Ever heard of Disney Dining Buddy?

[Disneylover99]

It's going to get even harder to find availability at popular restaurants like BOG as more and more people pay money to use the services of websites that find openings.

Eventually, it's going to get hard for the people who use these websites to book these restaurants as well if multiple notifications are going out for the same opening.

 

[kcpinwdw]

I paid for three searches and felt it was well worth the money to do so. Got a BOG dinner at the perfect time on the perfect day, an early morning CRT breakfast, and wishes dessert party. It was a relatively last minute trip so they probably wouldn't have been possible without this service.

 

[JimmyBean42]

My wife and I used to just check ourselves multiple times daily but this sounds like a great idea. I think of all the time I wasted just checking and checking and checking and would have gladly paid $8 to have that time back.

 

[Kristi113]

I am using the cheerios line from now on.......hillarious

 

[Pumbaa_]

Key dates/times to remember to check instead of paying $$:

1. 60 days out, once people book their fast passes they cancel in droves!
2. 45 days out, once final payment is due. many cancel their trip and ADRs
3. Night before, day of - many will cancel while at Disney for next dat ADRs.

There may be other key cancellation dates for shows or events to watch for also

There are way too many options at Disney for me to spend money on a maybe. YMMV

 

[Tardisblue]

Wife used Disney Dining Buddy to get into Biergarten on Father's Day for me less than 30 days out. Pretty stoked about it, worth the $8.

 

[steves100]

1) Give me a break!
2) Why pay for a ressie opening "notification".
3) How could a single ressie make such a difference or be so important?

Rusty has a problem people really wanting a reservation. But, doesnt have a problem with Disney not letting you book consecutive days if you have a split reservation. Dude stop replying if you dont agree!!!

 

[JessLyn]

I just wanted to add my experience with Disney Dinning Buddy.

I was looking for a reservation (California Grill) for 4 people on a specific day between 6-7:30pm. I had no interest in anything earlier or later. Dinning Buddy will search your time as well as 2 hours before and 2 hours after. So, if I put in 7pm, it searches from 5-9pm. There is NO WAY to limit the time. So, I got a text message every hour, on the hour, for an 8:50pm reservation that was available. So, I changed my desired time to 6:40pm (so that I wouldn't keep getting texts for the 8:50 reservation). Then, I kept getting text messages every hour on the hour for a 5:15pm reservation. Again, no way to adjust this. So, I kept getting text messages once an hour 24 hours a day (including the middle of the night). I even ended up booking the 5:15 one just to stop the notifications for that; but then another time opened up at 5:30 and I couldn't book both of them. So, I ended up just shutting off the notifications for this one.

The other reservation that I was searching for was arrival day Ohana dinner between 6-7:30pm. Well, from my experience with my California Grill reservation request, I knew that the site looks once an hour, on the hour, every hour. Well, I ended up searching myself whenever I thought about it and noticed that it wasn't on the hour. I ended up finding the reservation I wanted (7pm - perfect) on my own, with no help at all from DDB.

I paid for DDB to search for both of these reservations and it did not help me one bit. I have heard other people have fantastic results from the website, and those people seem to be quite happy with the service. I just wanted to offer another point of view. Best of luck with your reservations, no matter what you end up trying.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I just wanted to add my experience with Disney Dinning Buddy.

I was looking for a reservation (California Grill) for 4 people on a specific day between 6-7:30pm. I had no interest in anything earlier or later. Dinning Buddy will search your time as well as 2 hours before and 2 hours after. So, if I put in 7pm, it searches from 5-9pm. There is NO WAY to limit the time. So, I got a text message every hour, on the hour, for an 8:50pm reservation that was available. So, I changed my desired time to 6:40pm (so that I wouldn't keep getting texts for the 8:50 reservation). Then, I kept getting text messages every hour on the hour for a 5:15pm reservation. Again, no way to adjust this. So, I kept getting text messages once an hour 24 hours a day (including the middle of the night). I even ended up booking the 5:15 one just to stop the notifications for that; but then another time opened up at 5:30 and I couldn't book both of them. So, I ended up just shutting off the notifications for this one.

The other reservation that I was searching for was arrival day Ohana dinner between 6-7:30pm. Well, from my experience with my California Grill reservation request, I knew that the site looks once an hour, on the hour, every hour. Well, I ended up searching myself whenever I thought about it and noticed that it wasn't on the hour. I ended up finding the reservation I wanted (7pm - perfect) on my own, with no help at all from DDB.

I paid for DDB to search for both of these reservations and it did not help me one bit. I have heard other people have fantastic results from the website, and those people seem to be quite happy with the service. I just wanted to offer another point of view. Best of luck with your reservations, no matter what you end up trying.

Jesslyn makes a very good point - better than I did in a previous post. Just be aware that the sniper ADR sites like Disney Dining Buddy do NOT constantly search for your reservation. On one of the sites I was using I could see how often it scanned for reservations and in some cases it was more than half an hour ago. If you are looking for something like BOG, CRT or other high demand reservation, the odds are it will be gone by the time the ADR tool is scanning for it. That's exactly what happened to me with my BOG reservation - I found it by manually clicking and the ADR sites never picked it up.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

It's amazing how often people actually do cancel. As I read here once, ADRs are fluid. I recommend doing a search of all available ADRs for a given day, and do this search a few times a day. It will quickly become apparent just how fluid ADRs really are. I have seen so many coveted ADRs come and go just by casually searching. Heck, I've even found some ADRs I hadn't even planned on, like Chef Mickey's and Ohana. If anyone had paid money for a service to search for those ressies, and that service only searched on the hour, I snagged them up before an alert probably ever went out. It only takes a few minutes to search.

 

[JenQ]

Jesslyn makes a very good point - better than I did in a previous post. Just be aware that the sniper ADR sites like Disney Dining Buddy do NOT constantly search for your reservation. On one of the sites I was using I could see how often it scanned for reservations and in some cases it was more than half an hour ago. If you are looking for something like BOG, CRT or other high demand reservation, the odds are it will be gone by the time the ADR tool is scanning for it. That's exactly what happened to me with my BOG reservation - I found it by manually clicking and the ADR sites never picked it up.

This is what I suspected and good info! If it's only searching every hour, that really makes a difference for some of the harder ones like you said!

 

[honeybunches]

Wife used Disney Dining Buddy to get into Biergarten on Father's Day for me less than 30 days out. Pretty stoked about it, worth the $8.

This makes me so happy for you AND your wife! My husband never gets excited about the reservations I work so hard to get....until we get to the parks and he realizes why I worked so hard.

 

[ErinsMommy]

This makes me so happy for you AND your wife! My husband never gets excited about the reservations I work so hard to get....until we get to the parks and he realizes why I worked so hard.

So this - DH didn't get my obsession with finding a BOG dinner but once we were there - and in the west wing - he understood and was very happy I got BOG

 

[ariane37]

Rusty has a problem people really wanting a reservation. But, doesnt have a problem with Disney not letting you book consecutive days if you have a split reservation. Dude stop replying if you dont agree!!!

I think it's great when people get the ADR's they want, especially when they want. We have always gotten what we want including for our upcoming Nov. trip, including BOG again for dinner. My kids are older now but even when they were smaller we never had problems getting ADR's. We also never decided a trip would be ruined or less "magical" w/o eating in certain restaurants.
So between this thread and the Nov. FB groups I'm in I've come across lots of people using these sites and I haven't commented b/c I have no experience w/ them or desire to use them. Many have good experiences and, at least on FB, there are some who don't care to spend their $$ on these sites. I'm posting here because of the above comment - really kind of aggravates me to see someone say "don't reply if you don't agree". I do agree nobody needs to get nasty, especially over this. But there is no reason someone can't say they think using these services is a waste of $$ or that they feel getting or not getting a certain ADR should make such a difference to a vacation. To each his own; I personally think it's kind of a silly thing to spend even a few dollars on and I agree with other posters who have found many ADR's pop up regularly. But simply because I disagree doesn't mean I shouldn't reply.

 

[WebmasterJackie]

Something to also note that really helps and it's FREE is the cancellation threads located right here on The DIS! You can find June - December 2015 right here on this sticky: http://www.disboards.com/threads/new-cancel-thread-guidelines-june-december-links-here.1802381/

Be sure to read the guidelines before posting!

 

[JenQ]

I think it's great when people get the ADR's they want, especially when they want. We have always gotten what we want including for our upcoming Nov. trip, including BOG again for dinner. My kids are older now but even when they were smaller we never had problems getting ADR's. We also never decided a trip would be ruined or less "magical" w/o eating in certain restaurants.
So between this thread and the Nov. FB groups I'm in I've come across lots of people using these sites and I haven't commented b/c I have no experience w/ them or desire to use them. Many have good experiences and, at least on FB, there are some who don't care to spend their $$ on these sites. I'm posting here because of the above comment - really kind of aggravates me to see someone say "don't reply if you don't agree". I do agree nobody needs to get nasty, especially over this. But there is no reason someone can't say they think using these services is a waste of $$ or that they feel getting or not getting a certain ADR should make such a difference to a vacation. To each his own; I personally think it's kind of a silly thing to spend even a few dollars on and I agree with other posters who have found many ADR's pop up regularly. But simply because I disagree doesn't mean I shouldn't reply.

I think it was the way in which he said it that provoked a comment. It was kinda nasty and negative like we are silly for spending the money. You said you have always gotten what you wanted so maybe it is hard to understand. This is our first trip and we are not going to be going every year or twice a year like a lot of those who frequent these boards. So yes it is important for me to get to eat at certain places, including the resort I am staying at, and so I'm willing to pay a few bucks to try to help.

 

[22Tink]

I think it was the way in which he said it that provoked a comment. It was kinda nasty and negative like we are silly for spending the money. You said you have always gotten what you wanted so maybe it is hard to understand. This is our first trip and we are not going to be going every year or twice a year like a lot of those who frequent these boards. So yes it is important for me to get to eat at certain places, including the resort I am staying at, and so I'm willing to pay a few bucks to try to help.

Well said! It was a nasty tone, and not necessary. Being from BC, Canada, we also don't get to WDW often. Our last trip was in 2007! I'm all for paying a few extra dollars to help score an elusive ADR. To me it's no different than calling constantly to check availability if the site isn't working, as the long distance phone call costs more than the ADR search websites!! I understand using the search sites isn't a guarantee, but to me its worth trying. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there's no need to be snarky or condescending towards those of us who choose to use these sites!

 

[5DisneyNuts]

I've said this on other threads. These sites popping up have to be causing stress on the reservation's system. Take a look at the dozens of threads talking about the system problems.

Personally, I hope Disney adds a captcha before searching to eliminate the bots. By them not cracking down on this, it will only continue to escalate the problems.

 

[KristiK]

I love knowing this worked for ppl! I may try it!

 

[22Tink]

They definitely work! I just got a notification this morning for BOG! It wasn't the time I was wanting so I didn't book it, but at least I know there's still stuff opening up!