Walk up availability?

[emilymad]

What sit down restaurants usually have walk up availability? I am going the second week of March. We are planning on eating mostly counter service and off site. If we change our minds I would like to know where we would have a good chance of getting in without a ridiculous wait. I am not expecting to be able to walk into the better restaurants like Le Cellier. I am just trying to be prepared instead of walking all around to find someplace that will take us. Thanks!

 

[Pixiedust34]

What sit down restaurants usually have walk up availability? I am going the second week of March. We are planning on eating mostly counter service and off site. If we change our minds I would like to know where we would have a good chance of getting in without a ridiculous wait. I am not expecting to be able to walk into the better restaurants like Le Cellier. I am just trying to be prepared instead of walking all around to find someplace that will take us. Thanks!

Actually, we DID eat at Le Cellier without a reservation in early August, when it was pretty crowded. We showed up right before opening and asked if we could be seated. They said that it would be about a half-hour wait. We took in the Canada movie and returned to the restaurant. We were seated for lunch. I don't know if we were lucky beyond belief, or if it's usually easy to get a seat for an early (at opening) lunch. Had we tried for later in the day, they would have surely been booked.

 

[java]

Um ridiculous wait will be your best opportunity I think. Some will be no availability. I have found with the dining package= so many places get booked up now. Although I will say if you eat early or late walk ups may be possible. And as for the best chance of walk up I would say- Morocco, the French restaurant that is upstairs, and maybe Japan. Good luck and have fun. Oh and the hotel restaurants (not those with buffets for some reason) usually have walk up availability- generally speaking.
Oh and the above poster brings up a good point- Lunch is easier to get.

 

[LindaR]

The risk is yours to take. Depending on time of year (meaning, holidays) you certainly can ask at any place. They will tell you how long the wait might be. If I am hungry, I don't want to wait 1.5 hours for a table!

 

[budbeerlady]

We were at WDW in mid December, it was very empty. But there was not walk up availability for MOST of the resturants at dinner. At Lunch you might get lucky but every night we saw very unhappy people turned away. There are only so many places to eat for that many people, especailly with what my dd has dubbed "The ultimate food eating plan".

 

[Jen D]

It's not a welcome world for walk-ups anymore, but there is hope for the spontaneous-minded. If you carry a cell phone, keep Disney Dining programmed on it. (I was mocked early in our recent multi-family trip for having Disney Dining programmed on my phone and by the end of the trip everyone just came to my phone to plan their evening dinner.) When you do have a good idea where you want to eat, call Disney Dining. They can tell you what times if any are left and if your desired place is full they will find something else. Sure beats showing up any old time and waiting an hour. We had very good luck doing this. We always has an ADR for counter service but 90% of them were made same day and some just an hour or two before. We never waited more than 5 minutes anywhere.

Now, this was the off season, early Feb. Might not work as well in peak. And we did make our most desired ADRs (character meal, etc) far in advance.

 

[paras4ri]

An alternative to walking from restaurant to restaurant is checking at guest services at a park or at your hotel. They can check to see if there's availability anywhere.

 

[aterriq]

Don't forget during the slower seasons, they have less staffing. Don't assume a large TS can handle you if you see empty tables.

Last year at H&V, half the tables were empty for dinner but they only had enough staff for the tables that were occupied.

 

[Vijoge]

We were seated at the Rose and Crown last Thursday for lunch with only a 15 minute wait. Excellent food, by the way.

 

[Dis31]

We did a walk up to Canada once and were seating very quickly for an early dinner, however while we were waiting we heard them telling people they were no longer talking walk-ups, then about 20 min later more walk ups came and they were seating them with 20 min waits. I guess you jsut have to get lucky or try again after they get settled.

 

[goofyfordisney]

What sit down restaurants usually have walk up availability? I am going the second week of March. We are planning on eating mostly counter service and off site. If we change our minds I would like to know where we would have a good chance of getting in without a ridiculous wait. I am not expecting to be able to walk into the better restaurants like Le Cellier. I am just trying to be prepared instead of walking all around to find someplace that will take us. Thanks!

We were just there last week--a week that is normally slow...well, when we checked in we were told that all disney resorts were "sold out"! There were a number of conventions, Daytona 500 visitors, as well as a huge problem with weather related delays (people trying to go home to the northeast were snowed-out).

I am really glad we had made alot of ADR's--we witnessed many people walking up at various places (lunch and dinner) being told that there were no tables available. It's too bad, because once we were seated, we noticed many tables that sat empty for the whole time of our meal

I ended up changing quite a few of our ressies once we got there and was able to do so without any trouble at all. Maybe because there were only two of us?? I also was able to get a same day ressie at Sci Fi just be walking up to the kiosk located on the corner near Brown Derby in the morning.

I would definitely make a few ADR's--especially Le Cellier! You can always call and change things around once you get there. The conceige desk at your hotel will help you out too.