Dining strategies, Poly, Grand Floridian, Beach club.

[cruisehopeful]

Follow up question in post 18.
I'm a west coaster that will be staying at the Polynesian for 2 nights pre-cruise and one night at Beach club post cruise. I've been looking at menus and I think we'll want quick service at Poly. The sit down restaurants that look good are at Grand Floridian and I assume it's easy for us to pop over there from the Polynesian. I don't eat steak or seafood and that's pretty much the only things my husband will eat. It looks like we could both eat at almost every restaurant at the Grand.

For our one night stay at Beach club, almost everything there and at Yacht club looks good. I suspect we'll be spending the day at Stormalong Bay and will just get quick service near there. So, we'll only have a dinner to book.

What is the strategy for booking table service at those resorts? Is it to book right at 60 days out? I usually don't plant that far in advance at Disneyland because it is practically a local park. When I stay there, I just sign up for the walk up list when I want to dine. There's also very good lounges at the hotels with great food. Is it like that at the 3 resorts in my title?

 

[LoveDaisy]

Reservations at WDW open 60 days in advance at 6am ET.

If you are staying at the poly you can easily eat at any of the three monorail resorts (Grand Floridian, Poly, or Contemporary). The sit down restaurants do have lounges. Their menus are available on the Disney website.

When you stay at yacht club you can easily walk to all the hotels in that area (yacht club, beach club, boardwalk, and swolphin). There are lots of restaurants options but quick service is not great on this area. These restaurants also have lounges.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Skippyboo]

When are you coming because Stormalong Bay is closed until July? There are lounges in all the monorail resorts. You can also go over to Geyser point at Wilderness. Just take the boat over to WL from MK.

 

[cruisehopeful]

When are you coming because Stormalong Bay is closed until July? There are lounges in all the monorail resorts. You can also go over to Geyser point at Wilderness. Just take the boat over to WL from MK.

Early August.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

There are some very nice options if you're staying at Beach Club, but you'll want to be ready to book right at 60 days out. That being said, I believe August could be a slightly slower period, so your options might be more open. You might not need to be online right at 6AMEDT that morning! Nice options at BC/ YC/ S&D. Also, perhaps take a look at the Amare menu, which is an easy walk from BC/YC to the Swan Reserve Resort - one of our favorites, and often an easier reservation at 60 days.

 

[disneygal55]

We stay at the Beach Club Villas nearly every time we visit WDW. We don't really like the food options at the resort.
Boardwalk, across the lake, is a short walk from the Beach Club and Boardwalk Deli, a counter service, has fantastic sandwiches and a really good tomato soup meal. Trattoria Al Forno is good also. I especially like their lasagna and they offer a steak as well as a shrimp option.

 

[Mazz519]

If you have definite places you want to go to book right at 60 days out, the nice restaurants at all those resorts usually book up pretty quickly…. Sometimes you can get luck with walk ups but with that you are relying on someone to cancel.. Citricos at the Grand Floridian is great !!

 

[FSU Girl]

Always a good idea to book at your 60 day window 6am eastern time. You can always change your plans and can cancel most restaurants up to 2 hours before so there’s really no downside to having something booked. Do you have little kids in your party? A character meal would be fun. Staying at Beach Club you’ll have access to the skyliner too so you could go over to the Riviera and Topolinos (great character breakfast and I heard good things about their fancier dinner but haven’t been)

Are you also going into the parks or just staycation at the hotels? The California Grill would give you a nice view of fireworks and a meal over at the contemporary. Or if you want to watch from the Polynesian schedule dinner so it doesn’t interfere with firework time.

 

[cruisehopeful]

you have little kids in your party?

No kids. Just 2 adults.

Are you also going into the parks or just staycation at the hotels?

There's a small possibility that we would go to Magic Kingdom Park. Because of the travel time and timezone change, we'll only really have one day before the cruise, even though we're staying 2 nights. I'm very interested in seeing as many resorts as possible (if we don't get to the theme park).

It sounds like I'll have to book the table service at 3:00am my time. That's going to be challenging for me. Are the lounges easy for walk up? Since we're used to eating 5-6 Pacific time, I imagine we'll be eating on the later side at the resorts.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

If you’re looking at Narcoosee’s at GF, getting a reservation at 60 days is a good idea but I wouldn’t worry about booking right at 6 am, especially if you don’t mind dining a bit on the late side. The other GF restaurants, even Citricos, don’t seem to book up quickly.

 

[CaptainMarvel]

I did a two night pre-cruise stay in 2023 and while I did book dining at the 60 day mark (I was traveling as a party of seven and wanted to guarantee we had at least some options), I also ended up changing every single reservation prior to the start of our trip. (Primarily to more desirable times). Some of this was well before our trip, but the widest availability I saw was 1-2 days out from the dates I was looking at. So, if you don't want to wake up at 3 am and are willing to be somewhat flexible, you should definitely be able to find workable reservation options closer to (or possibly during) your stay.

 

[erinch]

You’ll be pretty tightly scheduled on the cruise. It might be more relaxing just to rely on same day ADRs, QS, or lounges.

 

[cruisehopeful]

You’ll be pretty tightly scheduled on the cruise. It might be more relaxing just to rely on same day ADRs, QS, or lounges.

I looked at the lounge menus and they look fantastic. I was planning on Tambu lounge for the first night for convenience. Cotricos has a spectacular lounge menu and it would be nice to visit the Wilderness Lodge (the lounge was suggested above). I have access to the villains lounge and I was pretty pumped about going there, but the menu isn't particularly special. It'll probably be a good idea to just go with the flow.

I didn't realize that I would be so close to the Swan and Dolphin on the Beach club day. I'll have to look at what they have. So many great ideas are being shared.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Does Flying Fish have a full menu at the bar?

 

[LoveDaisy]

Does Flying Fish have a full menu at the bar?

Yes. DH and I have dined at the bar more than once.

 

[The Mayor]

My two recommendations would be
Grand Floridian Cafe
Ale & Compass (on the Yacht Club side)

We've eaten at both multiple times and have never had a bad meal or service.

 

[Brob2132]

I really enjoyed dining at the bar at Flying Fish. Know it’s random availability but I had no problem walking right up.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I have a follow up question. Do you know if I could order a kid's meal for myself at one of the lounges? I'd be happy to order double/pay double if required.