The elusive Sci-Fi Dine-In reservation...

[Ari37]

So today was our 180-day mark, and I woke up bright and early to make our dining reservations right at 6:00 AM (which was quite the feat, since I'm definitely not a morning person ) Anyways, nearly all of the reservations that I anticipated being difficult were a breeze! I successfully booked Be Our Guest, California Grill (for our arrival day, no less), the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose, the Wishes Dessert Party, Ohana, and the Garden View Tea Room for our first choice days and times. After this, I thought the rest of my reservations would be a breeze this early in the morning 180 days out! Much to my surprise, I went to book a dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In for May 13th, and ALL of the dinner and lunch reservations were completely booked I knew that the restaurant was popular, but I didn't realize that it was THAT popular! Have other people had similar issues with booking at this restaurant recently? Does anyone have any insight into why the restaurant may already be completely booked that day? I may try to be persistent and see if we can luck out eventually with a reservation that evening, but for now I've booked it on our departure day!
Aside from that one glitch, I think that we really lucked out with our reservations!
The full dining list for our trip for anyone who is interested:

Be Our Guest
Ohana
California Grill
Whispering Canyon
Sanaa
Wishes Dessert Party
Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose's
Teppan Edo
Coral Reef
Tusker House
50's Prime Time Cafe
Garden View Tea Room
Sci-Fi Dine-In (hopefully)
Beaches and Cream (for dessert only after Illuminations)

So excited for lots of good food

 

[SouthJersey]

So today was our 180-day mark, and I woke up bright and early to make our dining reservations right at 6:00 AM (which was quite the feat, since I'm definitely not a morning person ) Anyways, nearly all of the reservations that I anticipated being difficult were a breeze! I successfully booked Be Our Guest, California Grill (for our arrival day, no less), the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose, the Wishes Dessert Party, Ohana, and the Garden View Tea Room for our first choice days and times. After this, I thought the rest of my reservations would be a breeze this early in the morning 180 days out! Much to my surprise, I went to book a dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In for May 13th, and ALL of the dinner and lunch reservations were completely booked I knew that the restaurant was popular, but I didn't realize that it was THAT popular! Have other people had similar issues with booking at this restaurant recently? Does anyone have any insight into why the restaurant may already be completely booked that day? I may try to be persistent and see if we can luck out eventually with a reservation that evening, but for now I've booked it on our departure day!
Aside from that one glitch, I think that we really lucked out with our reservations!
The full dining list for our trip for anyone who is interested:

Be Our Guest
Ohana
California Grill
Whispering Canyon
Sanaa
Wishes Dessert Party
Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose's
Teppan Edo
Coral Reef
Tusker House
50's Prime Time Cafe
Garden View Tea Room
Sci-Fi Dine-In (hopefully)
Beaches and Cream (for dessert only after Illuminations)

So excited for lots of good food

We've never had a problem making a Sci-Fi Dine-In ADR, ever...
I've always found them 6 months, 5, 4,3,2 and same month. Even during our trip when we didn't have an ADR, they were available through cancellations the day before and morning of.

 

[Ari37]

Thanks for your response, SouthJersey! We've never had a problem getting reservations at Sci-Fi before either, and I haven't even booked 180 days out in the past. That's was why I was so shocked this morning! I think that I'll keep checking back over the next few days to see if more reservations open up. May 13th is a Wednesday, but maybe the announcement that the Star Wars Weekends will begin that Friday has impacted the availability of Sci-Fi Dine-In ressies?

 

[HizMinnie2015]

I'm not sure why they are booked up as I'm a newbie to the boards and Disney trips... however you have given me hope in the ADR world; as a lot of your restaurants are the same as we want lol... I am going to book BOG first since that is one of the most popular on my list.

 

[Ari37]

Thanks for posting HizMinnie2015! I'm glad to hear that my list of ressies gave you hope for your trip, and wish you the best of luck for when your 180-day mark rolls around I also chose to book Be Our Guest first, followed by the Dessert party, Cali Grill, Ohana, and the Fantasmic Dinner Package. I'm not sure if that's the optimum order, but I do know that it's important to start with Be Our Guest!

 

[nikkij]

DH and I booked our trip in January we were about 60 days out and easily got a Sci-Fi, but since about 60 days out of our trip this month I saw little Sci-Fi availability...Good luck! It was an interesting place to eat, nothing gourmet or fancy but yummy. We got the ribs and steak and it was yummy. We had milkshakes for our drinks and it was rough to have our meal too. We even took our dessert to go because we were soo stuffed.

Good luck and enjoy!

I would take not having Sci-Fi for all those other places.

 

[figment_jii]

Others have been reporting that they're been having problems getting Sci Fi and H&V ADRs in May as well. The current speculation is that Disney has not yet released dining ADRs for those venues because they might end up having some type of Star Wars themed meal during the period when Star Wars weekends are running, which is historically from early May through mid-June.

 

[Ari37]

Thanks for your response, Nickij! I'm still very curious as to why the Sci-Fi Dine-In has such limited availability as of recently. I'm definitely happy with all of the great reservations that we have so far, but it would still be an added bonus if we can scoop something up at Sci-Fi at some point before our trip

 

[Ari37]

Others have been reporting that they're been having problems getting Sci Fi and H&V ADRs in May as well. The current speculation is that Disney has not yet released dining ADRs for those venues because they might end up having some type of Star Wars themed meal during the period when Star Wars weekends are running, which is historically from early May through mid-June.

Very interesting! Thanks for this insight, Figment_jii. That would make a lot more sense, since as I said, I've never had trouble making Sci-Fi reservations before. I'll be interested to see what opens up there later on in terms of Star Wars themed meals!

 

[SouthJersey]

Thanks for your response, SouthJersey! We've never had a problem getting reservations at Sci-Fi before either, and I haven't even booked 180 days out in the past. That's was why I was so shocked this morning! I think that I'll keep checking back over the next few days to see if more reservations open up. May 13th is a Wednesday, but maybe the announcement that the Star Wars Weekends will begin that Friday has impacted the availability of Sci-Fi Dine-In ressies?

The ADR's could be locked for the time-frame depending on any events or possible packages that they might use the restaurant in.

 

[figment_jii]

Very interesting! Thanks for this insight, Figment_jii. That would make a lot more sense, since as I said, I've never had trouble making Sci-Fi reservations before. I'll be interested to see what opens up there later on in terms of Star Wars themed meals!

There is no guarantee that what they did last year will occur again this year, but here is the Disney announcement/description about the dining options last year:
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...s-may-4-june-15-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I've noticed the same thing. My booking date is 12/3/14 & I've been tracking ressies daily @ 180 days to check availability for CRT. I've also tried to check other ressies randomly since we are a party of 9. I've also noticed that there has been no availability each day for Sci Fi for the last week. We're going June 5-15th & hope they have some regular Sci Fi ressies, not just Star Wars.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

It's really amazing, for my trip coming up in December, SciFi was been the hardest ADR to get. I've gotten CRT 3x each at a better time, I've seen BOG about 4-5 times when searching, and Ive seen 'Ohana, CM and Akershus a couple times each. I have. Yet to see SciFi pop up at any time at all. I am searching about 5x per hour for 8-10 hours per day. The weekend I'll be there is listed as a 4 on crowd calendar, yet there are days where there is not a single ADR for Breakfast, lunch or dinner at DHS.

 

[tinkerhon]

It's really amazing, for my trip coming up in December, SciFi was been the hardest ADR to get. I've gotten CRT 3x each at a better time, I've seen BOG about 4-5 times when searching, and Ive seen 'Ohana, CM and Akershus a couple times each. I have. Yet to see SciFi pop up at any time at all. I am searching about 5x per hour for 8-10 hours per day. The weekend I'll be there is listed as a 4 on crowd calendar, yet there are days where there is not a single ADR for Breakfast, lunch or dinner at DHS.

We found the same thing!!! Dinner ADR for Sci-Fi was so hard to get!!

11/27-12/6

Same w mama melrose for most of the same dates!!

 

[Ari37]

That's interesting to hear that others have been having a lot of difficulty booking Sci-Fi reservations as well... and especially in November and December when there aren't any Star Wars events going on Thanks everyone for your posts!

 

[Pipefitr]

I'm confused, I just booked ours for May 10( coral reef) our arrival day but MDE will not let me book may 11 it seems until tomorrow. Am I wrong in thinking that is how it is supposed to work, being 180 from the exact date? I don't understand how you would be able to book May 13?

Paul

 

[Ari37]

Hi Paul,
Are you staying at a Disney resort? If you are, then on day 180 you should have the privilege to book dining reservations for up to ten additional days (180+10 days). If this is the case and your computer is being glitchy, then you should just call Disney directly to take advantage of your 180+10 privilege! If you are staying off-site, then you will need to continue booking reservations one day at a time.

 

[Pipefitr]

Thanks! We are staying on site at AOA . Both MDE and on the disney site will not let me. I'll have to call tomorrow.

Paul

 

[Ari37]

Sounds good- good luck booking your reservations tomorrow! Hopefully you weren't too set on eating at Sci-fi on May 13th Coincidentally, we're also arriving at AoA on May 10th!

 

[Pipefitr]

Small world! I tried the website again and it worked! No worries about Sci-Fi we will be at Hollywood and Vine as DD (2) loves Sofia! Good luck with Sci-Fi I hope you get it!
Thanks again!