Can you use a dining plan without making reservations?

[Burt]

I am booking a weeks reservations for Disney starting Sept 7. I am trying to figure out if I should get the dinning package. My question is that I don’t want to be tied down with advanced reservations, if I could get them, so what are my chances of finding sit down restaurants when I am in one of the parks. No Way, Maybe, sure if you eat off hours, or No problem.
The wife and I like to explore and don’t want to have to leave a park to go eat some place or stop to eat if we are not hungry.

 

[Brommy]

I was wondering the same thing. We are going at the end of September for two week, and although we have made 4 ADRs for places that we really want to eat at (California Grill during Wishes, Polynesia Aloha, Yachtsman), we don't want to be tied down to two weeks worth of ADRs. None of us are fussy eaters and we were hoping to ring the reservation line either the day before or the morning before we want to eat at a restaurant and hope for the best.

 

[Goofycanuck]

what are my chances of finding sit down restaurants when I am in one of the parks. No Way, Maybe, sure if you eat off hours, or No problem.

During prime dinner hours - No way
If you eat off hours - Maybe

During the free dining promo in September ADR's are the only way to go and your not even guaranteed of getting them.

 

[sueuk]

It will be hard to get walk ins; so instead of waiting till you're hungry - go to the concierge desk at your resort each a.m (or before you go to bed the night before) and they can make ADRs for you in whichever park you will be in (if there are vacancies or cancellations). Good luck.

 

[wdwmomof3]

With the free Dining that was offered for that time, I would say that you will most likely have a hard time finding a place to eat. You can always try, but don't be disappointed if it does not work out.

 

[Master Yoda]

There is no way that I would risk it during the month of September as the entire month is inside the free dining promotion. Signs like the one below are all to common during a free dining promotion. If you leave it to chance and just wing it you are really risking leaving several table service credits on the table as well as a ton of time if you just plan on going from restaurant to restaurant looking for walk up availability. I have been doing ADR's for several clients during September and even at 90 days + out availability was at times hard to come by. If you try day or even week of you will run into brick wall after brick wall.

 

[Burt]

Thank you for your comments, I thought that to be the case but an AAA travel agent said she did not think there would be a problem. I will not get the dinning, go with the cheaper hotel and if need be head out of the park late at night to eat.

 

[Monty]

DDP without ADRs during free dining would definately be an exercise in frustration.

There are a lot of CS venues that have reasonably good food and you can safely not starve while there. Table Service availability on site will be negligible. And, as you rightly point out, there are off site venues if you really want table service.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

If you're purchasing the DP then you want to be sure that you get a TS restaurant to eat at daily - book it or risk losing out.

If you're going when free dining is available then book your ADRs or again you chance on missing out due to everyone else booking

The days of walking into a TS restaurant without a reservation have virtually gone

 

[CatsMeow]

I would not risk it during free dining and/or busy seasons. And I totally understand not wanting to be tied down with reservations. But we are heading to WDW in a month and even though we are not on the dining plan, we did make some ADRs for places we really wanted to eat, i.e., a birthday lunch. We are otherwise okay with counter service because we've been to most of the restaurants at this point anyway and we will have a kitchen in our DVC unit and have ordered some items from Garden Grocer.

So think about making at least some ADRs; you can always cancel them if your plans change. And if you are considering any character meals, ADRs are the only way to go.

 

[Burt]

Thanks Again for the answers.
Made my reservations for my trip today, did it with Disney and while on they phone she indicated that the free dinning was a good way to go, when I told her I was afraid that I may not be able to get reservations she thought that I would be OK.
I decided to go with the responses here, got the cheaper hotel room and will use the money I saved to help off set cost of eating if I do find a TS to eat at while there.
I got the impression she wasn’t trying to sell me something, but she just thought it a good Idea. Could be wrong though

 

[flynnibus]

You could have always done ADRs BEFORE you booked your trip. You don't need a ticket/hotel to make ADRs. This way you could feel out what you could get before you bought tickets.

Either way, Disney allows you to make changes to your reservations pretty much without penalty so I don't understand the hesitation.

But to expect to get 'day of' or walk-ups during free dining season is pretty much futile. Unless you plan on saying 'where can I eat today' and they say completely random times at places you had not plan on visiting that day.