8/17/2009
When Walt Disney World moved up the ADR window from 180 days to 90 days earlier this year, I applauded the decision. Now, though, this change is being reversed. I'm not one of those people that is "Mickey-eyed," so that everything done at WDW is perfect and without complaint. When I see something that I feel is flawed, I don't mind letting my voice be heard. So, having to make dining reservations 180 days in advance is just plain flawed...to me, anyway.
While most trips and vacations are probably planned six months in advance (trips planned closer to the travel date tend to be "getaway" type trips), there is a big difference between planning a trip, airfare, and hotel and deciding what you are going to do each day of the trip. Please allow me to go through a few points as to why I don't care for this policy:
- I don't know where I'm going to be for dinner tomorrow, much less 180 days from now. To be honest, I don't eat at many restaurants during a WDW trip that require an Advance Dining Reservation (ADR). Frankly, many of the restaurants at WDW simply aren't worth the cost compared to what you can get off property. BUT, that is another story... Nevertheless, in order for me to plan a dinner 6 months from today, I have to know where I'm going to be. Will I be in the parks? If so, which one? At a resort? Will I feel like going to Downtown Disney for the evening? If there are a few restaurants that are key to my trip, then I end up having to plan my touring and other activities around my ADRs.
- Recently, WDW has made it even MORE difficult to know what I'll be doing on my trip. With the economy still unpredictable, Disney has started releasing park hours later and later. This has an effect on which day I visit which park, which in turn effects when I can dine at Les Chefs de France.
In addition, they have cut back on events like Fantasmic!, so 6 months out I really have no idea what nights it will be showing. This makes it very difficult for planning dinners, especially at the Studios if I wanted an in-park meal before the show. - I don't make it to WDW as often as I would like. It's not the only place I want to travel to, so when I go there, I want to pack in as much as I can. To help me do this, I plan certain parks and activities for certain days of the week (with the aid of services like touringplans.com). 180 days out, crowd levels are hard to predict, especially when we are in the midst of a recession. So, I might pick Epcot for dinner now, but end up at Magic Kingdom on a bad day later.
I could rant further, but I know your time is valuable...plus, I need to get to replying to your e-mails!
I think Disney took a great step forward in allowing ADRs to be made online. That is very easy and better than staying on hold with an operator (even though they are usually very friendly and helpful). However, I wish they would add the capability to the mobile site that doesn't require Flash, so that I could make last-minute ADRs on my iPhone. :)
What do you think about the 180 day window for ADRs? Please let me know, I'd love to hear from people that agree and disagree! Thanks, as always, for reading.
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