Need some general dining advice- 1st trip.

[dugs64]

We'll have a pretty large group (7 or 8) going to Disney for the first time in April. Our 180 day time frame to make reservations is coming up soon. How do most of you make reservations so far in advance? Do you plan what park you want to go to each day and book a restaurant in the park? Do you pick where you want to eat and then just hop from park to park that day? Also, since we have a lot of people, how hard will it be to book reservations closer to our actual trip?

 

[mckelvey72]

You need to have a tentative plan in place based on the "best park" days. So if you want to eat in the castle and you plan to be in MK on Tuesday, then book it for Tuesday.

The character meals and some of the other popular restaurants, if you want them then you should try booking at the 180 day mark. You can always keep tweaking the reservations if you move your park days around or you find a better time.

I suggest grabbing alot of them based on a tentative plan early on. And just book for the 8 people...you can always decrease it later or show up with less. It is easier to show up with less then to show up with more.

Go to www.allears.net to look at the restaurants and menus and pricing. Pick a few must haves and grab them first.

 

[Vernie822]

I agree w/ the above poster.

I had alternatives to my first plan. Such as if I couldn't get this, then this, and I'd have to move things around.

When I called in the morning of my ADR day, I made sure to ask for BOG first since that's the place I wanted the most and I knew would be most popular. I knew once I had that ADR, hopefully the rest would fall into place rather easily.

 

[OasterP]

I had pre picked my park days and booked based on that. But really when it came down to the trip we changed up quite a bit towards the end of the trip based on what we wanted to do that day and where we wanted to be. I kept reservations though until I was absolutely sure we wanted to change. One night thanks to no service on the bus we canceled a reservation for the next day literally at 11:58 p.m. I was nervous. But didn't get charged, so it worked out.

 

[dugs64]

Thanks for all of the quick feedback. It makes me feel a little more comfortable knowing that it is possible (although, not easy) to change your reservations closer to the visit.

 

[RookieLady]

I also schedule out of park places when I haven't quite made up my mind which park I want to go to. For example, I might make a reservation at Ohana if I am undecided between Epcot and MK on a particular day, because monorail access is easy to both from Ohana. Same type of thing if I am undecided between HS and Epcot, I book on the Boardwalk or surrounding hotels.

Also, later in the trip, we hit favorites, so my plans aren't always as in stone about which park we attend. Often, if I am staying at a deluxe (or even a moderate), I book a hotel restaurant for early evening like 5. We break midday, and then we eat and go to an evening park, so that works well for us.