Dining without ADR's

[eliza61]

I know the popular wisdom on the boards is, if you don't have ADR's you're pretty much screwed when it comes to TS.

This is for the few of us who travel with out plans or with very limited plans. My family and I generally do not go during Free dining so this tips may not work then.

Little background
Me (50ish)
Dh (50ish)
Honorable son 1 (17)
honorable son 2 (15)

We've been to the mouse world too many times to count now. Generally we go during August and Jersey week. this year it's 8/1-8/10. We usually make 1 or 2 ADR's but we never seem to make them.
Oh we eat TS at least once a day usually twice. Oh this works well if you have park hoppers.

I am not advocating one system over another, I just wanted to let people who are not uber planners that they are not doomed to CS like every one likes them to believe.

1) FLEXIBILITY IS THE KEY If you must eat at Le Celliar at a certain time, you need an adr.

2) When you wake up, call disney dining. The cms on the phone are usually very good at finding TS. Take a chance on what they suggest.

3) Explore the resort restuarants. If you go in the summer like we do, a TS lunch is a great way to get out of the hot parks into a cool restuarant. Also its a great way to find hidden treasures. I would have never tried OLIVIAs at OKW if it had not been suggested to me

4) Eat at off hours. Our favorite trick is a late lunch or early dinner. Usually if we eat TS dinner at 6:00pm we are too stuffed to eat dessert, eating an early dinner means around 8:00 pm we have room for some thing sweet like a mickey bar.

Anybody else with helpful tips?

PPS this is not "walk up". Even I'm not crazy enough to do that. Call this last minute adrs. LOL

 

[mom2rtk]

This is good advice, but I wouldn't try it during the Free Dining promotion.....

 

[OurDogCisco]

Great advice!!! Let's say you got a table at restaurant in MK does that mean that's the park you are going to visit that day? Curious how that worked. Good luck!

 

[eliza61]

This is good advice, but I wouldn't try it during the Free Dining promotion.....

Definitely not. In fact I usually avoid FD periods because I'm not much of a planner.

Great advice!!! Let's say you got a table at restaurant in MK does that mean that's the park you are going to visit that day? Curious how that worked. Good luck!

Generally it does. We never do back to back days in the same park so there are times when I call Disney Dining that I will have to ask if there is another option.

It's a little easier for me because I have park hoppers so I'm not locked into anyone park on any one day.

 

[buckirj1]

The OP wrote the most sensible post on the subject I've seen in quite a while. I do some variation on this at every visit. Well, I did walk up to Tusker House for lunch one day...and got in.

A beautiful (and diplomatic) post. Thank You!