Dining at DL do you need ressies?

[Cora]

Hi,
I've been to DL many times over the years and have never needed ressies for dining. Is it still the same (as long as we don't want the popular restaurants)?

We are going 2/13-2/20 and will need to eat breakfast (may have some in the room) and maybe a couple meals during our stay. We are staying at the Villas at the Grand Californian and are really using it as a "hotel" to visit family, not necessarily as a trip to DL. We do plan to visit the parks here and there and may need to eat meals. Counter service is ok, however, we may want table service on occasion.

Any thoughts, advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Sherry E]

Priority Seating (PS) arrangements are not really 'required' by Disneyland Dining at any place other than the Blue Bayou in DL, and there have even been some DIS-ers here who have reported just walking up to the Blue Bayou without a PS and getting a table this year. I wouldn't count on a walk-up for that, though. So if Blue Bayou is on the agenda, I would make a PS, for sure.

Other than that, pretty much all the table service restaurants in DL or DCA are "popular" because there are not many of them! You can, feasibly, walk up to any of them and get a table, but you may have to wait a while. At Carnation Cafe in DL, for example, the seating is very limited and so the line of people waiting for a table builds quickly. I have heard of people getting seated there right away, but that has never happened for us without a PS. We even waited about 45 minutes once at Carnation. So I would most definitely suggest a PS for that.

I have never eaten at Cafe Orleans, but a lot of folks suggest a PS for that.

In DCA, Wine Country Trattoria always seems to have plenty of seating available when we go. I don't know if we are just lucky or what, but we have never had a wait of longer than a minute or two.

At the hotels, I have always found that Storytellers Cafe in the GCH has ample seating, whether it be for the Critter breakfast in the morning or the non-critter lunch or dinner hours. Again, I may be lucky. It wouldn't hurt to make a PS for dinnertime, though.

Of course, if you want to do any of the 5 character meals in DLR, you can walk up and wait for a table (as we did a couple of weekends ago), but it is recommended that you have a PS.

In DTD, the 2 restaurants that I would definitely suggest a PS for are Rainforest Cafe and ESPN Zone. Those 2 places are extremely busy during dinner hours (Rainforest Cafe is much less busy at breakfast time), and we have waited about an hour at one (RFC) and about 50 minutes at ESPN Zone. Naples always seems to have plenty of seating whenever we go.

 

[Cora]

Sherry,
Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. We have a 16 year old that has been to both DL and WDW umpteen times, so a character meal won't be happening! I think he would be mortified
Cora