[sleeping beauty]

We are staying 6 night at GF and have only booked 2 AR's. My husand likes to be spontaneous, but I don't think this works at Disney (especially with 3 kids - 18 mo., 6, & 8). Should I plan out breakfast & dinner reservations and then be more flexible picking up something at the parks? Or can we really just decide once we are there and still get reservations for dinner between 5 & 6 pm?

What are the most difficult places to get dining reservations?

[DisneyTeacher]

It really depends when you go. We jsut go t back and I can't tell you how many times we heard the CMs tell unhappy people there were not taking walk ups or the wait for a table would be at least 2 hours.

If there are some places you really want to eat at make to ADR (PS) and if you change your mind you are not out anything if you cancel. My DS is a really good kid but waiting 2+ hours for a table would push him past his limit.

Character meals can be tough to get as a walk up. 'Ohana was a 2+ hour wait last week and I heard the CM at Sci-Fi tell someone that they were booked solid and that was at 11:30 am.

[Tinkerbelle67]

I only booked 2 ADR's for our 10 day stay in WDW this past July. You can be spontaneous as long as you can be flexible. I leaned toward early dining times and was able to eat everywhere we wanted. I didn't know what park we would be in on any given day so I only made the 2 ADR's because I didn't want to feel rushed or like we had to be someplace. We don't need a sit down dinner every night on vacation, my family was happy with grabbing some counter service food.
I agree with DisneyTeacher, if there is someplace in particular you want to dine then make the ADR's, especially for the character meals.

[palmickey]

I would make ADR's for charcter meals if your children would enjoy that only because some of them can be hard to get into.

[SDuncan]

I went January and never had prearranged seating and had no problem. I also ate around 5:00 before the main crowds arrived.

[BESUNNYSIDEUP]

We went last month and I also agree with Disneyteacher. If there is somewhere you really would like to eat at you will need to go ahead and get the ADR's. When we were checking in for our table at several places the CM's told others that they were booked up for the night. CRT said they did have a spot 3 days later for 9pm. I wouldn't rely on waiting till you get there for the popular spots. I would go ahead and get the ADR's for all the sit down meals that you already know you want. Good luck...it will be fun reguardless. Isn't Disney great!

[mickey]

My suggestion would be to go ahead and plan your ADRs now. With three little kids, the last thing you want to be doing is walking around looking for someplace to eat. When you get up in the morning, if it looks like that reservation is not going to work for you, call from your room and cancel, and make one where you are going to be.

If you are in a park without a reservation, walk up to Guest Services near the front of the park. They have access to all the restaurants in the park, and can see what is open and at what time. That will be much quicker than walking around the park.