Can we plan a WDW trip on short notice regarding dining?

[funshipm174]

Normally we book waayyy ahead ( 12 months), but to to some circumstances, we are looking to plan a a trip possible as soon as next month. With that being said, is it possible to get dining reservations within reason for a family of three ( DH DW & DS 12)?

I wouldn't expect the normal times that we have booked, but our son is not someone that can eat Breakfast at 7 a.m. or dinner at 8:30 p.m. either.

Is something in the area for a 9:00 a.m. breakfast or a 7:30 p.m. dinner possible and within reason this cloase to travel ( end of January) if we do it?





Thanks

 

[chocolateMinnie]

For our 2007 trip and our Feb 2009 trip we booked 18months in advance and went into hyper-plan.

We were fortunate enough to have enough money to book a last minute trip for this October and only booked 3 1/2 weeks in advance. We had the free QSDP which we upgraded to the DDP. We booked our meals online and were fairly flexible but still managed to get everywhere on our wish list except for Le Cellier.

We ate at CP and Maya Grill for breakfast, for dinner Kouzzinas, Boma, Akershus, the Plaza. Could have booked CRT if we wanted to but decided against it as we had been twice in Feb. We had lots of choice but were very flexible with days and times of meals. If you are prepared to be flexible you should have no problem IMHO.

 

[turkeymama]

We booked a trip about 1 1/2 months in advance in December of 2007 and we were able to snag some pretty decent ADRs. We didn't get nearly all of our favorites, but we were able to get character meals for almost every day of our trip at normal eating times. In fact, it was more difficult to get those 7:00 a.m. times than it was to get 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.

 

[ktlm]

I would suggest that you go online on the Disney website and nose around and see what you can find available. It is really easy to check now that ADRs can be made online. I would expect that you will be able to find decent places to eat. Maybe not your first choice, and you may have to keep checking online to pick up cancellations, but I sure wouldn't let that stop me from going to WDW!!

 

[danceintherain]

As long as you're flexible you should be fine.
I've been successful at changing ADRs the day before, and adding people minutes before.
It really depends on when and where you want to go.
The places that are difficult to get 180 days out are obviously going to be even more difficult to get at the last minute, but there are still plenty of fun places to try.
Obviously, if you're a bit of a control freak like me, it's more fun to have your ADRs waaaay in advance, but don't stress about it too much.

Also, every month usually has an ADR change thread on these boards. They no longer allow directly giving an ADR to someone, but if you get on there you can arrange to snag an ADR right after someone cancels.

Definitely check online for your dates, then you can see exactly what is available for your dates.
The Online Dining system lets you check within 2 hours of a specific time over up to 5 days, and gives you suggestions for different places if there's no availability at your particular choice. It can be tedious and time consuming, so you can call if you like, but I personally prefer doing it online, because then I can see what's really available instead of having a CM tell me.

Good luck!

 

[PlutoLuvr]

We just decided to spend some time in WDW in early February (like we leave in nearly 30 days), and I called yesterday for ADRs and got everything I wanted at the times I wanted:

San Angel Inn (dinner)
Biergarten (dinner)
Rose & Crown (dinner)
Plaza (lunch)
Brown Derby (lunch)
Sci-Fi (lunch)

Now, granted, we're not into character meals and you couldn't pay me to eat at LeCellier after our last few experiences there (which books up quick), but I had absolutely no trouble at all getting all of our must-do's and new ressies we wanted to try a month out.

Keep in mind, too, there are several places in DTD that you can call direct for ressies (Paradisio), that don't accept ressies (Bongo's, Rainforest Cafe) or don't participate in the DDP and often have availability right up until the day you'd like to eat (Wolfgang Puck's upstairs). Wolfgang Puck's upstairs dining is wonderful, and we've often secured a ressie very last minute there.