Winging it on Dining

[renea]

First adult trip May 14-20. We have always planned and had reservations for meals when we took our boys. We really did not want to be tied down this time. I do have us the Spirit of Aloha booked and we are doing the Ferrytale Wishes Dessert Cruise and Illuminations Sparkling Wine Dessert booked. In mid May is it feasible to do this with no reservations. The Cast Members I have talked to on the phone have each said they thought we would be ok unless we wanted something like BOG. Hubby and I are really easily pleased and aren't picky, so keeping fingers crossed we can do this. Anyone else done this?

 

[Lisa F]

If you don't care where you'll eat you'll find somewhere to get fed. I think you will have trouble at more than just BoG but I think you will find SOMETHING, especially at secondary tier resort restaurants like the wave, GF cafe, captain's grille etc.

 

[Nancyg56]

You will eat, but you may not be able to secure the exact restaurants at the exact times that you want. If you are flexible you should be okay.

 

[mkla2015]

If you are flexible then you should be fine. I'm always surprised at how many reservations open up the day before or day of.

 

[renea]

I thought I would keep an eye on what opened up the night before and day of where ever we are at. I will keep you posted. We do have the dining plan. I am quite anxious to see if this can be done

 

[loril13]

We get ADRs for our must go to and any hard to get into restaurants. We still leave about 1/4 - 1/2 of our lunches and dinners unplanned. While it is unlikely a last minute ADR for California Grill or BOG will pop up, you will still get into some great restaurants.

 

[Kricketnp]

I'm considering doing it for October to have a more "laid back" trip but knowing myself, I'll end up booking some ADR's "just in case."

 

[Hopefully]

I wouldn't do it when on the DDP. I would be worrying about wasting credits.
I agree with others, you will be able to find somewhere to eat. But it may not be where you want to eat, when you want to eat.
Your approach is right. Check the night before and the morning of. Lots of folks now do cancel because of the no show fee

 

[tobikaye]

I think you will be just fine without set ADRs. I have only done one trip where I had more than 2 ADRs before I arrived at WDW. As long as you are open to where and time, you can get some good reservations the night before or same day.

(Now that said, I have never done a dining plan for the reason of not wanting to plan ahead and it would cost me more money in the long run.)

 

[nkereina]

Agree with the others on this. Last trip in October, Via Napoli was accepting walk-ups around 7pm but the line was quite long. I believe they were quoting an hour. Rose & Crown was not accepting walk-ups at that time. As long as you understand up front that you may run into these scenarios at certain TS restaurants and you're ok with that, you should do fine.

 

[Anthony1971]

We have rarely made ADR's --only if we had a large group-- we have also never been turned away. Sometimes we will decline because of the wait which in all honesty was only twice that I can recall in the 20+ years we have been going. If it were FD or on a holiday I would say you will have some long waits but otherwise you are fine. We have gone most months doing this including being there for July 4th. When it was just my wife and I as we had others to watch the kids at peak times we were sometimes told 40 minutes only to have the buzzer go off before we could sit... tables for two are far easier to come by. If you are concerned call the morning of you will be surprised to find most places will be available. Above says Rose and crown at 7-- 2 hours before illuminations at a place where there is an exclusive good viewing area if you so happen to be eating there... you need to use common sense with no ADR's.

 

[Lisa F]

Agree with the others on this. Last trip in October, Via Napoli was accepting walk-ups around 7pm but the line was quite long. I believe they were quoting an hour. Rose & Crown was not accepting walk-ups at that time. As long as you understand up front that you may run into these scenarios at certain TS restaurants and you're ok with that, you should do fine.

Well you shouldn't be stuck walking around looking for a walk up. I think if you have the app on your phone and are willing to eat at weird times (between lunch and dinner or late dinner) you should be fine. On my trip in 2014 I added a 2:30pm CP lunch after how awesome the other character meals were were the morning of. I think resort restaurants tend to have more availability too (a friend stayed at AKL and ate at boma every night without reservations and never waited too long)... not the star ones like CA Grill etc but the second tier ones do. Even Kona Cafe, as popular as it is here, seems to have a lot of last minute availability. In Epcot Biergarten, both Morocco restaurants, the new Mexican one and Nine Dragons all seem to have a lot of availability. At MK like I said, I got an off time CP but you have all of the monorail restaurants too. At Hollywood Studios I might not expect to get Sci Fi or 50's but I bet Brown Derby has availability. At AK tusker house seems to have last minute spots. You definitely will not go hungry and if you are super flexible about where you eat it should be fine

 

[shortnsassy730]

You'll be fine. We are local and we often book same day. You will have better chances at resort and Disney Spring's spots. However, 99% of my fave spots are resort meals. I love the Wave, Boma, Sanaa, Raglan Road, Splittsville, Olivia's, Biergarten (not resort of course but fun and almost always open), Artist Point, etc.

 

[nkereina]

Well you shouldn't be stuck walking around looking for a walk up. I think if you have the app on your phone and are willing to eat at weird times (between lunch and dinner or late dinner) you should be fine. On my trip in 2014 I added a 2:30pm CP lunch after how awesome the other character meals were were the morning of. I think resort restaurants tend to have more availability too (a friend stayed at AKL and ate at boma every night without reservations and never waited too long)... not the star ones like CA Grill etc but the second tier ones do. Even Kona Cafe, as popular as it is here, seems to have a lot of last minute availability. In Epcot Biergarten, both Morocco restaurants, the new Mexican one and Nine Dragons all seem to have a lot of availability. At MK like I said, I got an off time CP but you have all of the monorail restaurants too. At Hollywood Studios I might not expect to get Sci Fi or 50's but I bet Brown Derby has availability. At AK tusker house seems to have last minute spots. You definitely will not go hungry and if you are super flexible about where you eat it should be fine

I didn't say anyone would be stuck walking around aimlessly. You can certainly check availability on your phone when you're ready to eat and grab an ADR if available. But some restaurants will take walk-ups even if no ADRs are showing available. My post was more for if you're in front of Via Napoli (for example) and decide you're hungry then and want to eat there, you need to be prepared for a potentially long wait or to be turned down all together.

 

[Willow1213]

Don't forget about Skipper Canteen in the MK. They are still "same day reservations" aka walk up only. I've heard very good things about the food here!

 

[maxiesmom]

No way would I try to do mostly walk ups on the dining plan. Not unless you are extremely flexible with when and where you eat. And by where, I mean maybe having to leave the Magic Kingdom and head to a resort, or head to another park. The problem is only Epcot has a vast number of places that take ADRs. The other parks are very limited. You need to be ok with maybe having to do a bit of traveling to get to a restaurant that can accommodate you. And that will mean much less park time.

If you were not on the dining plan I would say go for it. But nope, no way as you have the plan.

 

[renea]

All of our favorites are the resort restaurants so I am quite hopeful we can get in at Boma's, Whispering Canyon, Trails End. The one I have tried to get a ressie for is Ohana's. Still nothing on that one.

 

[loves to dive]

The only ADR we make in advance is Tea at the GF, other than that it's either night before or more often than not, morning of. We have always enjoyed going to GS at whatever park we are at and asking the CM to find us something. We have always had PHs (I have an AP, my son gets military hoppers) so the park or resort doesn't matter and the time doesn't matter since as adults we can eat whenever we want. We will either give them parameters like during this time frame, starting in this park and then moving to others or no time frame but at a specific park. We have walked up to concierge at the resort and asked what was available at a resort restaurant as well. We enjoy trying out different places and thankfully, have never really wanted the more popular places (BOG I'm looking at you and yes we have eaten there at breakfast and lunch) and never needed or wanted character meals. We also don't make FP any further in advance than a week and normally it's the night before and are perfectly happy to cancel or rearrange those if a restaurant we decide we might want to eat at is during a FP time. It is very freeing to just spin that wheel and take what comes, we've had some great meals doing that.

 

[BellsFam]

I personally will NEVER again "wing it"...

We stayed at Swan and didn't make one reservation (mid September) and we couldn't get ONE place other than a quick service to eat. For our sit down we ended up at Garden Grove like 3 nights paying a huge amount for that food without the DIS experience we were looking for.

That's my story, yours could be different.

 

[crabbygal902]

If you
don't have your heart set on specific places
are willing to be flexible about dining times
and aren't trying to maximize your value on the DDP
you will be just fine and may even discover new favorites.
I used to fret over ADRs for months even before the 180 day mark. I have learned that winging it is the way to go for me, with a couple exceptions for special meals or at unusually busy times. My best tip is to eat at the bars and lounges in the signature restaurants, no ADRs needed but going at non-peak times is a good idea. Order a few apps and a couple beverages, and you have a very nice adult dinner.
We have found out how much we like Cali Grill, Narcoossee's, and Territory Lounge by doing this. Next on my list is the bar at Flying Fish.

**Edit: I just noticed that you do have the dining plan. I would absolutely make ADRs in this case ensure getting value out of those credits! But...and this is a big but...value means different things to different people. I would want to squeeze out every dollar I had put into the DDP (and more!) You may find value in having your meals pre-paid. Whatever works best for you.