Dining Plan Stress ??????

[Gluman11]

My question evolves from the impression I am receiving, mainly from the Dis boards.......Seems to me that many of the more popular restaurants have become even more popular with people who normally would not have spent the money on these restaurants, but are now using the PLAN..........

1) Is my general impression correct??
2) For any of you who have been to WDW recently?? Was it difficult to get an advanced reservation by calling, say, the nite before you actually wanted to eat somewhere? We've never made ressies at the 90 day window, etc....we always felt it was too restricting to have a complete schedule made out so far in advance.........

Thanks..............in advance.........

 

[klh999]

I guess it depends on when you are going. Are you going during the free dining promotion?? If so, I think you might be difficult to base the experiences of whether you could or could not get reservations before on whether you will be able to get them during free dining.

Keep in mind during free dining.. there will be alot of resort guests who would not normally eat at restaurants who will all be eating at disney restaurants. We usually go offsite to eat but with free dining we will be staying onsite to eat our meals. I think it will be hard to judge until free dining starts at the end of August.

I am playing in staff and have ADR's!!! I figure no plenty for changing.

 

[ceecee]

I am expecting a lot more people than normal with the free dining. It has been harder to make ADR this year than I have ever experinced, normally we make 4. This year we booked them all, just to be on the safe side. Our in-laws booked one....they don't want to plan where they will be on certain days, etc.

 

[Mic]

Since 1999, our family has a tradition of eating at 'Ohana's at least once each trip, sometimes twice. We generally decide what night we are going once we arrive at WDW, and just dial 55 from our room the night before. During our trip in mid-June, we tried to book a reservation for ANY of the 6 nights we were there, beginning the day we arrived, with no luck. I just thought it might be because we had friends with us, and our party size was large(14). During our trip last week, we did not plan to have dinner at
'Ohana's because we were with our son's Boy Scout troop, but we decided mid-trip to have dinner with another couple one evening, and of course decided 'Ohana's was a good choice. Needless to say, there were no reservations to be had, even for a party of 4, so we ended up at Bahama Breeze on Vineland. I think the new dining plan is filling up a lot of the previously lesser-known restaurants in Disney World. I opted to purchase the Disney Dining Card when it became available to AP holders a few months ago, since we are DVC members, but I'm having trouble getting into my favorite restarants to use it!

 

[Luv2Roam]

I usually make ADR's last minute. Sometimes same day. If book over a week in advance, that is very early for me.
I have not had any problems. But there are only 2 of us and I am willing to be flexible.
I think that will be the key-- flexible on time and place.
If there are places that are high on your list -- I would book as soon as you know you want to eat there.
It may work out without booking before arriving. It really is just a gamble. But the more we get into free dining time, I think the tougher it will be.