Dining reservations- 101

[zarapipe]

What's your strategy?

Is it necessary to make all reservations 180 days out or character meals?

Do you try to plan your park days first?

Make them on mobile or online?

I'm so undecided. We will have 5 park days. Was thinking 3 at MK, 1 at Epcot and 1 at AK. I guess I need to figure out which days to do which parks.

[cbwm1]

I look at crowd calendars and determine what park we want to do on each day.

Then I go through and look at what restaurants sound interesting and send them to DH to look at.

We come up with our first, second, third priorities for must do restaurants.

I had him make his own MDE account and link it to our reservation.

I had a spreadsheet laid out for what reservations we wanted on each day. I took half the days, he took the other half, and we were able to get pretty much everything we wanted.

[lala]

I use crowd calendars to plan my park days first. Then make dining reservations after - so I have my days set before the 180 day mark. I usually make them online but have called in when I have an issue or need to change something.

I usually have an idea of where I want to eat on my trip even before we definitely know about the days.

[wesleycrusher]

Like PPs, I plan my days first using crowd calendars. We decide where we want to eat- usually pretty easy since we've been enough that we know where we like and what the kids like. I use allears.net to check the menus, too, if we're looking to try somewhere new. I also like to have a time in mind- for example, timing it right to eat at Ohana and then watch the MVMCP fireworks from the poly beach (TBD now). Or we made our TS ressie for lunch on our AK day since we don't know when the park will be closing or nighttime show times.

And I try to put the most popular restaurants farther into our stay so there's more availability- like BOG or CRT I would plan towards the end of our trip. I've always booked online right at 6 am 180 days before.

[ilikedonuts]

I plan park days based on the crowd calendars except we always start at MK even if it's the park that is not recommended that day. I book everything at 180 and then tweak them for the next 179 days lol

[curbsideprophet]

I use the crowd calendars to plan my park days.

I would be prepared to book at 180 and adjust as needed. For our most recent trip I booked after 180 and I have pretty much ended up with everything I wanted.

I would decide what your top priority meals are and try to put them later in your trip if they are popular meals. I would try to book those ones first.

[chicago]

I did what everyone else here is recommending - looked at crowd calendar, figured out where we'd be (with some room for flexibility bc we get park hoppers), and then booked at 180 days. We got everything we wanted easily (didn't try to get Cinderella's Royal Table though).

One thing we learned the hard way is that reservations are necessary. One night we decided to change our plans and we wanted to do dinner at Kona Cafe at the Poly. We went at 5pm (early!) and were turned away because they were entirely booked out with reservations. I would have expected some tables for walk-ins.

[curbsideprophet]

Jun 21, 2016 9:05:24 GMT -5 chicago said:

I did what everyone else here is recommending - looked at crowd calendar, figured out where we'd be (with some room for flexibility bc we get park hoppers), and then booked at 180 days. We got everything we wanted easily (didn't try to get Cinderella's Royal Table though).

One thing we learned the hard way is that reservations are necessary. One night we decided to change our plans and we wanted to do dinner at Kona Cafe at the Poly. We went at 5pm (early!) and were turned away because they were entirely booked out with reservations. I would have expected some tables for walk-ins.

Did you check to see if there were any ressies available once you realized that is what you wanted to do? Obviously this is going to vary by restaurant and day/time, but same day ressies can be an option.

We decided to leave HS early and were able to make a same day lunch reservation for the GF cafe.

[chicago]

I did, but they were completely gone! I would have expected that for somewhere like O'hana, but I was surprised for Kona Cafe.

[jeaniebueller]

I would definitely do a character meal at MK since you will have a full 3 days there and it will be safe to burn up some of your time at the park. And TBH, I would just do one since they are expensive and sort of stressful (at least to me).

[chicago]

Jun 21, 2016 10:57:22 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

I would definitely do a character meal at MK since you will have a full 3 days there and it will be safe to burn up some of your time at the park. And TBH, I would just do one since they are expensive and sort of stressful (at least to me).

I agree with just doing one. I originally booked three - Tusker House, O'hana, and Crystal Palace. We liked Tusker House, but it was pricey and not worth the cost to us to do two more. We got plenty of meet and greet time with FastPasses. I've canceled the two others.

[zarapipe]

chicago, jeaniebueller, right now I have down Crystal Palace, Akershus and Tusker House on our list of wants.

Crystal palace just because of pre-park opening. I'd rather spend a bit more on that than BOG and have dd2 eat for free and eat a whole bunch and not have to worry about a big lunch.

Tusker House- because why not, not really set on this one though.

Akershus because of the princesses.

They are pricey.

[ilikedonuts]

I'm the GBCN Queen of character meals lol we do like 4-5 a trip. My kids love them and my husband eats a lot of food.

[lala]

We are usually 1 character dining per trip for various reasons. If we were going for more than 7 nights, I might do 2. The biggest reason is paying a lot more for sub par food. Yes, the character experiences can be great but I care about good food, too.

Anyway, we loved doing akershus at 8am, pre park. It was such great experience for us.

[cookiemdough]

Are the reservations cancel able since you pay up front?

[bronxgirl]

Jun 22, 2016 7:36:48 GMT -5 cookiemdough said:

Are the reservations cancel able since you pay up front?

I believe you have up to 24 hrs before to cancel, but it might be even more than that. The only meal you pay up front for is CRT. You can still cancel, though and they will refund your money.

[was5]

Jun 22, 2016 7:55:27 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Jun 22, 2016 7:36:48 GMT -5 cookiemdough said:

Are the reservations cancel able since you pay up front?

I believe you have up to 24 hrs before to cancel, but it might be even more than that. The only meal you pay up front for is CRT. You can still cancel, though and they will refund your money.

When we went to WDW in 2014 we had the Dining Plan. I still had to give a CC number to make the reservation. The email confirmation said "It will only be charged in the event that your party does not arrive as scheduled. To keep from being charged, please cancel your reservation within the allotted cancellation period. "

If you are paying out of pocket (no Dining Plan) I'm sure it works the same way. They just use the CC to guarantee the reservation then charge it for the amount you buy or for the no show fee.