Calling for PS while in the park....

[DISchick]

Have you ever done this? A few times my husband and have tried to walk up to a restaurant without a PS and have been given a long wait or told that there were no tables. We've found that if we walk away, use our cell phone and call Disney Dining, lo and behold, we can get a PS 9 times out of 10 with little to no wait.
It's a neat trick! Have you tried it? Why do you think it works?

Just wondering!
Jill

 

[shellybaxter]

Not sure why it works. DH and I were in the world for a week last November. I had every day planned with PS, but we changed our minds a few times. I usually called dining from a pay phone in the park (it was free - I think I dialed *88). Most times we got exactly what we wanted, maybe not the exact time, but we never cared that much. We called on Saturday afternoon once and wanted to eat in MK for dinner that night. That was kind of tough - CP, LTT, Tonys, CRT/all booked - but the dining person suggested Plaza Resturant and it was good.

Shelly

 

[tar heel]

You can also just go to guest services at any park. They will help you with reservations at that park, other parks and resorts.

 

[travellady]

We made a PS for Concourse Steakhouse last week at the last minute. i called from my room in the CR and was able to get a PS for an hour later. This didn't work for Chef Mickeys though .

We found the PS's we made prior to our trip didn't work out well for us- we had planned on Ohana for Easter dinner that Sunday evening but found we weren't hungry at all at that time so opted not to go. We had eaten earlier at Tusker House and that filled us for the day; ended up with a light snack that evening instead.

Last Thursday we had a PS for Akerhus at Epcot for 7M. But, we were ready for a bigger meal at about 3 so walked up and got right in. Actually had the cheaper lunch menu and i liked those selections better anyway.

Not sure if we'll bother with any PS next December- we found we are too spur of the moment and found more than enough good food to eat last week despite it being Spring break.

 

[Crazy Hakim]

:: blushing ::

Yes, I have done this too. In fact, we were standing in line at San Angel Inn (Epcot, Mexico), while in line I called WDW DINE and made the next available PS for lunch.......
When I got to the podium, I asked the seater to refresh the screen, and lo and behold there was my PS, just minutes away.
I got a much shorter quoted wait time than those without.

 

[MicheleC]

I have also had good experiences with calling for priority
seatings while in the park or from my room. On our last trip
we had several priority seatings that just didn't work out
for us so we would call in the afternoon and get a different
priority seating and usually we could get what we wanted.
We had a couple of seatings in Epcot that were too early because
we spent more hours at the parks that day than we had
planned so we called and got a later seating that we could
make it to from the Boardwalk. I only found certain places
hard to get...Cindy's of course and Chef Mickey's. We even
cancelled the Princess Storybook bkfst and the Cinderella's
Gala Feast while we were there so I'm sure someone was glad
to pick up those ressies!!