reservations vent! and question

[etzmn123]

I'm trying to plan our first trip to WDW Sept11-16. I've been working on trying to figure out where to eat, since we've never been there before. Here's my problem. Whenever I ask my bf for his opinion, he responds with "how am I supposed to know what I'm going to be in the mood to eat that day? ask me again in like 50 days" ...... okaaaay, so he's no help. From my research though, it looks like we pretty much have to make a reservation in order to eat anywhere good for dinner right? I made two character breakfast reservations already, so he's going to have to deal with those, and I'm not too concerned about lunch but I would like to eat something good for dinner.

assuming I know which evenings we're going to be in which parks, should I just go ahead and make reservations at places that look good to me while I still can? do I get penalized if we don't show up? I figure that way we can at least have something reserved in case we can't find "whatever we're in the mood for that day". then he can thank me for thinking ahead.


or should I just not reserve anything and then when we can't get in anywhere be all immature and say "see I told you we should have made reservations...." I'm kidding, sort of.

 

[Fire14]

I'd make ressies You will get dinged on some, some you won't If you have to put up cc you will get dinged if you don't show up or cancel 24 hr prior. I believe free dining is happening during that time which makes having ressie more important. The curtous thing to do is cancel ressie if you are not going to use it.

 

[TDC Nala]

at restaurants that require a credit card hold, yes you will be penalized ($10 per person) if you don't show up.

 

[Singinglizzie]

I understand - I have one (ok 3 of those) at home. No one wants to help planning, but during vacation they all have an opinion! I'd go ahead and book ADR's now. The ones that require a cc guarantee, need a 24 hour cancel notice or you will be charged. If you think you will wind up canceling the same day, try to avoid those restaurants, which tend to be the most popular or signature dining. You can do Disney with quick service meals so don't stress out about the table service meals. Maybe just pick one table service per day. You might explain to DBF that many of the restaurants require a guarantee. Ask for his credit card that way if he changes his mind, you won't feel bad if there is a charge. If he won't pony up his credit card that will tell you, he really doesn't want to commit and wants to wing it. Some people prefer to wing it - just their style. Just dont' be disappointed if you show up and can't get the restaurant you really want. Another option is to purchase the Disney Dining Plan. That will give you carte blanch to book your ADR's. Best of luck!!!

 

[danceintherain]

It's really up to you and what you know about your BF.
I've learned that DH can do with hardly any Disney talk before the trip, and he doesn't really care much about where we eat while we're there. I try to keep things varied so he'll get what he wants at some point during the trip.
The cancellation policy does make it more difficult, but maybe you can make non-cancel-able (more adventurous) ADRs for half of your credits, and the other half more flexible, so there's room for change when you get closer? Theoretically, you should get to pick where you eat for half of the meals anyways, and you may very well end up eating at the other places due to lack of options at the last minute. As long as you don't pick anywhere that you know he won't be able to find anything on the menu, then I doubt it will be a huge problem, but I also don't know your BF.

Since you've never been before, you're not really going to have opinions about where you want to eat other than basic types of food. You CAN wait until the last minute, and you'll likely be able to get in somewhere, but is your knowledge of what you want to eat on a particular day really going to change that much when you get closer? Assuming you don't schedule a meal to eat Moroccan food unless you really like Moroccan food and eat it on a weekly basis anyways, the Disney fare isn't hugely varied - pretty much every menu has steak or a burger and chicken in some form. I usually attempt to avoid eating the same kind of food too many times in a trip - so no Via Napoli and Tony's Town Square (both Italian) on the same trip.

 

[Karlzmom]

How about instead of focusing on what he wants to eat that far out, focus on the *experiences* he'd like to have.....would he like to meat characters? Then book a character meal....does he like Hawaii? Then book something at the Poly....dream of a trip to England....go R&C and so on. I found it worked better to get input from DH when I moved it to broad theme ideas rather than focusing on what he will want to eat the 2d Tues in December....Good Luck!

 

[maj42169]

With your trip being pretty close, you may also have to go by what still has availability, especially since free dining will be going on at the time of your trip.

 

[jm106]

I agree, its a bit late to be looking for many places so I would get some booked ASAP. I also agree, you dont need to know specifically what you want to eat but places you might like the food, atmosphere and work with schedule. Look at menus and decide would you find items off of the menu there, rule out places you wont like. When there he will find foods from that menu he is in the mood for.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I have always just made ADR's without my families input. I know the type of foods they like and no one wanted to give me any input.

We also never missed an ADR but then I didn't make them for every day.

 

[etzmn123]

Thanks for the opinions everyone! Luckily, he is not a picky eater at all so that makes it a lot easier. We are staying offsite and will not have a dining plan, so no credits or anything like that. We will have two kids with us, ages 11 and 5 who are not very picky either and will be able to find something to eat anywhere we go. I think I'll just go ahead and make some reservations and he'll just have to deal with it or go find a burger somewhere. maybe I'll just let the kids decide tomorrow (I'm their nanny, not their mom and their mom will be at a conference at our hotel for a few of the days we are there..... which is why we are staying offsite)

 

[aubriee]

Thanks for the opinions everyone! Luckily, he is not a picky eater at all so that makes it a lot easier. We are staying offsite and will not have a dining plan, so no credits or anything like that. We will have two kids with us, ages 11 and 5 who are not very picky either and will be able to find something to eat anywhere we go. I think I'll just go ahead and make some reservations and he'll just have to deal with it or go find a burger somewhere. maybe I'll just let the kids decide tomorrow (I'm their nanny, not their mom and their mom will be at a conference at our hotel for a few of the days we are there..... which is why we are staying offsite)

Just hope he doesn't pull what my husband did this weekend. As an AP holder I go to WDW 4-6 times a year, but he even though he encourages my solo trips, my husband is not as big a WDW fan as I am, so I can only get him to go once or twice a year. He's been often enough though that he knows you have to make ADRs at 180 days out. I asked him about 190 days out from our Oct/Nov trip if there was anywhere specific he wanted to eat and he told me no, to just make the ADRs I wanted. About two months later, out of the blue, he said, "You did make a reservation for us to eat at Ohana and Cape May didn't you?". Uh, no those are not two of my favorites, so I didn't. I had him look at the ADRs I did have in case he wanted to make more changes and then I spent the next several weeks trying to get those two ADRs for him and was so happy when I managed to snag both. Now months later, this weekend he said he'd been thinking about where we might eat down there and had I booked that Tavern place in MK that serves the all you can eat turkey and how about Boma and Biergarten, since he really likes those too. I almost yelled at him, I was so frustrated with him. I reminded him I had showed him the list months ago and he hadn't said a word about wanting anything different. He just shrugged and said he'd finally gotten in the mood to decide and surely it wouldn't be that much trouble to change them around. He must have seen the steam coming out of my ears, as I tried to hold my tongue, because he finally laughed, raised both hands and said don't worry about it if it was going to be that much trouble, but he couldn't see that it would hurt to just check.

 

[sachiiiii]

I made all the ADRs by myself. I made two ADRs each night for restaurants that I'd like to go to, sent my fiance the menus and asked him to pick which one sounded better. That way he doesn't have to choose exactly what he wants to eat, he just has to choose between two (usually very different) menus. I haven't cancelled the extra ADRs just in case he changes his mind or mentions that he would like to eat a certain food. I'll cancel them a few days before our trip, since you only get penalized if you don't cancel within 24 hours of the reservation.
He's not really into this whole trip planning or meal planning thing, so I make the decisions. Of course, I keep his tastes in mind while I'm doing it, so I avoided any character dining or restaurants with entertainment for little kids. I don't think he'd be interested in those at all.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I would just go ahead and make some, and tell him what the plan is each day when you are there. My thought is that, at home, DH doesn't necessarily get to eat "what he's in the mood for" every night anyway - I generally have dinner on the table when he gets home from work, and rarely consult him about what I'm planning to make beforehand anyway. So vacation isn't much different, lol! It's easy for some (guys esp, maybe) to act like that months out, but when the time comes he'll just be glad to have any nice dinner planned for him.

 

[ses1230]

I made all the ADRs by myself. I made two ADRs each night for restaurants that I'd like to go to, sent my fiance the menus and asked him to pick which one sounded better. That way he doesn't have to choose exactly what he wants to eat, he just has to choose between two (usually very different) menus. I haven't cancelled the extra ADRs just in case he changes his mind or mentions that he would like to eat a certain food. I'll cancel them a few days before our trip, since you only get penalized if you don't cancel within 24 hours of the reservation.
He's not really into this whole trip planning or meal planning thing, so I make the decisions. Of course, I keep his tastes in mind while I'm doing it, so I avoided any character dining or restaurants with entertainment for little kids. I don't think he'd be interested in those at all.

If you have an idea of which one you are going to eat at, please cancel the others now. IMO you shouldn't hold up a reservation for "just in case".

 

[sachiiiii]

If you have an idea of which one you are going to eat at, please cancel the others now. IMO you shouldn't hold up a reservation for "just in case".

I didn't think of it as a bad thing while I was making them, but I guess it is pretty selfish. Oops. I cancelled our extras. I don't think we'll end up changing our minds.
I've only got one "just in case" reservation now, and that's for the night I'm hoping to get Be Our Guest.

 

[WSLover]

I am going with my nephew who has become quite a foodie since our last trip 6 years ago (when he was 11). I let him pick 3 restaurants and then I picked the rest for a 7 day stay to CBR. To my delight he picked Boma which I have been wanting to try. We are also have Les Chefs de France, R&C, Brown Derby, Ohana, and hopefully BOG.
We are staying 3 nights at AoA without dining so we will focus on Food and Wine Festival on this days.