traded in for a taramisu which I greatly enjoyed.

San Angel Inn: We had tortilla chips and salsa. Then my husband had tacos which he enjoyed and I had a chicken dish smothered in cheese. We each had a flan for dessert. We liked it a lot.

Finally, Hoop-Dee-Doo Review: Fried chicken, ribs, potatoes, beans, salad, corn, and cornbread. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. We liked the friend chicken, could not eat the ribs and the rest was mediocre. All you can eat and drink including beer and wine. This is a tradition on our last night.

 

[DisBuckMan]

Well we are back from our vacation already. While we were there it was important for me to eat at Art Smith's Homecomin and my husband for Frontera Cocina - the only ADRs on My Disney Experience were 10:15 at night. We decided to go to the restaurants themselves and we were able to make reservations. This thread is not a dining review, but, I am going to take to opportunity to let you know our experience.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and the food court was nothing to write home about. We did buy reusable mugs for $20 each that were were able to fill during our resort time.

We ate many of our meals in Disney Springs:

House of Blues: My husband had a fried chicken sandwich and fries which he loved. I had friend chicken, mashed potatoes, and the best coleslaw I have ever had. Wonderful meal not matter what you get.

Art Smith's Homecomin: Best meal of our stay. My husband had a whiskey flight with a beer chaser and candied pecans which he thoroughly enjoyed. We both had the fried chicken with creamy mashed and a cheddar biscuit. Best friend chicken ever - buttery and crispy at the same time. My husband had their chocolate pecan pie with vanilla ice cream that he loved and I had the donuts which I did not enjoy.

Frontera Cocina: We loved it here. My husband had 2 drinks and a salad. I had a chicken covered in a cheese sauce - very delicious.

Magic Kingdom:

Skipper Canteen - One of the best meals we had all trip. I had jasmine rice with a crispy fried chicken breast and vegetables in a teriyaki sauce (the sauce was a little thick) and my husband had pad thai noodles - it was delicious.

Hollywood Studios:

50's Prime Time Cafe: A favorite. My husband had fried chicken and onion rings and I had meatloaf, fried chicken, and pot roast. We loved it.

Animal Kingdom:

Yak and Yeti: We loved it our last trip but this trip did not really enjoy it. It was not bad but for the price it was not good either. Should have eaten at Tusker House instead.

Epcot:

Via Napoli - we had a pepperoni pizza for lunch and each got a 10" but in reality could have shared one. I ordered the chocolate hazelnut cake for dessert and found it dry and traded in for a taramisu which I greatly enjoyed.

San Angel Inn: We had tortilla chips and salsa. Then my husband had tacos which he enjoyed and I had a chicken dish smothered in cheese. We each had a flan for dessert. We liked it a lot.

Finally, Hoop-Dee-Doo Review: Fried chicken, ribs, potatoes, beans, salad, corn, and cornbread. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. We liked the friend chicken, could not eat the ribs and the rest was mediocre. All you can eat and drink including beer and wine. This is a tradition on our last night.

For future reference, the Disney Springs restaurants only release a small percentage of their ADR's to the Disney reservation system. So, they generally show up as completely booked (other than maybe at odd times). You can go on Open Table and get reservations at Disney Springs restaurants, though...day of most of the time.

 

[kylieh]

We pretty much did the same - cancelled most of our ADRs. We kept four (we're there for nearly two weeks) and even that seems too many. V&A, BOG breakfast, Rainforest Cafe where my daughter and her friend want to celebrate their "friendversary", and Crystal Palace on our last morning. We may cancel Crystal Palace, we'll see how we feel when it gets closer.

 

[goofy4prez]

I'm glad to hear that all went well for the OP and they were able to enjoy their time there and also get into and enjoy some good restaurants. Well done! With that said, some have said the DxDP is to much food and they don't like to be tied down to ADR's and etc. I get it, but for me I am a DxDP person and always get it. We don't do 3 TS per day. For the days we want to stay in a park late we catch a breakfast and then a signature dinner. There are days we don't want to stay in a park late and then we do a late lunch and a late dinner at a signature restaurant. In short, we do one sit down and a signature restaurant. We are at that stage in our lives where we are not park commando's and run from rope drop to closure. Our meals are part of our planning and our Disney experience just as trying to figure out how to get on FOP or Slinky Dog or which resort we are staying at. I will say though this is just us and I completely get others ideas of how they plan and execute their vacations.

 

[Jetta8300]

We quit making ADR's more than a day ahead (mostly only day of, though) 3 or 4 years ago. Won't ever go back to being tied down to ADR's made months ahead again. There isn't a single restaurant at Disney World that we feel the food is good enough to go through all that for.

We have zero problems eating wherever we want making reservations day of...or at most day before.

Liberating yourself is great.

I guess i'm not really sure how you're "tied down" to a reservation when you can cancel it as close as the night before. We Make reservations where we think we would like to eat for lunch and dinner, and then if we don't feel like doing it the day before, we cancel. I think it's better to be prepared and cancel if we don't want to do something than be completely unprepared and disappointed if something doesn't have availability. We have had a ton of difficulty getting last minute ADRs. If you like to eat a popular places you need to make reservations, and look at them the night before to make sure you still want those ADRs.

Bottom line... is some people get stressed for some reason by having too many plans. Other people are stressed by having not enough plans. depends what works for you!

 

[gharter]

I understand the idea of eating where you can and being spontaneous. If you happen to be there during a busy time, not having an ADR can make dining a real challenge. There are too many really good places that we KNOW we want to eat for us to be able to do that.
If you can, great. i know, we can't.

 

[aml3679]

I guess the mind set has to be, like ours was, if we do not get to ride on something, do something, or eat somewhere we wanted, then it was okay - it was not meant to be. We had the Deluxe DDP last time and felt like we were running to and from reservations and it is too much food. At our resort, people were filling baskets with snacks just to use up their snack credits. Luckily, living on 90 minutes away and having annual passes, we can go back throughout the year.

 

[mom2rtk]

I guess the mind set has to be, like ours was, if we do not get to ride on something, do something, or eat somewhere we wanted, then it was okay - it was not meant to be. We had the Deluxe DDP last time and felt like we were running to and from reservations and it is too much food. At our resort, people were filling baskets with snacks just to use up their snack credits. Luckily, living on 90 minutes away and having annual passes, we can go back throughout the year.

Yeah, it's definitely a different mindset for someone who can't make it back soon to do what they miss on their current trip.

 

[gharter]

I guess the mind set has to be, like ours was, if we do not get to ride on something, do something, or eat somewhere we wanted, then it was okay - it was not meant to be. We had the Deluxe DDP last time and felt like we were running to and from reservations and it is too much food. At our resort, people were filling baskets with snacks just to use up their snack credits. Luckily, living on 90 minutes away and having annual passes, we can go back throughout the year.

We had the DDP once. I was glad it was free, because it was too much food for us as well. haven't done it since. Maybe a good deal for some, just not us.