Last Minute Dining in 2021--Can I Survive with no ADRs?

Started planning the whole thing inside the ADR window, so of course, the ADRs are gone. It’s just me and a 5 yr old–I’m thinking this could be something beautiful, if I can embrace flexibility and “float like a butterfly, drink like a bee!”

I’d especially love the wisdom and experience of people who have visited since the pandemic, and know which QS are open and which are not. I have been reading alot of trip reports and food reviews that the food is very hit or miss right now. Any suggestions on which QS and even which menu item is SO welcome.

I’ve also seen that an actual space to sit and eat is a premium–any tips and tricks are welcome for that too!!

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Where are you staying? Might help with planning.

I’ll say I would go to Geyser Point at Wilderness lodge. Haven’t been but don’t need an ADR and gets good reviews!

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Thanks! The stay is still up in the air–I’m watching @JJT’s post on Hotwire deals and searching those.

The backup plan is the Wyndham Grand. But I’m hoping to get into Pop or ASM, or even Coronado or CB if the price on those goes down.

I can take the ferry to WL from MK, right?

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Use your filter in the MDE app map for dinning and you can see what’s available for ADR, MO, To Go. Know that the menu isn’t the same as when you actually click to order food. So if you want to see what you can order you actually have to choose a time and pretend ;). From reporting it looks like they’ve beefed up pickup windows but generally I place my MO lunch as soon as I’m in the park in the morning so I have more choices for times. QS is what it normally is… so-so. We only eat outdoors still so that limits where we eat, but its nice to head to a QS at a resort for a park break in the afternoon too. If you are going to do a walk up… like Sleepy Hollow… pick an off time for meals; we’ve had really good luck that way to avoid long lines.

Thanks! I’ve got my MDE up and ready. Like I said, there were quite a few bad reviews of places lately (or maybe I’m only in the grumpy disney groups?!) so I was hoping to narrow in on the good ones.

The tentative plan:

HS: Woody’s and Backlot or ABC
AK: Restaurantasaurus or Nomad
AK: I need help with Dinner–i personally hate Rainforest, my DS is allergic to rice and most of the Y&Y are rice dishes. any chance Mara opens up?
MK: There’s so many. Last year we did CP for Breakfast, PH for Lunch, PB’s for Dinner. Didn’t love PB. Any suggestions?

Olivia’s at Old Key West has ADR, walk-ups, and To Go options. Someone already mentioned Geiser Point at WL. GF Cafe is good. Three Bridges at CSR is a spot to consider too.

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Yes! Could be a nice break with a 5 year old!

I went back and read your edited picture with the advice on how to use the app to MO. Super helpful. Thank you!

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haha… sorry… I have to put in pic on my phone first if I want to use my keyboard at my desktop. I really hate writing on the worlds smallest keyboard aka my phone :wink:

One of my fav MO is Capt Hooks: Thai Coconut Meatballs YUM!

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Yes, anyone can use the Disney transportation to go to the hotels, whether to eat, shop, or just look around. No ADR required for use of Disney transportation.

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it has limited hours, breakfast and I think the early lunch hours, so check first

But for AK, I would do Flame Tree BBQ or Satuli Canteen. Both have terrific QS offerings, and both have MO

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Any good restaurants on the skyliner route from HS?

The QS at The Riviera is pretty good. Primo Piatto.

Also, if there’s an ADR you really want set up a res finder. And continually check MDE availability a day or two before. Stuff generally pops up then. And I can’t remember whose trip report it was but someone recently had success with walk-up waitlist availability the day of.

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Beaches and Cream

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The biggest problem I had post-pandemic (Aug 2020) was that the QS menus were limited and the food got very old, very quickly (carb, meat & basic flavors). I noticed QS seemed to have more options recently for spring planning. I think my family does best when we have one sit-down meal at least every other day. I’ve had good luck picking up last minute ADRs just by watching. In the last week, I’ve changed ADRs a dozen times due to things opening up. Res finder is a great option too. We also enjoy EP festival little kitchen foods.

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snacking around the world is fab, but we found our growing boys were not sated and needed more substantial food so skylined over to Rivera for ham sandwiches.

Just a heads up, it’s being reported on another forum that mobile ordering at The Wave and Contempo Cafe are currently restricted ONLY to guests at the Contemporary. It hasn’t been reported yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the message is popping up at the Poly and Grand (and maybe Wilderness Lodge and the Epcot area resorts) as well. Whether this is just for the Spring Break period or because they have studied trends and found that people were doing it to park at the resorts and cancelling the orders (or picking them up but not leaving) and it’s going to be an ongoing thing is yet to be seen. But I would definitely not count on being able to use the mobile order to park trick from any near-to-park (or even on Skyliner) resort.

It is kind of annoying that someone staying on property without a car wouldn’t be allowed to do so (say this summer when I’m at the Poly order from The Wave to take back to my room), but I get why they have to do it across-the-board.

The one thing I could think they could do is a la Outback or other places that do carry-out reserve two or three spaces that are like “10 minutes while picking up food ONLY”, but then you’d have a back-up of people waiting to go in to pick up their food.

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Sting

I’m not sure about this. If you check MO during the day they have plenty of times available. But I’ve only used it to eat, peek at resort gift shops and go. Rarely do I MO and go into parks after eating. One day I did a mobile order at the poly and actually took down my parking pass hanging in my window so they wouldn’t think I was trying to park for free and go into the parks; I had a preferred parking pass already. It was just after a denial and I was nervous. I can see their hesitation a breakfast hours.