First-timer PS reservations??

[topgumm]

My family is going to WDW for the first time in Feb. and I have no idea what to plan for PS reservations. I don't even know what restaurants are available in each park, or when and where I will be on any given day?! I see so many people with almost every meal planned and reserved for a week trip and I can not imagine knowing how you can do that.

I was thinking of maybe planning one reservation a day at different meals through out the week and try to plan around them for the day. Now I see people have been calling 120 days in advance to make these PS reservations and I am totally overwhelmed!

The three things I would love to do in a perfect world (after reading for 10 hours on this awesome web site) is get one Character meal for my kids at any time, the Pirate treasure hunt for the kids, and at least one nice meal for the whole family. Am I too late to get these?? Should I even try??

Any help for an unprepared first-timer?!? Thanks

 

[webray]

Check wdwig.com to help you get started planning. Also, picking up a Birnbaums guide to WDW at your local book or disney store would be of great help to you.

People can plan their days/restaurants ahead of time with just a little research. For example...when our kids were little (well, even now) we like to take advantage of early entry days in the parks. A perk for resort guests..so that told us what day we would be at what park...along with fireworks/special event schedules/times we were able to plan what we wanted to do and where we wanted to eat. We always liked to do at least one sitdown meal a day..because it is a nice, relaxing break in the middle of a very busy day.

Have fun planning!

 

[Flibbity]

It's never too late to call to try to get a Priority Seating You just call 407-WDW-DINE and see what's up. Sometimes if you call the same day you can get a reservation, but it really depends what restaurant and how close it is to the date. It certainly can't hurt to try

The poster above made a good recommendation. Go to your library and find the Travel Section and look up some disney books. They should have restaurant descriptions to give you some ideas.

Better yet, you can get menus and figure things out by going to
http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Good luck, and don't stress!

 

[Harambe]

Are you going during school vacation? If you are going at the beginning of Feb., or at the end, PS's will be available to you.

A great character meal that is usually available is the Garden Grill in Epcot. Good good and Mickey!

A couple of fun family meals - 'Ohana at the Polynesian, Cape May Buffet at the Beach Club, Rose & Crown at Epcot.

Have fun!

 

[RealMickey]

The three things I would love to do in a perfect world (after reading for 10 hours on this awesome web site) is get one Character meal for my kids at any time, the Pirate treasure hunt for the kids, and at least one nice meal for the whole family. Am I too late to get these?? Should I even try??

Yes!

Character meals and buffets usually book up earliest, but Feb. can be less crowded than other times of the year, so you should be able to get most of what you want.

I have found that in Feb. PS's can be arrainged for most sit down meals (other than character meals and buffets) within days or even the same day.

Do a little reseach online or with the guidebooks, make a few PS's and have a great trip.

 

[topgumm]

I can't thank you enough for all your helpful responses! I am much relieved to hear your comments of "don't stress". I will try to call tomorrow after I check out the menus you suggested on the link.

I have read often about the guide books on this site and they talk about an Unofficial guidebook. Where can you buy that or the other one you mentioned? Maybe Amazon? I hope to make this trip to WDW again, so I will probably purchase one for myself.

Have any of you taken your kids on the Treasure Hunt? My son is a heavy duty Peter Pan/Captain Hook fan and I think he would go nuts over a real treasure hunt. (we do mini ones at home all the time)

Thanks again for all the help!
p.s. we are going the 15-20 of Feb.-I hear it can be busy

 

[BCV23]

It is now 90 days ahead for almost all dining PSs...Victoria & Alberts Chef's Table and the dinner shows are exceptions that I can think of right now.

Lots of good advice. I thinl your plan of one PS per day might be good for a first trip. Then as you get your Disney legs you can add more while you're there if you want.

 

[crisi]

We did the treasure hunt in October.

You do need to book it early. You might get lucky, call and see.

It was really very cool (or I think it was - adults don't go and preschoolers don't bring back the most comprehesible reports), but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a first time family - unless you are going to be spending ten days or longer at Disney (and nothing but Disney). It takes up an entire morning - and in seven days you won't see everything Disney has to offer - even if you skip the Pirate Cruise. So if you can't book it, don't be too disappointed.

 

[luvsTink]

I can feel your pain! :smile:

There are so many choices of great places! I think the best thing to do is to take into consideration your family's personality and try to match places to it. For example: my family is quite wacky and loves to have fun. We like to tease and be teased. Whe have a wide variety of ages with our girls (16, 6 and 4)...therefore our choices for us are:
Chef Mickey's
50's Primetime
Whispering Canyon
Hollywood and Vine (Fantasmic Dinner package)
Crystal Palace

If I had time for one more I would have chosen O'hanas.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Anne

 

[RealMickey]

I have read often about the guide books on this site and they talk about an Unofficial guidebook. Where can you buy that or the other one you mentioned? Maybe Amazon? I hope to make this trip to WDW again, so I will probably purchase one for myself.

The three guidebooks most often mentioned on the dis are "The Unofficial Guide to WDW", "Birnbaum's WDW, and "Passporters guide to WDW". All can be purchased at Amazon.com, as well as your local bookstore (Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Borders). Everyone has a favorite guide. My fav for dining info is the Unofficial Guide. It has over 100 pages of dining and restaurant info!

Have Fun

 

[jcemom]

I started by listing the days we would be there, then deciding which days we would be going where. I used the "least crowded day" approach for each park, but this is where using the Extra Magic Hour would apply also. That is how I got my mornings, then my evenings were "scheduled in" according to which fireworks/shows we wanted to see. Then I decided on my PS choices. For example, if we will be at MK for Spectro and Wishes, then our dinner PS is at Liberty Tree in the MK. The night we plan to see Illuminations at Epcot, our dinner PS is at the Beirgarten in Germany.

 

[topcat011]

We are going to Disney February 8th thru the 13th. I called last week to make my PS according to what day I will be at certain parks. (I also use the best days to tour fromt he unoiffical guide)

I had no problems getting any PS for any place. Actually had a choice of times. If you are going in the begining of February you can take your chances as a walk in.

 

[crisi]

topcat,

I tried that two years ago (Feb 2002). Figured we'd "just walk in cause it was early Feb." What a disaster. The biggest mistake I made that trip was assuming that I could "just walk in because it isn't busy."

First, it was a lot busier than I expected (and I think a lot busier than Disney expected, they extended park hours twice while we were there). Then, when Disney isn't expecting busy, they understaff their restaurants - so it isn't like they can handle a sudden crowd. We got turned away flat from several restaurants, told it would be a two hour wait at several others, and ate lots of chicken fingers that trip. (This last October, we waited thirty minutes at 2:30 in the afternoon to get seated in a more than half empty Biergarten).

 

[topcat011]

When you went two years ago was it presidents week? Was that the year that Easter fell very early.

I called to make another PS for a lunch and again it seemed I had the pick of times. (Now I am wondering if I am setting myself up to think it is not going to be overly crowded.

 

[crisi]

Easter was in March (IIRC - I know we were home for Easter - by weeks.) Presidents "Monday" was the Monday after we left - conventional wisdom was that the weekend of President's Monday should have been busy, but we flew out that Friday. I'm thinking it was the same week you are going. And we were expecting "not busy at all" since the country was still in "reaction" mode from September 11th and we'd been told the travel industry was way down.

Lunch is always easier to get...and it depends on the restaurant. If you are trying to get into California Grill during fireworks time, or Chef Mickey's, you can't call 30 days out and get your pick of times. If you are looking for the Cape May character breakfast, you can often call the week you leave, or while you are there.

We've almost always gone in early Feb or October (I went once the first week in June, but other than that - its been about a dozen trips in Feb or Oct). Every time it seems these "slow" times of years are busier than they were the last time we went.

 

[MsPennieLane]

It's well worth doing. Hubby and I did lunch at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and friends for my 30th birthday and it was wonderful Hubby phoned to make a PS yesterday and we got one for 23rd January at Cinderella's Royal Table just in time for the fireworks, so it doesn't matter what time you leave it til you may well be in luck. I didn't expect to get one but was pleasantly surprised. You'll love whatever character meal you pick

 

[Grumpy92]

PS Rule of Thumb: You can get away without them with the exception of the following: School holidays, character meals, dining at 7pm or dining at one of the popular restaurants.

Pirates definitely need to call asap.
Character: Choose your childs favorite character and use that as your guide.
Popular Restaurants where you should always have a PS:
Cal Grill, Whispering Canyon, Cindy's, Ltt, CP, Narcoossees, 1900 Park Fare, Ohanas, Le Cellier, Garden Grill, 50s PT, Sci Fi, Hoop De Doo

Take a breath and choose one sit down meal a day then make a PS. You can be flexible that way and you can always change it when you arrive.

 

[crisi]

Grumpy,

Add Teppanyaki and San Angel Inn to that list. We continually see people turned away without PSs at those two restaurants - showing up at 4:00 to take "anything all night" and being told no.

In fact, I think all Epcot restaurants except Akershus and Marrakesh its a really good idea to have PSs for dinner. Lunch is a little different story.

There isn't any reason to make most of these the day the PS opens though. A few weeks before you leave is fine - and if you are open to time and flexible on place, often the day of will work fine too.

 

[topgumm]

Man, you guys are amazing! This is exactly what I needed. The post that mentioned how to pick the day, then the shows, then the PS was very helpful(jcemom).

Another question for you, with our family on West coast time, is it advisable to pick the early open day(which may be hard for us to wake up for) or the day the park is traditionally less crowded?

By the way, I got the Unofficial guide! That is pretty amazing also.

Thanks again