Restaurants without reservations?

[ratfam]

I'm getting some great help in planning my upcoming trip here, and here's another question. I am trying to do some planning of what park what day ahead of time, but I hate to feel like I need to chart out an entire 8 day vacation ahead of time. Are there table service or buffet restaurants in the parks or accessible from MK by monorail that you can generally get into without a reservation, or where you can get a same day reservation? I am getting all stressed out over planning and I need to keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be fun. We are going March 30-April 7 and I have made no reservations so far, so I've probably missed a lot as it is.

 

[Forever42]

During the time you'll be there, you'll be hard pressed to walk into a restaurant in a park without a reservation during regular dining hours. You can try at 4pm when they open or near closing, but otherwise it's usually booked due to spring breakers. Same with restaurants generally accessible from the MK.

What I always suggest is to make reservations anyway. You don't HAVE to keep them - cancel them when it gets closer and you've changed your mind. But I would definitely make reservations if you plan on doing any important restaurants or any character dining.

 

[scorpad99]

Be prepared to eat lots of greasy cheeseburgers and fries at the counter services. I`d book a breakfast and a dinner for each day of your trip, they do give you a little slack if you are a 1/2 hour early or 1/2 hour late. Besides you can always cancel up to the day b4. We usually make late breakfast plans, so we arent bonded to be anyplace early, and if you happen to be ready ahead of schedule you can do alot more rides first thing in the morning than in the middle of the day! gl with whatever you decide and have a great trip. Take time to relax and enjoy things, after all its a vacation.............you dont want to need a vacation when you get home!

 

[Peter Pirate]

Even I, scourge of the ADR, suggest you book at least a lunch or dinner each day (for example we'll often do, say Boma one night, do a late LeCellier lunch the next day, book s FF the following night, a late Mama Melrose lunch the next day, and so on). That way you'll be assured of one preferred main meal each day and try to wing the rest. Breakfast and luch is easier to wing than dinner in my experience (unless yu're looking for character type things, of course).

 

[PoohMommy]

I agree with previous posters that it would be best to make reservations for one meal a day. For us, breakfast isn't a big thing so we don't make breakfast ADRs...at most, one morning we'd go to Kona Cafe at the Poly for their Tonga Toast, and I don't think we've ever had to make an ADR for it. (If you really want a certain breakfast, like Chef Mickey's or Cindy, absolutely make an ADR for it.) But if you really want a certain TS meal, making an ADR for either lunch or dinner is your safest bet.

 

[LoveWDW]

We were at Spoodles last Saturday evening. We had reservations, and we had maybe a 10 minute wait to be seated. Someone who came in just before us did not have reservations, and they were told a 35 minute wait. So it should be possible to find a restaurant where you don't need advanced reservations.

 

[Hopefully]

Finding walk up availability for a TS restaurant in early December versus late March - early April are very different things! This is a (relatively) quiet time, and late March early April is busier.
My rule of thumb is: if there is somewhere you really want to eat, make an ADR as soon as you decide.
I agree with the other posters, we made one TS ADR for every day. Most days it was for dinner, but we also had lunch at Morocco.
The popularity of the Dining Plan has made the TS restaurants far busier than they have ever been.
Just map out which park, which day and go from there.
Have you checked out all the menus at allearsnet.com? They may help you to decide.

 

[nbodyhome]

What I always tell guests - if there are any restaurants you really want to do, then book them ahead. There will be restaurants you can just walk into - one that is often not booked ahead is Morrocco. And even though the restaurants were very busy this week, TA's from the program I was with were able to get last minute ressies for Portabella, Jiko, Brown Derby (that surprised me) and a few others. The Magic Kingdom restaurants are often not available the day of, and the MGM ones often haven't been either, especially when they close early. Of course, you can always get into Trails End! So there is always food, but book anything that is important to you and you may need to be flexible otherwise (getting at a restaurant early or late to be seated if you didn't make a ressie).

Denise

 

[T-i-double-g-err]

As several other posters have suggested, we typically plan for one TS meal a day: a late breakfast=lunch, lunch or dinner. At least we know, we'll be able to get in somewhere for a meal on each day. We do breakfast in the room or at the hotel. The other meal, if we have it rather than snacking, is a matter of convenience, pick the best CS offering in the area where we are when the kids call for food.

I'm not sure how difficult seating is at restaurants during off-peak seasons in the park as this coming trip will be our first that was not in the summer or leading up to Thanksgiving. Of course, this trip we're a party of six with my mom coming along to balance the adult to child ratio... Of course my wife keeps telling me that when I'm in Disney she's the only adult in the family...

 

[ZoZo]

Even I, scourge of the ADR, suggest you book at least a lunch or dinner each day (for example we'll often do, say Boma one night, do a late LeCellier lunch the next day, book s FF the following night, a late Mama Melrose lunch the next day, and so on). That way you'll be assured of one preferred main meal each day and try to wing the rest. Breakfast and luch is easier to wing than dinner in my experience (unless yu're looking for character type things, of course).

I agree with this. You'll be very disappointed if you don't make some reservations. They're a "necessary evil" if you want anything besides hamburgers, fries, etc. We tried at the end of October to get a same-day dinner reservation at Le Cellier, and ended up with 8:50 pm. We ended up with lots of those late-evening reservations . . . and you don't get your food until around 9:30 (way later than I like to eat).

 

[tortoni]

We went in August and I had reserved everything in advance because we were on the meal plan. I did find it a little tedious to be so scheduled. However we just came back from a quick trip this week and I had only prescheduled two meals. Well, I was sorry that I did not make more advance reservations because we were unable to get into a couple of places. I'd say plan in advance if you can, you can always cancel.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

Better safe than sorry.

Since it will be an adults ony trip this time I did make ADR's for our upcoming trip but I will definitely be more flexible since the kids will not be with us.

But if you are on the dining plan AND you have children, it is of great importance for you to be able to know that your family will be able to have a little sit down break at a certain time and place. You wouldn't want to be stuck with leftover sitdown credits at the end of your trip....it would be a waste of $$$ on the dining plan.

 

[ratfam]

Thanks for the feedback. Not sure if we'll have dining plan as an option or if we'll purchase it so we won't need to worry about losing there, but I guess we'll try to set something up for every day to be on the safe side.

 

[crisi]

Another option if you don't care about sitting down is to research your counter service options. You don't need to eat nothing but burgers and fries from Disney counterservice, but some preplanning will help avoid it. At Epcot, in particular, there are a ton of counter service choices at the country pavillions - from Fish and Chips to Bratwurst to Taboleh. Japan is particularly good, with a counter service, a Tempura bar, and the lounge which serves sushi all available without ADRs. AK is another park where its really easy to eat well without sitting down (in fact, not being a fan of RFC, I prefer the salmon at Tusker House to any other option). Then, if you do feel like sit down, you can try calling the morning of, and ask, but plan on targeting unpopular places (Marrakesh, some of the signature resort restaurants, like Artists Point, but not California Grill - and preferrably those on a weeknight, Friday and Saturdays add the locals to the mix in greater numbers making Flying Fish a hot reservation) and an early dining time