Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Blueharvest....remember fear leads to anger....anger leads to hate....hate leads to the darkside. These are not personal comments, they are observations. jnemo, good luk, but I think your plans are risky if you want to dine in a tableservice. in Dec 2006, we had reservations for Ohana, a place we wanted to try for years. Well, my MIL wanted a late lunch in the MK becaue she was not feeling great and the kids flaked after. It was clear Ohana (a place we booked 170 days out) was not going to work. We were in the MK and I went to City Hall to cancel my reservation (they were thankful letting them know 2 hours in advance). We still had 4 days of vacation so I tried to rebook, nothing available except after 9pm each night! The cast member then warned me that all the TS in all the parks were fully booked. In the end we had to settle for breakfast at 7am in Boma on our last day (which was also how we started our vcation). I was very disappointed.
Originally Posted By danyoung >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!!< With all due respect to you, Happy Haunt, this is an argument that I somply don't understand. People plan ahead all the time at home. Everyone knows that Tuesday is meat loaf night, and Friday will be some form of fish (well, I don't regiment quite like that, but you get my drift). I'm not wild about the 180 days out thing, but not once have I approached my dining reservation at the California Grill or the Coral Reef or the Bistro de Paris and thought "hey, I'm not really in the mood for a tamarind bbq marinated beef filet - I wish I were eating somewhere else!" I'm always happy with my dining choices, and I just don't understand folks who have the need to poll their family in mid-afternoon to see what they want to eat that night. The main reason I don't like the 180 day thing is that I don't like to book my vacation that far out. My work varies in what I'm doing and how intense things will be, and planning a full 6 months out is really taking a risk. Also, I like to wait for AP rates to come out, usually 60 days or so out. But now I have to book at full rate at least 180 days out, book my dining right at 180 days, and then call and change to the AP rate when it's released. It's inconvenient for me to do it that way, but I'm still willing to go through the effort to ensure that I'll get the dining at the places and times of my choosing. >...make reservations to multiple restaurants on the same day varying in taste and budget...< blueharvest, you've gotten a bit of a heavy smackdown for this idea, which I'm sure wasn't intended. This has been discussed in depth over the past few years, and is generally viewed as a bad idea. It takes up a big chunk of the reservation inventory, more than a single family should be allowed to hold. And more often than not people do NOT call and cancel what they don't need, making the reservation and seating and walkin situation something of a nightmare. Don't feel bad about posting an idea, though - people will sure let you know if they like it or not!
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun When we make a reservation for TS at a park we like to go to that park that day, It just saves time with kids. But the daily weather can dictate which park we go to. (Rainy is OK for Epcot, not so good for DAK). That is problem we face making reservations so far out. The trips are planned, but which park which day is not. If we PH the morning park would be where we have a lunch reservation and the afternoon park would be where we have dinner. If we eat at a resort, we try to have that on our "day off". This is the main reason we don't do the DDP. The other reason is the price. While eating at nicer places is great, with our 2 boys the cost to go to WDW is enough. We aren't able to tack on the DDP or many TS, so we do one or 2 and CS the rest of our meals. I love that Disney has so many options for different families!!!
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt <<< I love that Disney has so many options for different families!!!>> YES!! danyoung, I'm on VACATION!! I like to go where the day takes me!! No appointment, no soccer practice, no Dining Reservations..if it smells good when I stroll by..I wanna eat there!! I wish Flame Tree BBQ had Air Cond...
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 And how do you know when you'll want to eat, being on vacation and at WDW especially, there are just too many variables. And the more people (extended families) to eat at one time just makes it almost impossible to please anyone. Next time, everybody for themself! We blew off Sci-Fi (after looking at the menu) but we kept the rest of our ressies.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt <<Next time, everybody for themself! >>> I think that's aimed at me!!! I just wanted to sit in the cars, it looked like fun..I'm laughing as I post ♥♥
Originally Posted By BoardWalkBelle I have found if you go to inteneded restaurant right at opening you can get in. this has worked for me. For example, if you want to have dinner at the Wave at the contemporary, go there , just show up without an adr(dont call for reservations for 5:30 becasue they will say there isnt anything available) before they start seating for dinner which is 5:30, you will be seated by 6:00 and you wont have any problem. Although if you dont want to eat that early, you will be out of luck.
Originally Posted By danyoung >danyoung, I'm on VACATION!! I like to go where the day takes me!!< I can sure understand that desire, but as you well know it's just not possible to do that with dining at a Disney resort. Sad, but true. >And how do you know when you'll want to eat...< I don't know about you, but I eat lunch at, oh, around lunch time. And then I have dinner at, umm, say dinner time! Seriously, I don't have a problem booking a dinner at 6:30pm, which gives me plenty of time to enjoy a nice meal and then get in position for that park's nightly festivities (IllumiNations/Wishes/Fantasmic!). True, there are times when I'm not really all that hungry. But dang it, I've waited SIX MONTHS for this reservation, and I'll be dipped if I'm not going to go in there, eat big, and enjoy myself!
Originally Posted By dshyates I usually only plan one big sitdown meal per trip, and it usually comes on a "down day" as in the one day we skip the parks. And that has opened my eyes at how many good restaurants have come to the Orlando Metro area since I left there in 1995. The last ime we were down our sitdown meal was at Roy's on Sand Lake Road. I had heard about Roy's of Hawaii from our discussions of Anaheim GardenWalk. It looked interesting and thought I would give it a try. I really enjoyed it.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 <<<But dang it, I've waited SIX MONTHS for this reservation, and I'll be dipped if I'm not going to go in there, eat big, and enjoy myself!>>> Totally agree with you there. But as much as I love to eat, at 65 I'm finding I can't eat as much or as often as I use to. So traveling with younger big eaters isn't easy. You'd think all the walking would make a difference, but maybe it's all the Coke I drink to keep hydrated that fills me up.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey We usually eat a sit down meal every other day, and only one per day. My family is similar to bobbelee - we just don't eat a whole heck of a lot. Mom and I are going to make our dining reservations for February by the end of this week. We just haven't had the time to talk about it with everything that's been going on.
Originally Posted By danyoung >I usually only plan one big sitdown meal per trip...< Wow - I do things totally differently. I don't eat out that much at home, and the World restaurants are a big part of my vacation. I'm eating big usually every night, and I try to have lunch at some place that I really enjoy, like Cosmic Ray's or the Flame Tree. As to the fine restaurants in the Orlando area, well, we have plenty of fine restaurants in the Dallas area as well. So for me it's not about eating at a nice restaurant - it's about eating at a nice DISNEY restaurant. For me that's an important difference, though I'm not really sure why.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I am totally with you here Dan. To me a good Disney restaurant is as important as an e-ticket or fireworks in the equation. I often build my vacation from the dining schedule, and rarely frequent the counter service options. This year at DLP is the first counter service burger I have had in years (but the prospect of a chilli burger on chibatta was too good to leave) A table service a day, sometime 2, is a key part of our Disney regime. I could not imagine just one in a vacation.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt DWB & danyoung, I see your points but, I barely weigh enough to give blood so I just can't eat that much. I do LOVE a good buffet!! Lots of seafood & fruit!! CHOW DOWN!!!!
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun I'd love to do more sit downs lunches and dinners, but if we did that we would not be able to go every year. And, like Happy Haunt, our family just doesn't eat that much. As it is we share 2 or 3 CS meals between the 4 of us.
Originally Posted By danyoung I didn't mean to imply that others were wrong because they don't do the sitdowns - it's just the way I do it. And sun-n-fun, you're right - it's pretty danged expensive to eat that way! But for me that's one of the major fun things about a Disney trip, so I just make sure I have enough money saved up to eat hearty!
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey The DDE (or Tables in Wonderland or whatever the ridiculous new name is - it will always be the DDE to me) can take some of the pain away from eating at the table service restaurants.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Different strokes. I rather go less frequently and then have table service (I find counter service a false economy personally. WIth time changes etc I find a ipm three course meal does me for the whole day (or breakfast and dinner). After travelling around the globe for 33 years of Disney experiene, I find be told off by a 1950's mom or dining around the globe, or semi fine dining with fireworks with desert are very high up the importance chain. Eating counter servie is not. But given that with my profession I spend a lot of times in hotels and restaurants, I want something special on vacation. I also recognise that people who eat at home and have their own bed everynight are happy in a value resort and eating counter. That is one of the nice things about WDW. They offer something for everyone. I just cannot stand it when Disney dumb things down to the common level (burgers in the Chefs de France anyone??!!).
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Oh, and what I really love about DIsney tableservice is that my children are welcome (whereas in many key city fine dining establishments they are not)
