Living Dangerously....

[Tamar]

Well, here it is, just a little more than 6 weeks before our annual F&W trip, and we have NO ADRs. We'll be in our trusty 1-bd std view at BWV for 10 nights (one more than last year!). We have tickets for PFTS on October 27, but no other plans at all (needless to say, we are DDE fans, not DDP users).

There are only 2 of us, and we don't mind eating late or early, so hopefully we will not have too much trouble sneaking in to a few of our favorites (Cali Grill, Boma, and maybe a splurge night at V&A). Send pixie dust for a little elbow room in the restaurants from Oct 21-Nov 1 if you've got some to spare....

 

[SamSam]

Sending Pixie Dust your way. Dh and I are the same way, we don't like making ADR's months in advance, so we usually wing it while at WDW. It didn't use to be a problem, but the last couple of trips it was a little more of a problem. For our October trip I plan on calling dining a few hours before we want to eat to check on availability for wherever we happen to be that day.

 

[groverdog]

We are kind of in the same boat, only our trip is for the first week of October! PFTS is the only thing I have booked. Hoping to maybe go to Shula's, Artists Point for the first time and maybe Le Cellier.
Could use a little Pixie Dist myself and if it doesn't work, that's ok, I'm at my beloved DVC

 

[salmoneous]

Personally, I'd go ahead and make ADR's. Why not? If you need them, you've got them. If not, just cancel them.

 

[iteachlit]

There are only 2 of us, and we don't mind eating late or early, so hopefully we will not have too much trouble sneaking in to a few of our favorites (Cali Grill, Boma, and maybe a splurge night at V&A).

I think you NEED reservations for Victoria & Albert's. You may be able to get in on the same day if you call, but I wouldn't count on a walk-up, even if tables appear to be available. They use staggered seating times, so those empty tables may be reserved for a party 30 minutes later. It was empty when we arrived, but was nearly full when we left (2.5 hours later).

Good luck!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

I've got 2 trips coming up - one next week with my friends and only one ADR. In Nov. it's F&W with DD and all we've got is POTS. I'm a big fan of "winging it".

 

[jarestel]

After dozens of trips we no longer bother with making ADRs months in advance either. Since there's not much in the way of food or food quality at Disney we can't get locally, it's no longer a "must do" experience to dine at a particular Disney restaurant. And it's a real pain to structure our day around where we made an ADR 6 months prior. So we're content to call the morning of, or day before, and see what's available. If nothing, we always have a car and it's a short drive offsite to a brave new world of restaurants that fit the bill and do the trick.

 

[Tamar]

V&A has either one seating or two seatings a night (depending on the season). We will definitely plan ahead for that one (but obviously not WAY ahead), as neither of us eat red meat. DH prefers chicken or duck, I prefer seafood. There's also one dish that Scott made for us when we had the Chef's Table in May that I will want to see if we can get on our menus...and that would definitely require calling ahead.

By the way, I did make the ressie for the Chef's Table at 7:00:01AM exactly 6months before DH's 50th birthday. That's the one ADR that I'll get up at o'dark hundred to make.

 

[Chloe'sMom]

We are going for the F&W festival as well - although we will have our 16 month daughter with us. We only have 3 ADR's - CA Grill, Marrakesh, and 1900 Park and Fare for dinner one night. We are going for 9 nights.

I'm jealous - we are in a one bedroom from Saturday till Friday morning and then switch to a studio for the rest of the trip.

~Amanda

 

[Tamar]

Amanda~

You will have a great time! and maybe we'll see you at the Cali Grill!

Tamar

 

[yxe dad]

I was at WDW last year during the F&W festival and couldn't get into some of the places we wanted to eat. After reading threads about how hard it is to get in right now, I decided to make some ADR's before we actually left to WDW. I made 5 for 9 days and only got LeCellier for lunch. Hope it works out for you.

 

[DVC Grammy]

We also "wing it" when it comes to meals. I'll call the same day for a lunch or dinner ADR, and the night before for a TS breakfast. If it's available, fine; if not, we'll either eat at a CS or in the villa (breakfast/dinner). Many times we carry our baguettes from the Boulangerie and pick up some meat and cheese from the resort store. With a little wine, and sitting on the balcony, it becomes "le picnique".

 

[CarolMN]

Well, here it is, just a little more than 6 weeks before our annual F&W trip, and we have NO ADRs. We'll be in our trusty 1-bd std view at BWV for 10 nights (one more than last year!). We have tickets for PFTS on October 27, but no other plans at all (needless to say, we are DDE fans, not DDP users).

There are only 2 of us, and we don't mind eating late or early, so hopefully we will not have too much trouble sneaking in to a few of our favorites (Cali Grill, Boma, and maybe a splurge night at V&A). Send pixie dust for a little elbow room in the restaurants from Oct 21-Nov 1 if you've got some to spare....

This sounds like us, LOL! We have reservations for a Sweet Sunday, MNSSHP and nothing else.

It is our first F&W trip and in the back of my mind, I guess I think we will just spend a lot of time sampling around World Showcase!

I do plan to make one, maybe two ADRs - thinking of Narcooses, Citricos or maybe Jiko, or Cali Grill (we've been to those two and enjoyed them both very much). We can be flexible about time and day and if I can't get something when I get around to calling, oh well, lol.

FWIW, we had the DP on our last trip and I'm still kind of "not thrilled" with having to make all those ADRs and keep to the schedule - especially when I wasn't hungry!

But I'm still looking forward to F&W, the concerts & MNSSHP! We'll be in a SV at the BWV, too - but I think a week or so after you.

 

[Tamar]

Carol~

Will our trips overlap at all? It'd be fun to meet a fellow Minnesotan down there...we fly back on Nov 1.

 

[newholidayx2]

I'll be there in 64 days celebrating my 50th!

Have ticket for MVMCP. Reservations for Food & Wine pairing and cheese tasting, Dolphin Encounter (bday morn), Segway

ARs at Rose & Crown, LeCellier (bday lunch), Yacht Galley (bday brkfst mimosa!), San Angel, 50s Prime Time (turning 50),
going w/another family for the Wishes birthday cruise

 

[bobbiwoz]

We all have different vacationing styles! We're with the whole family the week that has Halloween in it, and I did make the ressies I definitely wanted...LTT, so the DGC can enjoy the mac and cheese and dressed up CMs, dinner at Park Faire and lunch at Crystal Palace.

For DS and DDiL, I booked Artist Point so they can have one quiet dinner We get to babysit

Ours will be a MK centered trip, not really doing F&W. I'm arriving a day early with DSis, and we're doing Chefs de France and going to see the Village People, that's the extent of F&W. DH is flying to Boston to help that group come down on Sunday.

Bobbi

PS. I tried to interest DSis in the Sweet Sunday (that's before the other group gets to MCO) but no go...next year, I'll have to be sure whomever I'm with is interested!!!! Chocolate for Breakfast, yes, that's for me!!!!

 

[PinkTink63]

Good Luck!!
We just returned from WDW and that was probably the biggest downer of our trip. It was so hard to get ressies for dining. The most frustrating thing of all is that not all the places we went to looked like they were completely booked.

I tried calling WDW dining and showing up in person. The day before we left we rode over to the Poly to see if we could get breakfast ressies for the next day. She gave us a choice of 7:30am (Forget that!) or 11:30am. We took the 11:30am and showed up about 10:40 hoping to get in early and we did! Much to our surprise, the place was only about 1/3 full.
My question is...why were we only given those two choices for times? Ohana's clearly had plenty of openings. Are people making ressies that they are not keeping?

Next year, I'm definitely going to make a few ressies ahead of time, as much as I hate to do that! We have never had such a problem getting ressies before and we always go at the same time of year, with the exception of Labor Day weekend.

 

[allshookup]

We usually are the "wing-it" type, but we went in August right BEFORE free dining & we weren't having our usual luck. We typically hit guest services right before heading to a park to see what is available for that day & we usually luck out with something. This time when we went to the concierge desk at BWVs and they more often than not came up with a big NOTHING for us for the 11nts we were there!

One night my sister was staying with us & we were suppose to meet my brother & his family at Ohana for dinner. They ended up cancelling on us last minute & concierge said there was nothing they could do because Ohana was overbooked, they couldn't change the res. & we couldn't just show up with 5less people. I asked about walking up & they said I could try but they doubted I would get in. So we ended up cancelling that large reservation for Ohana & getting something for 9pm at Kona & even though I was not happy, we settled for that.

Well when we got to the Poly around 7:30 planning to have a couple of drinks first & I was surprised to see the lounge was pretty empty. I went to the desk at Ohana & asked about a table & the guy looked very disappointed & said, "Well all I have right now is 8:30." I tried not to show too much excitement & said, "I'll take it!" & I ran right over & cancelled Kona! So we ended up getting a reservation 30 minutes earlier than Kona & we had a window seat with a gorgeous view of the castle & fireworks!!!

For some reason we seemed to have a lot more luck this time of doing walk-ups than we have in the past. I wonder if people really are making multiple reservations or did they change the system so that guest services doesn't have as much flexiblilty as far as changing reservations or overbooking?

I did make a few ADRs for our upcoming Nov. trip & I'm glad I did. Nothing was available for LeCellier & I could only get California Grill for 1nt out of 5!

 

[goaliewife]

I've got 2 trips coming up - one next week with my friends and only one ADR. In Nov. it's F&W with DD and all we've got is POTS. I'm a big fan of "winging it".

You don't know who glad I am that I happened upon this thread. We leave in 18 days and we only have 2 ADR's for our stay, a character breakfast and Fantastic Dinner and seating for the show. We decided that we didn't want to be locked into anything as we don't know where we will be or what we will be doing and decided that if while we are there we decide we want to make a ressie, we will ask the concierge to see if anything is available or just walk up and see if anything is open. I'm so glad to see that we are not the only ones.....

 

[Pig Pen]

I just broke down and made ADRs for Nov 4-8 (still need to figure out Nov 8 - 12).

I got every ressie I wanted, no problems.