Late Night Dining on Arrival Date

[Kate Alan]

Hey all. We're flying in this fall and arriving around 9:30pm at MCO, taking Magical Express transportation to POP. If we were looking to have a late night dinner in Disney Springs, do you think we'd make an 11:30pm reservation? I'm thinking it would be pretty tight, time wise. Normally I fly out first thing in the morning, so I don't have much experience with late arrivals.

 

[Belle_MTL]

That would be risky. You have to consider the possibility of flight delays, and then the time for the plane to taxi, the time to get off the plane and onto the Magic Express. The bus ride is around 30 minutes, and then there is check-in. I've never stayed at Pop so I'm not sure how long check-in would take, but at Fort Wilderness it could take 30 mins to an hour. Then there is travel time from the hotel to Disney Springs to consider. Then again, we always arrive around noon, so it might be more quiet late at night which would would speed up everything!

 

[Kate Alan]

That's exactly my concern. I'm not as worried about check-in (I'll probably do online check-in beforehand, and even if I didn't it wouldn't be the first time we got off the bus, tossed our luggage to be held at the service desk, and came back to do check-in later). But random plane or traffic delays of any kind could make it very, very tight.

Right now it's too far out to book through Open Table for the date we want, but once that opens up I'll likely switch our dining reservation from Disney's official site to them, so that we don't get penalized for being perceived as a no-show. That way we have the reservation and if we make it on time, great, but if not, no penalty and we can likely get our party seated once we arrive that late anyway.