Traveling with NO ADR Advance Dining Reservations - Tons of Options

[sdk1231]

In my last several trips (I go 3-4 times a year), I've given up booking Advance Dining Reservations, except in very rare instances. I got tired of the mad scramble trying to book ADRs, and I tend to prefer a more fluid travel style. I now book on the fly and I always have an incredible amount of choices. Following is an example from my Thanksgiving Weekend trip:

Dinner on Black Friday 11/25.
I checked dining availability at 2:30 p.m., looking for a dinner for 4 at around 6pm. I had a massive amount of choices, including:

Space 220
Storybook Dining at Artist Point
California Grill
Be Our Guest
Citrico's
Steakhouse 71
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Topolino's Terrace
Cinderella's Royal Table
etc., etc.

On Sunday 11/27, I was checking for lunch for 4 and found a 12pm slot at Topolino's Terrace. That's still the character breakfast time, and it happened to work for us. I'm not a huge fan of super pricey character breakfasts now that my kids are grown, but Topolino's breakfast has been on my daughter's "must do" list. Since it's so hard to get, I booked it. I will say - it was worth the hype. We all loved it. The food and characters were outstanding.

Everyone's travel style is different, but thought I'd pass this along. I find my options when booking day before / day of are plentiful and varied.

 

[projectx3]

I came to the same conclusion on our last trip. We were there all of Thanksgiving week. Now, if there's a particular restaurant that you REALLY want to try, then yes, make that ADR. Some of the more high demand places never did pop up (SciFi, Space 220), but there were plenty of options if you just wanted a sit down meal, including some that are thought of to be hard to get. Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace, Candlelight Processional packages are a few examples.

 

[sdk1231]

I came to the same conclusion on our last trip. We were there all of Thanksgiving week. Now, if there's a particular restaurant that you REALLY want to try, then yes, make that ADR. Some of the more high demand places never did pop up (SciFi, Space 220), but there were plenty of options if you just wanted a sit down meal, including some that are thought of to be hard to get. Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace, Candlelight Processional packages are a few examples.

Exactly. I admit that I was pretty surprised to see the Space 220 dinner pop up, as well as Topolino's breakfast. Forgot to mention that I saw Ohana dinner availability almost every night. I know that's one that people say is difficult to get. I saw tons of SciFi for lunch, but not for dinner.

 

[projectx3]

Exactly. I admit that I was pretty surprised to see the Space 220 dinner pop up

Was it on Saturday the 26th? That might have been the ADR we ended up cancelling!
After seeing more and more feedback about the subpar food, I just couldn't bring myself to pay the inflated prices.

 

[sdk1231]

Was it on Saturday the 26th? That might have been the ADR we ended up cancelling!
After seeing more and more feedback about the subpar food, I just couldn't bring myself to pay the inflated prices.

Ha ha ha! No, the reservation that I saw was for Fri the 25th. I did a CP dining package at Garden Grill on the Saturday. Well, I'm sure someone was happy to pick up your reservation on the 26th! I've never eaten there, simply because I don't find the whole space thing all that appealing. (I think space is kind of scary - LOL)

 

[elaine amj]

I was there in October for 3 weeks and tried almost every day for Topolino’s and got nowhere It was even difficult to get an Ale&Compass breakfast until I finally lucked out one day. Ohana wasn’t too bad - I think I snagged that the night before I wanted to go. All in all, I had a harder time getting ADRs than I am used to. Still shocked I could never find a Topolino’s brunch the night before.

 

[SusanDK]

This is encouraging since we never plan ahead. When you are able to grab a day-of reservation, do they still require a deposit?

 

[loves to dive]

We have always done ours day of. The only thing I ever book in advance is tea at the GF (which hasn't started back) and any special event meals we might want. Things like the progressive monorail thing they used to have. Heck, I even booked V&A a week out.

Back in the day we used to love to go to GS and ask them to find us somewhere to eat. We tried to go when they weren't busy, we would tell them the park didn't matter and the time range. Sometimes the CM's would have a competition to see who could find us the best something the quickest. Now days, we just do it either while walking around the parks or when we are back at the room during a mid afternoon break. We always have hoppers, now it's two adults but back when we started my son was a toddler. The time was more important when he was younger but now it doesn't matter. We love trying new places and even after going for 39 years, there are still plenty of places we haven't eaten at. We try to always find at least 2 new to us places a trip.

 

[justafigment27]

We just got back from a 12/17-12/24 trip and the 2 hour cancellation policy meant there were reservations for practically everything on the day of … at least I think it was the 2 hour policy that made the difference!

I was booking for a party of 4 and was able to swap ADR’s all over the place and get reservations that were unavailable when I tried to book prior to our trip.

There were several same day available times for CP dining package on NPH day (12/18) - I had already booked, so I didn’t need one, but was surprised to see different restaurants available (ours was at Coral Reef and I had wanted something different, but CR was the ONLY place available every time I looked prior to the trip).

I was also able to find several dinner options between 5-6:30pm at MK on the day of our MVMCP - Tony’s, Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree Tavern and even a 6:30pm at Be Our Guest. I had tried before our trip and the only times available were like 3:45 or 4:15pm.

The only thing available at DHS when I booked was the Brown Derby - which I like, but we ate there on our last trip and were hoping for something else. I was able to change to a 6:00pm Prime Time Cafe same day.

I was also able to swap times around for Boma and Whispering Canyon Cafe - I had 5:30 ADR’s and realized 6:30 worked better for us.

I even saw SPACE available at one point.

I think the only 2 ADR’s that we kept as originally scheduled were the Candlelight Processional package and a 10:40am Crystal Palace on our last MK day.

 

[sdk1231]

We just got back from a 12/17-12/24 trip and the 2 hour cancellation policy meant there were reservations for practically everything on the day of … at least I think it was the 2 hour policy that made the difference!

I was booking for a party of 4 and was able to swap ADR’s all over the place and get reservations that were unavailable when I tried to book prior to our trip.

There were several same day available times for CP dining package on NPH day (12/18) - I had already booked, so I didn’t need one, but was surprised to see different restaurants available (ours was at Coral Reef and I had wanted something different, but CR was the ONLY place available every time I looked prior to the trip).

I was also able to find several dinner options between 5-6:30pm at MK on the day of our MVMCP - Tony’s, Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree Tavern and even a 6:30pm at Be Our Guest. I had tried before our trip and the only times available were like 3:45 or 4:15pm.

The only thing available at DHS when I booked was the Brown Derby - which I like, but we ate there on our last trip and were hoping for something else. I was able to change to a 6:00pm Prime Time Cafe same day.

I was also able to swap times around for Boma and Whispering Canyon Cafe - I had 5:30 ADR’s and realized 6:30 worked better for us.

I even saw SPACE available at one point.

I think the only 2 ADR’s that we kept as originally scheduled were the Candlelight Processional package and a 10:40am Crystal Palace on our last MK day.

Nice job! I've been doing without ADR's since before the new 2 hour cancellation policy and had good luck, but with the new 2 hr policy in place, it's quite astounding how many great reservations are available. I far prefer traveling this way versus doing the frustrating mad scramble for ADRs. Glad you had great choices at times that worked for you. (Including CP dinner packages for NPH and Space 220 - wow!)

 

[1magnetgirl]

Thank you so much for posting this thread. I was freaking out after just now booking an early February trip and I'm not finding availability for our favorites. I don't like pre-planning every second anyway. Thank you for giving me hope!

 

[justafigment27]

Thank you so much for posting this thread. I was freaking out after just now booking an early February trip and I'm not finding availability for our favorites. I don't like pre-planning every second anyway. Thank you for giving me hope!

The flexibility was nice. If you have a few favorites and are not absolutely set on a particular ADR, it opens things up more. But if you have a must have, then keep refreshing! The real beauty is that you can book something that looks “pretty good” but still refresh and change if you find something even better - just so long as you pay attention to that 2 hr window.

 

[sdk1231]

The flexibility was nice. If you have a few favorites and are not absolutely set on a particular ADR, it opens things up more. But if you have a must have, then keep refreshing! The real beauty is that you can book something that looks “pretty good” but still refresh and change if you find something even better - just so long as you pay attention to that 2 hr window.

If you want to cancel an ADR and you're within the 2 hour window, you can always just modify your ADR to a later date and then cancel it.

 

[1magnetgirl]

If you want to cancel an ADR and you're within the 2 hour window, you can always just modify your ADR to a later date and then cancel it.

Oh Wow! This is great information!!! Thank you!

 

[sdk1231]

Oh Wow! This is great information!!! Thank you!

Yeah... the old "modify" loophole. I keep thinking it'll be closed at some point, but it still works.