Has anyone gone without advance planning???

[san2ting2mom]

OK, I am just amazed at the amount of planning y'all are doing for your meals. It's just blowing my mind. I mean, you have to plan where you are going to eat 90 days in advance??? That is astonishing.

Has anyone ever gone to WDW with little or no planning whatsoever re: your mealtimes? I mean, for us, I was planning to reserve a character meal on a certain day, but that's only because it's my daughter's birthday, so I wanted to do something special on that day. And then for my older daughter, I'm going to try to get her into the Tea Party with the Alice in Wonderland characters (they still have that, right?). That was it. (BTW, I did tell her about the Pirate Adventure, but she heard the word "pirate" and freaked. What can I say, she's 5, heh.) And if I felt adventurous enough, I would have asked for PS for one night of dinner for the whole family. All the other nights, I was thinking we could wing it or just request PS each morning at the resort. If one restaurant wasn't taking any more PS requests, then no biggie -- we would go for another. And if they were all booked, then we could go off-site or just go casual.

FWIW -- We are going to be there from May 21-28. It's the week before Memorial Day Weekend, so I know it can get kind of busy, but I didn't think it would be so busy that I would need to plan where we are going to eat 90 days ahead of time. And doesn't the planning take away from the spontaneity of being on vacation, or am I missing something here???

Please note that I'm a newbie at this and these questions may seem ridiculous, but I'm really curious as to the reason for all this advance planning. I really don't mean to offend! TIA!

Linda

 

[polly p]

As long as it is not peak season or peak dinner or lunch time, you'll be fine.
We did little planning with advanced reservations except for our character meals. We waited a little sometimes but others only a short time. You can wing it but don't eat at noon or 5.

 

[fran99999]

I wing it most of the time. Yes sometimes I get the PS in the AM I want and sometimes I call on my cell phone from the park and ask how long of a wait there is. I have eaten at WCC, Chef Mickeys, Primetime, Scifie, etc. I have never eaten at Cindy castle yet that is for this trip. HMM Maybe I'll call a few days prior to going for seating. To give them a chance, or maybe Il try walk up. This has worked in the past although I did have a 20 min wait at Crystal palace once.

 

[Ibelieveinfairies]

We didn't plan for one trip...and ended up wandering around the WS looking for a place to sit down to eat that had a wait of less than 45 minutes/1hour...and said never again! We now plan PS for any restaurant that is on our "must do" list and wing the rest.

 

[Rootskate]

We had pretty good luck calling from our resort the night before to get priority seatings for lunch the next day. (Of course, this was in November. I doubt we would have had such luck if it were a busier time of year.)

 

[cymomtx]

We had dinner at the castle the first week of July calling the day before.

 

[newholidayx2]

They say in the summer to have (1) PS for every day or we'll be waiting for every meal.
We'll be at WDW for 14nights this Aug. Im planning on at least (4) brkfst - Chef Mickey, Cape May, Kona and Spoodles. (1) dinner -night we arrive
(4) park lunches - spend morns in parks then before we head back to Pop have lunch and (5) lunches either on the Boardwalk or EpCot restaurant - 1st time staying at EpCot resort (BCV)

 

[minkydog]

If there is a place i really, really want to eat at, then I'll make PSs. Otherwise, we fly by the seat of our pants. The week of May 21-28? I'd probably make one PS a day and the rest counter service. We don't do more than one sit-down meal a day anyway.

 

[jennymouse]

I always make a PS for our dinners 90 days out, but we usually change at least one when we get there. It's nice to be able to eat where/when you want to eat and not have to go through the "I don't know, where do you want to eat." thing or waist precious vacation time waiting to get into a restaurant or even worse, the time it takes to go offsite. Things just go more smoothly for us with a PS. But we like to eat at the more popular restaurants.

We just got back from a trip at the slowest time of year. We ended up arriving a day early and didn't have a PS for dinner that first night. We couldn't get into our first choice, Teppanyaki, and it was a hassle trying to decide were else to go and waiting when we were hungry. The rest of the trip when we had PSs went smoothly. We decided to cancel one while we were there in leau of grabbing a quick burger.

Our evenings are usually more planned anyway due to the night time shows offered at the parks. For example, we know we'll be in Magic Kingdom on a certain night because it's the only night Spectro is showing, so we make a PS for somewhere close to MK. The PS is good so you can eat at the time you need to eat in order to be able to arrive in time to stake out a place for the parade. We don't want to be inside a restaurant eating or stuck waiting for a pager to beep while Fantasmic or Illuminations is going on. The dinner PSs insures us that we'll be able to eat where/when we want to and still be able to see the shows.

I don't usually make PSs for breakfast/lunch unless it's a special character breakfast.

 

[tubachick]

we had pretty good luck one trip for new years. It was a last minute trip (we walked into the Ocala visitors center, I asked if there were any rooms available for tonight, we got AS-Sports for three nights) showed up on newyears eve, had to eat dinner that night from various vendors, however newyears day we pretty much got to eat where ever (short of character meals) w/o PS. We even ate dinner at Flying Fish w/o a wait. I wouldn't propably go like this again, as we were uncertian as to where we would eat, and the food court isn't fantastic for ALL your meals, but it was fun.

 

[WDWLVR]

OK, I am just amazed at the amount of planning y'all are doing for your meals. It's just blowing my mind. I mean, you have to plan where you are going to eat 90 days in advance??? That is astonishing.

Has anyone ever gone to WDW with little or no planning whatsoever re: your mealtimes? I mean, for us, I was planning to reserve a character meal on a certain day, but that's only because it's my daughter's birthday, so I wanted to do something special on that day. And then for my older daughter, I'm going to try to get her into the Tea Party with the Alice in Wonderland characters (they still have that, right?). That was it. (BTW, I did tell her about the Pirate Adventure, but she heard the word "pirate" and freaked. What can I say, she's 5, heh.) And if I felt adventurous enough, I would have asked for PS for one night of dinner for the whole family. All the other nights, I was thinking we could wing it or just request PS each morning at the resort. If one restaurant wasn't taking any more PS requests, then no biggie -- we would go for another. And if they were all booked, then we could go off-site or just go casual.

FWIW -- We are going to be there from May 21-28. It's the week before Memorial Day Weekend, so I know it can get kind of busy, but I didn't think it would be so busy that I would need to plan where we are going to eat 90 days ahead of time. And doesn't the planning take away from the spontaneity of being on vacation, or am I missing something here???

Please note that I'm a newbie at this and these questions may seem ridiculous, but I'm really curious as to the reason for all this advance planning. I really don't mean to offend! TIA!

Linda

First off welcome to the DIS!

I think you have the right approach is making PS for the specific things you want and then going with the flow for the rest. To me those who try to plan every moment of their vacation or those who book things just because they think it is the thing to do end up having not as good a time.

If there are one or two things that we've deemed as 'must do's" for a certain trip then yes we'll make PS for it. The rest of the time we go with the flow and just enjoy it. This can be done even in the busy summer months. We are going this June and I don't expect to have more than 1 or 2 PS before we go.

Do the ones you have your heart set on (that character breakfast on your daughter's birthday) and be flexible with the rest.

Enjoy!

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

We book a character brekkie and maybe a fancy restaurant, but after that we decide on the day. Who knows that they feel like a certain type of food on a certain day, 90 days into the future??????????

 

[antmaril]

We are leaving Saturday and the only PS I have is for Boma on Saturday night. Otherwise we are going to "wing it".

 

[san2ting2mom]

Thanks for all your answers!!! Mary -- That is exactly what I was thinking, and I'm glad to see it's not "weird" to think that way. And traveling with a 2 and 5-year-old means we have to flexible, so I'm reluctant to plan everything to a T. Everything (especially at the end of the day) will all depend on the kids' moods. I do think I will request PS for one evening, though, and then just fly by the seat of our pants the rest of the time.

Thanks again for all your answers!!!

Linda

 

[SusanDK]

We always wing it. I agree so much with the OP that I am amazed reading how people plan PS's 90 days in advance. We don't even book our trans-atlantic airline tickets that far in advance because our vacation dates are never certain that far in advance.

Also, we do not like to schedule where we will be on any certain day or time, particularly on vacation. It all depends on our mood and the weather and any number of other things at the moment. We don't decide what we're going to do until we get up in the morning and start getting showers and getting ready!

There are only the two of us, but we've never had a problem. We turned up at the Kona Cafe for breakfast at about 2 minutes before 11 am (last seating is 11 am). They seated us within 10 minutes.

One evening around 9 pm we decided to see if we could get seated at Rose & Crown for dessert and coffee and Illuminations. They actually had a table for us, but would not seat us for just dessert and coffee. I asked her if she could seat us on the patio if we ate dinner, and she said yes! Unfortunately, we were not hungry enough to eat dinner (had eaten a large late lunch), so we passed.

We don't do the character meals, so can't comment on that, and we are only a party of two, so I'm sure that makes a difference. But I couldn't imagine booking meal reservations in advance.

Susan

 

[GADISNEYGIRL]

Depends on the trip. We took a good 12 trips or so without EVER making a PS. But then we were younger, and all about the rides, and "doing" everything.

Now we have a pre-schooler, and go at a more relaxed pace. Also, now we are more into the food that WDW has to offer, and it is fun for us to pick out where we want to eat, and then look forward to it until trip time. Our last two trips were only 5 days each, and we had 9 PSs for both trips. Our next trip (also 5 days), we have 5 PSs, because DH will be in class during the day, and DS and I don't want him to miss out on a really great meal, so we're doing counter service during the day, and sit down restaurants in the evening, when DH is with us.

 

[RC Fan]

I have found that I very much enjoy the planning--it gets me from one trip to the next! I guess I also like to know I will get to eat at the places I am interested in, rather than be turned away because the restaurant is too busy. I have also found the research and planning gives me a better idea what is available as far as dining options.

 

[minkydog]

and not have to go through the "I don't know, where do you want to eat" thing

ARRGH! I hate that discussion! Gives me a headache. I'd rather go hungry.

 

[debbiedoo]

I have been going to Disney fo a long, long, time. . .since I was 5 years old. I use to live 1 hour away(parents still do)and we would always go spur of the moment. It never mattered to us where we ate at. It was a fun trip and a sit down dinner was not on the top of the list. MK was the only park back then, and we would eat at cosmic rays, peco bills, or at crystal palace. We also went more for the rides than food. As the parks opened one by one it was the same way. Spur of the moment.

Then I got married and now have a family. We had tried the same methods. We use to get ps in the am of that morning. And sometimes we didn't get ps we would just wing it. This worked ok for a little while until the rest that the DH wanted to eat at was a 2 hour wait forget that!! Then it was where are we going from here. A no win situation.

Last Oct, I tried the ps thing for one a day. OMG it was wonderful. No deciding or arguing about where are we going to eat!! I asked the family what characters would you like to dine with or what is the most do on the trip. We had ps's at Ohana's, Hollywood and Vine(fant package), and Chef mickey's. We still had a couple of open days that we called in the am. It was the best thing--no decisions!! What a worry off my mind. . .

For my next trip coming up I will be there for 10 nights/11 days and I have 8 days that we will have a ps at. Last June we tried to wing it, and boy you sure get tired of hamburgers, chicken, and pizza. I also enjoy the planning as well.

 

[Philadisney]

this is the first time i've ever been so maniacal about my meals (probably becos i've grown to have "favorites" that i know i definitely want to hit!). you really don't have to, i made birthday lunch PS for cinderella's royal table last year (in the middle of july!) less than one day in advance. if you have your heart set on something though, it's worth it to get a PS....you can always cancel