An entire trip with no pre-trip ADRs?

[MomOTwins]

Thank you all for your thoughts and advice! I’ve whittled down my ADR list to 5 places, I let everyone pick one ADR I had on the list that they wanted me to keep so every place that had a vote I kept!

Beaches and Cream (new to us)
Topolino’s Terrace Breakfast (new to us)
50’s Prime Time
Skipper Canteen (new to us)
Akershus dinner- DH’s favorite, so funny!

We will see how the rest of the trip goes with day of places to eat or QS!

Those are all awesome choices. A good variety of experiences, and Akershus is my favorite character meal!

Now if only Space 220 would open...that is the one wrinkle in my ADR plans.

 

[Mango7100]

We will be going for Spring Break this year again and have 4 ADRs for the whole trip—Topolino character breakfast, Bon Voyage breakfast, BOG PPO breakfast (will drop if the hours change and it is no longer a PPO), and BOG lunch. We tend to do character breakfast because it’s cheaper and we love breakfast food—do it as a late breakfast around 11 and it fills us up so only a QS dinner is needed or snacking at Epcot booths.

 

[nkereina]

We did a quick trip back in early November and I didn't book any ADRs. It was a last minute trip so I knew availability would be tough, and I wanted complete flexibility in our days since we were trying to cram a lot into a short window. There were a few points during the trip when we felt like taking a break and enjoying a TS meal, so we checked the app for availability. I intended to be flexible and use the opportunity to try new places, but I found myself turning my nose up at the options or times available. On our DHS day, there was no TS availability for lunch in the park at all, save for a 2:30pm Mama Melrose slot which was too late for us. We stopped by 50s PT who were not taking walk-ups, and Sci Fi said they could put our name down, but no guarantees we'd get a table and no estimate on the wait. We ended up eating QS and thought we'd try again later for dinner around 8pm. Same scenario for dinner, but Sci Fi was no longer taking walk-ups at that point. So, we left the park and went to Disney Springs which had more TS options for us to choose from.

So, as others have said, book the ones that are important to you. Or at least book ADRs now and decide the day before what you want to do the next day and cancel accordingly.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I did a 10 day trip with just myself and DD12 last November. We only booked ADRs for HDDR, BOG lunch and BOG dinner. Everything else we got on the app the same day. That included VN, B&C, MM, ESPN and YC. We had the Landry's card for Y&Y, which was a zoo, and we were seated immediately. We did HBD lounge twice since it ended up being DD's favorite place. We also tried some QS places I've been wanting to do and F&W booths. We also tried the little shops on the Boardwalk since we stayed at BWV.

When we go as a family of four I do not wing it. Like a PP stated if I don't plan it becomes a constant debate of what are we going to eat. I actually plan most of the trip so everyone knows there's a park, FP+ and ADR plan for each day and they are good with it. I actually send it to everyone so they know ahead of time. It avoids a lot of drama with "when are we going to AK? Are we ever going to ride FOP? Did you book Ohana? Mom, can we go to Cosmic Ray's today?" I even plan our QS meals to avoid the debate. I make sure I do a mix of old favorites and some new things I think each individual will enjoy. Now everything is subject to change, I'm not deadest on it all, but it helps a lot.

 

[TwinkleKS]

I just got back from a no ADRs made ahead of time weekend. It helped that we are only a party of two when I decided to make a few reservations. We were able to make next day reservations for the two places DD wanted - SciFi and San Angel Inn. For spring break I have made one ADR per day and figure we will wing the rest. There are seven of us that trip and we had a few specific requests from my nephew that doesn't join us very often, so I felt I should go ahead and make sure that happened.

 

[maswanson11]

Back from our trip and wanted to add we enjoyed all our ADR's and we were able to get ADRs at the following places the day of or the day before:
Raglan Road
Trattoria al Forno
Oga's Cantina
Sanaa

We were even able to change our time for our Akershus ADR and our Beaches & Cream ADR.

I would not hesitate to go on a trip in the future with little to no ADRs ahead of time, I was amazed how much opened up!

Plus we enjoyed sharing quick service plates and snacking around the world in Epcot, gave us so much more freedom for park plans!