No dinner reservations?

[DisGirl23]

Talked to her again this morning and she is so freaked now. I think she is going to go ahead and make reservations herself. It is a hard situation because it is her husband's grandmother who is handling everything and you know how that can be. They do have one reservation for a character dinner so that will be set at least.

Well, best of luck to her! Definitely a sticky situation. Let us all know how her trip goes!

 

[Evi]

I always recommend people get reservations. I've been to the parks without reservations on a last minute trip and meal time was not fun. Though I would suggest if she knows shes going to stay at a specific park the best thing she can do if she does not have a reservation is walk up and ask them if they can find her a table if there is a cancellation. She can leave her cell number and they can call her but she could be waiting up to 3 hours. Also she should look into restaurants at the resorts they don't always fill up with families opting to stay in the parks and not canceling reservations.

 

[ngvenice]

Honestly, I think this decision is up to the individual restaurants. Last year we had to cancel our breakfast ADR one day and were able to use that TS credit at ASMu food court for breakfast the last day. I had asked at the front desk during checkout if it was okay, she said yes, and we weren't even questioned at the food court.
That being said, I wouldn't try to use them like that all the time.

Yes I've have heard that the food courts are more linient about this but it's not a guarantee. I'm glad OP "warned" her friend and now she's at trying to get some ADR's.

 

[goofy4tink]

I have to wonder why anyone would book during free dining and then not make ADRs. What a waste of money. If you eat at only CS spots, you are throwing money out the window. But, perhaps they only have the QS dining, with no TS. If that's the case, then fine. Otherwise, a huge waste.

 

[Anthony1971]

I have gone several times in Sept. without the DP and never make ADR's as we are doing this year... We have never had a problem. So long as you are not stuck on eating at this place at this time you will in general get to eat where you want by calling the same day...
However we have been to Disney many many times so we know where the good places are that few eat at if we needed to do that..
if I had the DP I would make ADR's for the some part.... but we did the DP a few years back and did as we did above and had no problems with a group of 9
all is not lost you just need to be flexible and this fits some better..
I find knowing what where and what time you want to eat 6 months in advance ridiculous and the stress of having that many ADR's would ruin my trip....
some live by the books some enjoy the adventure of not knowing it depends what each person enjoys more......

 

[Laurin612]

Please tell your friend so she can make some ADRs! Some people who have never been to Disney World or who haven't been in a long time may not realize that ADRs are pretty much a necessity!

A friend of mine is going in a few weeks and it is her first time at WDW. She and her husband are taking their 5 year old daughter for her birthday and wanted it to be a special, magical experience. It will be the first time for all three of them!

When she told me (in late July) that she had just booked, I asked her whether she had started making any reservations. She hadn't, and told me she hadn't realized she needed to--she knew that you COULD make them because most of the guides say "reservations suggested" (even for Le Cellier! ) She thought you could make them when you check in or the day of the dinner. I quickly schooled her and ended up helping to get her some decent ADRs, including Chef Mickey's, Akershus princess breakfast, 1900 Park Fare and Garden Grill.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Last month the only place we tried getting last minute was a dinner ADR at Cape May Cafe, however with free dining taking place we knew that it would be a very good chance that it no ADR's were available and we were right about that. We tried for a Sunday and Monday but couldn't get it. The Club Level Cast Members at the Boardwalk said it would be a good chance of us going without ADR's if we got there early after they opened since some tables are held back, however we decided not to try that.

 

[eliza61]

lol.. well apparently she doesn't!! They are not going to be able to get into the sit down restaurants.. seriously. Especially with free dining. I would warn your friend. Such a waste to not know these things and spend all the money on a Disney vacation.

Sorry-- I don't mean to be harsh at ALL.. but these are the same people that come back from WDW hating it... or giving hotels bad reviews on trip advisor because they didn't understand the dining plan etc...

TELL HER! When we were there in May (not a crazy busy time) a few years back.. the CMs were turning away people left and right from the Plaza of all places. And those same CMs were not very helpful either, telling the guests to eat at Caseys hot dog stand. I say it's better to be over prepared than underprepared!

good luck!
jen

Sorry Jen, I disagree.
I don't do walkups but we go almost every year the last week in Aug and the first week in sept. We rarely make ADR's.

When we get up we call Disney Dining and they have always, always found a restaurant at the times we want.
Now I will agree popular ones like Le Cellier are usually (but not always, people do cancel) full but thankfully I think most of them are over hyped anyway.

We're going again Next august 25th and are staying for 10 days, I'm willing to bet we'll get a sit down dinner every night.

 

[livie1205]

They can go to any guest services and have them find you a TS place...they may not be your first choice but they always have a few places you can go...I know Olivias at OKW always has a table..we were there for 2 days last week and walked into toguest services and asked who had any openings and they looked it up and gave me 3 choices for the time I wanted...all TS places.There was nothing of course at any of the places like ohana or chef mickey but they offered me boma (breakfast or dinner),GF cafe and sci fi.We always make ADRs but we change one or two while we are there sometimes and have always been able to get in somewhere else.
also I have never had a problem using TS credit at CS places and if you do just go to the resort lobby and have them change them over.I do not think it is the end of the world if you dont plan your vacation out down to the minute...we went for 2 days last week, no plans,no adr just called on the way down to get a room at ALL STAR SPORTS got a room for 52.00 with a AP discount..we decided when we got there which park to go to and just went...we only had 2 sets of clothes and toothbrushes.I have to say it was one of the best trips we ever took to wdw! no stress no plans just going with the flow..it was great!we ate at boma,caseys and the food court.The best part about it was even though free ddp was going on the park was not crowded at all..we did not wait longer then 10 minutes for anything.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Ummm....this one has disaster written all over it.

I CANNOT stress enough the need to make whatever ressies you can at this point.

Do it now...use the online reservation system and book as many as you can. go day by day and leave all the other search fields blank to allow as many tables to pop up as possible. IF nothing else...it will show you that you need them based on what is undoubtedly severely limited numbers today. There is NO provision for walk ups anymore. Under the old priority seating system...about 40% was reserved for walkups....now it is 0%. The walkup successes are by far the exception...being turned away is the rule.

I've eaten at every WDW restaurant (sans a few new locations), i go 2-4 a year, i own DVC, i got married there, i worked in guest services there...etc etc etc
It still...to this day...annoys me when i can't walk up or move reservations around when i'm there. and i know exactly what to expect. and it still digs at you.
this is one of those "damage control" situations where you can really use an hour now to fix something that might spoil the feeling of the entire trip.

Again...this is honestly from experience.

 

[sndral]

I work with someone who is going in a few weeks and she said today they have no dinner reservations. Apparently the grandmother is making all the arrangements and said they wouldn't need them. I hope she is right. I told her she could make them on her own if she could get the reservation number but she didn't want to raise a fuss.

Umm, I noticed in your post on the resorts thread that your friend is staying @ AS Sports during free dinning - are you sure that your friend has the regular dinning plan? If she has the quick service dinning plan that comes w/ the free dinning promotion, then she won't need ADRs because she won't have table service credits- maybe that's why the grandmother said they don't need ADRs?

 

[Jennasis]

If they have the Quick Serve DDP then they don't need reservations. they'll be eating at counter-serve places.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I have to wonder why anyone would book during free dining and then not make ADRs. What a waste of money. If you eat at only CS spots, you are throwing money out the window. But, perhaps they only have the QS dining, with no TS. If that's the case, then fine. Otherwise, a huge waste.

Yep, another thread stated they are staying value, so I'm betting is QS.

 

[skipperkim]

Yep, another thread stated they are staying value, so I'm betting is QS.

Yes, it seems OP need to tell her friend she'll be fine without ADR's. Now if they want to eat at TS's she might be wise to make an ADR or two online, but she'll be paying for them herself since she's staying at a value and will only have CS's for free.