My ADR Experience - What to do/not do

[DVCjj]

So nice of you to spend the time to detail instructions and the problems.
Exact same circumstances happened for May trip and September trip of this year. EXACT......except we only had 2 people. I can't imagine what it's like for 10.

After spending so much time and aggravation and stress, when I went to doublecheck everything was fine and saw AUGUST, I couldn't believe I did that...over and over!! Grrrrr.

I did set up the Tabs at each restaurant which I had gotten from the Disney site and other than the stupid AUGUST reservations, once the 60 days did open at 5:00 am my time, I was able to reserve. But I'm taking no chances and next month when I make for January, I'm doing your MDE route for sure.

 

[DVCjj]

Space 220 and Cape May Cafe

Cape May surprises me being booked because once they made Crab Legs extra, I figured people would boycott. We did. Space 220 I understand.

 

[DVCjj]

Thanks for all the tips! I was able to get all my reservations this morning! I will say that using Chrome helped a lot! Microsoft Edge and Safari kept crashing!

I have Chrome, Edge and Firefox always ready to in case one crashes (as they always do). Reservation day is like a 3-ring circus for me. I literally keep a bottle of Excedrin and a glass of water on my desk. My Jan trip is a 4 way split which is a pain in the neck to do this 4 separate mornings.

 

[LisaL]

I have Chrome, Edge and Firefox always ready to in case one crashes (as they always do). Reservation day is like a 3-ring circus for me. I literally keep a bottle of Excedrin and a glass of water on my desk. My Jan trip is a 4 way split which is a pain in the neck to do this 4 separate mornings.

I was really starting to feel the stress to the point where I didn't want to go anymore and I've always wanted to spend the holidays at WDW. The whole point of booking a Christmas trip was to enjoy the experience. Had a family meeting and everyone agreed we aren't going to push or rush. I'll do my best on ADRs. If we don't get them, I'll check back occasionally to see if something opens and other than that, the point is to enjoy being together. Hoping everyone can get the ressies they want and have an amazing magical time. That's why we go, right?

 

[DVCjj]

I was really starting to feel the stress to the point where I didn't want to go anymore and I've always wanted to spend the holidays at WDW. The whole point of booking a Christmas trip was to enjoy the experience. Had a family meeting and everyone agreed we aren't going to push or rush. I'll do my best on ADRs. If we don't get them, I'll check back occasionally to see if something opens and other than that, the point is to enjoy being together. Hoping everyone can get the ressies they want and have an amazing magical time. That's why we go, right?

Your comments are most definitely true. Even though I'm a natural worrier Type A, our trip 2 weeks ago was an eye-opener. I had that 9/24-10/2 trip planned down to a science. Every jot & tittle. Got exactly what we wanted for a perfect trip every second. Haha Then the hurricane was forecast and we didn't know whether to cancel or not. My (adult) daughter had commitments on Monday and was very worried about MCO being closed longer than it was. My DH knew we were fine at BWV so he wasn't worried for me/us at all.

We literally threw out the many pages of reservations, notes, etc. etc. and went with the flow and had a really wonderful week there, hurricane or not. It was probably one of the most relaxing Disney trips we've been on. So funny how things work out like that to let you know what's really important.
I am going to force myself to remember that when the 60 day opens for the my & DH's January trip. He is a Disney 'follower'. He never knows from minute to minute where we're going and it's just fine with him. I'm the beater-upper.

 

[DaviVascaino]

So do I keep several tabs open? You just said there is no point to do that for each restaurant since you need to go through the MDE menu.

 

[Kirsti]

Thanks for sharing this info. Is it possible to make simultaneous reservations? Someone mentioned they split the work with their husband and got it done in half the time. How did they do that? Help would be awesome!

My TA friend and I do this for all our dining reservations. She logs into my wife's account, so we are both online at 5:45am. We rank my "wish list" by most to least difficult to get, and then plan before hand on who is taking which ones - basically, one takes 1, the next tries to get 2, then we move down the list. It works really well especially because we are usually on the phone to each other during it... "I can't get this time for Oga's, but I can get you that time, does that work?" and so on. It'd be even easier if the two of you are in the same household! However, it helps a lot for the other person to be *really* familiar with the booking/reservation system, hence why I have Ashley do it rather than my wife!

 

[LisaL]

My TA friend and I do this for all our dining reservations. She logs into my wife's account, so we are both online at 5:45am. We rank my "wish list" by most to least difficult to get, and then plan before hand on who is taking which ones - basically, one takes 1, the next tries to get 2, then we move down the list. It works really well especially because we are usually on the phone to each other during it... "I can't get this time for Oga's, but I can get you that time, does that work?" and so on. It'd be even easier if the two of you are in the same household! However, it helps a lot for the other person to be *really* familiar with the booking/reservation system, hence why I have Ashley do it rather than my wife!

You have a great TA! Thanks for that info.

 

[buffalobasingal]

Thank you for all of this great information! Sounds like you had it all running smooth by the end.

One thing I found out is if you are doing a split stay that you cannot book online for any ADR past your first resort stay. You have to call to have them book anything beyond that, but they will do it. That was my rookie mistake, but thankfully I was able to figure it out that morning and get almost every ADR we wanted including Space 220, Candlelight Processional and the Spice Road Fireworks table show. Yay!

 

[nw6675]

Thank you for all of this great information! Sounds like you had it all running smooth by the end.

One thing I found out is if you are doing a split stay that you cannot book online for any ADR past your first resort stay. You have to call to have them book anything beyond that, but they will do it. That was my rookie mistake, but thankfully I was able to figure it out that morning and get almost every ADR we wanted including Space 220, Candlelight Processional and the Spice Road Fireworks table show. Yay!

Do you have to tell them anything special - just that you are doing a split stay and want to book your plus 10? I'm going to run into this in a couple of weeks.

 

[buffalobasingal]

Do you have to tell them anything special - just that you are doing a split stay and want to book your plus 10? I'm going to run into this in a couple of weeks.

I talked to three cast members that morning and simply told them I had a split stay and they asked for confirmation numbers for all three reservations. The first cast member took care of it no questions asked. The second CM was a little “grumpy” about it at first and said they couldn’t do it, but when I said the first one had then he went ahead and honored it. The third CM didn’t know how to do a split stay at first and had to check with someone else and said it was a “one-time” exception. Some other posts I have read said similar things in that it depends on what CM you talk to, but if you keep trying you will find someone who will help you with it.