I'm just wondering how essential it is to make reservations. We won't be doing any character dining, I think it will mainly be buffets.
Excluding character meals, which restaurants is it important to book in advance?
Depends when you are going. Height of the summer, book ASAP. People were being turned away at Concierge last week 24 hours before they wanted to dine at a certain restaurant.
We'll be going first week in June next year.
You can use the phone in hotel room to book, so I would do that as soon after arrival as possible.
So the buffets won't be booked up already?
June tends to be a lot quieter than July and August, especially the first week in June. The buffet restaurants in the parks are able to hold a large capacity of people compared to the one's in the hotels for example. I would go to the Concierge desk on your arrival and book all your meals in one go, they will be able to tell you if your restaurant of choice is open and what availability they have that fits with your needs. If they do get full a good tip is to book an odd time slot. So for example if you want to eat at 6pm but it's full ask for 6:10pm instead as you're more likely to get a reservation than if you ask for 6:15 or 6:30.
After checking in the first thing I do next is head to Concierge with a list of everywhere I want to eat and a rough idea of the time. Hotel buffets tend to require a reservation more so than park buffets now that the meal vouchers are in use as I've noticed a lot of people tend to use the hotel buffets for convenience. When I went September last year to the Sequoia Lodge I ate at 6pm after making a reservation but people were being turned away from the restaurant later who just turned up even though the restaurant was only half full. The hostess advised you had to have a reservation to eat there!
To be on the safe side, as buffet restaurants offer good value for money, I would book all buffet meals in advance. If not 60 days in advance definitely when you check into the hotel.
That makes sense, thanks.