HELP-due to Thomas Cook mess

[Sarahcop]

I’m going to try and book my ADRs myself!
I had planned on it being done by the agency I had booked with but with all the limbo I’m going to try on Monday.
We go (HOPEFULLY) for 10 days next March/April.
I have not looked into much. What are the musts!
All help appreciated please

[Jaybeez]

Have you got the dining plan, DDP or QSDP? Also what are the ages of people in your party?

[Sarahcop]

DDP Husband and I (in 40’s) daughters will be 12 & 9

[Jaybeez]

The first thing that we always book is Sunday Brunch at California Grill. I think your party would love it, but even if you’re not too sure if you want to go book it for now, it’s easy to cancel, but hard to get hold of later.

[Hotlush]

Originally Posted by Sarahcop

I’m going to try and book my ADRs myself!

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I may have missed something obvious but isn't that what you have to do anyway? The agents don't book your ADRs...

[Sarahcop]

That service was the reason I used that agency. The planning intimidated me to the point of tears

[mrsmickey]

Don’t over worry. There are some restaurants that are hard to get beyond the 180 days, but there are loads where if you want more time to think that’s no problem. And, if you haven’t made reservations and really want to go somewhere when you arrive, they often have walk ups available or your hotel will try to get you in

[BellaBess]

We usually look at the restaurants and write a list of which ones we like . Everyone likes different we like be our guests for lunch garden grill in epcot for breakfast ohanas for evening meal. Once we have picked which ones we fancy we do a rough day plan using busy day guides then once we know which parks doing what day we know which ADR we need for that day. As if we were doing epcot that morning we booked garden grill for breakfast.
We just did Disney 2 days on our trip this year so didnt make any ADR in advance but on the day when went on to APP to book most had last minute availability on the day.
If you book any now then decided later on you want to change as long as you cancel more than 24 hours before you wont be charged.
The ADR were easy to make using the Disney APP we just made sure to book the ones we really wanted first which was be our guest and Ohahans as they tended to be hardest.
Did you have to give the agents a list of what you wanted or was you letting them pick for you?

[discoclare]

Do you know which parks you plan to be in on which days? That's how I started planning, made a rough plan on which park when, then selected the ADRs. I had watched loads of You Tube vids and read threads on here though to help choose ADRs. We mainly went for experience over food as my kids aren't foodies (me and OH are but were happier to choose places kids would like). Our plans were as follows if this helps (and we stuck to things more or less):

Day 1 - MK. ADRs: Chef Mickeys at 7.00am (you will find a lot of people don't like it but we had a great experience, maybe as we were first sitting, I had wanted an 8am for BOG, couldn't get it so chose Chef Mickey instead) and Crystal Palace at 1pm.

Day 2 - HS. ADR: lunch at Sci-fi dine in theatre (again somewhere people often say isn't great for food, we chose for experience and actually did enjoy the food)

Day 3 - AK then Typhoon Lagoon ADR: lunch at Tusker House


Day 4 - EPCOT. ADR - 10.30am at Akershus (my girls are 9 and 6 and the youngest was completely star struck by the princesses)


Day 5 - Blizzard Beach then HS for evening. No ADRs just had quick service this day

Day 6 - MK. 8.05am ADR for BOG. 6pm ADR for Ohana. We actually cancelled Ohana as younger daughter had been sick so we headed back to relax at pool at hotel (Beach Club) and I didn't want to take her back out again. Instead did a walk up at beaches and cream which we all enjoyed.


Day 7 - AK and EPCOT - 7.15pm ADR for La Hacienda de San Angel. A restaurant chosen for myself and not the kids. I really enjoyed it.


Day 8 - HS and check out of Beach Club. 8am ADR for Cape May Café in our hotel (as it was our last morning)

We probably had too many character meals overall. Next time I would just do 1-3 whereas we had 5! We did enjoy them! I had wanted to eat at Homecomin' in DS but we ended up not making it over there until after we left Disney! Also, one day I will get to Ohana!

So that's what I would do: rough idea of where you think you will be and then plan your ADRs. Do you have any clues of where you want to eat? Do you want to go to highly rated places for food or experience? Do you want character dining?

As others have said, most don't need booking at 180 days out but Cinderella's Royal Table definitely does as does Beaches and Cream and there are a few others that may need it. For example, I could never see Storybook Dining (the new character dining at Artist Point) available on the app.

[Andybear]

I thought everyone booked their own ADRs, I didn't know travel agents booked them.