Five Mistakes to Avoid when Planning Your Walt Disney World Dining Reservations

A big part of making plans for a Walt Disney World vacation is setting upon your advance dining reservations (ADRs). With the popularity of the Disney Dining Plan, the table service restaurants are busier than ever and guests are spending more time deciding on the big question: "What will we be eating 90 days from now?" Reservations can now be made online and by calling WDW-DINE and restaurants are booking up fast. So how can you avoid ten common mistakes when choosing your own ADRs?

Picking the wrong plan for your family. Disney offers three main versions of their dining plan. There is the Quick Service Dining Plan which features mainly counter service meals and snacks, the Basic Dining Plan which adds table service credits and the Deluxe Dining Plan which includes builds on to both the Quick Service and Basic with even more available credits. Picking the wrong plan can lead to a lot of disappointment. If your family is active and on the go and the rides and attractions are the main priority, then running from ADR to ADR on the Deluxe plan will drive everyone crazy. If your family is interested in a more cuisine focused signature dining experience the basic dining may not have enough available credits and the quick service option with no table service would make for a very lacking vacation. Do your homework, know your travel group and pick the right plan.

Making too many. Disney World really has some great eating establishments. Guests start the ADR process trying to make the best use of dining plan credits, but oftentimes other dining experiences crop up as great ideas. Suddenly your days become a series of meals and snacks with travel time in between and only the occasional ride or attraction. Making food the focus when your real goal is to enjoy what the parks have to offer is a definite dining mistake. Narrow it down to the reservations you really want and the ones that truly fit into your vacation plans and avoid the continuous dining pilgrimages.

Not making enough. The other side of the "too many" coin is not making enough ADR's or worse yet, making none. If you are on a dining plan that includes table service and you have no way of traveling off Disney property, you need to have some advanced plans made. As stated above, the restaurants fill up quickly and guests with few or no reservations may end up with few options and very long waits. If dining credits are in your plans, make sure you make enough ADR's to cover them.

ADR times. Choosing times for your ADR's that don't work with your family's touring needs will result in either missed activities or missed reservations. Try to anticipate where you'll be and when your family prefers to eat when making ADR's. Having too many 8:00 pm dinners when your family normally dines at 5:00 and plans to take in the 9:00 fireworks shows will result in unhappy and hungry guests.

Wrong locations. Right next to the right times is planning the right locations. If you're spending the day at Epcot, making a reservation at the Animal Kingdom may not be feasible. If you rely on Disney transportation, you may be looking at 30-60 minutes of travel time. And if you don't have your own car and want to enjoy resort dining locations, make sure you choose a resort close to the park where you've spent your day. You can eat up too much time on your way to the restaurants if you don't take location into consideration.

Making ADR's can be a fun part of planning and lead to an organized trip filled with many magical memories when you take the time to avoid some of the common ADR mistakes.