Should I worry about having no PS/ADRs?

[molly2004]

We are planning a weekend trip in mid-October. We are incredibly spontaneous people so the thought of having to make dinner reservations 80 days in advance seems crazy to me. In fact, planning a trip this far in advance is driving me batty (that's why we can never ever be DVC members)!!

At the same time, we loooove food...good food. After finding this board and reading through the restaurant board, I feel like we'd be missing out if we don't make a dinner reservation, even though we've checked out the menus to many of the restaurants (including the Signature ones) and nothing seems to wow us. They seem to be the same as things we can get here in Boston or NYC. So I keep wondering, "Why bother losing 2 hours of your Disney touring time?"

Considering we'll be going mid-October for a weekend, would I have THAT hard of a time making reservations the day of our visit? Won't a ton of people be at the Food and Wine events so they'll be absent from the non-participating restaurants? I hear that you can go to Guest Services at each park and check out what the remaining reservations are. Is that true? Or will we be perfectly happy with the counter service offerings?

Please help! I'm such a control freak that I feel we need reservations, but I'm afraid of being tied to them! AAAAAAh!

Oh, before I forget...Thanks in advance!

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, plenty of people go with any ADRs/PS. Do they get exactly what they want? Probably not. I always plan at least on table service meal when at WDW. If something comes up and I don't want to go there, I just give Guest Services a call, or stop by, and cancel it. If you eat at off-peak times, at the less popular spots, you should be okay. But, I wouldn't count on getting into some of the more upscale spots at the popular eating times. Or character meals.

 

[lillygator]

If you don't really want any TS restaurants you will be fine - but the weekends are crowded in October - the Food and Wine Fest is going on.

 

[Dorisk3]

I don't want to alarm you- but if I were you, I'd try to pick 4 or 5 restaurants as posibilities and then try calling Disney for the reservations. You can always line up a few multiple reservations. I think even though you prefer to wing it more, you'll feel better with a AR or two on your side. You don't want to get stuck eating counter service when you don't want to! Good luck and have a great time!