How do you "wing" it?

[asmit4]

To all the dining 'wingers' out there that claim they skip the DDP b/c you can't "wing it"....how do you go about eating?

This is basically for those that don't rent/have a car onsite and stay onsite too.

We went last October and had a heck of a time getting ADR's for even 4 people at many restaurants even 3 months out. For those that don't like ADRs/don't book ADRs do you just not eat at TS restaurants at all for your trip?

I guess I just don't understand what/how you manage to eat for a week without booking ADRs? To me 'winging it' is impossible, DDP or not. If you don't have an ADR for most places, it seems you won't be eating a sit down/full service meal. Am I missing something?

 

[Cindy's Mom]

A lot of the "wingers" eat CS or they do TS at off hours (late late lunches or early early dinners)

 

[TDC Nala]

Three words - bars and lounges.

I never stay a week though, except during the food and wine festival, and then I attend the F&W events.

 

[FozzieFan]

I went to the world Feb '07 with my parents and they didn't like the idea of making ADRs, they liked the idea of the dining plan but didn't like having to lock into things "months" in advance. Well in actuality we only booked the trip in December so it's not like we were planning a full 180 in advance.

Anyway we compromised and had half of our meals preset with ADRs the others we made day of or day before. We walked into Magic Kingdom one day went to guest services and they have a little sandwich board that says "dining reservations available for" and lists the restaurants, we picked Tony's for dinner and then went on our way for the day. We did the same thing in Epcot and scored 6pm seating at the Hibachi tables in Japan (can't remember the name). The last one was Shutters at CBR where we were staying, wouldn't think that was a tough place to get into anyway.

My suggestion would be, if you want to "wing" it, check guest services day of or day before in the park of your choosing and check resort restaurants. Oh and the most important thing is you CANNOT be picky about where you end up eating.

 

[KorieDWnut]

To all the dining 'wingers' out there that claim they skip the DDP b/c you can't "wing it"....how do you go about eating?

This is basically for those that don't rent/have a car onsite and stay onsite too.

We went last October and had a heck of a time getting ADR's for even 4 people at many restaurants even 3 months out. For those that don't like ADRs/don't book ADRs do you just not eat at TS restaurants at all for your trip?

I guess I just don't understand what/how you manage to eat for a week without booking ADRs? To me 'winging it' is impossible, DDP or not. If you don't have an ADR for most places, it seems you won't be eating a sit down/full service meal. Am I missing something?

It's easy. We always ate at Counter Service places and the food court at our resort. We also liked to eat at the Rainforest Cafe in DTD, so we always did that once per trip.

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

What I do is call dining in the morning after we decide what park we will be at ( or would like to be at) and see if anything is available that we might be interested in. We always have hoppers.

 

[MollyMoo]

This month is the first trip we have done with ADR's. We have never wanted to tied to a particular park on a particular day so we always waited until the day before or even the day of. Always managed to get what we wanted when we wanted but of course we are well past the character breakfast age and we love to eat late lunches (2:00 or later if possible) so we can relax and indulge as the day begins to really heat up (mostly summer visits). I guess things have changed as apparently ADR's are a big thing ... although during our visit in October we ate TS (without DDP) every day with no problems.

 

[Tricia1972]

I found it pretty simple to feel like I was 'winging it' without the DDP.

I locked in all of my ADR's dutifully at 180 days out at O'Dark O'Clock. I picked places based on where I thought we'd be touring that day.

We went in March without the DDP and if we were in a different park, or in the mood for something else or just not hungry in general - I'd call Disney Dining and cancel our reservation for the night.

One night, the one I enjoyed the most, we toured around WS at Epcot and got a plate from a few of our preferred CS locations. We'd split up the entree and basically created our own Food and Wine festival. It was a lot of fun for us! To do that though we needed to cancel a Garden Grill reservation, which we did without hesitation.

To me some of the freedom of 'winging it' and 'not being tied to ADR's' comes from the freedom to cancel a TS reservation when you're in the mood and not feel pressure to reschedule or sneak in another TS so you get the value out of your plan.

 

[LoveTheWDWMagic]

We are going in August and have ADR's for all our TS dining. If you're going during "busy" seasons, such as summer, spring break, Thanksgiving, Christmas/NewYear, and Easter, ADR's are almost a must. During "off" seasons, "winging" it is much easier. That's just my opinion.

 

[ReneeA]

I always make ADR's for our trip before we go.

Then, it never fails, my DH sees somewhere he wants to eat that isn't on The Plan. We normally time it so that we are there for a late lunch or early dinner to have a better chance of getting seated. After we are told they can accomodate me, I ask the hostess at the podium to cancel my other reservation.

It's that easy.

 

[Traveliz]

Well horrors but we did not make ADRs for our free dining trip last September. We did this because we were there to visit our daughter and were not sure of her work schedule and just didnn't want to make a bunch of what if ADRs.

We still did really well. In the morning when we arrived at the park we decided to go to last minute we walked up to a restaurant and checked to see if anything was available for lunch. We got Le Cellier and Sci-Fi this way.

Afternoon of the Pirate and Princess Party we walked up to Crystal Palace and the beginning of the dinner hour and were able to get in there as well.

Finally we like several of the restaurants that do not take ADRs (ESPN and Planet Hollywood come to mind) and just arrived at opening for lunch at ESPN and for Planet Hollywood late afternoon before we went to PI one night.

Liz

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Since my family and I will always have our own transportation while at WDW, we don't mind going offsite to eat. Besides that since we stay Club Level depending on what the food items they offer in the lounge we can make a meal out of that, even though others say it's not a full meal replacement. Not to metion we always have breakfast everyday in the lounge, so we are ok for that. Finally we also don't mind the various counter service locations in WDW like Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney and Gasparilla's Grill & Games at the Grand Floridian. The only table service location we eat at is the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney and since we always eat there early we have never waited for a table, so we always go without reservations.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

Before they started free dining, we never made more than a few ADRs for our late August trips. We didn't usually eat at a TS every day, and did the RFC at least once. We did lunches rather than dinners often.

One thing I found during free dining 2006 - you can almost always get a lunch seating - even at some of the most popular places. I'm sure this is even more true during non free dining times because people are paying for the plan and trying to get as much out of it as possible. Lunch prices are a little cheaper, meals a little smaller, but we always had enough food.

I love the free meals, but really do hate having to plan every last meal.

 

[VAN]

We normally "wing it" only making ADR's for one or two of our favorite places (like O'Hana or HDDR). We have never gone hungry or found it inconvenient to get something to eat when we are ready.

Now do we normally have the dining plan? No. Do we normally like TS meals? No. We're pretty casual and don't eat out that much at home (even fast food) ... so even CS is a treat for us when we vacation.

Anyway, we're flying down in Sept, using ME so won't have a car. But we will have FREE dining and all our TS ADR's set.

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Because we normally don't do the dining plan and usually have a car, we are starting to discover some of the non-Disney restaurants near DTD. Love Joe's Crab Shack ... for $20 each we got lots of King Crab Legs. The drinks were very reasonable too!! We would have easily paid twice the amount for the same food at a Disney restaurant.

Would like to try the Ale House next year when we have a car.