Yes, that’s true actually. There are a select few that you have to pay in advance.
You can get a refund if you cancel the reservation, but you do have to pay in full for those few.
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Sorry for the week old bump. But I recently made ADR’s for HDDR and CRT for September and did not have to pay for either in advance. I have the DDP and was told they would just take credits for the meal unless I specified at the time of dining that I wanted to pay OOP.
This last trip i found the planning to be much more of a royal pain in the rss than fun. I feel the planning and the fact that things are SUCKED up 180 days out - to have taken a lot of fun out of it.
Right. I was referring to when you don’t have DDP. Then you have to pay in full up front
To answer your question - NO it has not always been this way.
Back when WDW opened there was no planning - expect that you would have to plan how your would spend your tickets. Yes - WDW used to have a ticket book and each ride would cost a ticket - A through E. Hence the term “That is an E ticket ride!!” So you had to plan that way - but other than that - no. This was mostly due to reasonable crowds. Yes you would wait - but nothing crazy. You didn’t have to send in a landing party to save a space for parades. There were only two hotels as well. Even when Epcot opened it wasn’t bad. Once again the crowds were not nearly as large.
However - as international travelers have now flocked to WDW they, along with more domestic travelers - have pushed the number of visitors to where we are now. Last year FL expected 100 MILLION visitors - with many going to WDW. So it is, IMHO a function of the park popularity. To a certain degree - I think WDW has combated it with raising prices at an accelerated rate. FP used to be a “DAY OF” proposition. You went to the park and someone went to the popular rides and got FPs. Now WDW is wanting to control and move the crowds - and FP is helping them with that.
Also the meals - you only ever needed to make reservations at the Higher End restaurants. However once again capacity is such that you need ADRs to get a meal almost anywhere.
I hope the trend reverses itself or WDW creates enough capacity so that you can relax a bit.
I really needed this entire thread! We are going for four days/nights the week of Christmas. This planning has been so, so difficult! We have gone to Disney A LOT, so I had gotten to the point that the whole family just knew what to do. Planning was fun!
Everything is different now! I bought The Unofficial Guide for the first time in 10 years. It’s out of date already. (Is there ANYTHING to do at DHS???)
Planning ahead for our ADR has been stressing me out completely. I always plan what days to go to each park, then plan the meals for each. We are HUGE fans of staying on property to use the EMH. We don’t know if there even will be any at that time.
Part of the problem is that, because of the Unofficial Guide and Touring Plans, my family thinks I have magical powers in Disney planning. It’s a lot to live up to. It sounds like I’m not alone here! But reading all of your posts has reminded me of what is important. Getting to the park early. No! Everything will all work out. It doesn’t matter if we get reservations at BoG. I’ll get them SOMEWHERE and we will have fun!
Thank you all!
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I’ve only been going to Disney for the last 15years and it has changed HUGELY since our very first visit…we didn’t book a thing and had a super time. The planning now is getting out of hand…it’s hard work and you can sometimes get carried away with trying to fit everything in. But your right…it doesn’t matter if you don’t!! I’m just going to keep in mind that I have experience a lot of Disney over the time I have been going so I can let some things go…I’m not gonna have a bad time just because I can’t get on a ride or get a ADR! That’s why I find Epcot is my favourite park, you can just go, wander around and take in all around you without having to rush. You can grab food easily and it seems much more relaxed. Buddhist chant here…‘breathe and smile’ 
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Absolutely! Just off the top of my head: Ride Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock Coaster, Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and the Great Movie Ride. Visit Launch Bay, meet Chewie and Kylo Ren, and watch the Star Wars shows on the main stage in front of GMR. Watch Indy & Beauty and the Beast. Meet whatever characters interest you in the park.Watch Fantasmic and then the awesome Star Wars fireworks. Eat a meal or two, wander One Man’s Dream, see Muppet Vision, re-ride TOT and Rock Coaster as they are 2 of the best rides in WDW. I don’t even like Star Wars all that much but had a great visit at HS recently. Hope you have a great trip!
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I think the overriding theme is that a trip to WDW is not the “care free - lets skip to the parks and do what we want to do” experience it once was. It is a result of its own success. In recent years I feel WDW has not stayed up with what they should be though. HS is a joke, Epcot with Soarin gone was a joke, AK still is a 1/2 park. MK is great still - but even with new fantasy land - needs to expand. The amount of planning you have to do to see things that you SHOULD be able to see is crazy - the fun and spark is kind of gone for me. Yes I still like it - but the wonder and spontaneity is in HISTORY LAND
Let’s analyze our beef with the Disney PTB (or the modern world in general, as the case may be), point by point.
FIRST POINT - The fact that so much planning is necessary.
This is actually a fallacy. Believe it or not, LOTS of people still go to WDW without much planning ahead and somehow manage to have a good time. 
The crowds and lines (except for at holidays/spring break) are really not unmanageable to most, and are still better than you see at most other theme/amusement parks. I can never remember going to WDW, even in the 90s and not having to wait in lines… it’s only thanks to more advanced strategizing (TPs, choosing off times to visit, having a “RD plan”) that I’ve grown to think that standing in line is something that can be avoided.
We, as a group, are what psychologists refer to as “Maximizers”, or people who will go the extra mile to make everything in our lives happen exactly as we prefer. The rest of the world (“Satisficers”) are happy with good enough. Study after study shows that Maximizers are usually less happy with their outcomes, even when they are better outcomes than the Satisficers got. It’s not a huge difference in happiness, though, so that’s not a good reason to try and change your entire life strategy (which you probably couldn’t do, even if you wanted to), but it’s worth knowing, because it helps you recognize when maybe you’re expecting too much. Let’s face it: we are a monster we’ve created ourselves. WDW has tried to appease that monster with the introduction of 180 day ADRs and FPP, and telling us about new features well in advance but we are a gluttonous beast, and the things we thought we wanted still aren’t enough to make things perfect.
SECOND POINT - The crowds are increasing, despite the offerings not getting better
Aside from our need to have everything locked down before we even get on a plane, many of the the problems we have come down to the fact that demand is outstripping supply for attractions and TS locations. I can only think of two ways that Disney could fix this “problem”…
- Raise prices to the point where half of the crowd can’t or won’t afford tickets, and/or can’t afford to eat at TS locations. (reduce demand)
- Drastically increase capacity, by increasing capacity of existing attractions and TS locations (which isn’t actually even possible in many cases) and also adding a substantial number of new attractions and TS locations. (increase supply)
Clearly #1 isn’t a viable strategy. Not only is it a terrible business strategy, it would price a lot of US out of our favorite place! That said, we’ve all seen it happening with the new ticket pricing, but Disney has been trying to control demand in that way for years… seasonal resort pricing is definitely not a new thing (and, ironically, not something anyone complains about the way they did about the new ticket prices), and offering drastic discount and promotional freebies and scheduling major events at historically slow times to draw people away from the busier has been Disney’s MO for awhile.
Number 2 is a trickier puzzle. AS mentioned above, there are very popular locations whose capacity simply cannot be increased. Time has proven that long waits for such attractions doesn’t have much effect on the demand, and scarcity of available spots only increases demand for TS locations and resorts, because in our world the perception is that limited availability = a “special” must-not-miss experience. That means that adding new things to draw interest away from these locations is the only effective solution. I’m sure Disney would love to do that, BUT…
Now we run into in the fact that Disney, as an entity, is basically a Maximizer. They try their best not to release anything that isn’t going to be perfect. That means when they develop a new thing, it takes a looong time and then delays usually happen and we get agitated. The Maximizing tendency reinforces this problem… when everything you create is amazing, people EXPECT amazing every time. If they rush 5 new things in a year then 3 or 4 of them might be total flops which does nothing to fix the problem (though a long pattern of crap might reduce overall demand slightly).
The development problem is inextricably linked to #1 as well, because development costs money… and that’s development of anything: new napkin designs, a new topiary, new signage… even just making things “fresh” looking is incredibly expensive. The more they spend the more they need to make, and selling 15 tickets at $100 is pretty much always going to win out over selling 8 tickets at $150.
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Thanks Nikkipoooo, that was very interesting, and fun to read. Gives me a few things to think about. 
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I really enjoyed reading this, I can now see why you are studying what you are studying! I would say I was a bit of both…a maximiser and a satisficer. I like to plan, up to a point, but I also like to go with the flow…it is a holiday after all. This is why ‘gasp’ I’ve never done a TP, it’s just a step too far for me… I can see it works for a lot of people and that’s great but it feels like a military operation to me!
As for your second point…I haven’t a clue what the solution could be! I always think to myself…how about another park, but then the cost would be astronomical and I don’t think Disney would have the space in Florida? Another solution may be to build disneys in other countries to limit guests from abroad, although my closest Disney is in Paris and I’ve never been to it! 
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It’s even trickier because new attractions themselves actually increase overall DEMAND, even as they increase SUPPLY. It’s really hard to stay ahead. Disney could build a new attraction to spread out the crowds, but end up attracting more people to the parks…
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Very enjoyable read - however I would change “Maximizer” to “Control Freak”. I do agree it is a bit of Monster in ourselves. I guess also in the fact that most of us have been there several times and have learned from past experiences. We NEVER go in the summer. NEVER go when the crowd calendar is above X. Go when prices are lower as crowds are lower etc. However I do contend that although we are Maximizers - also planning as a whole makes sense. The fact that popular restaurants, resorts etc are booked up the day of availability proves that there are lots of us out there.
I do have to say that although WDW tries to do a good job - I think, as of late they have fallen a bit short in some areas. The fact that they charge as much as they charge - it SHOULD be perfect. I know people used to say to me "Why would you want to go there - it is so ‘manufactured’ - I would reply that is exactly WHY we go there. Everything is planned to be perfect. I think WDW has had a bit of its lunch money taken by Universal and WWOHP - and they are now on the defensive to get it back - which is ultimately good for us the consumer. Also, although I am NOT the 1% - I think it is perfectly legitimate for WDW to charge different things at different amounts and the 1% - if they can afford it should have the additional amenities available to them.
I do think that we all like to “find the deal” and “trick the system” to our advantage - planning is part of the fun!!
My understanding is that the amount of land Disney owns in Central Florida is plentiful enough to add another park and then some.
There’s room, just no motivation. Given that Pandora is costing close to (or over) 1 Billion, and the DHS additions are close to 3 Billion, a whole new 5th gate would easily cost 10-15 Billion. That’s a HUGE investment - even for Disney. And the fact is attendance is UP and rising every year. It would take a MAJOR drop in attendance for them to add a park.
Personally (although Bob Iger still hasn’t called me) I don’t think they need a fifth gate - but rather expansion of current gates. HS is a joke and a sorry excuse for a park. Animal Kingdom after how many years is still not a full day park. Epcot’s shine has left and the number of closures is just sad. They need to invest / expand current parks (as they now seem to be doing) instead of a whole new park. I don’t think they have the focus to have a full fifth park. I think they are treating the property as we remodel our homes - one room at a time. They aren’t spending money in the living room as the kitchen needs to be redone. If there is a 5th park - the cycle of upgrades to the current parks will juts further decline. Additionally however attendance HAS actually DROPPED this year. Not by much but it is down. Profits are up though due to increased per guest costs.
As a follow-up to my May 20 gripefest post, we had a wonderful (and relaxing!) time on our mid-June trip. I did switch parks/touring plans/FPs less than a month out so that we could see the new Soarin. And I started to lose it when my kids wanted to ride the Carousel for the 3rd time instead of using our Mine Ride FP, but instead I triple-checked to make sure they realized they would not ride the Mind Ride AT ALL if they missed the FP, and then I exchanged that FP for a later time slot Winnie the Pooh and everyone was (somewhat surprisingly) happy. We had one ADR per day, very relaxed touring plans, and had a few naps. We hit the pool 4 of our 6 days. We only waited more than 10 minutes once (30 min’s for Pirates – I think the ride broke down because the posted time was 5 minutes when we got in line and TP said 8 minutes.) We also cancelled our CRT and H&V Fantasmic Minnie Dine dinner ADRs. I thought the kids would love them, but, once there, realized that rushing out of the pool to dinner wasn’t going to be fun for anyone, no matter how “fun” the experience. Neither was missed. The planning was extremely frustrating given the last minute WDW announcements, but our trip went very smoothly, mainly due to this planning. We followed the advice someone posted here of having plans but also enjoying the moment and “embracing the magic,” even when it meant changing plans. Wishing everyone the best with their remaining planning and hoping you have wonderful trips!!
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What a wonderful post!