Are PS really needed?

[BlueFairy]

On our last trip we were advised that reservations aren’t really necessary. Now we’re inside 30 days from an impromptu trip. Sat-Sun will be outside the parks but we may want a nice meal at DTD. Then solo in parks for 4 days. I’m just not getting my act together with a plan and haven’t even tried to think about dining reservations. Are they necessary?

Not interested in dining packages. Might want to do the Walk in Walt’s Foosteps, not only if there’s last minute availability. And DH is pretty interested in the Void Star Wars experience. That would have to be any evening.

Thoughts?

 

[sherilaine]

They are not necessary for all table service dining but Blue Bayou or any meal associated with seating for a show would likely require a reservation. I was checking into BB and was surprised how many people came up looking for a table and they were fully booked - this was a Thursday in early March too - so if there is something you know you want to do try to book something as you can always cancel the day before.

We did the Void and it's a lot of fun - we were a party of 4 and ended up booking a week night as the weekends were much busier and booked up - we made our reservation a few days ahead and had no wait whatsoever when we arrived.

 

[figment_jii]

Yes and no...I don't think you have to have reservations in most cases, but there are times when they can be beneficial. If you know you want to eat somewhere specific and/or at a specific time, then I would go ahead and make the reservation. As mentioned, Blue Bayou rarely accepts walk-ups, so I would make that reservation. Otherwise, if you plan to dine at the peak dining time (e.g., 11:00 am to 1:00 pm or 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm), be prepared to wait a bit for a table. I was at Cafe Orleans on Wednesday around 11:00 am and the walk-up wait time was 45 minutes. On a previous trip (late November), the walk-up wait time for Carnation Cafe at dinner (7:00 pm) was about 90 minutes.

There are also the lounges (e.g., Carthay Lounge, Alfresco Terrace, Cove Bar) that do not take reservations and have some pretty good food options. You might look into those for your in-park days if you don't want to make a reservation and don't want counter service.

 

[Winnowill]

We have seen situations where table service places will not take walk-ups. BUT, unlike WDW, it's not hard to get a reservation even a day in advance. Last April, we had a TS reservation that we were not going to be able to use because my husband had come down with the flug earlier that day. So we went to the reservation desk to explain (and try not to get hit with the $30 no-show fee). A young couple came up at the same time without reservations, and were going to be turned away, so we asked if we could transfer ours to them, and we could, so we did. And everyone was happy. But they would NOT have been happy if we hadn't had that exact situation at that exact time.