Newbie dining question please!

[happymamma]

If we were to plan a very last-minute Disney trip, staying there a week, how difficult would it be to find places to eat if we only had maybe a couple dining reservations (character meals) planned in advance?

Can anyone give me an idea of what it might be like, on an early-March day, say lunch- or dinner-time, to find a restaurant to sit down and eat at? We have never been to Disney. What kind of choices, wait times, etc., might we expect? Sorry for the newbie questions, this is our first time to WDW! Thanks for any info!!

 

[vicki_c]

It's really very hard to predict. The dining plans have made the restaurants pretty crowded most of the time and early March is part of spring break time.

What you can do is put the Disney dining # in your cell phone, and call that day and find out what's available wherever is convenient to where you are (you can also try walking up to a restaurant). If nothing is available, you can always eat counter service - you won't starve.

I just don't want to spend my time, once I'm hungry, trying to figure out where to eat, or potentially schlepping across the park to find out, so I make the reservations in advance. So making them ahead of time is my recommendation - they can always be cancelled, most on the same day, and only a few need advance cancellation (the pre-paid meals mostly).

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Another vote for making more reservations in advance. Times have greatly changed over the years, especially with free dining. I went with a girlfriend in November (week after Thanksgiving) which is traditionally less busy but it was during a free-dining time. We were not part of the dining plan and made no sit-down reservations. We were turned away the couple of times we tried to wait for a table. Often, restaurants will not even put you on a wait list if they are already booked with reservations - and this happens often during free-dining periods.

If you are having a hard time finding availability, you may want to consider booking a couple of sit-down meals at some resort restaurants instead of in-park.

 

[purple figment]

If there are character meals or restaurants you really want to eat at, I would strongly recommend that you try to make reservations online as soon as possible.

After you arrive, if you're staying on site stop at the concierge's desk once you've decided which park you'll be at. They can help with reservations anywhere in WDW. Also you can stop at Guest Services inside any park and they can help you make reservations.

Eating at resorts near a park is also another option. For the Magic Kingdom, the monorail resorts and Wilderness Lodge are easy to get to. For Epcot and Hollywood Studios there are the Epcot resorts that are nearby.

It's gotten harder to walk up to a restaurant and get a table, but it can happen. However, that could mean a lot of wasted time and energy when walking from one place to another.

Finally, there's always Counter Service to fall back on.

Have you looked at the menus on allears? Here's a link:

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

 

[crazik]

Agreed - just make some dining reservations now... get something on "hold". You can always change the day of or day before. Be flexible. But nothing is worse that wanting a good dinner at 7pm, and not being able to find anything but a bad slice of pizza.

 

[Nadjalu]

As a newbie it is hard to understand the need for making ressies in advance.

But take it from a "once newbie", making adrs now will be wonderful in the end.

As said it is hard to predict what your experience might be. But here was our experience:

Our first trip was in March of 09, my niece (thank God was familar with the ins and outs of WDW and guided me thru the planning), she insisted we make dining reservations when we booked the trip. (which was 3 months from going)
I thought it was NUTS!!! But did it anyway. She recommended her favorites, and because some were already booked we went over the menus and chose places that served foods we liked.

I am SO THANKFUL I followed her advice. Every day when we got to the parks, about 10:30am (that is AM) there were big sandwich boards at the entrances explaining all TS restaurants were booked and please enjoy a CS meal at those places!!!!

Couldn't believe it! Since then we have went 2 more times and each time I have made ressies in advance to get what we want and everytime we are there we see people turned away or have 2+ hours of a wait to eat.

If you really want to dine at a TS place, where you want to eat. (that is the key, you may find somewhere once down there but will it be what you like or all the way across property from where you are) Go ahead and make your adrs.

Have a wonderful trip!!!

 

[cluvsdisney]

You can usually find some place. DH & I were there in Oct for a 5 days with no ADRs. We ate at ESPN, Captains Grill, Beaches & Cream and a couple of places off site (we rent a car). There are tons of counter service options and some of the resort lounges have limited menus. There are a couple of places in the Swan, Dolphin and DTD that do not take the DP and are probably easier to get tables.