We don't want to starve at Disney again

[malonefamily]

I know this sounds crazy, but on my family's first (and only so far) trip to WDW we had a heck of a time finding anything to eat! We were there around the Fourth of July, so it was a very busy place-- but 90% of the time we'd poke our nose into a table service restaurant they'd turn us away or offer a wait of three hours.

I remember the day we arrived (hungry from a long flight from Seattle), we had no reservations anywhere, and we just wandered over to Epcot to eat... for the life of us we couldn't find anything. We started in Canada and worked our way around. We decided to take the Monorail over to MK and try that... no better. Finally we found a counter service restaurant that had a table... but it was getting so late most everyone else had already eaten. We were in the mood for a nice first meal, but made do with hamburgers as we were getting weak from hunger.

We don't like having a rigid schedule on vacation, so we dread making a lot of reservations... but we don't want to wander the parks for scraps of food either!

Our next trip (first as DVC members) will be to Saratoga Springs from 12/14-12/22 -- with the park being slower that time of year, can we just play it by ear and/or make reservations a few hours ahead of time? Or will we starve again?

Thanks for the advice-- you guys never cease to amaze.

 

[BEACHCLUBVILLAS]

We just came back from a trip from 9/27 to 10/5 and experienced the same problem. We ended up eating at counter service restaurants many times because we couldn't get into any restaurants. It was the start of the food and wine festival so we didn't starve..but I could easily see how it could happen to some unsuspecting tourists at the wrong time of year. We found that if we called first thing in the morning we had a chance of getting a reservation in the restaurant of our choice but usually because someone "just cancelled". If you can make some reservations now, I'd do it. Then leave the rest of the days to chance. We slipped on over to Swan and Dolphin a couple of times. They didn't seem to have the same problem.

 

[bicker]

Reservations are a necessary evil; we need to adjust to the reality that people are dining out quite a bit at WDW.

 

[WDWLVR]

12/14 - 12/22 will still be busy - especially in Epcot at dinner time with the Candlelight Processional packages. If you definately want a sit-down meal I would make one reserveration per day for dinner.

We always do breakfast in the room with DVC and do fast food for lunch.

Here's a tip for the future as well. If you find long wait times at the parks go to the nearby hotels. Chances are you can get right in or have a shorter wait.

 

[denecarter]

"Slower" is relative... if crowds are reduced, so are the hours of some parks and restaurants. My advice, make 2-3 ADR for your trip now. If you know where you will generally be on a particular day, pick a place in that area (or at least not on the opposite side of WDW). It is easier to cancel something you don't need than to get something while you're there. YMMV.

 

[Dean]

We make reservations then adjust on the fly. We usually make about half the ones we have but try to cancel the ones we can't use, though many times with only an hour or two notice.

 

[DebbieB]

You will sometimes do better with a late lunch or early dinner, there are usually empty tables around those times.

 

[DukeStreetKing]

My GF and I showed up at L'Originale Alfredo Di Roma Ristorante in the Italian pavillion around 7:30 last night without ADR's. I expected to have to wait, but we were seated within two minutes! It was wonderful.

 

[disneymom2one]

Our next trip (first as DVC members) will be to Saratoga Springs from 12/14-12/22 -- with the park being slower that time of year, can we just play it by ear and/or make reservations a few hours ahead of time? Or will we starve again?

Thanks for the advice-- you guys never cease to amaze.

(snipped)

We'll be there at almost the same time as you will and I have to admit we have 16 advance dining reservations. Yes sixteen. We'll be there for 12 days so it's essentially about one a day. And we've had most of those since 90 days out. With the new dining plan and the crowds that time of year (we go every year at this time) I don't like to be without at least one meal reservation each day. The rest of the time we'll do meals at the resort or counter service. But I would never play it by ear. It's relatively easy to plan out one meal a day and we don't feel too structured either. Just last night we were staying at a resort close to our home and didn't have dining reservations for a Saturday night at 7:00. What a mess. It took us forever to find a place and my husband told me immediately how glad he was that we had plans made for the Disney trip. I'd make reservations now. Many places are still available as we made some changes just this week.

 

[Sammie]

Crowds are reflective of park attendance and toward the end of your trip you are getting into some heavier attendance dates.

As stated this is a busy time for Disney resorts with many being sold out. So resort restaurants could be as busy as your previous trip. I would do some advance planning.

Saratoga has a really nice food area that is fast food. Nice than a hamburger place, at least to us.

If you want a full service, restaurant I would suggest making some ADRs.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We make a list of all the places we want to eat and then try to get ADRs for those places. We plan a tentative schedule around those plus the other events we want to participate in.

 

[rjthkids]

We ate all of our meals in our room or brought them with us. But, there was one time we were at a park and my family wanted to try eating lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine In at MGM and we were told they weren't taking walk-ups and told us to try to call for an ADR for five hours later in the day. Another time my mother and my aunt went out for dinner at 9 at night and were able to walk into Raglan Road in Downtown Disney with no wait at all. I agree with you on the flexibility piece. I have no idea what I am going to be doing from one day to the next, much less know where I am going to want to eat in three months when I don't even know what park I might be in, or if we want to be hiking over to a park just to eat dinner. But we are not big fans of eating out anyway and so we avoid it at all costs. So, I am not much help!

 

[Rella Bella]

Thank God for ADR's! You really need them!
The first part of your trip should be slower than July... but I think you'll find you'll have a more relaxing time if you have an ADR scheduled each day. You can alway cancel or try to change to another restaurant... but that way you'll know you have something. You'll find LOTS of great recommendations on DIS... give them a try!
We often start the day with a breakfast buffet. That way once we get to the park we don't have to keep track of time to get to an ADR. We find there is so much food that we are pretty satisfied until quite late in the day.

 

[Anewman]

Reminds me of the time we waited 15 mins(arrived a bit early) to our 12:45 ADR at Sci Fi. During those 15 minutes we must have heard 5 head of familys ask the hostess "you mean to tell me all of them have reservations?"

It was like 95 degrees outside and some familys were not excited about going back outside.

 

[NMW]

You are going to need ADR's. It may even be hard to get some places if you call Monday. Many people make them 90 days out. The MYW dining plan is very popular, plus you'll have the CP in Epcot. We could not get Le Celliar at our 90+10 mark for any night of our trip (all booked) and we are going Dec 1-9. The CM's told me it's very unlikely that you could just walk in and they will turn people away. I just gave up and booked something else. Good luck!

 

[solferino]

I agree with the others. As much as I hated the thought of making all of the ADRs for dinner on our upcoming trip, it's much better than remembering how miserable we were our first night there last year. On my birthday at that. Never again will we go without ADRs in place for each day.

 

[Lewisc]

No reason to "wander around". The podium at any restaurant, guest services in the resort or park and even calling dining will tell you if you can get an immediate ADR at any restaurant. You might not like what's available but at least you'll know what's available.

we just wandered over to Epcot to eat... for the life of us we couldn't find anything. We started in Canada and worked our way around. We decided to take the Monorail over to MK and try that... no better. Finally we found a counter service restaurant that had a table... but it was getting so late most everyone else had already eaten. We were in the mood for a nice first meal, but made do with hamburgers as we were getting weak from hunger.

We don't like having a rigid schedule on vacation, so we dread making a lot of reservations... but we don't want to wander the parks for scraps of food either!

Our next trip (first as DVC members) will be to Saratoga Springs from 12/14-12/22 -- with the park being slower that time of year, can we just play it by ear and/or make reservations a few hours ahead of time? Or will we starve again?

Thanks for the advice-- you guys never cease to amaze.

 

[Kaycee]

If you make the AR's and then they don't fit in with what you want to do that day, you can always cancel. You aren't tied down by AR's - they simply give you an option for dining when there may not be options available for walk-ups.

We've been to WDW twice during the time you'll be there, and we've seen people without AR's turned away from several restaurants. And that was before the dining plan - AR's will be even more important this year.

 

[Dorisk3]

At first I thought this was a joke thread! At any rate, have you ever heard the saying: the definition of insanity is when you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Learn from your previous mistake, make reservations! If not, you'll only be angry at yourself for missing out yet again on the good places to eat- go to touringplans.com- look at the best days to be at any particular park and plan around that- you won't be sorry!
Have a great time- I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but I really think you'll have a better time with a few reservations!

 

[Deemarch]

We went Christmas week last year and had a PS for all dinners. We planned our week around the meals, but it worked out very well. Then in May we decided to wing it and wound up searching for cancelations and it was only for 2! In October we tried to wing it again and after 2 days, decided to make a few calls to arrange ARs for the rest of our week. And still we waited to be seated, sometimes as long as 45 minutes.

Well, needless to say, when we next visit WDW in October of 2006 with the kids and grandkids (8 in all) I'm making ARs and we are scheduling our park visits around our reservations. Easier and much more calming than running (or even calling) from place to place hoping to eat soon!!