A newbie's experience with ADRs

[Baklava]

My 180 hit this morning and in a fit of Disney Madness I was up at 2:40 am in order to book starting at 3:00 am because I'm on the West coast which makes 6:00 am EST officially Stupid o'Clock here.

I did really well, but there were some frustrations. I'm not sharing to complain, but to tell other newbies what my experience was and how to cope with some of it.

I got a *lot* of error messages. I'd choose a time, go to book, and it would tell me there had been a problem and to call- except you can't call until an hour later than online booking opens. However, I found that about 75% of the time if I hit "reserve" again it would go through. Don't give up too fast!

I also got a lot of "this page not available" and had to go reload the main site, sometimes more than once.

Three times during the process it suddenly forgot that I was allowed to book 180 + 10 and started showing nothing past 180. When this happened I'd go to MDE, log in again and it cleared up.

Ultimately I had to get a CM to book 3 of my reservations (Spirit of Aloha, Whispering Canyon and Boatwrights) and 4 of them neither of us could get at all- and they're weird ones not to get. We are still waiting and trying on Raglan Road, Captain's Grille, Yak and Yeti and Rainforest Cafe. When I say could not book I mean NO availability at all. Not weird times, nothing.

Those are the problems I ran into. A lot of it was a matter of refreshing, re logging-in, and being persistent. When it tells you no for something you're sure is okay, keep trying.

OH! And if you're on the dining plan, it covers shows for Category 2 and 3 ONLY but the system doesn't tell you about that and it will let you book Category 1 (because you might be paying out of pocket.) Fortunately the nice CM tipped me off and adjusted my Hoop Dee Do reservation.

For all that, I got some really good "hard to get" reservations easily. It was worth being up at Stupid o'clock. Good luck on your ADRs.

 

[Alesia]

For Raglan Road, book online through Open Table (you'll have to be less than 180 days from the reservation.)

For Yak and Yeti and RFC, call the restaurants directly. Or, better yet, join the Landry's Select Club. It will give you priority seating without an ADR.

All of those are non-Disney owned and only release a portion of their available reservations through Disney.

 

[Baklava]

Thank you! We are Landrys members, but we've found that in California at the DTD location that express line can still be an hour long. Is it less likely to be that way at AK? We're kind of shooting for a time that's probably popular- right after the park closes.

I appreciate the tip. I'll be calling Yak and Yeti, and checking Open Table in a few days if I can't get the system to let me in.

 

[Alesia]

Thank you! We are Landrys members, but we've found that in California at the DTD location that express line can still be an hour long. Is it less likely to be that way at AK?

We only waited about 5 minutes at the RFC in AK. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon. We didn't go to Y&Y, but I've never heard of excessive waits for Select Club members.

 

[Baklava]

Good to know! If we don't get those ADRs I won't stress too much.

 

[imthegoose]

"OH! And if you're on the dining plan, it covers shows for Category 2 and 3 ONLY but the system doesn't tell you about that and it will let you book Category 1 (because you might be paying out of pocket.) Fortunately the nice CM tipped me off and adjusted my Hoop Dee Do reservation."



I believe you can get category 1 for HDDR on the dining plan if you attend the 9:30 show.

 

[Baklava]

I stand corrected.

 

[Baklava]

So today I got on the website and booked Rainforest, Yak and Yeti and Captain's Grille, all at my preferred times. Neither the nice CM nor I could get Raglan Road to come up, but I called them directly and they booked me a table for the time and day I wanted.

I will keep trying through the Disney site and cancel the manual reservation if I get a Disney one, because there's comfort in having it all in the computer with a tracking number and everything but if all else fails I do have it listed with the restaurant and that's something.

There were still a couple hiccups. The website crashed for me twice and forgot I was a resort guest once, but I did get those three eventually.

 

[courtneybeth]

My 180 hit this morning and in a fit of Disney Madness I was up at 2:40 am in order to book starting at 3:00 am because I'm on the West coast which makes 6:00 am EST officially Stupid o'Clock here.

As a fellow West Coaster, I commend you on your ability to wake up at Insane O'Clock. We were fortunate that this year we were at Disneyland Paris and it opened at Noon while we were at the parks. I did it last year at 3am for our Christmas week trip and it was a ~nightmare~. Having a buddy do it with you, signed into "MyDisneyExperience" helps so much. We multi-tasked and got everything we wanted, and prioritized the 'hard to gets' first, then went back and got the easier ones.

Best advice - book the 'hardest to gets' the furthest out. This will also help with your fastpass+ reservations too!

PS: Join the cancellation thread so you can monitor when things open up if you change your mind. You have 6 months to go

CONGRATS, again, on your success.

 

[TexasBelle7]

Sorry to be jumping in on this thread, but could someone explain landry's too me?! I am just learning about this and am intrigued! Do we have to book through landry's in order to redeem rewards? How do their rewards work? Help! TIA

 

[Baklava]

Sorry to be jumping in on this thread, but could someone explain landry's too me?! I am just learning about this and am intrigued! Do we have to book through landry's in order to redeem rewards? How do their rewards work? Help! TIA

No, Landrys is the company that owns Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gumps and several other chains. They have a club membership which, among other benefits, allows you an "express lane." Just walk up, no reservation, and you get priority seating.

 

[Alesia]

Sorry to be jumping in on this thread, but could someone explain landry's too me?! I am just learning about this and am intrigued! Do we have to book through landry's in order to redeem rewards? How do their rewards work? Help! TIA

You can read about it here: https://www.landrysselect.com/SelectClubFeatures.aspx

The FAQ should answer your questions: https://www.landrysselect.com/ClubFaqs.aspx

 

[MarieKat]

As a fellow West Coaster, I commend you on your ability to wake up at Insane O'Clock. We were fortunate that this year we were at Disneyland Paris and it opened at Noon while we were at the parks. I did it last year at 3am for our Christmas week trip and it was a ~nightmare~. Having a buddy do it with you, signed into "MyDisneyExperience" helps so much. We multi-tasked and got everything we wanted, and prioritized the 'hard to gets' first, then went back and got the easier ones.

Best advice - book the 'hardest to gets' the furthest out. This will also help with your fastpass+ reservations too!

PS: Join the cancellation thread so you can monitor when things open up if you change your mind. You have 6 months to go

CONGRATS, again, on your success.

I second your strategy. My husband and I woke up early together, had multiple windows open on two laptops and had a pre-written list of ADRs, toughest ones furthest out booked first, and we got everything except V&A. We got BOG for dinner, Spirit of Aloha, Chef Mickey's for breakfast, Ohana for breakfast (yes we made a lot of ADRs, we like sit-down meals) and others that we heard were tough to book. We were done in 20 minutes and while I was stressed out in the week leading up to it, it worked out great.

 

[Baklava]

I did it alone and it took about an hour for an 11 night trip with all the crashes. I booked BoG first which I'm sure helped.

 

[courtneybeth]

We got BOG for dinner, Spirit of Aloha, Chef Mickey's for breakfast, Ohana for breakfast (yes we made a lot of ADRs, we like sit-down meals)

We love sit-down meals, especially with Tables in Wonderland. I think we're doing Tusker House, Chef Mickey's, Be Our Guest, Candles at Marrakesh, and Askerhus on this next go. Our EPCOT days are the only ones where we don't plan a lunch day and we munch around the world.

 

[MarieKat]

Fun! I only booked two lunches, Tony's & Tusker House, and I would have done TH for breakfast but we are doing the Wild Africa Trek in the morning and will have breakfast on the hike. But I like having sit-down meals on vacation, we would be miserable doing QS all the time.