Originally Posted By danyoung >Dining at Disney is ridiculous so we choose not to eat there anymore.< Well, one bad meal doesn't make for totally bad dining at Disney. I'm not wild about what the dining plan has done to Disney restaurants. But there are still many fine places to get a meal. Sci Fi has never been on the fine list, anyway - it's more about the atmosphere. Still, they should have done better.
Originally Posted By PoorNanna Yea, well when we have to hunt for a meal at the parks you would much rather us just eat off grounds. We all get cranky when we get hungry! We choose to eat off grounds where we don't have to wait and hunt for a meal for the sake of everyone.
Originally Posted By danyoung Yeah, spontaneous dining simply isn't an option any more on Disney World property. I've had great success as long as I do things within their requirements - calling right at 180 days out and booking for the entire trip.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt We went in May/June & felt held hostage by our Dining reservations... How do you know 6 month ahead of time what/where you want to eat!!
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle Yeah, don't even get me started on the 180 days thing. As I said in my last post, on my last November trip I didn't even know I was GOING until September, let alone what I wanted to eat on a given day - and that's coming from Australia! I can only assume there'd be a lot of much more local people who decide at the "last minute" to go, as well.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 Disney figures the majority of their on-property guests are beginning to plan their vaction 10-12 months out, so asking them to make dining reservation 6 months out isn't much of a stretch. But heres a tip, make reservations to multiple restaurants on the same day varying in taste and budget, and the day of, just cancel what you don't want.you no longer have to put a credit card down on most places.
Originally Posted By dshyates "But heres a tip, make reservations to multiple restaurants on the same day varying in taste and budget, and the day of, just cancel what you don't want." I'm assuming that this practice is one reason why everything is booked. And without a Credit Card, why cancel. Just don't show up.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle That, to me, is the problem with the system. Surely Disney knows people are doing that, and it would be better to start reservations at, say, 3 months out and have the majority of people only book the places they actually end up eating at rather than having lots of cancellations? Obviously the system's working for them and they're not going to change it, 6 months just seems a little extreme to me.
Originally Posted By Elderp I bet it would change if Disney required like a $5 commitement charge for each reservation.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 gee, i was just trying to give a tip to be honest with you, I have never had a problem getting a res even a couple weeks out.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle My comments really weren't directed at you, just the fact that I think Disney's system is flawed!
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 no prob, its actually kind of funny, my girlfriends family was in town last week for night of joy, so I made reservations at cape may, and 50's prime time a week prior and I made California grill 3 months prior. Her dad was telling me that I was crazy, that you could just walk into any restaurant whenever you wanted and get a table with little or no wait. It made for some amusing dinner conversations!
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 by the way, I put a post about this a couple of days ago. Starting in November you will be able to go online 24 hours a day a make reservations without having to deal with the phone. It should make getting reservations easier when you can just check whenever you want.
Originally Posted By jnemo Well I think I will jump in here also. DH and I will be at WDW in the same time period. Because we do not want to be tied to reservations, we are not going to make any. I am nervous about this, but we are light eaters and will either eat earlier or wait when we can. I just can not plan this far ahead of time even where we plan to go each day, let alone what we want to eat.
Originally Posted By PoorNanna Just to add to the person that said to just make a bunch of reservations and cancel: When we were waiting at Sci Fi Diner, there were many people not showing up, but instead of giving those tables to walkups, they would give those tables to the next reservation. And then another time last year at the Garden Grill, we had made reservations and checked in 15 before like they suggest and they still said that it would be a 45 minute wait because they had overbook and everyone decided to show up. The system is VERY flawed. Especially when people take advantage of the system.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 jnemo, depending on the dates you are going, try making you res's two weeks prior. Worst case scenario there are a lot of great quick service places other than chicken fingers and burgers. Columbia Harbor House, yum yum.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 GEESH! POORNANNA, just giving friendly advice to a bunch of people that were complaining about not getting reservations.
