Priority Seatings Necessary?

[Cinderellagrl]

Is it absolutely necessary to make PS arrangements? My trip is coming up very quickly. I'm very hesitant on making the dinner and lunch arrangements b/c I'm afraid we might be involved in something and then have to stop what we're doing. I'd rather just plan on eating whenever we decide we're hungry. However, I'm also afraid we might not be able to get into any restaurants if we don't have PS. I've never been to DW before. Any advice?

 

[maciec]

I guess it all depends on where you want to go. If it is a character meal absolutely. If it is a more popular place to eat absolutely. Case in point .... I have been trying now for the past 2 months to get a PS on Monday the 26th of October for Le Cellier for a party of 6 and I have had no luck. I try almost every day to see if there have been any cancellations.

Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Scratch42]

If there is someplace that you absolutely, positively want to eat then yes make that PS!

Otherwise, depending on crowds, you may end up eating Counter Service Only! Which isn't a bad thing but..........

Better to make then cancel.........

m2cw

Scratch

 

[daisy112878]

If you want to eat at certain places then yes you need PSs. I have seen many people get turned away at CRT (breakfast and dinner), O'hanas, and other places we have been at the world. We usually set up one PS per day. What we do is figure out which restaurants we really want to eat at and then go from there. We plan our park days around where our PSs is for the day. Usually we do PSs for dinner but CRT for breakfast is a must and Sci-fi at lunch is another to do for us.

 

[crisi]

How many of you are going? Two is often easier to squeeze in than six.

Will you be happy with counter service?

We had disasterous results with "we will just eat when we were hungry." When we were hungry, we were faced with long waits or no walk ins at all, and ended up with counter service. Didn't help that when we started to get hungry we were busy, so by the time we started looking for food, we needed to eat NOW! Disney counter service can be fine, but I wish I would have had a system before going into the parks with no ps's.

The system I wish I would have had.

1) Use a cell phone to call Disney Dining early in the day if you want to sit down for dinner somewhere.

2) Use allearsnet to scope out good counter service places that serve something other than a burger and chicken strips. When you are hungry now and have wasted time stopping by several sit down places hoping for a waitress, the tendancy is to stop at the next big counter service spot - the next one was almost always burgers and chicken fingers.

3) Eat early (like at four).

4) Eat before we get hungry.

 

[Cinderellagrl]

Thank you! Maybe I will make a few to be on the safe side!

 

[Cinderellagrl]

There are 6 of us going. I'm just not sure what is out of the way, what is not. The day we go to Magic Kingdom I was thinking about making lunch or dinner PS at the Trail's End in FW. Also, the day we go to Animal Kingdom (since it closes at 5 pm) I thought we'd go somewhere for dinner around 4 then head over to MK again. I was thinking about possibly having dinner at the Contemporary's Concourse Steakhouse. Is this all within a decent range or would it be too out of the way? I'm very overwhelmed when it comes to choosing the restaurants. DH & DD (5) are very, very picky eaters. DH loves steak, which is why I thought maybe we'd try the Concourse Steakhouse. My older daughter wants to eat at Rainforest Cafe, but I looked at the menu & I'm not sure DH & DD5 would find anything they like. I'm getting frazzled!

 

[Jen D]

Definitely make AND KEEP them for hot restaurants and character meals you really want. Then, I would have in my head a loose schedule for other meals and make a few ps for those as well, which you can cancel or skip as needed (I know some disagree with me here, but skipping a ps isn't a big deal like skipping a true ressie-- Disney's system is set-up for no-shows.) On our recent trip we had a few things we were going to do no matter what-- 'Ohana dinner and breakfast, California Grill, Boma-- all popular meals that we didn't want to miss. I also had a number of ps set up for dinners on the other nights so I would have something available if I needed it-- I knew we would be in Epcot on Thursday, so I reserved LeCellier, knew we'd be in MK on Tuesday so I reserved a dinner at a monorail resort. I ended up cancelling most of these as we ended up not being in the right place at the right time, and we ended up going to a number of places with either walk-in or waits of 10 minutes or less: Kona Cafe, Spoodles, Wolfgang Pucks (actually there was quite a long wait here but we were able to sit at bar with no wait.) Anyway, I would make some PS so you have plenty of options, but don't be afraid to be spontaneous and try doing walk-in when the need arises.

At certain times of year, walk-in can be a lost cause-- it was fine for us late September but not so great when we went President's Week. Mid-November shouldn't be too bad, but you never know.

 

[Grumpy92]

The General PS Rule of thumb is the following:

Unless your visit falls into one of the following catagories you can usually get away with not making a PS.

1. You want to do a character meal. These are usually reserved well in advance.

2. You are visiting during a holiday. Make PS at the 90 day mark in particular xmas, thanks & NYE.

3. You want to visit one of the popular restaurants.
Cal Grill, Narcoossees, Ohana, WC, Le Cellier, Sci Fi, 50s PT

 

[funkyjohn]

Making priority seatings is fairly simple, do it. The alternative is waiting in long lines or not being able to be seated at all. You may find yourself wandering from restaurant to restaurant looking for food.

Sure, counter service is an option, but these get pretty crowded too. Often you'll get into a CS line that is 15 people deep. This is deceptive since many people will be ordering for an entire family.

PS will help you avoid waits & frustration plus you will eat where and when you want to eat.