Frustrated!

[wide receiver]

My Brother (50 years old, my older brother, who still thinks I don't know anything!) is going to WDW in Nov during the Food and Wine festival. He is refusing to make dinner reservation. My advice to him was that is not a good plan....he said he was going to go to Downtown Disney because the restaurants would be better there and they wouldn't need reservation. I disagree but thought I would put the question out to all of you. Do you need ressies to dine in downtown disney?

 

[Disney-Obsessed]

Last time my family and I ate at the Rainforest Cafe, we didn't have reservations but the wait wasn't so pleasant. As for The Earl of Sandwich, you don't need reservations, but that's not a nicer sit down meal. These are the only two restaurants I can think of right now, but I think you may need reservations for the others. This is if you don't want to wait forever for an available seat. I know that your brother would have a better time not having to worry about reservations and enjoying the food in WDW.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

Planet Hollywood has tons of seating. I wouldn't think a reservation would be needed there.

Wolfgang Puck Express is walk in. (And we LOVED it!)

 

[BriarRosie]

My Brother (50 years old, my older brother, who still thinks I don't know anything!) is going to WDW in Nov during the Food and Wine festival. He is refusing to make dinner reservation. My advice to him was that is not a good plan....he said he was going to go to Downtown Disney because the restaurants would be better there and they wouldn't need reservation. I disagree but thought I would put the question out to all of you. Do you need ressies to dine in downtown disney?

I hope he's got a car, because if he thinks it would be simple to get to Downtown Disney from a theme park, he will be EXTREMELY frustrated. You have to take a bus from a resort to get there, and it's not a quick trip.

The Downtown Disney restaurants will probably be easier to get into without an ADR, but you can't say we didn't warn him that he'll lose a lot of time commuting there by Disney transportation.

And FYI, both Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express are considered quick service, not table service locations, so they won't need ADRs at all. To make matters more confusing, there is a table service Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Downtown Disney West Side.

 

[FloridaDreaming]

Maybe if he was looking to eat at odd times, he might be able to enjoy a sit down at DTD but, most will still be pretty busy.
He may get surprisingly lucky. There's a dining trip report here from this past May that had no ADRs and they still ate at some great restaurants. Granted it wasn't during F&W but, May is still decently busy.

 

[cymbaldiva]

My Brother (50 years old, my older brother, who still thinks I don't know anything!) is going to WDW in Nov during the Food and Wine festival. He is refusing to make dinner reservation. My advice to him was that is not a good plan....he said he was going to go to Downtown Disney because the restaurants would be better there and they wouldn't need reservation. I disagree but thought I would put the question out to all of you. Do you need ressies to dine in downtown disney?

Not sure what he's looking to eat, but shouldn't be a problem

 

[World Showcaser]

I don't think it will be a problem either. And I would strongly recommend Wolfgang Puck Express which doesn't even take ADRs.

If there isn't anywhere specific that you want to eat, you can always get a last minute ADR somewhere but you'll have more limited options.

 

[TDC Nala]

Most DTD restaurants are not on the dining plan. He could pick one of them and it might help. Rainforest Cafe and T-Rex are popular anyway because everybody wants to take the kiddies there. But I can't actually say that the restaurants at DTD are better than the others. I went to Bongos once and never went back, and according to the reviews Cap'n Jack's may be the worst restaurant at WDW. The Food and Wine Festival has barely any impact at all on DTD, so I can't see that it makes a difference that he is going at that time.

 

[Uno Mas]

I don't see it as a problem either, there's many strategies you can use to make it work - eating at off times - i.e., don't go at 5:30 for dinner - go for a combined late lunch/early dinner at 3:30 or 4 instead. Or just grab a seat at the bar and eat there instead if that works for your group. I'm an anti-ADR person and I've never had problems.

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

My advise is to not have his heart set on a specific restaurant and be flexible with the time he wants to eat. I've made same day reservations at California Grill, Boma and Ragland Road just be calling or going online and saying I need a dinner reservation and I'm not picky about time or cuisine.

 

[JimmyV]

I don't think that "availability" is as big an issue as his prediction that the restaurants at DTD "would be better there". Better than what? Rainforest and T-Rex are replicas of their shopping mall bretheren. Bongos is nothing to write home about. Wolfgang Puck is good (downstairs) and excellent (upstairs). But don't count on just sauntering in upstairs during F&W. These are certainly not the "creme de la creme" of onsite restaurants. Easier to get into than, say, your average Epcot restaurant? Sure. But that has as much to do with desirability as it does with convenience.

 

[disnut8]

Well, it's his choice, isn't it? If he's refusing to make reservations, drop the issue. You can always do an "I told you so" later.

However, he's going during the Food & Wine Festival so he's not going to starve. We never make a dinner reservation during that time, preferring to eat what we want when we want along the World Showcase. If nothing else, he can go there and eat to his heart's content.

Really, why are YOU stressing? It's his trip.

 

[POOHsie]

Yeah, I don't much bother wasting my breath on people who have all the answers. They aren't listening to me, anyways. Your "knows everything" brother seems to have acquired all the information he wishes to know. He will find food to eat, most people do eat every day. I wouldn't even bother with "I told you so." Plus, he might not admit to you what a hassle he had trying to eat anywhere worth visiting.

When you have your WDW trip, you can tell him about all the wonderful dining experiences you had, even if he pretends he's not listening.

 

[GeorgeG]

I have to agree with your brother. We go quite often and have found DTD restaurants to be better and considerably easier to get seated without an ADR. We drive so transportation isn't an issue. We like Fulton's and Raglan Road better than just about any of the park and resort restaurants. Ever since Disney began marketing what used to be great restaurants as "signature," the quality on those has slipped, but the marketing works on the tourists, which is why we usually walk right in at the non-Disney restaurants at DTD (our party of 7 was seated right away at Raglan Road just two weeks ago and that was July 4th at about 7pm). It will be a lot easier to drive than to rely on Disney transportation, though.

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

We travel to Disney in the summer and once during December. We have never had any problem getting same-day reservations at any of the Downtown Disney restaurants.

For T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe, we always call the restaurant rather than Disney, because Disney has fewer ADRs to offer at those two places. We usually call an hour or two before we want to dine.

Downtown Disney restaurants will make you wait, though, if you walk up without a reservation. At least, that has been my experience.

I love Wolfgang Puck Cafe, but one time they told me that it would be a while before we could get a table. It wasn't a bad wait, maybe 15 minutes. Another time, I called a few minutes before walking up to the podium, and because I had a reservation, I was seated immediately. So that's what I do now.

 

[sydneysmom]

Your brother doesn't seem too worried about it.... my advice would be that you shouldn't worry either. If he wants to just wing it, let him...it's his trip.

 

[Anthony1971]

DTD should not be a problem.. I never made reservations for any and I have eaten at them all and never had a problem. If there is a convention he may have a wait for Portobello or Fultons crab house--which by the way are far better then WDW similar IMO-- the rest I would not say is better or worse.
I would also suspect he would not have a difficult time finding a great place to eat in the parks in October with a very reasonable wait time.... IN EPCOT if it was a problem there is no shortage of great food eat every few feet...

 

[vinotinto]

We were able to get same-day ADRs in DTD twice in June (WPC and RR-both good). They were at lunch, though, so less busy than prime dinner time (5:30-7:00 pm).