We started going to Disney summer of the year before Epcot opened, and then went every other summer. That stopped for me the summer of 1988. Epcot was different then. Were they already doing reservations then? Or did they start sometime after that?
I remember going in at Mexico, and China and making reservations there.
That was so long ago. We have been there a couple of times since then, but never stayed on site. And my dad who lives down there and is there a lot made the few ADRs we have had. I am soooooo excited!!!
We’re basically doing your plan. I’m hoping that the kids don’t get spoiled from having express pass at Universal for 2 days and then hate Disney b/c they have to wait for certain times for the FP. But it didn’t work out for universal to be after the disney part.
I get that. We could not make trips like this with the kids. My mom and dad live down there, the first times we all went they had bought those non expiring tickets for us. Then every summer some of the kids would be there and just go with them. Now it is only 2 to travel, and Disney is still going to be my favorite.
The dining plan creates an added stress for ADRs, because you really don’t wait to pay for table service and not use it, so you want to guarantee an ADR beforehand.
It also removes almost all price differentation between table service restaurants (if almost everything is 1 TS credit, budget is not going to be a deciding factor) so you end up having some restaurants that are clearly just better, no trade offs to consider, creating a supply/demand problem (this problem also exists without the dining plan).
I don’t really understand who benefits from 180 days ADRs (not even Disney)
You know what I like best about ADRs right now? It made me really think about what we wanted to do. I now know that there are a LOT of places I want to try. Without having to make the reservations we would have just gone to whatever is closest, or easiest. We still would have had a good time, but I am really excited to be trying a lot of things we have never done before.
Okay. Maybe. I did not decide for sure about a dining plan until I knew what a lot of our meals were going to be. I would have dropped it with no problem if it was not going to save me money on the things I wanted to do, so it did not stress me out either.
The added stress there is still self imposed. No one has to get the dining plans. No one has to get ADRs. Some people eat mostly, or only food that is not from the restaurants at all. You can bring lunches, snacks, and drinks in with you. You do not have to stress at all about any reservations.
I agree My only scheduled ADR is for Oga’s, and because I booked it by chance before it becoming hard to get.
I am mostly talking about the systemic phenomenon and what causes the process to become stressful for people, not about how unavoidable the stress is.
Disneys does create a system in which some people feel like they really need ADRs - some people even get the dining plan before doing the math assuming it is a big discount, and end up “needing” ADRs. And stress creates scarcity which leads people who don’t care that much to also book in advance just in case which increases the problem. Now there are multiple reservation finder services, people waking up at 2am local time to book a reservation at 180 days and people who book 40 reservations “just in case” due to effects of this system.
Of course, you can opt out to participate of the entire system (as I have), but the system itself is still stressful.
With ADRs, park hours and FPs, WDW is a vacation for which I have a more detailed and rigid agenda then work day (not sure if this is a good or a bad thing )
I have been amazed by so many things int the almost 3 months we have been planning this trip. One of the most recent ones is that conversations like this happen. I had no idea so many people spent so much time talking about WDW. I may never be bored again. I guess I have participated a little. And it took a little bit of extra effort to figure out how to get my reservation for BOG. DH wanted to go there for dinner and the whole week was greyed out except for Wednesday, but that was full. Even after we decided to go to the party it still took me a couple of days to figure out that I had to go through the party dining link to get to it. I was so happy to be able to make his wish come true.
And I have read people saying you should not waste party time eating dinner, but we start at 6 and there is still a lot of party after that. This was something important, and so it is worth it. If that is the only way you can do something like that, that is what you do.
I know!!! I have been planning my trip for a little over a month now, and I am having so much fun with the planning! I feel like I have found my people honestly, I don’t think going to wdw is going to be as much fun as planning a wdw trip
Luckily I have a large family and a lot of them have trips coming up, so I have plans to make at least until February
I am the family ‘s vacation planner. The planning needs to happen too early. That is why the ADRS are hard. 180 days before my arrival, I’m suppose to know what I’m doing that day and when I want to eat and where I want to eat. The park hours haven’t been released yet. At 180 days I got reservations for just 3 places of my 10 day trip. I’m holding multiple reservations for each restaurant until I make fast pass reservations. As I solidify my days a bit more, I don’t have the correct reservation time for one of the restaurants. I’m now waiting for reservation finder to do its magic. It would be better to make FPP before ADRS, in my opinion. And neither should be done at earlier than 45 days.
You are blessed to get what you wanted when you wanted much later in the game.
I like the old paper FPP best. We can decide that morning which park we want to visit for the day. It’s more steps to gather the FP but less stressful trying to line up moving targets like HS rides all going to Tier 1 after ADR and FPP reservations have past or extra days of EMH.
Um, no. The planning I don’t mind at all - I Line, therefore I plan. What I don’t like is doing all this effort and then having to wait 6 months for the payoff. Showing my age here, but it kind of like when you collected cereal box tops and sent them in for some sort of prize, which you had to then wait 4-6 weeks for them to send out. For something that they could send out the day they received the letter.
Totally agree here - this is one of the things I like about it, so much so that I wrote a post on how it helps to decrease the stress of WDW vacation planning. That being said, I think that they could move it to 90 days out. Or better still, 60 days out and eliminate the 60 day FPP window, making it 30 days for everyone.
I agree with shortening the times for all of them. I think it does not really make a lot of difference though. No matter what, when the reservation window opens, some things will still be gone just as fast. People will still stress and worry. I think in a lot of ways I agree with the people who say that it should all be same day. Except that when I think about how that would work all I see are all systems going down, and no one being able to get any reservations for anything. But that would at least help with unexpected announcements from Disney messing up all plans. We could all take our chances. Not really better I think, but we would all go in with our plans and have an equal chance at everything. One thing this has taught me is that when they say Disney has the right to do what they want, when they want, nothing is guaranteed no matter how well you plan.
I’m not sure that would be the case. I mean, everyday is ADR day for one group of people and FP for another group. The system is already handling both every single day.
That is true, but on those first days for ADRs it is still only the people who already have reservations at that point are looking. And annual pass holders. I am guessing I am not the only one who did not have a reservation yet. I would say that for Fast pass this is a little more true, as it is closer to the time you actually go. However I doubt if even that is every single person who will be in the park on a single day at the same time.
Right. Not exactly what I meant. I mean that for a lot of people it is not even on their radar 6 months before they go. We decided at the end of June that we would like to go this fall. After that figuring out the dates that we could both be gone took another couple of weeks. In fact my guess is that a lot less than half of the reservations for any given day are made between 6:00 and 8:00 on the first day possible. If it gets close to that it is because people are making reservations for just in case. Yes, many are made. And yes some things will fill up, again, mostly because people are getting anything for any possibility. That is why now there are multiple reservations available at this moment for BOG around Oct. 26, 27… If everything went to same day, we would all be trying to make our reservations at the same time.
That would work well for groups with older kids or adults only, but would be a mess for groups with young kids. It also would be more challenging for WDW to make staffing decisions with that system … which is the biggest reason it will not happen.
My only scheduled ADR is for Oga’s, and because I booked it by chance before it becoming hard to get.
(not sure if this is a good or a bad thing 
)
I had no idea so many people spent so much time talking about WDW. I may never be bored again. I guess I have participated a little. And it took a little bit of extra effort to figure out how to get my reservation for BOG. DH wanted to go there for dinner and the whole week was greyed out except for Wednesday, but that was full. Even after we decided to go to the party it still took me a couple of days to figure out that I had to go through the party dining link to get to it. I was so happy to be able to make his wish come true.
honestly, I don’t think going to wdw is going to be as much fun as planning a wdw trip