Any Suggestions?

[DisneyCaliCouple]

Hi everyone! We are going on our first trip in January and will be there for 7 nights. (We are using the dining plan with 1 table service and 1 quick service) Was wondering if anybody had any suggestions for the table service meals??
Our travel agent said that some resturants do require reservations and some do not. She said we may not need them to get a table because it's a slower part of the year. Is there a way to find out which ones do and do not require reservations? We plan on picking a few resturants that we really want to go to and make reservations for those ones, but also would like to play it by ear for some of our diners and see what we decide when we get there. Is this possible, or will we have to make reservations no matter what for table service?

Thanks for any suggestions and help!

 

[bleeps]

Your question is so broad that it's a little hard to answer....

Have you checked out all the options, and looked at the menus? You can do that in the 'dining' section of this site.

Signature restaurants (high-end, in the resorts) generally require a reservation (called an ADR here for 'advanced dining reservation') if you want to be sure to get a table at a particular time.

The restaurants in the parks vary in popularity, but the general rule of thumb is that you want to eat a certain meal at a certain restaurant in a certain window of time, you are best off with an ADR. That said, Jan. is a slower time and you may find more walk-up (no ADR) opportunities.

Why don't you go through the restaurants and come up with your choices, and then come back and ask for more specific input?

Enjoy your trip!

 

[DisneyCaliCouple]

Thanks. I did check out the dining list, and while I haven't had a chance to look through them all yet, there were a few places caught my eye.
Some of those were:
Coral Reef, Whispering Canyon, Sci-Fi Dine In and Wolfgang Puck.

Like I said, first trip, so I forgot how large it is and how many options there are of resturants. Sorry for such a broad question. =)

Also, thanks for the imput about the reservations!

 

[DisneyGrampa]

You should know that some restaurants are so popular, that they "sell-out" within hours of the time for ADRs opening. Right now, that date is 90 days before your arrival date, if staying on-site, or 90 days before the reservation date, if not. If you are staying on-site, you can reserve up to ten days worth of ADRs. Starting October 27, this 90 days is changing to 180 days. The link below will give you an idea of difficulty in getting reservations, based on the 90 day schedule.
You don't say when your visit starts, but you may already be past the 90 day mark. You best get moving on this!


http://www.mousesavers.com/adrtiming.html

 

[DisneyCaliCouple]

We go January 19th through the 26th. We still have about 10 days until we can make reservations.

Thanks for the imput. My boyfriend and I have decided we'll take a look at the menus and see where we'd like to make our reservations for the 7 days when we are allowed to. I appreciate the link to the mousesavers.com too - that was pretty helpful! Looks like the Coral Reef is the one we wanna book first!

 

[cbg1027]

If you want to eat at TS places and don't want to wait forever, make ADR's. Even with the ADR's its quite possible to have a wait. But it will be a lot less time than if you didn't have the ADR.

I dont think anywhere except Victoria and Albert's "requires" reservations. You pretty much need them though.

The places I really like for TS are what they call "Signature" restaurants. The 2 Signatures I've eaten at are California Grill and Citricos. They are both amazing! They take 2 TS credits on the DP. What I would do one night, so you can have a really nice meal, is eat at a Signature with 2 meal credits and then pay out of pocket for the cheapest TS place you plan on going.

 

[bleeps]

Looking at what you've said so far, I would definitely go ahead and get ADRs for the places you want to go. The thing, too, about the dining plan (which I always use -- big fan) is that you've already paid for your food, so you want to ensure that you get to eat at the places you really want to go (and not just the places you have to settle for). No credit back if you don't use all your meals or if you don't get to use them at places you really want to eat!