Priority seating or Winging it?

[forgetyourtroubles!]

My guess is that lots of people on this board are people who like to have ALL the details planned ahead of time.
I'm wondering if there are some of you who are like me... really like to go with the flow unless going with the flow means you are not making good use of your time and you have to wait in long lines all the time because you didn't plan anything.
I have not yet made any priority seating yet. Do you think it will be necessary? We are going May 16-23 with our 3 kids ages 2,6,10 and we are treating hubby's parents who are going to help with the 2 year old when she fizzles out. We have a kitchen in our OKW villa. The parks are the main thing we all enjoy together, more than fine dining (at Disney, anyway). Did you feel that it took away from the spontenaeity of your visit to have your priority seating all arranged ahead of time?
I've gone 5 times before and never made PS, just eat at 3:00 or some odd time, but I've never had such a large group (or so many kids), so I'm thinking maybe I should make some ressies.

 

[Ratpack]

I do both. I have to eat at Chef Mickeys each trip so I make a PS for the time I want. Also, if there are special meals I want such as CRT, but other than that, I just eat at odd times as well.

 

[tricia]

We Make PS's for the important ones before we go (Like Chef Mickey's) the others, sometimes we make them that morning or the night before. By then we usually have a good idea of what we have planned for the day.

 

[Horizons16]

yeah thats the same that we do also... if it is a popular restraunt and then you may want to PS

 

[DaisyDeb]

I’ve tried having a PS each night and I really didn’t like it. Sometimes we’d want to go to a different park, but we had to stay close to our PS place. Other nights the timing would be inconvenient, and we’d be killing time waiting. Or we’d have to rush through something else. I’d rather wing it and not worry so much about where I eat. So far I don’t have a single PS for my May trip. If I get stuck eating too many hamburgers I may go back to priority seating!

If you make a PS on just a couple of nights at your favorite places, that might be a good compromise.

 

[tjmw2727]

We do a little of each! For must do meals especially with a party your size you should have a ps, maybe a character meal or special fun place like Whispering Canyon. If your interested in the fantasmic dinner package that should be reserved in advance as well.

We try and do a late lunch as our big meal of the day so I try and make sure I have one or two ps's spread out over the week. This way we are sure we get to eat in a few places we like without a long wait.

If you have a good idea in the am what your day will be like you can always call on a day to day basis for the PS.

TJ

 

[perpetualplanner]

We do both. If we don't have any PS's we end up eating burgers ALL the time because we won't take the time to relax and have a nice meal. This time we're trying having about 5-6 PS's for a 9 day trip. A character B-fast, and a couple of must do's for my Hubby. We eat at off times though so I'm not too worried - I just don't want to live off of "junk" food.

 

[Harambe]

I do the PS also. Usually about five per trip. Last trip, we tried some restaurants at different resorts and although we enjoyed them, getting there sometimes was a pain - we ended up cancellng Boma because everyone was tired and just wanted to get home (Poly). But we were also traveling with others, bringing our total to 10 people. This resulted in long waits everywhere!

I also do PS for HoopdeDoo of Luau as soon as I can. A PS is important here for decent seats.

 

[panfan]

WE also usually do a combo of both HOWEVER--We have an upcoming trip may 25-30 and this time are a party of six--I have been callling the last couple of days ( a little late i know) And NOT ONE OF MY FIRST REQUESTS WERE AVAILABLE! And Im not even talking The castle of chef mickeys!! I really had to re arrange things!! I had trouble with Boma, 1900 park fare for dinner, 50 prime time and Crystal palace.

Just a thought

 

[raidermatt]

We made them for about 1/2 of our dinners on our last trip, and are doing them for almost every night this time. We usually have a group of 6 or 7, and we find the PS's more convenient for a few reasons:

1- We don't have to make any decisions about where to eat, which is sometimes difficult with groups.

2- It reduces the time spent waiting for a table, especially with groups of 6 or more.

3- We make sure we eat at our favorite restaurants, and also try some new ones.

We figure that if we decide we don't want to follow our schedule for the day, we'll just call and cancel the PS (we haven't done that yet, however.)

But to each his/her own... If you don't eat at the typical meal times, waiting won't be as much of an issue. Also, if you don't really care where you eat, PS's are as important either.

Whatever works...

 

[crisi]

I've done a little of both.

This last trip we only had three for seven days. We were traveling with little kids and didn't really know what to expect from them regarding that much sit down dining. It was -for the most part -a disaster. Turned away from restuarants that were full up...I ate enough chicken fingers to last a lifetime!

My new rule - priority seatings for one meal a day. Reconsider them the evening before and rebook and/or cancel. That way, I can skip the chicken fingers for lunch knowing that I'll have a decent dinner a head of me.

 

[n2mm]

I use to do more, but if I want to eat at lunch time I have a PS, cause you won't get in many places at lunch time. Since I noticed that your starting stay was during the Star Wars weekend, MGM might be a bit crowded so if you plan to eat there, a PS may be needed. Character meals--always a PS. But at the end of your stay is the start of Memorial Day weekend---again a very crowded time. We left once on a Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and couldn't get out of there fast enough. With that said, you might want to take a look at a few menus on Deb's site, probably a buffet would be nice with the different ages of your group. I always have PS for my favorite places, esp. the 50s Prime Time Cafe (which I know that many of my friends could not get the times they wanted during their May trip because of the crowds and Star Wars Weekends).

 

[kdibattista]

That's really the only think I plan anymore. I know which park we will go to each day and make the appropriate PS. I don't think it's necessary but I would worry too much if I didn't have them.

 

[hockeyplayer]

"Winging it" has been a family tradition since I was a kid, and we're passing
the baton to the next generation. We have taken two trips with our children
(1999, 2002), and we have never made PS arrangements before leaving home.
On our 1999 trip, we ran into friends (several times) who had booked PS
for every lunch and dinner during their stay. They seemed harried; always
rushing off to get to their meal destination. This is not for me - I rush around
enough at work! That said, we ate everywhere that we wanted to eat with
very little wait time. The trick to this, as many others have said, is to eat at
non-traditional times. The other trick is to be open to new experiences - both
of our trips were made before I started "lurking about" on these boards, so we
had no expectations (and even less knowledge.) We wandered into Prime Time
without a clue as to what we were in for. The unexpected can be the highlight of
your trip - my kids still talk about that first meal at PTC. I don't know if this would
have been one of our "choices" if we had made PS ahead of time - our friends did
not originally make this a choice because they had heard very little about it, but
they made sure to stop in (for a snack or dessert, I think) after hearing about
it from us.
In 2002, we also made no PS arrangements before arrival. One morning after
we arrived, the kids decided they wanted to try a character meal. I picked up
the phone at our hotel (AKL) and booked a dinner (Chef Mickey's) for that
same day, no problem. Both of our trips, by the way, were made in late June -
a fairly busy time at the World. (Also got into Boma, PTC, and SciFi on that same
trip with phone calls made in the morning.)
Your situation is a little different because of the number of people involved - with
us, it was always a party of four. Also, my kids are accustomed to the concept
of "winging it" and are very easy-going when it comes to restaurant choices.
Eating at unusual times does not phase them, and they were not very young
(youngest was 7 on first trip, 10 on second trip) so they can usually hold out
until we find a place that we want to try.
We will be making another trip in August (yes, we're officially hooked - getting
season passes this time around) and the kids have both made a list of new
places they'd like to try (compiled from info on these boards - thanks everyone!)
They will be happy if they get to go to at least one of their choices - everything
after that is a bonus. I've thought about making some PS...but nah...we're
gonna wing it!
Sorry this post is so long, but it's my first one, so I figured I'd make this one a
doozy. As my kids always say, I'm good at "making a short story long."

 

[hockeyplayer]

Whoa! Sorry about the appearance of my previous post. It seems that posting on these boards is a lot like playing hockey - you can tell who the rookies are as soon as they step out onto the ice! I think I've got the hang of it now! And this will now make post #2 for me. Cool! At this rate, I should hit 1,000 in no time!

 

[UKDEB]

LOL, hockeyplayer! Welcome to the boards

We tend to visit WDW at quieter times and only ever make PSs for places which can be harder to get into. The only ones we have made for our upcoming trip in May are Boma for breakfast, California Grill and Emeril's new restaurant, Tchoup Chop. Other than that we usually just turn up, or occasionally make a PS first thing on the day we want to eat. We have never had a problem.

 

[ChrislovesMinnie]

We make them for the most important ones after looking at our planning calendar.
After that, we see how it's going while we're there and then make PS for the other ones,

Have a great time!

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Okay, I think I'm going to need to schedule a few meals. I just remembered my MIL won't eat Chicken, Seafood, or Asian food. We will have a kitchen and she can stock up on the beef potroast. I guess I'll check out the wdwig and look at the menus and make about 4 reservations. We can wing the rest of them and if we don't find anything that works we can always go back to the villa. I have generally found a fairly healthy snack options at WDW, too, but I need to brush up on where these are located.