Oh so THAT'S WHY I can't get a reservation at Be Our Guest (and every other restaurant in WDW)!!

[mom2rtk]

One thing is for sure. After all the free press this week, these services are probably seeing a big spike in business.

 

[soniam]

Someone or something is scooping up BOG dinner reservations. I booked my ADR's at 180 + 10 days at midnight and BOG dinner was not available at any time for everyone of my 8 days! My DD wanted to see the castle and Belle. When she found out it was just the Beast she was happy with just going for lunch!

I just booked this morning for 2nd-3rd week of March. At 5:30am CST, I could find BOG for breakfast, lunch, or dinner for any days of my 10 days, including the very first day. These were for good times too, ie 8am (pre-park opening), noon, and 6pm. I am not saying that you couldn't get reservations. I am just curious when you tried. You say midnight. Did you mean 6am EST? Also, when is your trip? March is kind of busy, summer levels, but not Xmas levels, so time of year could make a huge different.

EDIT: To be clear, I did not actually book any BOG ADRs. I was just curious if it is still difficult to get. We have been there and done that for lunch and dinner.

 

[dansyr2514]

I don't think this service should be allowed. I believe something like this used to go on with people selling Cinderella's castle reservations a long time ago and Disney put a stop to it. However, I don't believe the difficulty to get reservations is necessarily Disney's fault. I think they actually keep trying to solve this dilemma but people keep finding loopholes. Unfortunately, it primarily the uber disney fans that are doing this. People are still finding a way to book multiple reservations because the just don't know what the will want at the time so they book an adr at BOG every day of their vacation so they have their choice. Also, the internet culture has blown certain restaurants out of proportion. Fans will see they have to eat at XYZ or their vacation will be ruined. I dont' agree with everything Disney does (ahem Osborne lights) however "we" meaning a selective group of disney planners need to take responsibility for the difficulty of getting particular adr's. The only times I could see that would and should be difficult is during free dining. Disney has a hand in that one. However, look at the resort boards once and see the awaiting free dining threads. If you are booking during free dining ( obviously dining is the draw). It should be obvious that dining reservations will go quickly.

 

[CandiceF]

I just booked this morning for 2nd-3rd week of March. At 5:30am CST, I could find BOG for breakfast, lunch, or dinner for any days of my 10 days, including the very first day. These were for good times too, ie 8am (pre-park opening), noon, and 6pm. I am not saying that you couldn't get reservations. I am just curious when you tried. You say midnight. Did you mean 6am EST? Also, when is your trip? March is kind of busy, summer levels, but not Xmas levels, so time of year could make a huge different.

We are on EST and we booked at 12:00am right when our window opened up. We are going the end of October and beginning of November. I called WDW to make sure of what time my booking window opened up. I think March might be easier to get ADR's because October, November are free dining and F&W. I got everything else we wanted Ohana's, 1900 Parkfare, BOG lunch and breakfast, Akershus. There was no BOG dinner available for any time during my 8 day stay. It did open up later for our Nov.1 MNSSHP but we didn't want to waist party time on TS!

 

[soniam]

We are on EST and we booked at 12:00am right when our window opened up. We are going the end of October and beginning of November. I called WDW to make sure of what time my booking window opened up. I think March might be easier to get ADR's because October, November are free dining and F&W. I got everything else we wanted Ohana's, 1900 Parkfare, BOG lunch and breakfast, Akershus. There was no BOG dinner available for any time during my 8 day stay. It did open up later for our Nov.1 MNSSHP but we didn't want to waist party time on TS!

Maybe you mistyped, but ADR windows open at 6am EST online and 7am EST on the phone. I know, because I actually was up before 6am EST this morning and saw my dates become available exactly at 6am. Plus, I aways book when they are first available. FP+ opens at midnight EST. If you did actually try at midnight, then you probably were 18 hours behind/after everyone else, which could make a big difference. Unfortunately, the CMs are not always the most knowledgeable or clear, or they may have misunderstood that you meant the ADR time. I know it's hard to think that CMs wouldn't know something so simple, but you would be amazingly surprised by the incorrect info I have gotten in the past

Free dining is a busy time. Also, that is party time, and I don't know how ADRs go during parties, whether they get really booked or not.

 

[dansyr2514]

i also just booked for March. We have a group of 14 going down and was able to get a dinner ADR for BOG with no problem. I was shocked.

 

[CandiceF]

Maybe you mistyped, but ADR windows open at 6am EST online and 7am EST on the phone. I know, because I actually was up before 6am EST this morning and saw my dates become available exactly at 6am. Plus, I aways book when they are first available. FP+ opens at midnight EST. If you did actually try at midnight, then you probably were 18 hours behind/after everyone else, which could make a big difference. Unfortunately, the CMs are not always the most knowledgeable or clear, or they may have misunderstood that you meant the ADR time. I know it's hard to think that CMs wouldn't know something so simple, but you would be amazingly surprised by the incorrect info I have gotten in the past

Free dining is a busy time. Also, that is party time, and I don't know how ADRs go during parties, whether they get really booked or not.

Sorry I was thinking of fast passes which I just booked at midnight a couple of weeks ago. It was 7am EST on the phone, maybe everything got booked up online in the first hour. The CM was surprised there wasn't a single dinner left for BOG my entire 8 days. My daughter really just wanted to see the castle and Belle. So we have BOG of lunch to see the castle and Akershus to see Belle so we are happy!

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Check out the WDW site now. Trying to go into my reservations and all I keep doing is timing out.

 

[minidis]

I think there is some server interruption on the site at this time. I am also don't see all my reservations in MDE.

 

[littleblackegg]

Are there particular restaurants people are having a difficult time getting in to? My husband and I are annual pass holders and we live about an hour and a half away. We usually make plans and reservations about 4-6 weeks out, and I can't remember the last time we had a difficult time making meal reservations. We can usually even get into Jiko or Citricos at about 6 weeks. Perhaps it is the time or the restaurant?

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

The theory that hoarding is the sole reason an individual can't book her desired ADRs can be tested, just by searching over a period of time. I have done this and the truth is that it is very easy to get ADRs at all the hard to book restaurants during slow times, even less than 180 days out. Peak times book fast. They always have. Not to mention that demand is up and the parks cannot support it, hence using tech to disperse crowds instead of actually building more rides. FP+ is doing a good job of spreading out the crowds, but it all breaks down when it comes to restaurants. During peak season there just aren't enough seats at BOG and Ohana for every butt that wishes to sit in them. If hoarding was the only issue I think there would be a fundamental breakdown of supply and demand during slow periods, with desirable restaurants already being booked solid by hoarding services, but this just isn't the case.

 

[CandiceF]

I think people are hoarding reservations more so than a hoarding service. I think people are booking up a bunch of ADR's until they get there fast passes set or they decide which day they want to eat at a certain restaurant. I noticed around the time I was booking my FP+ that I would see 3 Akershus dinners show up at once on different days in the week I was going. It was the same for the Crystal Palace, 1900 Parkfare and Ohana, etc. It seemed like people got there fast passes and released the ones they weren't using. I also think people are holding on to more ADR's hoping they will find a better time.

 

[Aurora0427]

Are there particular restaurants people are having a difficult time getting in to? My husband and I are annual pass holders and we live about an hour and a half away. We usually make plans and reservations about 4-6 weeks out, and I can't remember the last time we had a difficult time making meal reservations. We can usually even get into Jiko or Citricos at about 6 weeks. Perhaps it is the time or the restaurant?

I'm guessing it's mainly Be Our Guest, and to a lesser extent restaurants like CRT if you're booking post 180 days.

 

[kidneymomma]

The morning of my ADR I was able to get BOG for dinner party of 6 and CRT. Birth good times; I was at my computer 5am CST.

 

[hsmamainva]

I can't get the dining site to work at all for me! I'm at 180 days - on site - and it will give me a list of dining times but when I click on one, it sends me back to today's date! This is has been going on since 6am! SO frustrating! I'm going to end up having to call them at 7am EST which I always seem to have to do! I can never get it to work at 6am on my ADR day! I hope I can still get a Chef Mickey's breakfast and a BOG dinner! Those are the only hard ones I'm looking for.

 

[woodleygrrl]

The way that my husband and I travel to Disney is that we have one set trip a year (Spring Training time) and then we go usually in the Fall for a long weekend when there is a airfare sale. Both times are extremely problematic for booking. Spring Training is just a very busy time in the park and the spur of the moment trip means that we don't have 180 days notice. I would argue that as an annual pass holder and DVC member I shouldn't be barred from eating at the most desired places in both cases.

 

[steves100]

I don't think this service should be allowed. I believe something like this used to go on with people selling Cinderella's castle reservations a long time ago and Disney put a stop to it. However, I don't believe the difficulty to get reservations is necessarily Disney's fault. I think they actually keep trying to solve this dilemma but people keep finding loopholes. Unfortunately, it primarily the uber disney fans that are doing this. People are still finding a way to book multiple reservations because the just don't know what the will want at the time so they book an adr at BOG every day of their vacation so they have their choice. Also, the internet culture has blown certain restaurants out of proportion. Fans will see they have to eat at XYZ or their vacation will be ruined. I dont' agree with everything Disney does (ahem Osborne lights) however "we" meaning a selective group of disney planners need to take responsibility for the difficulty of getting particular adr's. The only times I could see that would and should be difficult is during free dining. Disney has a hand in that one. However, look at the resort boards once and see the awaiting free dining threads. If you are booking during free dining ( obviously dining is the draw). It should be obvious that dining reservations will go quickly.

Of course the problem is Disneys.

We are going the week before Christmas. Have 2 different hotel stays. So.... because of that I could not do all of my 180+ reservations. They consider 2 different reservations seperate and will not allow you to do the whole stay.

Also Mama Melrose was not available for 6 weeks after the 180 days. I was forced to use DisDinBud, I couldnt keep logging in to get a Fanasmic diner!

 

[SouthJersey]

i also just booked for March. We have a group of 14 going down and was able to get a dinner ADR for BOG with no problem. I was shocked.

It's because it's not hard. I'm beginning to wonder if people claiming it's hard or impossible at two months out. At 180 days without +10, we found everything. Be our Guest, Cinderellas Royal Table, Victoria and Alnerts Queen Victoria's Room, Chef Mickeys breakfast.

And then at 120 days we began moving things around and changing things, we found every single place again except VA which we kept.

At 100 days our two relatives decided to tag along the trip and we found Be Our Guest for 8 by checking throughout the day for two days, we found two 4's at chef mickeys by checking on mobile throughout the day.

 

[3Gsandme]

In another article I read, the last sentence read: ""Disney created a market here of a lot of very frustrated guests who are trying to get into restaurants and are not able to do it," he said. "Good entrepreneurs have found a way to serve that market."

As a firm believer in entrepreneurship, I see no issue that one company has created based on the monster Disney and their dining has become!

No.

It's one thing, like in the case of Disney Dining Buddy, to sign up for the service to monitor the availability for you (but takes no reservations from the pool) and another to TAKE the reservations and sell them. That's scalping, plain and simple. They're not the same and the people who have created a company to do this shouldn't get kudos. It's morally disgusting. If they weren't scooping up ADRs people could simply make them for themselves for free. It's just gross.

Honestly, Disney probably needs to go to prepayment for their sit down restaurants, particularly the most popular ones. People will complain, but it will discouraged reservation scalping.

 

[emilymad]

I think people are hoarding reservations more so than a hoarding service. I think people are booking up a bunch of ADR's until they get there fast passes set or they decide which day they want to eat at a certain restaurant. I noticed around the time I was booking my FP+ that I would see 3 Akershus dinners show up at once on different days in the week I was going. It was the same for the Crystal Palace, 1900 Parkfare and Ohana, etc. It seemed like people got there fast passes and released the ones they weren't using. I also think people are holding on to more ADR's hoping they will find a better time.

I think this is definitely true. We made ADRs at our 180 days but we are going for F&W. At the time we could make ADR's there had been no information released for F&W so we didn't know what events we were going to go to. We have since canceled most of our extra ADRs but Disney really needs to get their act together. ADRs shouldn't be so far out when all the other information, FP+, etc is announced much closer to the travel date.