How many dining reservations?

[*Mulan*]

How do you plan for dining reservations without becoming slave to them? We want to be able to decide on the fly sometimes, but I know reservations are helpful, too. For my DD's 1st trip, our reservations so far are:

June 4 - 2:10 pm Ariel's Grotto Princesss Celebration Lunch
June 5 - 7 am Goofy's Kitchen Character Breakfast
June 6 (To Legoland)
June 7 - Morning tour at DL, but no dining reserved
June 8 - 6:30 pm Celebration Roundup BBQ at Big Thunder Ranch

Do I need more, or am I OK? My sister says she's always had luck walking in some places for TS at "off times." We have a 4-day Disney Dining Plan, so I know we'll need to use up those vouchers somewhere.

[BrerGnat]

For what it's worth, I'm an AP holder at DLR (past 8 years) and we visit all the time (like, bi weekly).

We have NEVER had a reservation. We've eaten at plenty of TS restaurants without them. Just walk up. It helps to go at the beginning of the "service hour" (11am for lunch, 4:30 or 5pm for dinner). You may have to wait, but they take MANY more walk ups than at WDW.

MOST people at DL are day visitors, and local. They do not make reservations ahead of time. You will have no problems, provided you are not trying to get a table at the Blue Bayou on a Saturday night at 8:00pm.

Keep in mind, too, the BEST TS meals can be found at the restaurants at Downtown Disney (excluding Tortilla Jo's---yuck!), and at the resorts. Leaving the park to eat and coming back is often a wonderful idea. The monorail makes that very easy.

[trackbarroness]

There is a Disney dining plan at DLR? I've been looking and my Mom has also but we haven't found any dining plans for DLR. We used our DVC points to make a reservation out there and were told DLR doesn't have DDP.

[NewDVCowner]

They don't have a dining plan like WDW, you can buy vouchers ahead of time, but it's basically like buying gift certificates, they're for a certain dollar amount, not for a meal.