Blue Bayou early January - what's up?

[mom2rtk]

I can't seem to book dining on the website. I can do it on the app, but prefer to use my desktop. Is there a secret? I know when I had trouble booking on the WDW site, using an incognito window helped. But I'm even having trouble there.

Also, is something up with Blue Bayou? No times loaded yet. Do I just need to keep checking or is it down or something?

 

[tlovesdis]

I just went on my desktop and was able to try to book things through January 7th. Blue Bayou goes super fast so most likely it's already gone.

 

[mom2rtk]

I just went on my desktop and was able to try to book things through January 7th. Blue Bayou goes super fast so most likely it's already gone.

All of them gone? Every single one at 60 days out?

 

[sophy1996]

All of them gone? Every single one at 60 days out?

It might not have dropped (they don’t always drop at 60 days out). But yes, popular reservations can be gone within the first couple of minutes 60 days out.

 

[tlovesdis]

All of them gone? Every single one at 60 days out?

Yes! It is super popular. On my 60 days I was making other reservations and BB was there right at 6am and when I went back in to make a second ressie BB was gone. That and Trader Sam’s are very hard to get especially during the holidays.

 

[chezcurrie]

Don’t despair over blue bayou. I never book 60 days out and often get day off or day before availability through the paid alert service. $5 well spent. Also it does have a walk up wait list.

 

[mom2rtk]

It might not have dropped (they don’t always drop at 60 days out). But yes, popular reservations can be gone within the first couple of minutes 60 days out.

That's helpful to know. I'll try tomorrow for the next day.

 

[mom2rtk]

Yes! It is super popular. On my 60 days I was making other reservations and BB was there right at 6am and when I went back in to make a second ressie BB was gone. That and Trader Sam’s are very hard to get especially during the holidays.

Thanks. I'm rusty at this. We swapped to WDW the last few years so I'm really out of touch on the DLR side.

 

[mom2rtk]

Don’t despair over blue bayou. I never book 60 days out and often get day off or day before availability through the paid alert service. $5 well spent. Also it does have a walk up wait list.

Great idea. I'll do that while I watch.

 

[maleficent55]

That's helpful to know. I'll try tomorrow for the next day.

Be ready right before 0600 PST

be on the blue bayou page on the page where you choose number of guests

The second you see the time change to 0600 click on number of people, then date and you’ll see all the times available
Act fast

 

[RoseColored97]

Blue Bayou has been going super fast, but when we were booking for around New Year's I noticed there were still times left about 5 minutes into them dropping. So while they still go fast, not as fast as they once were!

 

[mom2rtk]

Blue Bayou has been going super fast, but when we were booking for around New Year's I noticed there were still times left about 5 minutes into them dropping. So while they still go fast, not as fast as they once were!

Thanks. That's the missing piece. We went annually a few years back and it was never quite that hot. I wonder why now all of a sudden?

 

[soniam]

Thanks. That's the missing piece. We went annually a few years back and it was never quite that hot. I wonder why now all of a sudden?

It may be people speculating that Fantasmic is coming back, but your trip is probably too early for that. It was down a long time for the restaurant and Pirates refurb.

 

[mom2rtk]

Something is definitely up. I was on at 6 AM Pacific time and nothing. When I look at the BB page directly, they are a couple days behind in the dates highlighted as available to check.

 

[AprilsZoo]

Something is definitely up. I was on at 6 AM Pacific time and nothing. When I look at the BB page directly, they are a couple days behind in the dates highlighted as available to check.

Yeah, not all the restaurants open their ressies right at 60 days. And it’s never consistent how far behind they are.

Occasionally someone behind the scenes will mess up and you’ll see availability for like 62 or 63 days out— I’ve only seen it once (honestly I don’t even remember if it was DLR or WDW… but I wanna say it was Carthay Circle). Now whether it would’ve actually let me book, I don’t know. But it did show the dates to check.

There’s even been reports of the calendar opening up later in the morning/day for various restaurants. Again, it doesn’t seem to happen frequently but it’s something to know about.

If you sign up for one of the paid alert services (Touring Plans was a popular one, but I recently read that their dining finder was no longer running … maybe it’s only a temporary situation ) keep in mind that the service does not hold the ressie for you. It simply notifies you that something is available. If you get an alert, you need to drop everything, pull over into a parking lot, whatever… and immediately act to have *any* chance of getting the ressies. The poor reviews for those apps often come from people who didn’t understand that when they get the alert, they can’t expect to go online hours later and have it still be available.

 

[ballarinamom]

That's helpful to know. I'll try tomorrow for the next day.

Be on just before 6:00am pacific time. Be on the specific restaurant you want to reserve and keep refreshing until the clock hits 6:00 and hit reserve. Make sure you have your account logged in and credit card info on file because your reservation is not confirmed until you hit the last button

 

[Barbossa]

I can't seem to book dining on the website. I can do it on the app, but prefer to use my desktop. Is there a secret? I know when I had trouble booking on the WDW site, using an incognito window helped. But I'm even having trouble there.

Also, is something up with Blue Bayou? No times loaded yet. Do I just need to keep checking or is it down or something?

I've been having the same issue. I've been checking since early yesterday for reservation times for January 7. I get a "No Times Available" notice, and January 7 cannot be clicked on the calendar. As of today this is also true for January 8. I'm pretty sure this isn't because those two days have been completely booked, I think it's because those days haven't been made available on the Blue Bayou site. I'm wondering if BB is closed on those days, maybe for maintenance/renovations?

 

[ballarinamom]

I've been having the same issue. I've been checking since early yesterday for reservation times for January 7. I get a "No Times Available" notice, and January 7 cannot be clicked on the calendar. As of today this is also true for January 8. I'm pretty sure this isn't because those two days have been completely booked, I think it's because those days haven't been made available on the Blue Bayou site. I'm wondering if BB is closed on those days, maybe for maintenance/renovations?

How early is early? If you arent on right at 6:00am Pacific time, they will be gone in minutes. Same for Trader Sam's. If you wait until 6:05 they will be gone for those two places. The both have very few tables so they go fast

 

[AprilsZoo]

I'm wondering if BB is closed on those days, maybe for maintenance/renovations?

BB underwent pretty major renovations not too long ago, so I’d be very surprised if they were already doing more. I mean the recent redo was the first time in forever (oops —wrong franchise ) that the restaurant had anything major done. Mostly just freshening up before the refurb ~2 years ago.

Have you tried to book via the Disneyland app instead of the website? Disney as a whole does not seem to be able to correlate the info shown on the website to what is in the app & vice versa.

There’s a better than fair chance that BB just hasn’t opened the dates in their calendar yet. It’s a maddeningly inconsistent system. The restaurants seem to each get to play by their own rules, despite Disney’s “promise” of being able to snag your ressies at 60 days.

The only thing you an do is keep stalking both the app and the website, or sign up for a paid dining alert service and be ready to jump on any alerts.

How early is early? If you arent on right at 6:00am Pacific time, they will be gone in minutes. Same for Trader Sam's. If you wait until 6:05 they will be gone for those two places. The both have very few tables so they go fast

True.

Don’t give up hope though…. On multiple trips, we’ve been able to get into BB same day by going straight to BB first thing in the morning and asking at the hostess desk.

Also, check your app shortly after midnight the night before you want to go. A lot of people end up cancelling the day before when they realize it either doesn’t work with their plans, or the decide that it’s not in their budget after all. Sometimes, they realize that they don’t actually like the menu (although the Monte Cristo sandwich is to die for. Lol.)

Check again as soon as you wake up in the morning.

We’ve only done Trader Sam’s once, but we got in as walk-ups. It was about 4 months after DL reopened after Covid, and we had a strange experience, because they weren’t back to regular operations yet. I was recently talking with some friends who say they’ve never done ressies ahead— they’ve always been able to do walk-up, although they’ve sometimes had a wait of well over an hour. They just use the time to explore the hotel and shops.

 

[DizMe]

I DETEST the dining system. It used to be so easy to book dining reservations. Now, even when you get what you want, it's a royal pain in the tushy. I am one of those people who sits shaking, heart pounding, just waiting to spring into action when the clock hits 6 am (though I always try before 6 as well). I often have both my phone and desktop computer ready to go because they don't always show me the same things at the same time.

Throw in the occasional early/late drop (before or after the 60 day mark), or midnight or 2 am instead of 6, and it makes for a very unpleasant quest to get the coveted reservation(s).

Edited to add that it also encourages overbooking, as you don't know for sure whether or not you'll get the reservations you want on the following days, so you might just book 3 or 4 on the same day and wait and see what happens on consecutive mornings.