I'm having a hard time with making PS's!!

[airhead]

I know I'll be glad I did it,but I just can't seem to get my act together and do this!! I don't know what I'm making for tonight's dinner,nevermind 95 days from now! How do you guys do it??
We've never gone to WDW during the summer so lines and waits were never an issue,but this trip is different----we'll be there 6/28 thru 7/9. Help!!!!

 

[terribm]

Just my opinion, but I like making PS ressies. It is a fun part of my planning process. You will be happy you did. Not only to avoid long waits but it solves the discussion that insues on "Where are we going to eat" If your family is like mine, that can heat up into a nice little debate. Especially for the time of year you are going (high season). Happy planning

Terri

 

[airhead]

Luckily,its just 2 of us going. I have enjoyed planning this trip except for this! I feel like I'm locking us into a schedule. Do I makes reservations early(5:00) or later? I got some deciding to do....

 

[Carrieberry]

Here is what I do:

1. I write down a brief overview of what park we will be at on which day, based on extra magic hour and the day of the week (like I never do MK on a Sat). I pick one park for the morning, and one park for the evening.

2. Then I go to http://allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm and look at all the menus for the parks. Then I pick either a sit down meal for the morning park, or a sit down dinner for the evening park. You will find the greatest variety is at Epcot in the World Showcase, and in most these places you can get the same food for a late lunch at much lower prices than dinner. We ususally splurge on one or two dinners and then do the rest of our sit down places for late lunches (usually at our evening park or at a resort) then we grab a snack from the carts when it starts to get later.

3. Then starting 90 days out I start calling! We usually limit ourselves to one priority seating a day to give ourselves flexibility. That way if we want to switch things around, we just switch the part of the day that our PS is not in.

YOU CAN DO THIS!! Plus, it would be awful to get there when it is so busy and have to wait 30-45 minutes to be seated because you don't have a PS.

 

[Noelle]

I agree...You really should do it.

I'm not fond of planning every aspect of my trip. (Have to admit it's growing on me!) I actually got up at 3:45 a.m. to call for Cindy's today!

But it's really worth it. I do it every time we go and I can not tell you how great it feels to get to a podium give our name and be seated in about 5 to 10 minutes! At every dinner restaurant we go to, there are ALWAYS people who are super tired from walking around the parks all day asking the CM how long the wait is. The usual answer is about 45 minutes! I've been there when CMs have just said, "We're booked up for the night!"

I have two kids and I want my vacation to go as smoothly as possible. So a little bit of planning 3 months before I go, REALLY PAYS OFF! We don't have to wander around the park looking for some place that's open or ending up with fast food because we couldn't decide on anything.

I do something very similar to Carrieberry. I kind of make a little grid telling myself roughly where I think we'll be. (Taking EE into consideration). Then my whole family talks about what restaurants we liked / disliked or what we wanted to try but didn't get a chance to. I make my notes and then call WDW Dining.

It's worth every bit of planning! Good luck!

 

[jel0511]

Considering you'll be at WDW the week before and dduring 4th of July, I'd seriously consider making PS's. This is what we do. I make a list of the restaurants we'd like eating dinner at. I then shuffle them, picking a favorite to start out at, and a favorite to end with. I then interdisperce the restaurants, depending on what type of food there is. I don't want to eat at Le Cellier one night and then Narcoossee's the next!!! After coming up with a game plan, I then make PS's. It is easy for us, since we always retire to our resort around 1 or 2PM to rest and take in a swim. After that rest (needed in the summer IMO) we then get cleaned up, and head out to our dinner place. If that is located inside a park, we might get there a little before dinner to some more touring. We then eat dinner and then either head to a park if not already there, or stay in the park we're at. I NEVER make lunch PS's since we eat large dinners and usually just snack or grab some counter service for lunch I much prefer a relaxing dinner after being cleaned up then a lunch while hot and sweaty from touring.

 

[EEyorelover22]

We stayed at AKL last June. If we would not have had ps for Boma we would have had at least an hour wait each night for dinner. Prime Time was packed as well for lunch at 11:30. The only place we went that wasn't was Chefs de France for lunch.

 

[Magic2000]

Hey Airhead - we'll be there about the same time as you - We arrive on July 2!!!!

I'll be making my PSs soon too, and as the others have said, I make my list of favorites and new resaturants we want to try, and try to see which parks we'll be at on which days, and I get at least one PS each day. That way, I KNOW we'll have a restaurant we like every day!

We've also been at restaurants and have heard the CMs tell people walking up that it was booked or that it would be about an hour wait!

This is our third time going for the week of July 4th - although it is busy - it is still enjoyable!!! But you definitely want to make some PSs!!!

Enjoy your stay!!!!

 

[dmaz]

carrieberry
I do the same thing except this time I didn't have 90 days.
I was bummed when I could not get 2 of my PS for the last week in April. Would not have thought that I couldn't get them 60 days out considering it's not supposed to be a peak time.
Oh well maybe next trip.

 

[4greatboys]

We normally go in the off season and had luck getting into the couple of resturants we wanted or making a ps for later the same day. With 4 kids--2 being small ones I hate to plan to much. That said we are going in June this which I know will more crowded than Sept. So we made 1 ps a day. I mostly took ones at lunch time since you never know when the little ones crash out for the night.

 

[airhead]

I'm sitting her with my 10-day grid that I drew up. That's a start!!
Magic2000,see ya there!!! LOLOL
I'm sure I'll be back with more ????? !!

 

[dmaz]

Good luck and most of all have fun!