Hi everyone,
Received an email to day for our upcoming trip (12 days to go!) about meal reservations. I see everyone recommending bookings for the fancier restaurants, but on a standard meal plan is this really necessary? The only options are Agrabah, Plaza Gardens, Restaurant Des Stars, Billy Bob's plus hotels.
What are people's experiences of walk-ins at these buffets for dinner, and is is it normal to book a table in advance at these places? Although I suppose it is also dependent on time of year/day of week, etc.
We have found that all eateries much busier than usual when free food offers are on. Best to book if you want to eat at a particular time. We have seen people turned away at Billy Bobs and Plaza Gardens without a reservation being fully booked for consecutive days...that was mid week out of season. All the buffets are pretty good and we have managed well with them. Great for picky eaters or teenagers with hollow legs! I would phone and reserve ASAP as restaurant bookings open 30 days beforehand so will already be filling up. Book at least one place per day, you can always look at other options when you are there if you are willing to queue and wait.
If you don't manage to book a time for the buffet restaurants, then I would suggest trying to turn up as close to the restaurant's opening time as possible.
We seem to have gotten into a good routine of eating breakfast and lunch early so that we're ready for dinner while its still relatively quiet.
Thanks both of you for your replies, need to sit down and figure out a rough itinerary and get things booked up.
As we've got 4 nights I think we'll do a whirlwind tour around Agrabah Cafe, Plaza Gardens, Billy Bob's and either of the hotels.
We've just booked our meals, we rang late (10:15pm) & got through straight away. We've booked around 6:30pm so can still enjoy some time in the parks afterwards. We've booked plaza, Billy Bob's, parkside diner & sequoia. Our next trip in April will prob include plaza, Cheyenne, Santa Fe.
I have been to the park last week and was on a plus plan. I also went to some buffets (Plaza Garden, New Port Bay and Lodge).
My favorite was the Plaza Garden, it offered the biggest choice and i had free softdrink refill with the plus plan, second would be New Port Bay because they had a little bit more fish than the others especially the fish soup was quite good and they offered fresh made crepes. Lodge on the other hand was not so great.
I personally would only considering revisiting the Plaza Garden and next time I will definitely go the one in the Disneyland Hotel again. It may cost twice as much but price-performance ratio is much better in my opinion.