How Do You Choose Your ADRs?

Lately we've been trying restaurants at or near whichever resort we're staying at - all three AKL restaurants when we stayed there, both WL restaurants as well as restaurants on the monorail loop when we stayed at WL, lots of DTD when we were at Saratoga Springs. Gives us a chance to try new restaurants without spending forever in transit.

I start with which park I will be in for that day and make a decision from there.

AK day we usually pick our "nice" night out since the park closes early and we have a little extra time to go back to the resort to relax a little, get dressed and go.

MK, Epcot and HS are usually somewhere in the park we are in or a close resort. We don't have to see fireworks every night so we really don't plan around that.

I have a goal of eating at as many restaurants as we can. OK, I want to eat at every single option there is LOL SO even our favorites (Yak and Yeti, Sanaa and Kona) get added back in here and there.

We've only done 1 lunch ADR, Y&Y. But have a couple planned for upcoming trips so we will see how it all works out.

This exactly. We plan based around where we are going to be. I also would like to try every restaurant eventually so we usually do mostly new with restaurants, with a couple of old favorites added back in.

I check out the menus on AllEars and make a list of places I want to try. Then (since its usually pretty long) the list gets narrowed down to how many ADR's we want to have. If the restaurant is in a park, we eat there during that park day. For resorts we eat at places near where we are staying or close to the park we're at that day.

We like to try new places so most of our ADR's are firsts for us. Except Garden Grill. We go there very trip

We are lucky enough we have tried most of the places we have any interest in. So, we mostly stick to our favorites and then decide based on where we are staying. We do like to book at least one meal each trip at some place we have not tried. We do tend to pick our ADR's first then work the parks around where we will be eating.

This is what we do as well. To KenJ and I, the restaurants and eating out is part of the vacation. We also like to do a few sit down breakfasts (Kona Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe and Captain's Grille are a few favourites) each trip and we have some must do places for dinner (Yachtsman, Tokyo Dining, Cali Grill). We rarely book an ADR for lunch, unless we're going to be at AK and then we'll eat at Yak & Yeti. We also book dinners while we are there - we find that with the 2 of us, it's not that difficult getting into most restaurants if you don't mind eating early or later.

I also review the menus on AllEars and the Disney website and I will occasionally check reviews, but tend not to give them much merit.

Where are you planning on eating besides Boatright's? We've eaten there on at least 3 occasions and have enjoyed it every time.

One of my favourite questions at Disney... Being a bit of a food critic ( we mark down our dining experiences in a little notepad ) Next years choices in October have now changed for the third time..We have 14 ADRS to make and we always have our favourite ones. Example, my son loves Jiko, my wife fell in love with Artist Point last year ( blame the cedar plank salmon on that one ) and I thought Yachtsmen Steakhouse was probably the best steak night we've ever had..So after picking our three favourite signature restaurants for 2016, (we have decided on two more new ones that we haven't yet experienced, and so far it's Narcoossee's and Boathouse)..Then we start reviewing the one credit restaurants reading from various Disney sites...We like to make sure the menus have lots of interesting choices, but understand that sometimes the theming of a restaurant is a big pull, rather than fine dining ( T.Rex and B.O.G. come to mind ) Because we are on (free) DDP next year, and have 42 T/S credits between the three of us, some nights we will just do C/S and for Via Napoli ( a must on every trip ) we will pay out of pocket..So there you have it..Enjoy making your choices..

For us we're going to really change things up. We'll only have maybe 2 repeats of our last few trips more TS places and lots of new places to try. I think the last few trips we did about 5 TS places each because my boys are hard to slow down. They're a bit older now, so if they don't want to stop and enjoy a meal, tough luck. We'll give them money for cs and my dh and I will have a nice quiet meal. We're still going through menus (we must have read every one at least once LOL) But with a Disney vacation planning is 1/2 the fun

I picked our ADRs pretty much according to what park I planned to be at that day, with an emphasis on character breakfasts as we had so much fun at Crystal Palace during our first trip and the food was good and plentiful!

Oooh! I would say Narcoossee's but Turf Club is more intimate and a hidden gem. You can walk in there most times without a reservation and still have a killer meal. Also The Turf Club is "not" considered signature dining.

Because I don't often park-hop I generally figure out which day we'll be in which park and go from there.
Once I know which Park I'll be in on which day, I then check to see if there's some place new I want to try.
If there's not, I move on to where my favorite spots are.

Because we don't park hop we try to keep all the reservations in one general area. So if we're going to be at the Magic Kingdom, I would consider any restaurant on the monorail look for breakfast or dinner as well. If we're at Epcot I might extend that area to those Crescent Lake resorts.

Our first night we usually do a monorail crawl or DTD, and for departure day I like to do a table service breakfast at our hotel, or at the Wilderness Lodge.

Our Disney vacations tend to be short (4 or 5 days) compared to mostly everyone else here (so jealous), but we splurge on the Deluxe Dining Plan (3 meals per person per day). Dinners are a BIG part of our vacations. We do Signature Dining every night. We tend to eat at all new restaurants every trip (with the exception of V&A for anniversaries). If there's some place we really enjoyed but haven't done in a while, we'll occasionally do a repeat, but it's mostly new experiences every night. If we have breakfast, it's usually at the resort we're staying at. Lunch is whatever feel like at whatever park we're at.

We tried Boatwright's for the first time during our most recent stay at Saratoga Springs, since it was just a boat ride away. Very nice. While it doesn't make the top of my "must go again" list, I would be quite happy to dine there again.

We do a mix of favorites and new-to-us ADRs. We have a sit-down dinner every night and a few lunches as well. Our upcoming trip will be 5 old favorites and 7 new restaurants. I also try to stay in the park we'll be in at that time or the nearby resorts to cut down on transit times.

My method for choosing ADRs consist of some darts and a WDW map. Very Scientific.

CCP I am glad to hear the good review on Boathouse in DTD, or is boatwrights a different place? One of my darts landed there for our next trip and reservations are made.

Vette, Boatwrights is the restaurant at POR. Can't wait to hear what you think of Boathouse, though! It looks amazing!

Thanks Allie.

I am kind of like scrappy, hubs, and Ken and Jan - I pick a place I want to eat and plan park time and FP around that! Having an AP does help - I can hop around that way.

I am trying new places each time too - fun!

Yes the Turf Club would be some what cheaper. If you do the Turf Club, I highly recommend the following:

Salad - Turf Club Signature Grilled Romaine Salad Highlight Item - Lightly-Grilled Hearts Of Romaine With Caesar Dressing, Balsamic Vinegar Reduction, And Roasted Cherry Tomatoes $7.49

&

Dessert - Chocolate Espresso Torte - with raspberry sauce and vanilla port wine ice cream $5.99

As for your entree, we have never ever had a bad item on the menu. Scrappy and I both love the New York Strip. I have had and I think Ken & Jan both had the Prime rib and I thought that was rather good too, but I and more of a NY Strip person.

Any fish I have had there is excellent.