Dining Reservations in Advance

disneymoc

Active Member
Original Poster
I have been telling my family we need to make our meal reservations this week for our trip to WDW May 15-21. When I sat down and actually started planning though I didn't know what I would be in the mood for. My question is... how do you make out an itenerary for meals when you don't know what you want? Should I wait until we get there and figure it out?
 

celticdog

Well-Known Member
Here's what I do:

I make my restaurant choices based on which park I will be in on that day. I then pick restaurants based upon ambiance, as well as the menus on allears.net.

Some places you will need to book before you leave home, and the sooner the better. For example: Ohana, Chef Mickey/California Grill, Cindy's Royal Table.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Why not book a different type of meal each day? It will give you something to look forward to, and knowing where yoy'll be eating that day will help you do get "in the mood" for that particular restaurant! whatever you decide, you should make your reservations soon.
 

ClemsonTigger

Naturally Grumpy
While some look at it as overplanning, it has now become almost a necessity for many of the restaurants. As others have suggested, look at what's available in the park you plan to visit, and for other days, like a visit to AK, look at one of the hotels.

Epcot has a lot...depends on your personal taste. At MGM, 50's PrimeTime and SciFi are different, you may want to consider one with the Fantasmic package if you want to see that.

For MK, Cinderella's Castle, Liberty Tree Tavern are very nice.

For hotels, O'hana at Poly, Boma at AKL, Whispering Canyon at WL and a bunch at Boardwalk are all worth considering.

You also have character meals if you are in to that.

Try one or two new ones for your trip.
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
Whatever you do, do NOT wait until you go to the resort to look at the restaurants to decide what you want. If you go at peak, you will find that the restaurant reservations are already booked for the entire day, in fact many are booked months in advance. If you are not sure, get one of the books at your local store like the Birnbaums' official guide, or the Unofficial Guide, or the Passporter. Look through the restaurant sections - decide which parks you will be in each day - and make your reservations now.
 

jesserin

New Member
RonAnnArbor said:
Whatever you do, do NOT wait until you go to the resort to look at the restaurants to decide what you want. If you go at peak, you will find that the restaurant reservations are already booked for the entire day, in fact many are booked months in advance. If you are not sure, get one of the books at your local store like the Birnbaums' official guide, or the Unofficial Guide, or the Passporter. Look through the restaurant sections - decide which parks you will be in each day - and make your reservations now.

Agreed. We just booked ours for our first week of may trip and half the places we wanted were already booked up for the times we wanted... book now and you can always cancel later... but it's not a good idea to leave it or you might be eating counter service every day! ;)
 

Kingdom Konsultant

WDWMAGIC Board Sponsor
Premium Member
WDWMAGIC Sponsor
Any character meals and dinner shows that you want to do, I strongly suggest that you make them ahead of time.

Some of the popular non character restaurants that I get for my clients are:
50's Prime Time
Le Cellier
Teppanyaki
O'hana
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Rainforest Cafe

I also agree that you should make a game plan with what park you will be at on what day and then make the dining arrangements accordingly. I also suggest that you check the calendar on the disney.go.com site to see what the park hours will be and the fireworks/illuminations times will be when they are released.

Good luck!

Pam
 

disneymoc

Active Member
Original Poster
We were sent the Birnbaum's book from a friend that works in media relations. As much as I would like to plan everything out (this is my 18th or 19th trip, I know what I'm getting into), we are going with a group of five people. Some older and some younger (all adults) and we like to take things day by day.

I know where we want to eat, the parks we want to go to and on what day. I simply have a hard time picking a time to eat on that day four months in advance. Some of us will be sleeping in causing us to eat lunch later in the day. So many factors.
 

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
:wave:

The only reservations we make beforehand are for the dinner shows. We usually sit down each evening and plan out the next day...ok, we're in MGM- where do you want to eat? Then we call and make the reservations for the next day. There are times that we have been leaving a park and decided we wanted a big dinner so we call and try to get reservations for some of our favorite places and we usually can find one on our list. Since we really only eat one big meal a day we don't have too much of a problem. We have used this system for years at all times of the year. As long as you are flexible it works.

As for Character meals, we usually call while we are there and make them for "sometime during our stay"...we really do't care when as long as it gets done. :lol:
 

jesserin

New Member
I just wanted to add to Tigsmom a little - we always did this as well in the past, however, since they added the new dining plan, you'll find that the restaurants are much harder to get into with last minute reservations... just something to keep in mind...
 

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
jesserin said:
I just wanted to add to Tigsmom a little - we always did this as well in the past, however, since they added the new dining plan, you'll find that the restaurants are much harder to get into with last minute reservations... just something to keep in mind...

The only problem we had this past August was times...sometimes we had to adjust our schedule, but we still got in to where we wanted. We even lucked into the Princess dinner at the Akershus one night, an ok time, but we won't be repeating it.
 

disneymoc

Active Member
Original Poster
jesserin said:
I just wanted to add to Tigsmom a little - we always did this as well in the past, however, since they added the new dining plan, you'll find that the restaurants are much harder to get into with last minute reservations... just something to keep in mind...

We too have had luck finding something in the past, but I was worried with the addition of the dining plan. I know they haven't announced discounts yet for mid-May but if it is the free dining plan again I know we'll have to make reservations.

We have ressies for Hoop De Doo. Character meals aren't a big deal for us.

Dad wants to eat at 50s prime time. I'll make ressies for that. Everything else is still up in the air. I want to be a bit flexible with things is all.
 

Yellow Shoes

Well-Known Member
disneymoc said:
I simply have a hard time picking a time to eat on that day four months in advance. Some of us will be sleeping in causing us to eat lunch later in the day. So many factors.


I hope for your sanity that everyone is pretty easy-going and this trip won't turn into a multi-day hissy fit.

I think I would sit them all down and have a serious discussion about the ADR situation. If everyone has a "must do" place or two, talk about what might work out best time-wise.

I would make reservations for the entire party, and cancel as necessary.

Remind everyone of tomorrow's plans: "Remember, everyone, we have lunch reservations at 12:30 at the Brown Derby. It will be a big meal, so if you sleep late, don't have too much breakfast."

If the whole advance thing doesn't agree with your travel style, then make sure everyone understands that you may have to eat early or late, and some places you might not get into at all. If that's OK with them, then you've done all you can.
 

alitressa

Member
I just booked my vacation for over Thanksgiving week today. I was told that we can make reservations upto 180 days (6 months) in advance. I will be sure to do that for Thanksgiving day. Any suggestions for a great place to have our Thanksgiving meal ?
 

Floridasunshine

New Member
I think for Thanksgiving I would go to Liberty Tree Tavern ..... that would seem appropriate to me. 'Course I have never been there so I don't know how the food would be.
 

kal1484

Well-Known Member
Going along with everyone, I would ask everyone in your party if they have a certain place that is a "must-do" if there aren't any, they don't worry about it. However if there is a must-do, make the reservations. If you miss it, it's okay, but this way no one is dissapointed if they don't get to eat there. Have fun!
 

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
Floridasunshine said:
I think for Thanksgiving I would go to Liberty Tree Tavern ..... that would seem appropriate to me. 'Course I have never been there so I don't know how the food would be.

For dinner it very nice! The characters are in Colonial garb and that add just a little something extra. If I'm not mistaken (and its quite possible) don't most of the restaurants have a traditional turkey dinner for the holiday?
 

disneymoc

Active Member
Original Poster
Yellow Shoes said:
I hope for your sanity that everyone is pretty easy-going and this trip won't turn into a multi-day hissy fit.

I don't think we'll have that problem. Everyone gets along and we are staying in a two-bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge. Everyone is happy just to be spending time together. Since I am the Disney expert of the family, I have been put in charge of planning. Call me the social director. :rolleyes:
 

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