I am constantly updating and changing our dining reservations. It never feels done, I’m always second guessing myself and now I’m starting to hoard reservations. Anyone else ever feel like this? I feel a little like an addict. 
5 Likes
It’s not just you. I’ve made myself let go of most of the extra ADRs, but I still have an extra BoG lunch and CRT breakfast that I can’t talk myself into cancelling yet. What if I change my plans and end up wanting them? I won’t be able to get them back!
2 Likes
Same here! I keep moving things around, but I’m trying to tell myself that I need to stick with my original plan. But it’s hard!
2 Likes
I am the same way! I change my mind so frequently that I will often reconfigure entire days before we book fast passes. People like us is why I have so much faith in the reservation finder as I know more reservations will become available closer to my trip!
2 Likes
I make my ADR decisions prior to to my 180 day, make my ADRs, and virtually never change any of them unless it’s to get a time I like better (which is actually a rare occurrence). My ADRs are often the spine around which I build the rest of my plans. I am philosophically very anti-hording and would never do it.
3 Likes
This is me. But I’m a planner in general, not just for Disney. I couldn’t cope with not being sure of my plans.
For the first few trips, yes, I way over booked and ended up cancelling at least 1 ADR during the vacations. It’s so hard to resist booking a ton of places because there are so many great choices.
For our next 10 day trip, I’m limiting us to 4 TS meals. Initially I also put the kibosh on buffets/all-you-care-to-eat places. But, I gave in on Ohana because the place bewitched us last time and now we must go again. Oh, and I really, really want to have brunch at the Cali Grill.
It seems like, for us, when we take a week+ trip, by the time we’re on the backstretch we eat less and less. We can tackle big meals for the first couple of days but after that, it’s just too much food.
Agree with @bswan26, much of a day’s plan revolves around the meal time.
1 Like
With 50 days to go I have released my few extras. Agree with @bswan26 our trip revolves around meal time. Using the not so FD this time, means the luxury of buffets. Usually we plan to avoid them.
My treat this time out is Sunday brunch at the CG. With one very small adult eater we would never pay OOP for that experience.
1 Like
This trip seems to be worse for this for me than any of our others have been. I think its because we splurged on the Deluxe Dining Plan and now I’m trying to be sure we get our money’s worth. And we typically travel with just our group of 4 but my inlaws are joining so we are a party of 9 and I’m trying to make everyone happy.
I’m also anti-hoarding to an extent which is why this is weird for me. I typically only hold one or two extra dining reservations until I can get people to actually look at menus and then I drop the extras. This time I keep making new ones when I think the plans might change but I can’t firm anything up so I’m ending up with too many. I need to sit done and cull the list. Nothing is hard to get stuff though so I doubt I’m keeping anyone from their dream Marakesh dinner
I change ADRs a lot, including fidgeting with times (moving a lunch from 11:50 to 12:15, for example, which I KNOW is ridiculous but can’t help doing). Ultimately, though, I usually pare down ADRs as the trip approaches, and will often cancel during the trip.
The reality of being “on the ground” is that I just don’t need that many table service meals, and hate being committed to being somewhere at a particular time. If we’re just beat, or sick, and don’t want to wake up, I hate having a breakfast res. If kiddo wants to hit the pool, or we’re just worn out by the heat, I hate having a dinner res in-park.
The worst experience we ever had at WDW was hitting DHS on a super hot day and going until about 2 pm before we were done. Except that we had a 5pm res at SciFi, and really couldn’t just head back to the hotel and still make it back on time with any kind of meaningful break. So we had to kill like 3 hours in-park when we were hot, exhausted, and cranky, it was torture. I was all for just taking the $30 no-show charge, but DH wouldn’t. Meltdowns were had.
IMO, less is better with the ADRs, there’s really plenty of reasonable options for CS food at most parks or a bus/monorail ride away at a resort. DHS is really the only one where I find there to be nothing decent to eat, but EP has excellent CS options, AK is very good, and MK is pretty good (I really do like Pecos Bill, CHH, and Pinocchio Haus).
I do a lot of planning in advance, and thinking it would be nice to eat at this restaurant, but we all actually hate being tied to reservations when we’re there. Even with the memorable dining experiences, there are memories of having to drag an unhappy child away from a ride he was enjoying, or running across the park to make the reservation time, etc.
I will also say, at the risk of drawing ire, that it’s entirely possible to give a child a great time at Disney without character dining or standing in lines for character meets. We hit the “talking Mickey” meet every trip (usually with FP), and see characters at parades, dance parties, etc., but otherwise my kiddo has been thrilled with his visits without constructing them around meeting characters.
ADRs are this weird feature of Disney travel, it becomes an obsession you can’t seem to avoid, but in reality it’s pretty weird to be planning what you’re going to eat and at what specific time 6 months in advance.
2 Likes
Couldn’t agree more, but sadly, that’s what it’s become. Back in the 70s and 80s it was so much different. At MK if you wanted to eat in the castle (King Steffan’s Banquet Hall, NOT a CM) you went to the castle at RD and signed up for a time for that day. Ditto Diamond Horseshoe review (those were the only 2 that weren’t walk-up onlyl). When EP first opened it was similar; there were kiosks in the building behind SE and you would go to those to book your dining for that day. And back then, there were fewer “reservations” for each restaurant; you could get into virtually any one of them as a walk-up, although there was sometimes a line.
1 Like
having tp deside so far out where you are going to go each day is the hardest part of planning. If I had realized that I wouldn’t be able to get a FP for FOP 60 days out, because I am going there on the first two days of my trip (1/2 days of each) I would have changed what parks I was going to. But I would have lost several of my ADRs so I am going to RP and hope for the best 
We do try and have a TS meal most days - my BF really likes that and since he is vegitarian the TS restaurants have more options for him. I actually am a bit obsessed with meeting the characters LOL, so we are doing a couple of character meals. His DDs are 10 & 13 so they will enjoy them also.
I am a complete over-planner and since we only have 6 park days I have to balance doing as much as we can - without completly burning out and getting crazy if we go ‘off-plan’ Working in breaks a hotel day & 1 late start day which I never did the other times I went - although I was younger then LOL
2 Likes