Anyone ever do DDP by just winging it?

[pavil]

Getting a late start on my ADR's for a Mid April trip. Has anyone just booked their sit down dining while at Disney or each day at a resort/Park? I wanted to do Chef Mickey, Ohana and Le Celliar but they are booked up. Kinda bummed about that and I don't want to be.

Has anyone had good luck doing same day reservations, I am sure there are a lot of changes/cancellations.

Sometimes I get tired of planning a trip and just want to have it unfold as we go along. Less work, more fun.

I already grabbed Liberty Tavern (no Characters anymore :confused3), Boma and Coral Reef as backups, but I am tempted to just try and get the reservations down there.

Your thoughts?

[disneymath]

... but I would keep your "backup ressies" just in case. If you do manage to snage the ones you want before you go, make sure you cancel your existing ones so that someone who may really want them can snap them up.

We've never "winged it" for the entire trip ... but we have changed a few of our ADRs once we've been down in Florida with mixed results.

Once, when staying at the WL we had ressies at Wolfgang Puck Cafe and just didn't feel like trekking to DTD. The only thing we could get that was in the MK area (but not in MK) was Trails End Buffet at Fort Wilderness - which was just OK in our experience. We were a party of 8.

Our last trip, we really wanted to try Tutto Italia and couldn't get a ressie until the day we actually wanted it ... we checked at Concierge that monrng and "voila" it was there. One of the best meals of our trip!

That same trip we had ressies at Yak and Yeti the night a tropical storm was expected to make landfall. We didn't want to venture out of the AKL and were able to get into BOMA as "walk-ups" with about a 40 min wait. Another good meal, but we substituted a "tried and true" for "something new".

Both trips were in mid to late August, the first during Free Dining.

[PrincessTiffany]

Getting a late start on my ADR's for a Mid April trip. Has anyone just booked their sit down dining while at Disney or each day at a resort/Park? I wanted to do Chef Mickey, Ohana and Le Celliar but they are booked up. Kinda bummed about that and I don't want to be.

Has anyone had good luck doing same day reservations, I am sure there are a lot of changes/cancellations.

Sometimes I get tired of planning a trip and just want to have it unfold as we go along. Less work, more fun.

I already grabbed Liberty Tavern (no Characters anymore :confused3), Boma and Coral Reef as backups, but I am tempted to just try and get the reservations down there.

Your thoughts?
You will be there during Easter Season and the height of Spring Break, the parks and restaurants will be packed. The odds of being able to "wing it" on the dining plan will be pretty slim.

[pavil]

We are going the Week after Easter, at least up here the Schools are outbefore Easter for break. I figured it was going to be easy to get ADRs even with the short time frame.

[PrincessTiffany]

We are going the Week after Easter, at least up here the Schools are outbefore Easter for break. I figured it was going to be easy to get ADRs even with the short time frame.
The week before Easter and the week after Easter are two of the busiest times at WDW.

[pavil]

Well I guess I will make it through it. We usually go in May. It's suprising they don't have Fantasmic running every night if they are so busy. On the EMH night at DHS they don't have fantasmic scheduled. Kinda stupid IMO.

[PrincessTiffany]

Well I guess I will make it through it. We usually go in May. It's suprising they don't have Fantasmic running every night if they are so busy. On the EMH night at DHS they don't have fantasmic scheduled. Kinda stupid IMO.
They are cutting back on those shows to save money. Everyone on the Themeparks and Planning board has been very mad about it, because Fantasmis is always crowded anyway, and now with cutting back shows during really busy times it makes it almost impossible to get a seat at all.

[TDC Nala]

Agreed. They are not cutting back on the shows because people were not coming to see them. They are cutting back to save money on the required labor and effects so they can spend it elsewhere.

The parks may be crowded, but the consensus seems to be that most of those crowds are 1) there on discounted package or room only reservations and 2) not spending extra money on meals or souvenirs in the parks.

[jb01]

Your going to have a tough time with the dates your going. Very crowded.

[pavil]

I ended up booking ADR's , even snagged a Chef Mickey for my last day, only took 3 tries! Only thing I didn't get was Le Cellier. The ADR person said it fills up right at the 90 day mark for Le Cellier.