Dining Reservations

[teacat]

Hi, I'm going to Disney World this October and usually I don't even budget for the table service but since I will be for the first time this year, I'm not really sure how crucial making a reservation is. If I don't make reservations for the table service restaurants, will I be able to eat there when I go? I would rather not do reservations if possible. Some of the restaurants I plan to go to are Rainforest Cafe in the Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Dining, Sci-Fi dine in Theater and the Planet Observatory in Disney Springs.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for the advice

 

[RoyWalley]

Hi, I'm going to Disney World this October and usually I don't even budget for the table service but since I will be for the first time this year, I'm not really sure how crucial making a reservation is. If I don't make reservations for the table service restaurants, will I be able to eat there when I go? I would rather not do reservations if possible. Some of the restaurants I plan to go to are Rainforest Cafe in the Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Dining, Sci-Fi dine in Theater and the Planet Observatory in Disney Springs.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for the advice

Hi,
Are these all dinners or are any lunches, how many in your party?
I can respond to a couple of these for you, The Rainforest cafe at AK, you will need a reservation if going for dinner, unless you want to eat extremely late 9-10. Lunch you may be able to walk in if you go early around 11-11:30am or go after 2:30-4pm. If you're by yourself you can pretty much sit at the bar and eat and not wait.
Sci-Fi you will definitely need a reservation, lunch or dinner. At Planet Hollywood we went without a reservation around 5pm last July and got seated right away. Don't wait till 6pm or so as it starts to fill up. Lunch you can get a seat no problem.
Hope this helps, have a great time.

 

[LeighM]

Most of the places you listed, you can find a last minute reservation more easily so you don't have to make them at 180 days out. Rainforest Cafe you can call directly to get reservations if none show up on Disney website because they are not Disney owned. But since you're going in October, I would definitely get reservations for the places you want to go to because the crowds have been busy the last two times we went because of the free dining promotions (not sure of this years dates), Food and Wine Festival, and the Halloween parties. There are some restaurants that are hard to get at 180 for the popular dining times such as Be Our Guest, Beaches and Cream, 'Ohana, etc. It really depends on the restaurant and time of day.

 

[teacat]

Hi,
Are these all dinners or are any lunches, how many in your party?
I can respond to a couple of these for you, The Rainforest cafe at AK, you will need a reservation if going for dinner, unless you want to eat extremely late 9-10. Lunch you may be able to walk in if you go early around 11-11:30am or go after 2:30-4pm. If you're by yourself you can pretty much sit at the bar and eat and not wait.
Sci-Fi you will definitely need a reservation, lunch or dinner. At Planet Hollywood we went without a reservation around 5pm last July and got seated right away. Don't wait till 6pm or so as it starts to fill up. Lunch you can get a seat no problem.
Hope this helps, have a great time.

Thanks, We have 3 in our party and we were looking to go around dinner for most of them. So you would recommend getting a reservation for Sci-Fi and Rainforest? If you go without reservations, will they allow you to just wait to be seated or do you have to have a reservation to dine?

 

[teacat]

Most of the places you listed, you can find a last minute reservation more easily so you don't have to make them at 180 days out. Rainforest Cafe you can call directly to get reservations if none show up on Disney website because they are not Disney owned. But since you're going in October, I would definitely get reservations for the places you want to go to because the crowds have been busy the last two times we went because of the free dining promotions (not sure of this years dates), Food and Wine Festival, and the Halloween parties. There are some restaurants that are hard to get at 180 for the popular dining times such as Be Our Guest, Beaches and Cream, 'Ohana, etc. It really depends on the restaurant and time of day.

So do you think it's easier to get reservations closer to the actual date or far out? Because we didn't want them to conflict with the fast passes that we can make 60 days out, so we wanted to wait till we can schedule our fast pass but didn't want all the reservations to fill up by the.

 

[Epcotfan21]

So do you think it's easier to get reservations closer to the actual date or far out? Because we didn't want them to conflict with the fast passes that we can make 60 days out, so we wanted to wait till we can schedule our fast pass but didn't want all the reservations to fill up by the.

If you want to wait closer, use the reservation finder on touring plans if you're still unable to find a reservation directly thru the Disney site. It's an amazing tool and totally free. It will notify you via text or email when a reservation for a particular restaurant at the time you want for your party size and then it will be your responsibility to book the reservation on the Disney site.

If you still wanted to walk up to those restaurants the day of, the hosts can and will definitely inform you they have no anticipated or open availability for the rest of the evening. I think you're better off booking the reservations you want as opposed to pressing your luck. Especially for popular restaurants such as the ones you're wanting to go to.

 

[teacat]

If you want to wait closer, use the reservation finder on touring plans if you're still unable to find a reservation directly thru the Disney site. It's an amazing tool and totally free. It will notify you via text or email when a reservation for a particular restaurant at the time you want for your party size and then it will be your responsibility to book the reservation on the Disney site.

If you still wanted to walk up to those restaurants the day of, the hosts can and will definitely inform you they have no anticipated or open availability for the rest of the evening. I think you're better off booking the reservations you want as opposed to pressing your luck. Especially for popular restaurants such as the ones you're wanting to go to.

Thanks for the input, that's the answer I was kind of looking for. I checked out the reservation finder and I got the last one open for dinner at SciFi the week of my trip so thank you for the advice!

 

[RoyWalley]

Thanks, We have 3 in our party and we were looking to go around dinner for most of them. So you would recommend getting a reservation for Sci-Fi and Rainforest? If you go without reservations, will they allow you to just wait to be seated or do you have to have a reservation to dine?

Sci-Fi I would definitely do a reservation, Rainforest you can walk up but you might have to wait a little while; just depends on your time you go.
Rainforest is a pretty big place, while SciFi is a smaller venue. Yes you can wait around the restaurants, they will let you.

 

[dreamfinder]

Sci-Fi will book up pretty fast. In park dining at DHS is pretty limited, so tends to book quickly.

While most Disney O/O dining will in theory accept wait-lists & walkups, they tend to staff according to ADRs. So if they aren't full with ADRs, then they won't staff to serve all the tables. So a walkup will usually be a long shot and have a long wait. The 3rd party dining doesn't necessarily hold to that practice, so you have better luck with those options.

 

[LeighM]

So do you think it's easier to get reservations closer to the actual date or far out? Because we didn't want them to conflict with the fast passes that we can make 60 days out, so we wanted to wait till we can schedule our fast pass but didn't want all the reservations to fill up by the.

I see that others answered your question. I always make my "must do" dining reservations at the 180 day mark (such as early dinner at Ohana or Sanaa) and then schedule our FP around the dining. In 4 trips with FP+, I've never had an issue doing that. In March, I was flexible with our day at Animal Kingdom park and did not schedule any table service meals because I didn't know when/if I could get a FP for Flight of Passage. Which was totally fine because there are plenty of great quick service locations in the park. If you schedule FP as soon as they open, you typically have a really good selection. Of course, that also depends on the time of year you visit and the crowd levels.

 

[Dave B]

Definitely make reservations, it doesn't hurt at all and you can CANCEL up to 24 hours prior, if you decide you don't want to eat there or the time doesn't fit