.

[TheMaxRebo]

My understanding is that you wouldn't be able to go at rope drop and make a reservation for later that day, you'd show up at the restaurant when you're ready to eat - just like a regular restaurant.

I think that might be kind of cool!

if it works like that - especially if you could use the app to put you name on the list or something ... or at least if it could tell you what the wait time is before you walk across the park only to find it has a 4 hour wait - that would be cool

Might actually push people to check out different restaurants if they don't want to wait that long and see others that have less wait

 

[mcd2745]

We never book our trips that far out. We just got back on Sunday and we booked that trip about 6 weeks earlier. We're going again in July and haven't even begun to think about booking yet. I won't get around to that until maybe April or May at best.

That's kind of the point. You can make a bunch of ADRs now for when you believe you will be going again in July. However, let's say something comes up in the next month or so that causes you to postpone that trip from July to say November. Could be literally anything...a job switch, or you have to attend a conference for work, you find out you'll be invited to a wedding or some other function that week in July, some kind of medical situation...you get the idea. Now you would have to go and cancel all those ADRs if you made them. This wouldn't have been an issue if you couldn't make ADRs for July until late May or June. It just doesn't seem like the optimal way for the system to work.

 

[smiths02]

I like to reserve in advance, but 6 months out is a pain. The park hours change. I don't know what FP+ times will be available. I'd rather have it all available 60 days out when Disney should have a good idea what the hours are and I can plan FP and dining at the same time.

Laurie

I agree with this.

I have 3 kids...twin 3 year olds and a 9 year old. I would hate it if eating at Disney was like going into town on a Saturday night and you wait 45 minutes to eat or you get to Carraba's and it's a 60 minute wait, so you go to Cheesecake Factory and it's 90 minutes

This would be especially disappointing with dinner shows and character meals.

I can see if you are adults or solo (or even just one kid with you), but multiple children and multiple generations...we kind of need plans.

 

[mnra]

We use adr only when meeting up with other people or big family trips otherwise we don't. I know some people like to plan their whole trip but for us since we have been so often we view it as a place to relax and enjoy and not have to run from one reservation to the next.

 

[disneysteve]

My understanding is that you wouldn't be able to go at rope drop and make a reservation for later that day, you'd show up at the restaurant when you're ready to eat - just like a regular restaurant.

I think that might be kind of cool!

I think that would be a disaster. Regular restaurants aren't located in theme parks that see 20 million visitors a year. If you stroll up to Chefs de France at 5pm expecting to eat dinner, you'll be lucky to get seated by 9pm.

 

[AllysonL]

Maybe I'm just not up on the times... I've only had to use the ADR system for two trips. But how did things work back in the day? I feel like we booked our dining reservations at check in, or the day of. We went to all different character meals on many, many trips. And we always traveled in the summer, so it's not like we were going at a time when the crowds weren't high.

Anyway, for me personally I could go either way. I don't particularly like having to think about where I want to eat 6 months in advance. But I'd also like to be able to secure some good TS meals, like CRT or Chef Mickey's for DD. I think if they left some tables available for walk ins, or had something built into the MDE app that would be helpful.

 

[JimmyV]

It all comes to the same end though right? whether it's 6 months or 3 months. If everyone is on the same footing (not like FP+) then the mad rush is the same.

I don't know that anything would change other than the time of the rush.....but it would still be a "mad rush".

Math is your friend, people. Of course the "rush" has to change if you alter the date on which you can make ADRs. On the day that you are in the park, 100% of the people who are in the park that day know that they are going to be in the park that day. The day before you go to a park, probably 97% of the people who will be in the park that day know that they will be in the park that day. (The other 3% are probably locals who might decide to make a last minute trip to the park, or visiting guests who hadn't decided what park to visit on the following day.) So if ADRs were eliminated, or allowed to be made on the "day of your visit", 100% of the people in the park would be fighting for the available slots. If ADRs were allowed to be made one day ahead of your visit, then 97% of the people who will be in the park will be fighting over the available slots, with the other 3% not in the running, because they haven't even solidified their plans yet.

And the percentages keep going down with every day. So 30 days in advance of the day that you will be in the park, perhaps 75% of the people who will be in the park that day know what their plans will be, and will be fighting for the available slots. And 60 days in advance, maybe that percentage drops to 60%. And at 120 days, maybe that drops to 40%. And at 180 days, maybe that percentage drops to 25%. But one thing is certain--the percentage has to drop. Not everyone who goes to WDW is an uber-planner who locks in their plans 180 days in advance. Indeed, we nut jobs on this board are a discrete minority. There is no question that the "mad rush" at the 180 day mark is a "rush" that has far fewer participants in the race than you would have if ADRs were made available at the 60 day mark. And at the 30 day mark, the race would have even more contestants. And at the 7 day mark, even more contestants.

So no, it would not be the same no matter what day you chose. It would be very, very different. Right now, if you log on at the earliest possible time on your 180+10 date, you can pretty much get anything and everything you want. If everyone logged on at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of their visit to get ADRs, you would face daunting "lottery odds" of getting what you want due to the extreme traffic being handled by the website.

My understanding is that you wouldn't be able to go at rope drop and make a reservation for later that day, you'd show up at the restaurant when you're ready to eat - just like a regular restaurant.

I think that might be kind of cool!

You'd show up when you are ready to eat, and then get seated 90-120 minutes later. "Regular" restaurants do not have 5,000 people walking up at 6:00 p.m. On a typical day, the MK might have 40,000 people in it. If even one-quarter of those people want to have a TS meal for dinner, then you would have 10,000 people trying to get tables at 6 TS restaurants. (I am not counting the Plaza because it is so small). That is nothing at all like a "regular restaurant". If the restaurant opens for dinner at 5:00, all of its tables will be filled by 5:10. And all of those diners will occupy their tables for, on average, 60-70 minutes. So anyone who is "ready to eat" at 5:15 will have to wait, at a minimum, until 6:00-6:15. So all of the people who arrive between 5:11 and 5:30 will make up the next "wave of diners who will occupy the tables from 6:15-7:15 or so. Which means that anyone who arrives at 5:31 is now looking at a two hour wait for the first wave of diners to finish, followed by the second wave of diners to be seated, order, eat and leave, and then they will be seated as part of the third wave. All of this suggests that the winning strategy would be to part of the first wave which entails being at the front of the line when the restaurant opens. And once people figure that out, then the strategy will be to arrive 20 minutes before that. And that will evolve into arriving 40 minutes before that. And soon you will not be arriving at the restaurant when you are "ready to eat" and instead will be arriving at 4:15. Remember when BoG opened for lunch and the line to get in formed at RD? That is what a world without ADRs would look like.

 

[Accident]

I had some more time to listen to the podcast and I have some thoughts on this...

I suspect we're going to see ADRs only available to meal plan buyers (AND/OR) you have to pay something for advance reservations. If ADRs were going away there wasn't much reason for disney to chase down the reservation websites/apps.

I don't get to the parks early so hopefully if they do same day reservations, I can make them without being in the park yet.

 

[loves to dive]

I remember the time Kevin was talking about when you would go to Epcot and they had the little TVs and you were talking to the CM on screen. You would say I've like to eat around 6:30 what have you got in this park? They would do their magic and tell you what was available within a certain window of that time. We loved it. We still to this day do not make ADRs for anything other than Tea at the GF. We either go to GS when we get to the park and ask the same question, or what is available at any time in this park or we will get on line the night before and look around to see what is available. I've been known to be walking through the park and be on MDE on my phone looking up something for that night. We have even walked up to places and had pretty decent luck with putting our names on a list for a later time. If nothing is available in the first park we want, we move to a different park and start over. The CMs even seem to enjoy it, trying to find us something in their favorite places. It helps that we are two adults so the time doesn't matter and we always he PHs so the park doesn't matter. If they have something at 3:00 and we really want to try it, we go for it, snacking for a light lunch and use that as our supper then snack later if we are hungry. We get to try new places that way. It also helps that we rarely make FP until the night before or the morning of so we aren't restricted by that either. We don't mind waiting in line, we've been going since long before any FP system was in place and you had to wait in line so it's just all part of the experience for us.

 

[JimmyV]

I remember the time Kevin was talking about when you would go to Epcot and they had the little TVs and you were talking to the CM on screen. You would say I've like to eat around 6:30 what have you got in this park? They would do their magic and tell you what was available within a certain window of that time. We loved it.

They were the Worldkey Kiosks, but they were more or less an gimmick and didn't last long. There was a dining number that you could call from your hotel that morning and get the same results.

 

[WebmasterMike]

They were the Worldkey Kiosks, but they were more or less an gimmick and didn't last long. There was a dining number that you could call from your hotel that morning and get the same results.

Those were awesome! I miss Communicore East and West.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Yeah, CommuniCore was cool - I seem to remember being able to make phone calls from huge, room-size booths by talking into mid-air, which totally blew my mind. I went once in '82 but don't remember much, started going regularly in '93. Unfortunately have not been able to go (I'm part of the being priced-out and too large crowds "boomerang effect" Pete talked about on this week's show that I've been saying is how I've felt for a LONG time!) in over 3 years now, and don't know when next visit will be. Besides Communicore, and kind of off topic, but in addition to the original Figment with Dream Finder, I also miss ImageWorks - used to spend tons of time between the CommuniCores, there, and Body Works.

 

[Angel Ariel]

My understanding is that you wouldn't be able to go at rope drop and make a reservation for later that day, you'd show up at the restaurant when you're ready to eat - just like a regular restaurant.

I think that might be kind of cool!

If that's the plan, then they seriously need to increase the number of table service restaurants they have, especially in Magic Kingdom. There's not enough space there to handle regular dinner time demand, and people aren't going to be happy when they show up mid-dinner rush and get told there's a 2 hr wait.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I think that would be a disaster. Regular restaurants aren't located in theme parks that see 20 million visitors a year. If you stroll up to Chefs de France at 5pm expecting to eat dinner, you'll be lucky to get seated by 9pm.

I agree.

Additionally, I have a very hard time believing that Disney spent as much as they did on the electronic infrastructure and capabilities that they have to then not use them to their best ability.

 

[SoCalTrojanSkip]

Brace yourself for an insightful, and in depth post...

No ADR's.....??

Bring it.

I can't wait.

ADR's are the worst, and people abuse the system to the point that NO ONE can get an ADR. It just adds unnecessary stress to someone's vacation.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I had some more time to listen to the podcast and I have some thoughts on this...

I suspect we're going to see ADRs only available to meal plan buyers (AND/OR) you have to pay something for advance reservations. If ADRs were going away there wasn't much reason for disney to chase down the reservation websites/apps.

I don't get to the parks early so hopefully if they do same day reservations, I can make them without being in the park yet.

I also don't see them doing less with the app ...

I do agree I can see them limiting them or making them only for those on the meal plan or only if you stay onsite and then increase (some) the availability for walk-ups for other guests

 

[EricInPA]

I like making ADRs and never felt locked in or that my vacation lacked that elusive spontaneity.

 

[JimmyV]

ADR's are the worst, and people abuse the system to the point that NO ONE can get an ADR.

...but...but...but...if people can't get an ADR, doesn't that mean that others did get an ADR, thus disproving the assertion that NO ONE can get an ADR? If you can't get one, that means they are all gone, because...brace yourself....lots of others succeeded.

 

[OKW Lover]

...but...but...but...if people can't get an ADR, doesn't that mean that others did get an ADR, thus disproving the assertion that NO ONE can get an ADR? If you can't get one, that means they are all gone, because...brace yourself....lots of others succeeded.

Not only that but the restaurants are so crowded nobody goes there anymore.

 

[dkrauss]

ADR's are the worst, and people abuse the system to the point that NO ONE can get an ADR. It just adds unnecessary stress to someone's vacation.

I just got back from WDW a week or two ago...................We had no issues with our ADR's. Yeah we made them well in advance but I'll take that moment of stress at 6am, months before my trip.................to the stress of dealing with this stuff WHILE I'm on vacation.

With all due respect you don't see any stress on the third day of your vacation and you want a CRT Dinner? How do you propose it would work in getting those seats? What will you and your family (assume a family of 4: DH, DW, DD(*), and DS (10)............do?

Doug