Dining Reservations for Lunch?

[LizzyS]

In the past, we have done dining reservations at Steakhouse 55 and RB’s Jazz Kitchen; we have never done in-park dining reservations. We usually do CS when we decide we are hungry.

I was thinking of doing lunch time dining reservations and I was wondering if anyone thinks that this saves a little time or nah? A lot of the time we end up doing lunch at Hungry Bear and the line is pretty long there for lunch, though we like the restaurant.

I was thinking of Carnation Café, maybe, but I probably need to check the parade schedule first, of course. I’ve always wanted to eat there.

They do take lunch time reservations, too, right? Or where else do you recommend that’s TS for lunch? My husband doesn’t do anything that’s too “weird”, lol, so I thought CC would be a good fit for us.

TIA!

 

[ParkHopper1]

I will usually do one ADR for a table service meal for either lunch or early dinner each day and do CS on the fly for the rest of the meals. It makes for a great sit down break to recharge and get off your feet for a while and relax which makes the remainder of the day MUCH more enjoyable. So in that regard, a lunch ADR is WELL worth it IMO!

 

[LizzyS]

I will usually do one ADR for a table service meal for either lunch or early dinner each day and do CS on the fly for the rest of the meals. It makes for a great sit down break to recharge and get off your feet for a while and relax which makes the remainder of the day MUCH more enjoyable. So in that regard, a lunch ADR is WELL worth it IMO!

Thank you for your opinion, I hadn't even considered the resting aspect of it! Silly me! That would probably help us out a lot, because we're usually ready to collapse after 12 straight hours in the parks, haha!

 

[dshimel]

If you make a dining reservation, you have to provide a credit card. If you no show, they charge you $20 unless you cancel at least 24 hours prior.

I now use the official mobile app on my smart phone to make reservations. Filter to restaurants, pick the restaurant, date you want, lunch/dinner, then it shows you some available times. Pick one of those times, or it lets you try a specific time. Then you use your phone's camera to snap a pic of your credit card. It OCR's the number and exp date. Just have to enter the code off the back. Easy peasy.

 

[ImDMous]

Ditto! We always have one sit down reservation a day. We like Carnation and Wine Country Tratoria but we also do Blue Bayou and some of the DTD or hotel restaurants. Plaza Inn is also a great CS that feels a little like a sit down since it's a lot of food and has indoor seating.

 

[LizzyS]

If you make a dining reservation, you have to provide a credit card. If you no show, they charge you $20 unless you cancel at least 24 hours prior.

I now use the official mobile app on my smart phone to make reservations. Filter to restaurants, pick the restaurant, date you want, lunch/dinner, then it shows you some available times. Pick one of those times, or it lets you try a specific time. Then you use your phone's camera to snap a pic of your credit card. It OCR's the number and exp date. Just have to enter the code off the back. Easy peasy.

Yeah, I knew there was a no-show fee, but we likely won't have a problem with that. When did the fee for cancelation go up to $20? I thought it was still $10!

 

[LizzyS]

Ditto! We always have one sit down reservation a day. We like Carnation and Wine Country Tratoria but we also do Blue Bayou and some of the DTD or hotel restaurants. Plaza Inn is also a great CS that feels a little like a sit down since it's a lot of food and has indoor seating.

Oh yeah, Plaza Inn, I need to consider that one, too. Is PI really busy at lunch time?

 

[ADLFAN]

Carnation Cafe is awesome with the best menu for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in my opinion! There is always an appealing option and nothing too adventurous means it's easy to please everyone.

The Blue Bayou and Cafe Orleans are the only other options in DL, and they are both awesome, but I hate how small the menus are and the fact that they don't change them up too often. Some seasonal specials would be very welcome.

Carthay Circle in DCA is very good, also, and has a larger menu.

 

[tzeitel]

We really liked Cafe Orleans for lunch this past Oct, so much so that we are doing ti again this May. We eat at odd hours so as to avoid crowds. We have early lunch (11ish) or early dinner (5:30ish), this way we eat while most people are doing rides and do rides while most people are standing in line waiting to eat

 

[Niltiac]

I was thinking of doing lunch time dining reservations and I was wondering if anyone thinks that this saves a little time or nah? A lot of the time we end up doing lunch at Hungry Bear and the line is pretty long there for lunch, though we like the restaurant.

If you're wondering if it saves time over CS, I would say probably not, simply because sit-down meals take longer in general than CS meals. You may not have to wait in line, but you will have to wait for your table to be ready (which can take a while even with reservations), your server, the check, etc. However, as some others have mentioned, it's a nice break and it's much nicer than waiting in line for CS. If you're asking if having a reservation saves time over not having a reservation, then I would say the answer is definitely yes. More than once I've found restaurants are taking reservations only, even when it didn't seem like a terribly busy day to me. In those situations, a lot of time is wasted walking to the restaurant, getting turned away, and figuring out where to go instead.

Depending on the length of trip, I like to have a couple of reservations, but they're always for the experience - either places that we particularly like (our favorite is Cafe Orleans) or a place we've heard about and really want to try. If all we want is a meal, we stick to CS since it allows more flexibility and tends to cost less. But I would make an exception if we were traveling during a particularly busy time, the weather forecast was looking bad, or if we had a really long day planned - in that case I would plan a TS meal just to get us out of the crowds/weather and off our feet for a while. But in either case, I wouldn't consider it a time-saving measure, and if I did I would be setting myself up for disappointment. There have been two times when it has taken over an hour for my group to be seated even with a reservation (it's not the norm, but it can happen).

 

[ImDMous]

Oh yeah, Plaza Inn, I need to consider that one, too. Is PI really busy at lunch time?

It can be, so we usually eat at off times at places that don't take reservations. Some popcorn, a churro or an ice cream can hold off lunch for a few hours so we're eating at 2 or 3 instead of noon. If the weather is nice, we try to get one of the tables on the porch to the right of the entrance during a parade time. The view is not great because there are trees in the way, but we've seen all the parades so it's more just enjoying the music and festive atmosphere of it going by if you've already seen it once.

 

[LizzyS]

Yeah, I'm thinking about a 2 pm lunch reservation as we normally get into the park in the morning for about an hour and a half or two and then eat a pretty decent breakfast.

I hope the waiting an hour to be seated for a reservation thing was during a peak time, because that's crazy!

 

[figment_jii]

Yeah, I knew there was a no-show fee, but we likely won't have a problem with that. When did the fee for cancelation go up to $20? I thought it was still $10!

I looked on my confirmations from December 2016, and the no show fee for most TS locations was still $10 per person on the reservation. So if you have a reservation for two and don't show up, it would be $20.

In terms of time savings...no I don't necessarily think having an ADR will make the TS meal be shorter than a CS meal. On the other hand, having a reservation can considerably shorten the wait time compared to those folks without a reservation, even at an off time. If you know you want to eat at TS location, I would definitely make a reservation; turning away walk-ups seems more common now than it did in the past.

 

[LizzyS]

Oh, gotcha! It's per person, not per reservation.

 

[22Tink]

You definitely can't go wrong with the Carnation Cafe. We eat there every trip. My husband is super picky and has always managed to leave full!

 

[ParkHopper1]

You definitely can't go wrong with the Carnation Cafe. We eat there every trip. My husband is super picky and has always managed to leave full!

Agreed. I have hit almost every Table Service place in the parks and we usually leave with just a "meh" (except Napa Rose) but have not been to Carnation Cafe in quite a few years for some reason. We just ate there with a part of 8 all left pleasantly surprised and happy with our meals.

 

[LisaT91403]

I agree that it's a toss up regarding saving time. You might get seated right away with an ADR, but the whole dining experience takes longer. We still like to do it at lunch because a) we give our feet a break, b) it's relaxing and not hectic, and c) we like the refills on the drinks (we get lots of 'em...we like our caffeine to get us through the second half of the day). We typically do Carnation or Cafe Orleans.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We love lunch ADRs but we do a light breakfast & the first available ADR of lunch. I also feel it won't save you any any time. They have up to 15 mins to seat you from your reservation time, time to browse the menu, place the order, get the food... you know the drill. BUT if you're looking for something more relaxing than the hectic rush of CS I'd go ahead and give in park TS a try! (And I'd definitely make a reservation, without one the wait could be agregious.)

 

[LizzyS]

Thanks everyone for the advice!