Does anyone ever go to Disney without Priority Seating?

[oret]

This wil be our first trip ever to WDW. We will be 2 families for a total of 4 adults and 3 kids. Will be in WDW beginning of August.
How can you know when to make PS's if you don't even know yet which parks you'll be at on which days? I assume all you PS people have your itineraries finalized?
Would it be safe to wait to day of visit in the busy month of August?

 

[Pocah]

How can you know when to make PS's if you don't even know yet which parks you'll be at on which days?

That's what I don't like about PS's -- that they're too restrictive. You HAVE to eat at a certain place at a certain time. I usually do plan which park I'm going to each day, but I don't like the "eating time" restrictions. We usually go in May, but it's usually not too crowded, and we can usually get a table without a problem.

But this year I might be going over Memorial Day weekend. Would it be too busy then to not have PS's?

 

[Kaycee]

Whether to have PS's, and how many, depends on when you're going and what matters to you. We have to go during busy times due to the school calendar, and we hate waiting for things. On the other hand, we don't want to be tied to our itinerary with too many PS's. We've found that what works for us is making a few PS's for the places where we really want to eat, and then eating the rest of our meals at counter service. Our June trip is for 9 days, and we've made 4 PS's. We enjoy character breakfasts, so we have a PS for Donald's. We love Sci Fi, so we have a lunch PS there. We want to try 'Ohana this trip, so we have a dinner PS there. And we have never seen Fantasmic (like I said before, we hate waiting for things!) so we have a Fantasmic Dinner Package PS at H&V. The rest of our meals will be counter service, unless we want to add a PS or two when we actually get to WDW. That's an option too.

I don't think a few PS's at your top choices will seem restrictive; it doesn't to us. And it will keep you from wasting precious WDW time waiting to be seated, or having to eat every meal at counter service. Plus, as ScottWDW said, if you decide that you don't want to keep the PS when the time comes, just don't go. Unless it's one of the meals that requires a credit card deposit (Cindy's breakfast or a Fantasmic package, for example) you won't be out anything.

 

[crisi]

oret,

We like Epcot in the evenings - both because its a nice park and because it has lots of restuarants. So we park hop.

I start by looking at the events calendar and kind of getting a map of my days down. I book it Spectromagic showings - and if I want restaurants in the MK area, book them for nights Spectro is showing. I need to know when I want to see Fantasmic - then I'll book a late lunch at an MGM restaurant that day. We book a character meal - my new technique will be one near our hotel first thing in the morning. The rest of the time we tend to eat at Epcot or the resort restaurants.

For a first timer, I wouldn't make PSs for every day - unless you can't stand to eat counter service. I'd make one for a character meal and one for dinner or late lunch every other day or so. Eating sit down takes a lot of time

 

[Jockaroo]

Our trip last May was the first time I've made PS before our trip. Used these boards to learn about them. For our upcoming trip in mid-May I just made our PS today. I made 6 for 12 days. I don't like to be tied down to a schedule either. But my husband loves Kona Cafe for breakfast and I really wanted to go back to 'Ohana. I felt these were important to make since they were on our "must-do" list. The only times that were difficult were the ice cream social--got the last slot on my day, and 'Ohana--had to bump my time requested by 10 min. No big deal here. We have gone into the parks and made PS reservations for that day. It is nice to have an early lunch and be in the first seating for a restaurant. Hang around and watch for the person with the clip board to come out! And ask. Personally I would never book more than one PS in a day--to constraining for my personality.

That said, I do like many of the counter service restaurants and have been often enough that I'm not stuck with chicken fingers and burgers every day. And we are able to venture off-site to eat when needed/wanted.

 

[oret]

Thanks Crisi,

We are staying off site and plan on taking afternoon breaks to go back to our villa to escape the heat and crowds. I'm sure we will eat at villa or offsite a few times. Maybe the trick is to decide which days we will be at which parks (not there yet, sigh) and then just make PS's for restaurants that are high on my list.

 

[garylpn]

made 3 ps for upcoming may trip, these are the first ps we have made in 7 years, only because we want to trym ohanas and last trip in dec le cellier and prime time were either 1 hr waits or were closed to walk ups that evening
i would prefer not to make any ps, i like to just jump into the disney river and see where it takes us each day