|
On your Disney World
visits do you make Priority Seating (PS) requests for one
or more Disney restaurants before your trip? If so, is
there a restaurant or restaurants you always get a PS for?
What time do you like to eat at that restaurant? Any tips
for making PS reservations to get the restaurant and dining
time that you want?
Answers posted to the list:
-----
We always make a number of PS
requests and we always do so as many days out as we are
allowed. If we are staying a week, we may call seven days
in a row, 60 or 90 days out, whatever the current allowance
has been. Boma and the Cape May Cafe are always on the
list; The Crystal Palace for brunch and the San Angel Inn
are almost always on the list. Other than hose, we
move around among a variety of restaurants. We usually eat
breakfast late and dinner early, taking a lunch snack by
the pool. Calling on the first possible day has always
gotten us what we wanted.
Bob
-----
We usually only make dinner
PS, lunches we play by ear wherever we are. This upcoming
trip we only have two dinner PS and tickets for gospel
brunch at house of blues.
Both dinner PS are repeats, one is for 'Ohana (we go here
EVERY trip), and the other is for Boatwrights at Port
Orleans (went here Jan 2003 and enjoyed it so going back)
Mike
-----
My wife and I make our annual
trips in January so we normally only make one or two PS
when we go and play the rest by the seat of our pants.
The one guaranteed PS we make is for Le Cellier. For me it
is a close toss up between Le Cellier, Yachtsmen or Shula's
for the best steak but the atmosphere of Le Cellier always
takes them over the top. It also helps our choice to go
there as my wife is a Canadian who lives in South Carolina
so it gives her a little taste of home.
-----
We've only made PS in advance
once, and that was on our very first trip to WDW for
Hoop-Dee-Doo. Since then, we've never been disappointed by
either just walking in or at most making PS earlier on the
same day. We never know in advance which park we'll be in,
so flying by the seat of our pants works fine for us;
obviously we're not looking to have breakfast at CRT :).
Kim
-----
Now that we are frequent
visitors we wing it on most trips making our Priority
Seating the day of or day before. We usually have a late
lunch or a late dinner (I ask for the latest steating
available for the lunch or dinner we are having.
Our Only Advance seatings are for Hop Dee Doo and
Candelight Dinner Packages, we also make thewm in advance
for the Halloween & Christmas Parties.
Our Favorites that we ususally visit every trip are Japan
Tepanyaki Dining, Le Celliar at Canada and Plaza Restaurant
at the MK.
Dennis
-----
We make priority seating
arrangements for one meal for each day we'll be at WDW--that
way we're not rushing around after lunch at one to get to
dinner at another. ALWAYS lunch at Brown Derby one day,
breakfast or lunch at Crystal Palace another day, breakfast
at Cinderella Castle one day and, since our last trip we
will ALWAYS do Boma for dinner one night. The rest of the
time we "graze," or grab something at a spot that's not so
busy. Our priority seating arrangements are usually during
"off" hours. For instance, lunch would be for around 2:00
instead of closer to noon, etc. If you intend to do
Cinderella Castle, however, of course you have to book WAY
in advance in most cases.
Kathy
-----
Our last strategy was to study
the Menus from Around the World available
at wdwig, really concentrating on cost vs. food/experience
value. The result
was we discovered two very favorite things : afternoon tea
and Italy's
appetizers late in the evening. Others like Cape May's
'Kitchen Sink Sundae' and the
single malt scotches at the Boardwalk Inn lounge, we
haven't got the timing
down for, yet...The offerings are so vast...originally, I
was just on the hunt
for the breakfast pizza I remembered from the 80's. The
upcoming International
Food and Wine Festival is also on our next to-do list.
Steve&Carolyn
-----
We make about 5 or more PS
when we go down. Usaully they are all at Epccot for around
6:45 - 7:15 pm.
Scott
-----
We usually only do one or two
PS seatings. It all depends on the place we
are going and who is going with us. Hubs and I just tend to
play things by ear
and make one at an EPCOT establishment. If I am going with
my sister and her
family we usually make one for lunch at one of the parks.
The kids are
pickier than the adults usually.
-----
Next month will be my 4th trip
to WDW since May 2000 (my first offical trip, dont count
one quick one day trip with former employers back in Dec of
82, 2 months after Epcot opened, yes thats where we went,
but I digress). Even though I am a single Disney visitor, I
did make a PS my first trip, at Primetime 50's Cafe. My
second trip (Dec 2002), I didnt do any PS, but didnt need
one for Le Celliar, went for lunch, midweek, and got there
at a good time. I did do a quick trip this past Memorial
Weekend, mainly to meet up with friends who were attending
a small convention at Coronado Springs, and since they live
in Calif and I in Ohio, dont get many chances to get
together. So no PS that time either. But this next trip
(9/19 - 9/27), I have 3 PS's. One is for Sunday, 9/19 for
the 5pm Hoop Dee Doo show, one for Tues 9/21 for lunch at
Primetime 50's, and one for 9/23 (my birthday) for dinner
at Sci Fi Theater. I do still plan on going to Le Celliar
again for lunch, cause they have awesome bread sticks.
Mel
-----
We always schedule a lunch at
Liberty Tree Tavern. We love lunch there. And we always try
to get a late lunch at the Plaza Restaurant. I love
breakfast at Boatwrights for their Eggs Benedict.
Plus we usually try to get breakfast at Cinderella's
Castle. Most all of the time we get one breakfast seating.
For the castle at breakfast we tell them how many and any
time.
Deborah
-----
Weird! Just today I made our
P.S. for O'Hana's! I just got on-line a few minutes ago and
here's your question of the week! Things like this have
been happening to me this past week or two, including some
dreams coming true the very next day. I've been that way
since a kid, but everytime I go through a time period like
this I can't believe it. Jean Dixon, I am not, but all the
same! Today I got our P.S. for O'Hana's for the Friday,
next day after Thanksgiving. We are skipping our official
Thanksgiving dinner and just eating whatever at one of the
parks or something. Our oldest son is coming down to join
us Thanksgiving night, so we are going to celebrate the
next night, and we all like it at O'Hana's. In the past,
however, I have called from home to make P.S arrangements
at Liberty Tree Tavern for Thanksgiving, and Cinderella's
Castle for Christmas Dinner. Last year I made P.S. for the
Garden Grill to celebrate our daughters 14th birthday.
Usually, I make them right from Old Key West or wherever we
are, usually for the same day or the very next day. We just
wing it usually, and have pretty good luck with that so
far. I only make arrangements for dinner, never lunch. I
would say if you really, really want that particular
restaurant and time, you need to call far in advance just
for peace of mind. I know that for a place like Victoria
and Albert's, it's even a whole different story on the
disney dining line. And our kids are too old for character
breakfast or dinners so no need to call for those. We just
hit places where the characters walk around anyway just for
the atomosphere. I felt today that O'Hana's would have
taken us even if I didn't call ahead, but since it's that
weekend following Thanksgiving, you just can't be too sure!
Kathy
-----
I usually eat one main meal
each day when I'm down at WDW. And since
I usually go in the off season I don't really have too much
trouble
getting last minute PSs. I will make PSs for the more
popular and of
course some of my favorites - Le Cellier and Boma are two
of them. I
like to try different restaurtants when I'm there. I
usually have
some kind of fruit and tea for breakfast in my room (not
much of a
breakfast eater) and then I may have a snack late morning
or early
afternoon depending on what time my PS is. I try to book
the latest
possible lunchtime PS that is possible since it is cheaper
to eat at
lunch than the later dinner times. And then in the evening,
I'll have
another snack and maybe some more fruit or something
similar when I
get back to my room for the evening.
Pam
-----
I do make priority seatings
for each trip at certain favorite restaurants. We always
arrange: Boma, 'Ohana, LeCellier, Tony's for lunch, and
California Grill---these are our must do's. We love the
food choices at WDW and really look forward to this part of
our trip each and every time!
TJ
-----
We always make a detailed plan
in advance with PS for all the sitdown restaurants.
Chefs de France is always a must: once for lunch and once
for dinner.
Palio used to me a must for each trip but on our last trip
everything had changed – we won’t be going back.
For all the rest we try to hit new places we haven’t been
before. Last time we hit Boma and Jiko.
We also try to alternate the rest of the restaurants on
each trip, for example switching between Brown Derby, 50’s
Prime Time Café and Sci Fi Dine In Theatre at MGM, and so
forth.
Bryan
-----
I try to determine if I am
going to go to Fantasmic when I go to WDW, if so, I will
get priority seating well in advance, as I hate waiting in
the dreadful line waiting for that great show.
That has always been a factor, as of my I will now make
sure that I get priority seating for Chef Mickey, the
ambiance is something a Diznut such as myself will always
make arrangements.
I always make plans to eat BEFORE I know I will be hungry,
so that I do not overeat, especially at buffets,
I also allow my self early enough seating so that I can get
back to the parks, if I so desire
ed
-----
We try to have maybe two
Priority Seatings. Sometimes we make extras while
there. I have to have too many appointments/schedules since
we never know
where we will be. We usually like to eat 5:30 - 6 pm unless
we have a late lunch.
Anne
|