Recent ADR Experience

[Mickeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share my experience with ADR scheduling when my 60 day window opened this week in case others find it useful. Mods feel free to delete if it's redundant:

• 10 family members. My In-laws expressed a preference for everyone to eat dinner together each night. Staying at Wilderness Lodge.
• Target restaurants: Be Our Guest, Story Book Dining, 'Ohana (breakfast), Boma, Space 220. Less fussed about but preferred: 50s Prime Time, Hollywood Brown Derby, Whispering Canyon
• Booking window did not open up until 6am - I'd heard others have had it available between 545 and 6. That did not happen, I tried repeatedly.
• Exceedingly difficult to book 10 people in a restaurant. Ended up splitting reservations 5/5 between my wife's account and mine for every restaurant except Boma. Reservations no more than 10 minutes apart.
• Somewhat interesting: virtually no availability for any of our target restaurants at 6am. Grabbed very late reservations (830pm) for BOG and SBD and then moved on to the rest and grabbed best available time, which was limited. Even Whispering Canyon had basically nothing.
• Very interesting (for me): we started rechecking available times, and significantly more availability opened up. Not sure if Disney was delayed in opening up tables on the site at 6am, or other people were cancelling ADRs, but we found we were able to make significant improvements to our originally booked times. BOG we were able to move from 830 to 710, SBD from 830 to 530. All other dinners we were able to schedule between 6 and 7pm.

So all in all it was pretty successful. We got into all our restaurants, and other than swapping a couple days here and there between BOG, SBD, and Whispering Canyon, our target dates/times were met also. But it was important that we didn't just accept the original availability, there was a lot of double/triple-checking times and then eventually things opened up. Would be curious to know why that happened. Took us a little over an hour to get everything scheduled to our liking.

 

[pixiedust33]

Thanks for the update! I’m booking tomorrow for between 5-7 people and am getting nervous! I usually only need to book for our small family of 3. I was just on the app checking out 60 day availability at 6:10am because I happened to be up and it’s looking pretty grim! Hopefully the fact I’m trying to book some of the popular meals at the end of our trip will help (Topolinos Breakfast, Beaches and Cream, 50s Primstime)

One thing I noticed though is that there was not availability for any size party at Sebastian’s, which I was not expecting to be difficult. I wonder if they’re holding it back for some reason. I could book it now for 30 days out and earlier dates….

 

[Mickeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

Yeah we had a couple places where there was no availability at all as well, which didn't make sense to me. We just kept refreshing and eventually spots showed up. I think sometimes their system is overloaded and so it doesn't present any availability even though that's not accurate.

Not sure if you can have someone else who can do it with you but if you're nervous about finding spots for 7 people, if someone else can reserve for say 3 and then you reserve for 4 at approx the same time then you can just ask them to put the tables together when you arrive. That was the only way we could get our 10-person extended family all in the same restaurant together.

Good luck!!

 

[pixiedust33]

Thought I would just circle back with an update on how my booking window went too, so this thread can have a couple recent experiences! I was booking for a 6 night trip, mostly for 5 people but needed to snag 7 people for Topolino's breakfast and a pre-dinner drink at Oga's. I was also trying to get Cape May for 5 early in the trip, Beaches and Cream towards the end, 50s Primetime, Skipper's Canteen, Sebastian's Bistro and Boma. I also wanted The Boathouse but someone on here tipped me off that it opens earlier than 60 days out on Open Table, so I was able to snag that one last week. I had two devices logged into two accounts so I could book back up plans if needed on a second account and then sort it out once the rest of my extended family is awake!

1. I was most worried about Topolinos so I did this first. I was trying for 65 days out and was able to grab a prime breakfast spot at the exact time I wanted (8:30am) for 7 people on that day.
2. Next up, at 65 days, I was able to grab Beaches and Cream at 6:30 for 5 people. I did ideally want that about an hour earlier, so I might set up an alert for that. This was also one of the only times left for dinner- other times were post 8:30pm. I did check for smaller groups, and that would have had more availability, but I really wanted to get all 5 in one booking because I definitely want to be at the same table (our objective here is the kitchen sink sundae!)
3. My third attempt (at about 6:02am) was to get Cape May at 61 days for breakfast. I knew this was risky to put third given how early it was in the trip, but I wanted Topolinos and Beaches and Cream more, so I didn't want to risk losing out on those. Cape May was only available at either 7:30am or 11am. I ended up grabbing both to consult with my group. I also went over to my second device where I had logged into my husband's account and made a secondary booking at Chef Mickey's for 9am, which was the time I wanted, and we do also like Chef Mickeys. Tons of availability here. I'll check in with my family and cancel the other two soon.
4. My fourth attempt was Oga's and there were a lot of times available, even for 7 people so I got exactly what I wanted for a pre-dinner drink spot. I also checked the box for wheelchair accessibility here, in the hopes we don't get a high top, because my mom will be in a scooter (she can transfer but probably not stand for an hour while everyone has a drink/snack).
5. My fifth attempt was 50s Primetime for 64 days out. There was decent availability, but nothing from about 11:30am-1pm, so I grabbed 11:15. This is fine for our schedule generally though.
6. My sixth attempt (now about 6:10am) was for Skipper's Canteen at 62 days. Again, there was nothing at the prime lunch time, so I grabbed 11:15am. A bit early, but also not sure I will keep this and may just do quick service, so I didn't want to "waste" precious 6am minutes to grab it any earlier.
7. My sixth attempt was Sebastian's Bistro, which had oddly been showing no 5pm availability on any of the 6 days we are at Disney, which seems very odd, as I didn't think this was a generally popular choice. This was for 61 days, so I just grabbed 6:10pm, which is fine and I suspect we'll be able to get in a bit early or perhaps modify as we get closer.
8. My seventh attempt was Boma, which I easily snagged for day 66 at the exact time I wanted (9:15am).

Hope that helps anyone curious about availability! We definitely benefited from having a longer trip and strategically making our plans in the first place to mostly put higher in demand stuff later in the trip (i.e. Topolinos).