Feeling frustrated with Disney--anyone?

[amberpi]

OP here.
We are a party of 5. Three of the five have never been back to WDW since we all worked there together on the college program in it's very early days. I've been back several times but as I said some of the others havent and may not get there again. I really wasn't looking for all that much. I really wanted them to experience BOG. I have looked/watched for anything during lunch or dinner at BOG on the day we will be in the MK. No specific time needed. That's the biggest one. Nothing. Maybe it will open up when we are closer to the date.
I really wanted to start our trip with Cali Grill our first night for a special celebration together. Nothing unless I wanted to eat in the late afternoon. We won't all have even arrived by that time.
Wanted to go to the Rose & Crown in the evening. Nothing.

It will work out. Food and Wine is going on while we are at EPCOT, so that will give us some fun options without ADR's. Maybe the others will open up as well as a FP for Pandora. We will have fun no matter what, it just really seems this trip like it's been very tough to make a couple of reservations and get things settled. Maybe it's because others make 3 dining reservations each day and then don't use them...I don't know. It's just been very frustrating. Thanks for all your thoughts.

Keep trying late CG reservations are super easy to find if you're willing to eat after the fireworks. I go up early for cocktails, enjoy the fireworks and get to enjoy my meal uninterrupted. Good luck!

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I agree with the previous poster who mentioned the 'uber planners'. That's me.

On our 60 day mark I was up at the computer logging in at 6am (CST). By the time I logged in, got to the FP+ page and went through the process, it was 6:06 am and I snagged a FP for Flight of Passage 6:00 - 7:00 pm... and one minute later they were all taken. It was barely 6:07 am here in Texas. It took 7 minutes and they were all gone.

Not exactly Disney's fault, IMHO.

Of course it's Disney's fault, LOL! Nobody forced them create the FP+ system. They had a fine and dandy FP- system that was based on the universally fair principle of first come, first serve.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Of course it's Disney's fault, LOL! Nobody forced them create the FP+ system. They had a fine and dandy FP- system that was based on the universally fair principle of first come, first serve.

How DARE they give a fast pass to people that don't get up at the crack of dawn on their park day!!!

Actually I did indeed like the old system better.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

How DARE they give a fast pass to people that don't get up at the crack of dawn on their park day!!!

Actually I did indeed like the old system better.

LOL nice hyperbole

 

[MKCP5]

With all due respect and I'm not attempting to sound mean here. Disney literally has hundreds of places between their parks to eat (and a decent chunk are places where you can make an ADR). What the issue is is that you want several very specific places to eat with a party of 5 and you're not finding availability at this current time for when you want them.

For Rose & Crown I'd imagine that at least to an extent Illuminations! makes evening harder to find reservations (depending on the time of night of course). BOG has been typically the hardest to get though some people have had luck in the "just keep checking" camp and California Grill you want the first night (a very specific date and time). Flexibility generally seems to work easier on these or opening what you want to other restaurants. Most of the time the threads I see regarding availability issues is a "I want BOG for Breakfast on Sunday the X" and I want "Y for Dinner on Monday the Z" if you get what I mean.

Now FPs can be different but a party of 5 at times can be harder from what I've heard. Have you tried looking for 1 or 2 people at a time and seeing if there was greater availability there? I know some people have used the method of booking for say 2 people at 1:00-2:00 and then another 2 people for 1:15-2:15 and so on since there is an hr window to be able to use the FP. FOP will still be harder to get (I believe right now it's the hardest).

All this being said I actually do understand where people are coming from with the 180 days aspect though from what I understand they had shorter time frame (like 90 days or even less) in the past. I do also understand the frustration is even more when its multiple plans just aren't working out at once, best laid plans and all.

I know I want a couple of specific things. As I said, I'm just frustrated. But really? Make reservations for 1-2 people and then try and make another and another and try to make them all mesh? No thanks. How many hours do I really have to make all of that happen? I'm busy hitting refresh for dining reservations! lol

 

[Jennasis]

OP there is a 9:15 ADR for a party of 5 tonight at Cali Grill. You can even get ressies day-of. No worries. Keep checking.

 

[sam_gordon]

Of course it's Disney's fault, LOL! Nobody forced them create the FP+ system. They had a fine and dandy FP- system that was based on the universally fair principle of first come, first serve.

Think about WHY FP was created. It wasn't for the benefit of the guests (although it was spun that way). It was so they'll spend more time spending money... in shops, kiosks, restaurants, etc.

 

[MKCP5]

OP there is a 9:15 ADR for a party of 5 tonight at Cali Grill. You can even get ressies day-of. No worries. Keep checking.

just saw this checking now thank you!

 

[Pacolovestacos]

Think about WHY FP was created. It wasn't for the benefit of the guests (although it was spun that way). It was so they'll spend more time spending money... in shops, kiosks, restaurants, etc.

That has nothing to do with what I said though. Someone said it wasn't Disney's fault. It absolutely is Disney's fault, no matter the reason for creation.

 

[Shanti]

I am heading to WDW in mid September with a group of friends for a 35th reunion of the college program. Super happy to be going and spending time with old friends. We are splurging and staying onsite at a deluxe resort which I have never done before. Like clockwork, on our designated time to make our ADR's and then again with our Fast Passes, I was online and waiting the MINUTE we had access. I couldn't get even one of the meal reservations I wanted. I was only looking for one per day for crying out loud! All of the restaurant times were booked. When I went in to do fast passes I had a little bit better luck, but not much. Still couldn't get Pandora, and couple of others. SO I have spent the past several months hitting refresh on reservations and have come up with nothing I registered w undercover tourist and got a couple of hits--but they came in the middle of the night and I missed them. I'm just frustrated. I just don't feel like it should be this hard to go to a few restaurants we are interested in and get a few fastpasses. What the heck do people do who don't plan anything?

Go at a less-busy time. Fall is high season at Disney now. We tend to go in midsummer or midwinter and never have such a hard time booking most of the ADRs and FastPasses we want, even only a few weeks before the trip. Avatar will be hard at any time of year, though, as it's hyped up and new. Midsummer and midwinter seem to be the times to go to WDW and get reasonable crowds, reasonable prices, and reasonable restaurant/resort/FastPass availability. From all reports, fall has terrible availability, and spring is crazy expensive.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Think about WHY FP was created. It wasn't for the benefit of the guests (although it was spun that way). It was so they'll spend more time spending money... in shops, kiosks, restaurants, etc.

How DARE guests spend time on other rides instead of in restaurants or shops like they were supposed to.

 

[Frankie Nova]

We don't book an ADR for every day, try to get the ones we really want first but we've also had a lot of luck with booking the night before or in the morning even for some of the hard to get restaurants. Maybe the size of your party is a problem. A few years ago we noticed booking for 2 people was almost impossible so now we book for a party of 3 or 4 get the confirmation number and then change ADR to 2 people.

what? how does that make sense? hmmm? cant squeeze in 2 but can place 4 ?

 

[Nancyg56]

I do agree with you but I do wonder is there a way they keep a certain amount of bookings for walk ups etc?
I was on the ball (only wanted three TS ADR's) and got what I planned - then my DGS said he thought we would go to TRex - on no I hadn't booked that. No problem I thought I'll book us a lunch for departure day - nothing available-- lunch on our rest day - nothing- that evening- nothing - I was surprised cannot believe TRex is fully booked for 8 weeks time!

Can you just imagine the lines for walk up at some of these restaurants?

I think many people DO know the details of their trip 180 days out. They know where they're staying, what time they're arriving, and where they'd like to eat.

Shouldn't people who plan more benefit? The number of days is arbitrary. No matter how many days out, someone is going to be upset because they called two minutes late and didn't get any of their restaurants.

Maybe Disney does this already, but they should limit how many restaurants you can reserve in a day, and what times you can reserve. So you can reserve one restaurant (anywhere in the World) between 6a-10a, one between 11a-2p, and one between 5p-9p. You can also make a cancellation policy... 24 hours, 72 hours, or a week from the reservation, you're "locked in". If you cancel anytime after that, you lose your deposit.

I am a planner as well. I plan usually for 9 people and we all go to different restaurants at different times throughout the trip. I am the one who books them so if there was a "Limit" I would be up the creek. I have no idea what the answer is, but I already need to use my DD MDE to book two restaurants around the same time if I want to take the kids to one restaurnt while the other go elsewhere about the same time. If I want to book meals for the entire bunch and they have different plans that day, well, YIKES!

That's right. I had forgotten that little detail until I saw your post. Way back then, they only had the characters at breakfast. You had to do all that to even have a chance at it. If you weren't redial redial redial before they opened and got in right when they did, you had a Snowball's chance in Hades of getting it. And even if you went through all that, there was a good chance you weren't going to get it. I was lucky in that the very first year we wanted to go there we were on the DDP and they had just added the characters at lunch. So I waited past the recording that says if you're waiting for CRT, too bad and I reserved lunch. The lunch wasn't common knowledge quite yet at the time. And it was only one punch. They changed it to a signature two punch soon after. HAHA. We were soooooooo lucky.

Oh my gosh! I bold CL on that first trip with our DGD because I had read how hard it was to get that ADR. It was 90 days out back then, and on our trip, lunch was just getting added. 1 Credit! WHoo Hoo! Incidentally, we had lunch that day, and I had planned CS for dinner for some of our group. My DH wanted "real food" and we ended up at ....wait for it.....'Ohana!!! Yep...back then it was just another restaurant! LOL!

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

what? how does that make sense? hmmm? cant squeeze in 2 but can place 4 ?

Makes zero sense but it works. Try to book a table of 2 nothing shows up, book table of 4 and bang now they have an open time slot. Figured this out in 2009 when I was getting frustrated booking a table for our anniversary trip.

 

[EvilDrPorkchop21]

would I be crazy to take the day off from work knowing I can start booking at 6a.m. knowing that is the start of my 180 out?

Thats what I do honestly. I put my laptop next to my bed, and have a little notepad doc up with what I want, and quickly just bang it out and go back to bed. After our first trip where we paid for BOG reservations and the stress of that I decided I'd be prepared. Since then I haven't had an issue with getting what we want as long as you're prepared in advance. It sucks that its that much effort, especially when friends ask you what to do at WDW and you have to make recommendations knowing they have 5% of actually getting a ressie or fast pass.

 

[MKCP5]

Go at a less-busy time. Fall is high season at Disney now. We tend to go in midsummer or midwinter and never have such a hard time booking most of the ADRs and FastPasses we want, even only a few weeks before the trip. Avatar will be hard at any time of year, though, as it's hyped up and new. Midsummer and midwinter seem to be the times to go to WDW and get reasonable crowds, reasonable prices, and reasonable restaurant/resort/FastPass availability. From all reports, fall has terrible availability, and spring is crazy expensive.

I can't very well change our entire trip. 5 different individuals have taken time off of work and booked this quite a while ago.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

what? how does that make sense? hmmm? cant squeeze in 2 but can place 4 ?

No, it makes sense. They have tables that are set for 4, and they have tables that are set for 2. There are probably more tables for 4 in a restaurant than tables for 2. They aren't going to fill a table for 4 with 2 people (they'd be making about half as much per table) - they want to try to fill it with 4 people first.

Think about when you walk up to a restaurant in your home town. You put your name on the list for a table of 2. A party of 4 comes after you. A table for 4 opens up.... they typically fill it with the party of 4, and you're still waiting for the next table for 2.

 

[Shanti]

I can't very well change our entire trip. 5 different individuals have taken time off of work and booked this quite a while ago.

No, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. It's also a heads-up that there are less-stressful ways to do Disney, and going at a less popular time of year is a good place to start. Everything else then becomes easier. I've never done 6-months-out booking, and have also never had the need, as there is always ample resort & ADR availability for the times we go (& we tend to make 2 ADRs per day of our trip).

 

[Pacolovestacos]

No, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. It's also a heads-up that there are less-stressful ways to do Disney, and going at a less popular time of year is a good place to start. Everything else then becomes easier. I've never done 6-months-out booking, and have also never had the need, as there is always ample resort & ADR availability for the times we go (& we tend to make 2 ADRs per day of our trip).

What are the restaurants that you love that you can also make same day ADRs?

 

[Shanti]

What are the restaurants that you love that you can also make same day ADRs?

I never said same-day ADRs. I typically plan our trips 2-3 months out, not 6 months out, and have never had the availability issues people post about on these boards for fall/early winter trips. Restaurants we like to visit include BOG, Ohana, Sci Fi, Tusker House, Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, CRT, Garden Grill, Skipper's Canteen, Beaches & Cream, and many more.