new and some questions

[WDW2006]

Hi! I am new here and going to WDW in Feb. I have been reading these boards now for a few weeks and this may be a stupid question....Do you have to make reservations for every meal? It sounds like we won't be able to walk into ANY sit down resteraunt at all. Am I misunderstanding? Or do youjust need to make res. for character meals, etc..? Thanks so much for clarifying.

 

[**pixiedust**]

I would STRONGLY suggest that you make advance reservations for any table service meals that you want, especially since you are going during a very busy time. Counter service is not a problem (though there will be long lines but there's nothing you can do about that), but it will be very difficult for you to walk into a table service restaurant and get seated without ADRs. Do you need some help on choosing places to eat?

 

[5wdwfans]

You will need reservations unless you like to eat dinner after 10 pm. If you have children you will want to plan ahead for meals.

 

[snowy76]

There's been a big surge in visitors to WDW in the last year or two, which means fewer and fewer walkups. The worst is having hungry kids and nowhere to go to eat. You'll get sick of counter service pretty quickly.

I always recommend people check out the menus on allearsnet.com and then plan accordingly. Some times we plan which parks we'll visit on which days and plan meals around it. Other times we have our heart set on a particular restaurant and plan our park visit around the ressie. It's really up to you.

Remember also that you can cancel an ADR right up to the day of the ressie with no charge UNLESS it's one of the restaurants with an exception, like CRT or the dinner shows. So plan out your ADRs based on what you think you'd like to do now, and you can adjust it later on.

 

[WDW2006]

thanks for the info. We are going the 5th -12th. We have heard that is a slower time o fyear. During the slow times will you still need ADR? How do you know where you want to dine and if you will even be in that area at that time? When you mae ADR do you need a credit card#? If you decide to cancel the res. how do you go about doing that in the middle of an amusement park? I am getting a bit nervous now!

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

Relax....it's easy. They will only take a credit card number for special meals like eating with Cindy at the Castle. I would guess also Hoop de Doo, the Poly luau and those kinds of special shows/meals. For all regular restaurant reservations, including character meals, they do not ask for credit card info.
You really need to have an idea of where you will be so you can easily get to your meal. For example, if you want to eat at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary plan on the Magic Kingdom for that day (or that time of the day). This way you can monorail, or walk, over to the Contemporary. Same holds true for all the MK resorts. Basically, do not just make reservations without knowing where you will be. We did that on our first family trip and learned the hard way. If you want to eat at the 50's Prime Time plan on the Disney Stuidios. You don't want to be running around wasting time travelling to eat your meals. Schedule your meals around your theme park visits. There are Guest Relations in all the parks that can help you with dining cancellations or changes to your reservations. Although it is certainly a good idea to call and cancel, if you really get stuck someplace and can't make your reservations and cannot find Guest Relations... don't worry about it. Your reservation will just cancel if you don't show up within a certain amount of time. You really should call and cancel so someone else can get in. But in extreme cases sometimes this is not possible.
I suggest you go over to allearsnet.com and check out all the great info they have on WDW. They also have all the restaurant menus available.

 

[Kaycee]

Relax....it's easy. They will only take a credit card number for special meals like eating with Cindy at the Castle. I would guess also Hoop de Doo, the Poly luau and those kinds of special shows/meals. For all regular restaurant reservations, including character meals, they do not ask for credit card info.
You really need to have an idea of where you will be so you can easily get to your meal. For example, if you want to eat at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary plan on the Magic Kingdom for that day (or that time of the day). This way you can monorail, or walk, over to the Contemporary. Same holds true for all the MK resorts. Basically, do not just make reservations without knowing where you will be. We did that on our first family trip and learned the hard way. If you want to eat at the 50's Prime Time plan on the Disney Stuidios. You don't want to be running around wasting time travelling to eat your meals. Schedule your meals around your theme park visits. There are Guest Relations in all the parks that can help you with dining cancellations or changes to your reservations. Although it is certainly a good idea to call and cancel, if you really get stuck someplace and can't make your reservations and cannot find Guest Relations... don't worry about it. Your reservation will just cancel if you don't show up within a certain amount of time. You really should call and cancel so someone else can get in. But in extreme cases sometimes this is not possible.
I suggest you go over to allearsnet.com and check out all the great info they have on WDW. They also have all the restaurant menus available.

First, welcome to the DIS Boards!

I agree with wdwgoofeeee's excellent advice. With the popularity of the dining plan and the increase in park crowds the last year or so, it's difficult to get into sit-down restaurants even during traditionally slow times of years. Have a plan, and if you need to change that plan when you get there, you can.

We have many menus here on the DIS. Take a look at those and read reviews here on the boards to get an idea of where you may want to eat. Here's the link to the menus:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

Happy planning!

 

[WDW2006]

Thanks so much for all the information. I am a little less stressed after reading all the responses. I just had no idea that it would be so difficult to eat. We don't really want to work our days around where we are going to eat, but I will definately make a some ADR's before we go. Hope there is still enough time. We are leaving on the 5th. After reading these boards the last few weeks I have some places that I really want to go eat at. Yummmy!!!

 

[ZoZo]

My thought is: Make reservations at one sit-down restaurant each day (lunch is much less expensive than dinner, and the menus are often very similar). You can fill in with counter service the rest of the time.

I often see people on these boards getting frustrated because they don't want to get "locked into" reservations, preferring to be spontaneous instead. Well, there are a lot of other people at WDW at the same time as you, and those who plan early get the best seats/times (and don't get stuck with all counter service/greasy hamburger meals).

Make your reservations as soon as your time window opens (90 days prior to your arrival, in most cases). If you decide not to use your reservation for a particular day, you can always cancel it -- but you'll be glad you planned ahead! (We tried to "wing it" one day last October and tried to do a walk-up at Le Cellier - and could only get a table after 9:00 p.m. Not a good idea.)

Plan ahead!

 

[loveysbydesign]

Newbies here to...rying to figure out where to eat and what's in our budget seems daunting to say the least! My kiddos will be 3 1/2 and 7 when we go in May for the 1st time. Which places are best for kids their age and which places are on the lower end price wise? I'm thinking we'd like to book probably 2 more expensive places and 2 lesser expensive places. I'm unsure if I'll be able to curb their enthusiasm to get them to sit down and eat! HELP!!!!

 

[sunking]

WDW2006,
Welcome to the DIS. You won't find a bigger bunch of fans that are willing to help.

So you've decided that you want to go to Disney World. As you are aware, there are 4 major theme parks as well as several other "smaller" attractions (water parks, Downtown Disney, Wide World Of Sports, etc) that you could spend time at during your stay. What I would suggest you do is review the attractions that are in each of the parks by visiting this page:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/themeparks.htm#HM-themeparks-nav
After you have an idea of what attractions you would like to visit, check out the park hours and get an idea what park you would like to do what day. You can get the park hours here:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours.htm
Once you have an idea what park you will be in on what day, check out the restaurants and counter service offerings in each park. This link will provide you with menus to each restaurant and counter service place in all of the parks and resorts:
http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm
Once you have figured out where you want to eat, give Disney a call and make a couple of ADR's.

If all of this is just too much planning for you, keep in mind that you can also make ADR's when you get to the park for the day. For example, if you are going to MGM and would like to do the Fantasmic Dinner Package, you just walk down to the Guest Relations window and ask if they have availability. You can also call from your resort room the night before after you have made your plans for the day.

Relax and have a good time. You certainly won't go hungry in Disneyworld.

Have fun!!!
Sunking

 

[carol-lamb]

We are one of those families that likes winging it also. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. In June, I walked into Le Cellier and asked if by any slim chance they had an opening for lunch and she said they weren't busy at all that day. Tried the same thing this past December and got turned away. I wasn't at all shocked, but a little surprised because the park didn't seem as busy as it had in June. I also didn't have a problem getting seated for lunch at the Brown Derby in December. But I will say that for my next trip, I will definitely make ADRs for the restaurants I really want to eat at. We're lucky because most of our favorite places to eat are counter service!

 

[WDW2006]

WOW! Thanks everyone. This has been a great place to find. We are leaving in only 2 weeks. I am going to make one ADR a day depending on where we will be. Hopefully it is not too late. I appreciate everyones advice and am so excited to go!!

 

[Hanover]

When we were there 1/11 through 1/17 I saw many people get turned away from the TS meals we ate at....Le Cellier, the Garden Grill, WCC, Boma, and Mama Melrose (a CM was there with friends and asked twice, "even a Cast Member?") The only time I saw walk ups get on the list was at Crystal Palace and 2 of them gave their pagers up while we were getting ready to be seated because the "wait was just too long."

I was very glad we had ADR's on our trip last week and last August during free dining. I have a friend going in April that "doesn't want their trip planned around food" so only made one ADR on her daughter's birthday at Chef Mickeys (I think just to keep me quiet).