If you are like many folks planning a visit to Walt Disney World, you have probably spent a great deal of time thinking about your meals: what restaurants your family will enjoy, whether you will do any character meals, what time(s) you will want to eat if you are making Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs), and that doesn’t even take into consideration figuring out how much your dining will actually cost.
So with all that planning, what happens if those plans change…while you are at Disney World? Just how hard is it to find a new place to eat, and/or change your ADRs?
We found out just this very thing on our Disney World vacation over the New Year’s holiday. Since this is one of the busiest weeks of the year, I had diligently planned (and in some cases planned again and again) so that we would be assured of eating where we wanted, when we wanted, and we knew how much it would all cost.
All was going beautifully, as planned, until our final full day. We were going to spend the morning at Hollywood Studios, have lunch, and then return to Saratoga Springs for the afternoon, relax a bit, and then have an early dinner there. We then would return to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights that evening.
Oh and one tiny addition: since this was the last day of the regular pro football season, DH and DD were going to go to ESPN Zone to watch some football, and I planned to go for part of the time as well.
So what happened? Well we went to DHS in the morning, had lunch, and then we all took to the boat to ESPN Zone. The game started and after a while we sat down, and then we ordered nachos and a couple of beers. And we made some friends. And the time kept creeping by…..and no one wanted to leave. We were having fun!
By halftime it was evident that we were not going anywhere any time soon, and considering that we were definitely going back to DHS that evening, it just seemed really silly to go all the way back to Saratoga Springs just for dinner.
So deciding to change our plans, I went in search of a new place to eat that night.
Now there are a few ways to change ADRs while at Disney World (works also if you need to make new ones):
- You can call Disney Dining from a Disney resort hotel room phone (was not an option for us at the time, we weren’t in our room)
- You can use Disney’s mobile reservation tool on your smartphone (also not an option for us, as my phone doesn’t support their tool….yes I need a new smartphone)
- Or you can speak to the concierge at a Disney resort hotel who can assist you.
That’s exactly what I did. I went over to the Boardwalk, just a few steps from ESPN Zone and explained to the concierge our dilemma. Since she did not look remotely surprised, I took this to mean that folks change their minds about dining while at Disney World all the time.
She very patiently pulled up every available restaurant in the DHS/Epcot/Epcot resort area for around the time we needed. I have to say that, to my surprise, on Sunday, January 2, during one of the busiest weekends of the year, there were a number of options. Not every restaurant was available mind you (and none of the “major, popular” ones), but there were more than enough to give us a decent choice.
I ended up choosing the Captain’s Grille at the Yacht Club, because we had not eaten there before and it was similar in menu to our original choice at Saratoga Springs….that we were now cancelling. She took care of it all for me: she cancelled our old ADR, gave me our new confirmation number, and I was on my way back to ESPN Zone to catch the 2nd half of the game.
So it really all worked out very well. Our dinner was FABULOUS (maybe our favorite the entire trip) and we had a much more relaxing afternoon than we would have spent, going back and forth to Saratoga Springs.
Making the change was really easy, and I was pleasantly surprised about the options I had, even at a busy time of year. I think that the moral of the story is: ask, what have you got to lose?
Related articles
- Yes, You CAN Change Your Dining Plans While ON Your Disney World Vacation (theaffordablemouse.com)
- D23′s 2nd Anniversary Member Mixer at Disneyland (chipandco.com)
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