Has anyone had success booking dining? I mean......for the love of churros!

[Tasmen]

It's so weird...I've been checking my August dates over and over again for the last few days, and the same four restaurants keep popping up, with the same time slots. Seems like they would be gone by now. And it's got me wondering if they wait to release new restaurants only after the first offerings are fully booked. More cost-effective for labor?
Things are so totally confusing right now.

I've noticed the same thing. Same restaurants. All the time.

 

[wishing4PA]

I've noticed the same thing. Same restaurants. All the time.

From what I understand (as a newbie) they are just not being consistent in when they release days for each restaurant. I can pull up some restaurants (main page with the big photo of the restaurant) and change dates and if I look at my August dates there are "no times" but if I back up and change the selected calendar date to a few weeks earlier, then it shows me what the breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner hours are, so those are the ones I could search for times (which may or may not have availability.)
But when the cutoff differs from restaurant to restaurant.

 

[Linkura]

Also some restaurants are far more popular than others. Some are gonna go as soon as they're up, others, particularly DTD restaurants, will have no availability issues.

 

[mrjbuxton]

I've noticed the same thing. Same restaurants. All the time.

For sure. We have a July trip and we spent many days looking for reservations. Finally they started popping up about 4 weeks in advance...

 

[shosh1530]

I have a few reservations we will probably cancel. Do I have to do it 24 hrs in advance (like by 11am day before for an 11am reservation) or just by the night before (e.g. before midnight)?

Also if anyone wants to try and coordinate I'll be cancelling these reservations sometime today:

Oga's 6/21 10:15 am 3 people
Riverbelle Terrace 6/21 5:05 pm 3 people

 

[MermaidMommy]

I have a few reservations we will probably cancel. Do I have to do it 24 hrs in advance (like by 11am day before for an 11am reservation) or just by the night before (e.g. before midnight)?

Also if anyone wants to try and coordinate I'll be cancelling these reservations sometime today:

Oga's 6/21 10:15 am 3 people
Riverbelle Terrace 6/21 5:05 pm 3 people

It's not 24 hours. Cancel by 11:59pm the night before.

 

[goodshepherd]

im happy to say i got every reservation i wanted !!!

lamplight lounge, blue bayou (ordered a special cake to celebrate!!!), and cafe orleans.

book a few months ahead and u get what u want

 

[Twinkletoesjohnson]

I wish that were the case for us (book a few months ahead to get what you want) I started checking the very day I could for our mid-august trip and all I can get, for every meal, every day we’re there is lamplight lounge, storytellers, craftsman bar and wine country trattoria. I did manage it somehow snag Oga’s but otherwise there are slim pickings. I’m hoping that as we get a little closer things might pop up. I’m tired of check the app every hour on the hour and only getting those four options

 

[GBRforWDW]

I wish that were the case for us (book a few months ahead to get what you want) I started checking the very day I could for our mid-august trip and all I can get, for every meal, every day we’re there is lamplight lounge, storytellers, craftsman bar and wine country trattoria. I did manage it somehow snag Oga’s but otherwise there are slim pickings. I’m hoping that as we get a little closer things might pop up. I’m tired of check the app every hour on the hour and only getting those four options

Downtown Disney hasn't opened availability yet for August and I don't think DL restaurants have opened availability beyond Aug 7.

 

[wishing4PA]

Downtown Disney hasn't opened availability yet for August and I don't think DL restaurants have opened availability beyond Aug 7.

DL has -- at least through August 13th, for the limited set of restaurants that they have.

 

[Wesley815]

It's so weird...I've been checking my August dates over and over again for the last few days, and the same four restaurants keep popping up, with the same time slots. Seems like they would be gone by now. And it's got me wondering if they wait to release new restaurants only after the first offerings are fully booked. More cost-effective for labor?
Things are so totally confusing right now.

It's not just you.... same here. Their dining reservation system seems so odd, really hard to figure out based on what randomly pops up (or never appears).

 

[Zerzura]

I’m getting some of my reservations I wanted at the last second. I’m releasing River Belle Terrace for 5 11:40AM for 6/22.

 

[MrLincoln]

I'm just trying to get Lamplighter, Cafe Orleans and/or Oga's anytime July 2-4.

Checked the first date I could starting June 15, by every time and meal. Nothing ever shows up, and that applies to all in-park restaurants.

Only ever see windows for DTD restaurants, Carthay's Al Fresco terrace and Wine Country Trattoria. Getting tired of refreshing and checking in...thinking we're just going to chance a walk-in at this point.

 

[Linkura]

I'm just trying to get Lamplighter, Cafe Orleans and/or Oga's anytime July 2-4.

Checked the first date I could starting June 15, by every time and meal. Nothing ever shows up, and that applies to all in-park restaurants.

Only ever see windows for DTD restaurants, Carthay's Al Fresco terrace and Wine Country Trattoria. Getting tired of refreshing and checking in...thinking we're just going to chance a walk-in at this point.

Cancellations are most likely to happen 1-2 days before. Try then.

 

[pharmama]

I'm just trying to get Lamplighter, Cafe Orleans and/or Oga's anytime July 2-4.

Checked the first date I could starting June 15, by every time and meal. Nothing ever shows up, and that applies to all in-park restaurants.

Only ever see windows for DTD restaurants, Carthay's Al Fresco terrace and Wine Country Trattoria. Getting tired of refreshing and checking in...thinking we're just going to chance a walk-in at this point.

Same here- really want LLL or CO for July 3 or 4. I did get lucky on Oga's for the 4th in the afternoon. I do have a LLL for July 5th at 1:25pm that I'm probably going to let go if it helps you at all (though it sounds like you're not going to the parks on the 5th).

 

[cinderlexa's mom]

Hi pharmama—id love to take your LLL off your hands if you are gonna cancel—please keep me in mind.

 

[MrLincoln]

It's yours CM. We're driving back to AZ the 5th right after our 8 a.m. brunch at Storytellers.

Pharmama, just my luck....thank you anyway for the very generous offer. Wish it was just 1 day earlier.

Think I'll take linkura's good advice and recheck and refresh the beginning of next month.

 

[Winnowill]

When they started releasing dining several weeks ago, Cafe Orleans and RBT were all over the place. Now, they're rare as hen's teeth. But persevere and something may come up! It took a while (several weeks, actually), but I got all the reservations I wanted.

 

[silver236]

It looks like with two exceptions (GCH Craftsman Bar and Wine Country Trattoria), the other sit down restaurants don't have operating hours (thus no reservations) after August 13th. Counter service restaurants hours aren't posted after July 31st. Guess we'll just keep checking daily.

 

[silver236]

Looks like Lamplight Lounge has hours past the 13th too, but they were just booked full the days I looked.