Tonight we dined at Hollywood and Vine at Disney Studios and had the funniest experience getting a table! Typically we make reservations for where we want to eat ahead of time, but this was a spontaneous weekend trip to Disney so we decided just to wing it. We walked up to Hollywood and Vine about 5:20pm without reservations and asked for a table. The CM told us a 35-45 minute wait. (There didn't appear to be THAT many people there.) So then we said, well, instead of hanging out for 45 minutes can we just make a reservation and come back later? He said sure, and then told us that he had a slot open for 5:30pm. We were like, huh?! So by saying we were walk-up we were given a 40 minute wait time. But then asking for a reservation we were given a 10 minute wait time! We started cracking up and the CM was equally confused and amused! He didn't get it either, but it was too funny. All we could think is that it must be that each restaurant has to keep a certain number of slots set aside for reservations and consider those slots "filled" if a walk up arrives asking for a table. It's all quite bizarre. So I just wanted to share what we thought was the best kept Disney secret! If you need to get a table on the fly, don't ask for a wait time, just ask for a reservation ....it may be a 10 minute wait!
The night before we pulled off another interesting dining reservation. We exited the Magic Kingdom about 6:50pm and didn't know where we wanted to eat, we were thinking maybe somewhere at the Grand Floridian. So as we were waiting on the boat dock for the next shuttle we called 407-WDW-DINE and made a reservation for 30 minutes later. I said to the reservation agent, do you think we'll make across the lake on time? He said - where are you??? I said, at the boat dock outside MK and he laughed. I said yeah, we like to plan ahead but not too much!
As someone who usually plans Disney trips ahead of time, meticulously, right down to the last dining reservation, I was pleasantly surprised this weekend to find that you can indeed do things spontaneously if you are creative and flexible.
stina
The night before we pulled off another interesting dining reservation. We exited the Magic Kingdom about 6:50pm and didn't know where we wanted to eat, we were thinking maybe somewhere at the Grand Floridian. So as we were waiting on the boat dock for the next shuttle we called 407-WDW-DINE and made a reservation for 30 minutes later. I said to the reservation agent, do you think we'll make across the lake on time? He said - where are you??? I said, at the boat dock outside MK and he laughed. I said yeah, we like to plan ahead but not too much!
As someone who usually plans Disney trips ahead of time, meticulously, right down to the last dining reservation, I was pleasantly surprised this weekend to find that you can indeed do things spontaneously if you are creative and flexible.
stina
