Dumb Question of the Day

Walt Disney World Dining
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It’s not really that dumb, but I’m curious about what others think. There’s been discussions on here about what would happen to wait times for rides if there was no Fastpass system, but what about dining? What if there were no ADRs? Most people (I think) dislike having to plan 6 months ahead to get dining reservations. Many people book ADRs they’ll never use in order to have multiple options in case their plans change. Disney doesn’t even have park hours and party dates planned with certainty that far out. So my question is, what would happen to dining at Disney if there were no advanced reservations? It would be walk-up only. There could be a pager system to let you know your table is ready so you could go and do something else while you waited. In order to prevent people from trying to claim tables at multiple restaurants, they could have penalties for no-shows or maybe just require everyone on the party to be listed in MDE and they could only be on one wait list at a time. There would be a lot of details that had to be ironed out (i.e. no going to CRT at 8AM and requesting a table for 7PM. Tables are given out in the order people check in, take it or leave it. If you get there at 5PM and the wait is 60 minutes, you get a table at 6PM (ish).

What do you all think? Who’s with me? Let’s get rid of ADRs! Or, tell me why that’s the stupidest idea you’ve ever heard and why I should feel ashamed and leave this forum forever. Either way.

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:rofl: well this is the way it was EONS ago. When we went to WDW on our honeymoon, you would/could sign up in the morning for a table in world show case the morning of

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And I only want that for breakfast. No mad rush for the top restaurants to try to book dinner as soon as the park opens. I’m talking “hey we’re hungry, let’s go eat”. Kind of like you’d do for applebees.

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I am a planner, so I actually prefer having a designated meal time that I know I can work my other plans around ahead of time. I don’t think I would enjoy having to walk up and find out that I had to wait 2 hours to be seated.

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I like the idea of ADRs but how about a limit of like … 60 days instead of 180?!

Also, I do think they should hold back more reservations for day of arrivals. I like the idea of a text or a alert in MDE, then you have 30-60 min to get back to the restaurant to claim it and you are slotted into the front of the line when you arrive.

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Wait times will be tracked in mde. You can monitor and join the wait list at the appropriate time. How’s that? :grin:

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Good ideas! See, we’ll have this worked out in no time!

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you don’t make ADRs at Applebees?!

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I rd to make sure I get a table

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:rofl:

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ADRs don’t bother me, but we don’t make that many, just for super-popular restaurants where I’m confident there would be long wait times even if there weren’t ADRs. This may get ME kicked out, but we don’t really go to Disney for the food, at least not to the extent that we MUST eat some specific place. We have places we like, but its more for the fun, and we can flex and go somewhere else. We don’t structure our TPs around ADRs except for something like a BOG dinner, or a special one like the new one at Artist’s Point. I think if planning where to eat were important to us, the ADR system would, yes, drive me crazy.

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Seriously, though. If I were traveling solo or with adults only, I’d be super down for this idea. But traveling with a 4 year old who goes from zero to hangry at the drop of a hat?! No way in hell would I do this - it’s bad enough when I show up 15 minutes before my ADR and then have to wait 30 minutes for a table and another 30 minutes before food shows up (cough Tony’s on Main Street cough - I know, I know. my fault for choosing Tony’s, but it was my first trip with my kid last year and I booked everything within 14 days of our traveling and there was nothing left!!! and i didn’t know about reservation finder yet!).

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Agree with this 100%

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What if most waits went to 30-45 minutes and your table was actually ready when you got there?

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I am OK with ADR’s. I agree with many points already made. It really does not need to be 180 days out. Honestly there is nothing I hate more than having to wait an extended period of time for a table. This 55+ year old can get as hangry as a 4 year old.

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The solution is ice cream between meals.

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I’m pretty sure @Randall1028 would say the solution is ice cream for meals…

And yeah, okay. I buy this. But do you honestly believe if ADRs didn’t exist that any place you’d go would only have a 30 minute wait? You’d be banking on Disney taking its IT up a few notches to basically apply same day fast pass theory to eating…

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I realize ADRs are not really reservations but they really help with planning and in most cases you have a fairly good idea when you will eat

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We have a beach house on the Atlantic coast and most decent restaurants don’t take reservations in season. So we either have to go early or avoid them if we don’t want to hang around waiting for a table.

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When my parents took my sisters and I as kids they had somewhat of a reservation system in place but nothing crazy level. They said they just sat down with the concierge after we checked in and booked everything then - including CRT. I agree with everyone that the 180 day booking window is just ridiculous. There is zero reason to book this far in advance. I do like the certainty of knowing we’re good to go for certain places at certain times (PPO breakfasts for example).

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