Do you plan every meal in advance??

[Twinprincesses]

Just curious if you only make reservations for the ones you definatly want or if you make them for every meal????

 

[LEO_Magic]

My fiance & I just got back from Disney this past weekend. We made reservations for dinner at Garden Grill in Epcot. People wanted a table & they couldn't get one. Also made reservations at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom & it was the same thing, they were booked. The only place that will let you eat w/o a reservation was a character break fast at the Polynisian. We made every reservation before our trip & it's the best thing we did.

 

[Julylady]

We start by making a list of the places we really want to eat at. Then, working with the park schedules, we decide on one table service meal per day (either lunch or dinner) and make a reservation. Once we are at WDW, we are pretty flexible about changing or cancelling a reservation if our plans change.

Donna

 

[Densgirl]

Like the poster above we do a table service a day and we decide them as soon as we can. When we went in September we saw many people being turned away at places like Le Celier, Yachtsman and some of the more popular resort restaurants. If we want to eat at a specific place I always make ADR's. I wouldn't want to risk missing a charachter meal my DS wanted or something someone in the family counts as part of their Disney experience. Like many people are now saying the Dining Plan seems to be filling the restaurants quicker than before.

 

[rosamindy]

Depends on when you go. If it's busy, and you want to eat in a TS restaurant every day, you need to make ADRs in advance (some WAY in advance). If you're satisfied with CS most of the time, only book the TS you really want.

If it's a slow time of year, you can probably book the TS you want when you arrive (some even the morning of the day you want them). To be on the safe side, though, I'd still book them prior to dining...that way there's no surprises and you won't be stuck settling for a place you really don't want to eat. Especially if you're on the Dining Plan, and you want to use all those TS credits you paid good money for.

 

[kjs1976]

Our schedule is pretty much the same as JulyLady's.

We've been very glad to have booked ADRs for places such as 'ohana's, Plaza restaraunt, and Chef Mickey's because we've seen numerous people turned away who just walked up to try to get a table.

We have fav counter service places to that we make a point to hit when we visit certain parks. It's easier to plan because then we know what part of the parks we want to end up in so as to get to the places we want toe at.

 

[sunny04]

If we want a table service, we get it in advance. We leave open spots for counter service so we don't have to plan everything around meals. We've just learned from on these boards that so many of the restaurants you can't get easily as a walk-up. So we have them planned if we want them.

 

[lsteadman]

for myself and DD10. I don't leave until April 25. I current have atleaset 1 ADR for everyday (2 on somedays - breakfast/dinner)

 

[westcliffemom]

I used to go with the flow before the DP, and make a PS that morning, but now if I want a TS, I make ADR's. I have a couple of open nights in my planning, but if they are must do places, I plan in advance!

 

[Lesleyluvdisney]

we dont pre-book every meal, just the ones we think are going to be busy, like the princess breakfast at Epcot. It depends what time of year you go, the first couple of times we went it was August so it was busy, and it did pay off to book in advance, but the past few times in Sept, we've booked that afternoon at guest services or called from our hotel phone to WDW-DINE and got ressies right away. Also you dont know how your day is going to play out weeks in advance, you may not feel like that breakfast dinner etc on the day

However, I would book crystal palace, cindrellas castle, sci-fi diner can be a long wait if you just turn up.

Les

 

[Michael623]

I have at least one sit down meal a day and I have never made a reservation from home. I can't be so regimented. I sometimes get up and decide which park to go to in the morning.

 

[kelleigh1]

The only ADR that I made for our trip is for breakfast at Crystal Palace because that is something we really wanted to do. Since I don't have all of our days planned out and don't know which park we'll be in on a given day, I didn't book anything else. We are going during value season though, so this helps!

 

[MNmom2]

I have at least one sit down meal a day and I have never made a reservation from home. I can't be so regimented. I sometimes get up and decide which park to go to in the morning.

Ditto for us!!

 

[pezpam]

On our first trip, we didn't plan anything and did just fine. When I had the Dining Plan, I did book our TS ahead of time, partly to plan and partly so that we wouldn't waste our TS credits. I think I left one or two TS's unplanned until we got there and I kind of wish I hadn't as it was hard to get an ADR for several places we were interested in. It seems that as more people discover the DP, it's harder to just walk up to TS places and get a table. A lot depends on the time of year, I suppose.

Because we have one vegetarian with us, I also looked through menus on allearsnet ahead of time to get a sense of what CS places would work for all of us and which wouldn't. That made it easy to head for a good place when we got hungry instead of wandering and checking menus and so forth.

 

[PrincessAurora]

I make all my TS ressies as soon as I can (usually 90 days out) via my travel agent (Dreams Unlimited). Most of my picks are signature restaurants and I plan my trip around where we are eating. I have never changed a ressie once I am at the park.

 

[pbharris4]

During the summer, I plan every meal and also what we do every day...BUT...we don't have to do it of we are tired, not hungry, having fun doing something else, don't feel like eating somewhere, etc. There's so many choices of things to do in WDW that it would take us forever to decide. So when I plan, I plan certain days for parks, certain days for doing whatever floats our boat for the day, and planning the meals, I defintely make ADRs for 1 TS/day (sometimes 2) and CS we can go wherever the shortest line is. It's not a "strict" itinerary..more like a guideline (except for the ADRs). We really had a great time the last 2 yrs we did this and didn't feel so overhwhelmed to do everything like we used to feel.

 

[MrsJackSparrow]

We usually do 2 big breakfasts, plus one big dinner, plus a few must-eats. These ressies are made ASAP. Then, since we prefer to park-hop, we plan our days/nights around parks. It's nice once we're there to not worry about where we'll be eating if it's crowded.