Can some nice, patient person give me a craash course on the online dining process

[My2QTs]

I am not really a computer person so I am scared to death of the online reservation process. Actually, I do a lot of stuff on the computer, but for some reason, it takes me forever to figure out what I am doing, so I end up being intimidated, espeically when I know I only have a limited amount of time. So if there's someone out there willing to walk me through how ti works, Id appreciate it. Im not ever sure how or where you sign on. My window starts this coming Saturday and I want to be prepared. I don't want to put my eyes on it for the first time when its the "real thing," so Im trying to prepare ahead of time. Does anyone know if I can get on the site and look around ahead of time, or can you only get on when it's "your day?"

[BenA81]

You can make reservations online at the disney world's website: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/restaurants/

then look up a restaurant and if it has a button underneath that says "Book a Reservation" then you can book online.

There is a space to enter reservation info by hitting "retrieve your reservation," select your Date and Time, etc.

You can mess around with the system before your window opens up for your specific dates.

Good luck!

[Dizneydaz]

Yes you can go on now and look around. You just won't be able to book anything that's more than 90 days out.

It's very easy to use
Go to Waltdisneyworld.com After it loads click on Dining link on the bottom left of the screen. That will take you to the dining page. Click on the >RESTAURANTS. that takes you to the next screen. On the left of the screen you'll see the parks listed so you can narrow your search. Click on the location (park, DTD, etc.) you want to book. All the restaurants at that location will come up. Pick the one you want to book (Book a Reservation button) and you'll be taken to the next screen.

Here you'll be given the chance to enter your resort ressie so you can book 90+10.

Update Your Profile

Are you an Annual Passholder and/or Florida Resident? If so, please add this information to your account profile so we can tailor your dining search.
Retrieve Your Resort Reservation

Do you have a Resort reservation for the same days for which you're making dining reservations?
If so, please retrieve your reservation.

Without it you can only book 90 days out. Enter your ressie # and phone number with your ressie. Now you can book 90+10 days out. You'll put in your desired date, time, and party size. Press "check availability" and you either get that it's available or if it's not they'll give you other options.

If you like the time you book it. After you're all done you check out, that's it. That's how easy it is.

Make sure you don't let the site go idle over 20 mins. or you will lose your unbooked ressies.

Good luck!

[ToddyLu]

I was able to reserve Ca Grill with a CC (no charge) but not Fantasmic Dinner package.....you will have to call for that one I think. After you have decided on all your choices it loads them into a shopping cart....then you "purchase" your shopping cart and are all done. You can go back and view your selections or print them out then. I was also leery at first but it is very straight forward and easy.

I also had my dates and choices written down so I could make sure I had that to refer to while booking---I did 9 reservations in 20 minutes or so.

[My2QTs]

Great guys! Thanks. I went and checked it out and I get it for the most part, but I have a few more questions...

1.)I don't get the 90 + 10 thing. When I booked my package they told me my date for dining was Sept. 5 (we arrive Dec 4). I get the 90 days, but what's the + 10?

2.) you said if it sits "idle" for twenty minutes it will cancel whats in my cart. So as long as Im booking and navigating around, do I have more than twenty minutes, or is it a twenty minute session regardless. Im assuming you mean if I walk away and there's no activity, but I want to make sure you dont mean that I have to book and "chekcout" within twenty minutes.

3.) I am having trouble figuring out how to get back to the main page. I was checking out the site and say Im on page 5 and Im done there, or I make a ressie for say Cali Grille and I want to go back to find another restaurant, how do I get back to the right page from the page where I just made the reservation?

4.) I didn't see the part that you quoted above where it said about retrieving your reservation, or whatever it said. I was on the site and I didn't see that. What do they mean by retrieving your reservation as it relates to your resort reservation?

sorry for so many potentially dumb questions, but I need to make sure I "get it" before Saturday, or Im going to be a nervous wreck (over dining reservations...sounds so crazy...LOL). Thanks for all the great help!!

[ToddyLu]

You are too cute....The reservation confirmation thing will pop up and you will be asked to associate you reservation with your ADRs....so that the reservation dates match your booking dates. It may be that you will see it Saturday when you book. Right now you are over 90 days out.

90+10 allows people who are staying up to 10 days to make their ADRS all at once without have to log back in every single day. Each successive day of you reservation would be at 90 days.....it helps eliminate that headache. SP wihout the 90+10. You would have to call back 9/5,9/6,9/7. etc. It may be for those people styaing on Disney property, too.

[ToddyLu]

The resevervation box request is right above the Date/Time box. It gives you a chance to register and enter your package info so you cna go back and see it later. Just click on the link there. I promise you will be fine

[HLAuburn]

I made my ADRs online this morning and it was super easy!

Here's where I started...

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/

I logged on this morning at about 5:50 EST. I signed onto the website, pulled up 3 tabs for the most popular restaurants we wanted like I am going to make a reservation. You can then enter your vacation reservation number to associate it with your dining reservations you're about to make.

At exactly g:00, I refreshed each tab, and my dates magically opened up! Then I went from tab to tab to book the reservations. It was super easy and it worked out just like its supposed to!

As someone mentioned before, you can start making your ADRs 90 days before your check in date and you can book up to 10 days from that date, so normally for your entire trip.

[Dizneydaz]

Originally Posted by My2QTs

Great guys! Thanks. I went and checked it out and I get it for the most part, but I have a few more questions...

1.)I don't get the 90 + 10 thing. When I booked my package they told me my date for dining was Sept. 5 (we arrive Dec 4). I get the 90 days, but what's the + 10?
I think this was answered by another poster

2.) you said if it sits "idle" for twenty minutes it will cancel whats in my cart. So as long as Im booking and navigating around, do I have more than twenty minutes, or is it a twenty minute session regardless. Im assuming you mean if I walk away and there's no activity, but I want to make sure you dont mean that I have to book and "checkout" within twenty minutes.As long as you're looking around on the dining pages, you're fine. It'll give you a warning if you've been inactive too long.


3.) I am having trouble figuring out how to get back to the main page. I was checking out the site and say Im on page 5 and Im done there, or I make a ressie for say Cali Grille and I want to go back to find another restaurant, how do I get back to the right page from the page where I just made the reservation
On the left of the page, near the top, under the Walt Disney World banner, you'll see something like this
Discover > Dining> Restaurants> Restaurant you're looking at > Reservations
Click on Restaurants and it'll take you back to the screen where you select your park/area, etc.

4.) I didn't see the part that you quoted above where it said about retrieving your reservation, or whatever it said. I was on the site and I didn't see that. What do they mean by retrieving your reservation as it relates to your resort reservation Answered by others

sorry for so many potentially dumb questions, but I need to make sure I "get it" before Saturday, or Im going to be a nervous wreck (over dining reservations...sounds so crazy...LOL). Thanks for all the great help!!

Hope this helps

[My2QTs]

OMG....I was so totally starting to relax about the whole thing until I read HLAuburn's post about the tabs. What do you mean by tabs?? How can you have three open at once?? HOw do you do this, and how to you "refresh" them to pull them up? Now I am getting nervous again. I wrote down the page numbers that the restaurants were on so I could go from one to the next (in order of what would be hardest to get to easiest to get, of course), but I don't know how to open tabs simultaneously and then refresh them one after another. ahhhhhh.....I knew this would happen...Im nervous!!

ps...everything else, I get now, thanks to you all!! Great info. Just a little intimidated now by the "tab thing!"

[princesslover]

Originally Posted by My2QTs

OMG....I was so totally starting to relax about the whole thing until I read HLAuburn's post about the tabs. What do you mean by tabs?? How can you have three open at once?? HOw do you do this, and how to you "refresh" them to pull them up? Now I am getting nervous again. I wrote down the page numbers that the restaurants were on so I could go from one to the next (in order of what would be hardest to get to easiest to get, of course), but I don't know how to open tabs simultaneously and then refresh them one after another. ahhhhhh.....I knew this would happen...Im nervous!!

ps...everything else, I get now, thanks to you all!! Great info. Just a little intimidated now by the "tab thing!"

Some browsers allow you to tablulate the sites you are on. You will know because on the upper left hand side of your browser window, you'll see a tab for the site you're on. Right next to that tab is a little square, and if you click on that, it opens up a new window. You can keep repeating that until you have all the sites you want tabulated across the screen.

However, my browser does not have this feature. So what I have done is gone in and made each restaurant a "favorite." So when I go in, I am just going to go into my favorites and bring up each restaurant separately in a new window. Does this make sense? I hope this will work...... I am assuming I will have to enter my reservation number in each restaurant/window, right because they all aren't going to be able to "talk" to each other. Then I guess I will refresh each one as I bring it up, and my reservation should be there?

Is anyone following me?

[My2QTs]

Unfortunately, Im not following you, but that shouldn't surprise anyone who has been reading this thread!! LOL Im going to ask DH....he's better with this stuff than me. In fact, I think I will make him sit with me at 5:45 am on Saturday and help me do this. It's his vacation too, right!!!???

[katedrew94]

Does this work for people with reservations through DVC? I know that the reservation numbers are different.

[HLAuburn]

Originally Posted by My2QTs

OMG....I was so totally starting to relax about the whole thing until I read HLAuburn's post about the tabs. What do you mean by tabs?? How can you have three open at once?? HOw do you do this, and how to you "refresh" them to pull them up? Now I am getting nervous again. I wrote down the page numbers that the restaurants were on so I could go from one to the next (in order of what would be hardest to get to easiest to get, of course), but I don't know how to open tabs simultaneously and then refresh them one after another. ahhhhhh.....I knew this would happen...Im nervous!!

ps...everything else, I get now, thanks to you all!! Great info. Just a little intimidated now by the "tab thing!"

Sorry! Didn't mean to freak anyone out...just trying to be helpful! My Internet Explorer allows me to open multiple "tabs". I guess it would be similar to opening multiple "windows" that just allow you to have a few pages up at once....just multitasking, I guess. That way, I had my 3 top restaurants all pulled up at once and I didn't have to waste time searching for them. As the PP suggested, you could also just bookmark each restaurant/add to favorites for quick access.

My "refresh" button is 2 little green arrows. It just updates then existing page so when it hiys 6am, your dates open up.

Sorry for the confusion...Hope this helps!

[HLAuburn]

Originally Posted by princesslover

So when I go in, I am just going to go into my favorites and bring up each restaurant separately in a new window. Does this make sense? I hope this will work...... I am assuming I will have to enter my reservation number in each restaurant/window, right because they all aren't going to be able to "talk" to each other. Then I guess I will refresh each one as I bring it up, and my reservation should be there?

Is anyone following me?

Someone else on the boards suggested doing the tabs, and I guess the advantage to them is that they do "talk" to each other, so I only had to enter my res # once and all the tabs went into the cart. Not sure how it would work for windows, but I would guess that you would need to make sure you're signed in with res # on each page and hope they all go into the same cart. I'd try it out before you day to make sure...