clarification on ressies, please

[noladave]

I'm a wdw vet, and I would like some clarification on advance ressies at DL. I was reading Birnbaum's book, and they said you need to have ressies for every meal at DL. I never had to do that at WDW, you picked the places that you really wanted to go to, and made advance ressies for those, but you could do walk up at other places. Is the wait at DL really that long? What about counter service places, do they not have enough of them?

TIA - just wanted to figure out if I need to plan every single meal before I even arrive - way too much planning for me.

 

[jemilah]

No ressie's for counter service and depending on the time of the year , you can just walk in to most resturaunts. Character meals and blue bayou are definatly reserve in advance. If you are going at a time when the parks are going to be full or weekends I would try to make as many sit down reservations for the resturaunts you don't want to miss.

 

[fidoprincess]

If it is a holiday weekend or a really busy time, I say yes! Make at least one PS for each day, we generally make 2, like breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner. First of all, there are not that many places the do PS in DL; just Carnation Cafe, Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans and the Plaza Inn (for Character Breakfast Only). There are plenty of self serve, walk-up places but the lines are unpredictable and we have waited really long to get food and find a table.

In DCA, there are even less PS places; Wine County Tratoria, The Vinyard Place(Winery/Viney?), Ariels Grotto(Princess Character Dining) and...gosh is that all? I think so.

DTD and the hotels all have dining places but I would not go for dinner on the weekend at say, Rain Forest Cafe without reservations! I have seen the wait over 2 hours!! I have kids 6 & 11 who would never be able to wait that long for dinner. We like the Character meals at the different hotels too and I have seen them turn people away from Goofy's lots of times so it pays to have a reservation.

That said, you can always cancel any PS you make!! There is no charge to cancel so why not have a "back-up" plan just in case. We are going right before Thanksgiving and I know it will be crowded and also it might rain. If it rains, people pour into the covered dining places and you can not find a table!
Also, if it is really packed, we do not want to leave DL for fear of not getting back in so I also take this into account when planning PS. For example, we would not leave DL to go have dinner in DTD on Thanksgiving Day. I also plan it all out so we are not doing 2 character meals back to back.

Here is our tentative plan just to give you an idea. Friday-breakfast(feed kids in the room-quick and easy while I dress), lunch BB, dinner RFC. Sat breakfast at Plaza Inn (early entry day at 7 so late breakfast at 9:30) no lunch PS, Dinner Cafe Orleans, Sunday breakfast at Carnation, Goofys for dinner. Carnation has a different menu for breakfast than lunch/dinner so you can eat there twice.

This is just to give you an idea but we use it as a "back up" system and if we decide on some other big lunch, we just cancel something else. We have even called the day of for PS for example, we were at the pool and the kids wanted Goofys for dinner so I picked up the house phone and we made PS for an hour later, it was great. One morning they wanted to try Granvilles(now 55 something?) and we called from the room rather than wait in line and got right in!!

IF we didn't have kids, we would just make one or two PS at places we really wanted to go like BB. Forget about walking up and getting in there. With kids though, we like to have a sit down and relax meal and don't want to/can't wait 2 hours!

 

[hlbtimes2]

We typically don't make a bunch of ps for our trip. For 3-5 days we might have a total of 2 or 3. And sometimes we dont even make it for those. Our last trip was 3 days- I made ps for Minnies for breakfast. Then one morning we wanted to go to Carnation for breakfast so I called and made a PS for two hours later, got us in no problem. We wanted PS for Ariels, but waited too long and couldnt get in. So, next time we'll make PS for that in advance. The trip prior was 5 days. I made a PS for Goofys for brunch, and lunch as BB. We went to Goofys, missed our BB seating. Again, we called Carnation the morning off for breakfast. It saves a 30-40 min. wait if you call.

Oh, forgot about my May trip. No PS for 3 days. Went with girlfriends and we didnt want to be tied down to anything. Again, called Carnation the morning off.

As you can see, we are fine with walk up dinner. We try to eat at off times so the lines aren't as long

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I think the length of time you spend in line greatly depends on when you go as well. I went expecting to be in food lines for 20 mins. or more, but we went late September, and the longest wait was maybe 10 mins. Oh, I take that back: Even with a PS for Goofy's Kitchen and being there about 10 minutes early, we waited quite awhile to get in, it probably was 20 - 25 mins.

Also, after going on the Pirates ride, I fell in love with the bayou scenery, and decided I wanted to go to BB just for a mid-afternoon dessert. (They have some neat looking desserts, and I just wanted a chance to sit there and enjoy the atmosphere.) NO CHANCE, even during a slow weekday they were totally booked. I even asked about the next day, and they were booked solid for the next week.

 

[Dis Ohana]

Can you make a PS for just dessert? And are they cool with it, or will the waiter be giving us dirty looks the whole time? lol

 

[fidoprincess]

Here is a nice site that lists all the menus: http://www.dlresortinfo.com/DisneylandMenus/dlmenus.html
They have DTD, DCA the hotels and DL. My kids often look at these and decide what looks good and where they want to eat. We are struggling with going to BB because the children's menu is not what they like to eat and it is the same menu as Cafe Orleans but they are willing to give it a try!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Somebody else posted that they didn't want to have a meal there (I don't remember if it was the menu or the expense), so they just had dessert and everything was wonderful. That's what gave me the idea while we were there in September, but I don't know what I was thinking...of COURSE you'd need a PS even if it's just for dessert!