[dturano547]

Hi,

Im going down in August to WDW, I took advantage of the free dining. When do you think I should make reservations, some people told me I should be thinking about that already.

It's me and my girlfriend and to be honest i feel like if I make all my reservations to far in advance I feel like I will be worring about scheduling my whole day around meals.

Are reservations a must? Can they made on the day I plan to dine or is that just plain crazy? I dont mind eating a little later than the average times and a wait is not that big of a deal to me.

Anybody have any examples of what I could expect. I live in NY so Im used to waiting long for table on the weekends.

Please help!!!

[jk8]

The thing about ADRs(Advanced Dining Reservations) is that you can make them now and then cancel that day or reschedule if you need to. At that time of year it will not be so bad, but with free dining it will make the table service places more busy.

I would say go ahead and make some ADRs now. If not for the absolute need then just for fun!

[PrincessPooh]

Hey, a fellow LI'er! I'm from Deer Park...and when you see Kizzmitt, she's from out east too!

Anyways, I always say you should atleast make some ADR's, if only for dinner. As an example...we were in Mk last September during the free dining plan promo. We had an ADR for LTT and still waited close to 30 minutes for our table, and the park was basically dead that day. I spoke to some people there who didn't have an ADR and were on a 2-2 1/2 hour wait. Same/similar situation at Boma at AKL. But those are both pretty well known, well liked places.

Being a former chef and restaurant manager, I understand totally about table waits, and I'm pretty tolerant. But, when traveling through the parks all day, and your hot and tired, it's nice to know your wait will be kept to a minimum when you want to kick up your feet and relax for an hour!

[E&B's Mom]

I think now that the dining plan has become so popular - ADRs are very important.

[whitba]

We've gone the past 3 years in August with the dining plan. Make your ADR's now, it's easy to change them as your plans change. With so many people on the plan bookings can be difficult to get and you don't want to be tired, hot & hungry trying to get a table. With only two of you you'll likely find a spot but you may not get into some of the places you'd like to try (Le Cellier?)

It's good to know you have a back up plan, you can alway change things later. When we decided to hit a different park at the last moment, we'd stop at the customer service, rebook for whatever was available and cancel. With so many on the plan we saw several families late in the day being told there were no openings. It took us 4 attempts when we were there last year to get a Kona Cafe breakfast booking, we just had to try Tonga toast.

Have Fun!

[mickey]

Definitely, do something now. Any character meals or table service meals you want to do in the parks, I would get something done soon, they will fill up. Part of the problem is that you only have 2 people, and most restaurants only have a couple of tables for 2, so once those are gone, you are out of luck. Park hours are up, as are the extra magic hour schedules for August, so you can do some initial planning, make reservations based on that and change them as needed. We went last year during the free dining, and every table service restaurant in Epcot and MK were booked solid during our stay. The free dining isn't nearly as good of a deal if you can't use it.