Minimum plans trip advice?

[Louis morrell]

I am the guy who every trip has 3 sit down reservations each day with most other things mostly planned out. This time We are discussing basically no plans. We have our park reservations and Drawn to Life tickets and nothing else.

If you have done this please tell me about your experience. I stress mostly about dinner reservations as I really enjoy a sit down evening meal. Help ease my mind.

 

[Carol_]

If you can’t walk in at Disney Springs in one place, there’s always another you haven’t yet tried, and it’s fine. Perkins is great, too, if you like hometown diner type places.

 

[PalmettoPath]

We used to be like you described, but for the past 10 years or so we have been much less booked (we visit three times each year -- so three one-week trips). We love being less booked. We book maybe two or three table service reservations for the week (typically one breakfast and two dinners) and then the rest we do quick service with a few meals in the villa (we stop for groceries on the way in). Quick service has come a long way over the past 10 years and there are quite a few good options now versus how it used to be. We find it so much more relaxing not to be constantly rushing off to dinner reservations every day. So we pick two or three ADRs for the week and that's it. (of course we still have to do Park Pass and LL, which is a pain).

 

[alldiz]

I’ve always had luck sitting at the bar for eating dinner with no reservations.
Plan on eating lil earlier or later than classic 7pm. Or late lunch
Happy “non planning” :/)

 

[Robber Baron]

We used to have 3 table service meals every day.

Good lord, we spent every waking minute with the next meal on our mind, we were always on our way to one.

Now we make no breakfast reservations. We make maybe one ADR a day, either lunch or dinner. We can always find something we want for an ADR the day before, or, even the morning of.

I bet I have gone a dozen or more week long trips without ever eating counter service.

We are going Thanksgiving week and I have made a few ADR's just because we have never been to WDW on a really busy week like this will be.

The thing to remember is you're always going to find someplace to eat, and, it's most likely going to be a place on or near the top of your list.

We do have a couple back up dinner spots, we can always get in Il Mulino or Shula's, and luckily they are 2 of our favorites.

 

[DduzDis]

I have had some of my best experiences with restaurants with no plans. I took my DDs on a very last minute trip (like decided at 9a to take them for a week and we were on the road 3 hours later) in August. We did Space 220, Flying Fish, Boma and Tony's Town Square that week. I got the Space 220 two hours before the reservation time. If you can be very flexible with times and locations (and check walk-up times for things you are in proximity to), you can do pretty well. If you have things that you must do and a time to do them it may be more frustration than you would like.

 

[com_op_2000]

Any of the restaurants in DS that have a bar, will serve a full menu at both lunch and dinner if you are unable to get a table. Most restaurants that have bars in the resorts will do the same.

 

[Louis morrell]

Well we are going to go for it. 1 reservation for our date night ( if you can even call it that after 40 years) and everything else off the cuff. Now to deal with my anxiety