ADR at 180 days plus 10

[ladybugsister]

It seems that availablity of ADR at 180 days out at top tier restaurants (Ohana, BOG, etc) are hard to come by. Are people recreating fake hotel reservations to get the "plus 10" jump on things? I find it hard to believe that at 180 days out at 6 AM there is no ADR availablity. There has to be a reason.

 

[Mikie]

Certainly some are harder than others, especially depending on the size of your party and the degree to which you're flexible about dining times. Be Our Guest is currently the most difficult to get - although I haven't heard a lot about its availability since they added Breakfast and turned lunch into an ADR. I think when I went in 2008, ADRs weren't quite as difficult except a handful if the most in demand, but 180 days was still the prime booking date. Again in 2010, it was not necessary at 180 to get *any* reservation, but if you wanted certain favorites at certain times, on certain days, it was still important to book at 180+10. My 2014 trip, I booked at 180+8 and couldn't get BOG dinner at all, but otherwise got popular places like Cinderella, Akershus and O'hana at popular times, but within days there was little or no availability to make any changes unless I wanted lunch at 10:15 or dinner at 9pm.

I think free dining periods are especially necessary to book ADRs far in advance, and many people still do book extra ADRs while they're making plans and eventually cancel the ones they decided against. Dinsney's increasing emphasis on planning, sending the reminder magnets about booking dates, and many tip sites like this and steadily increasing park numbers really means that for the most part restaurants just really are that full. Plus, I realize this board may not be representative, but I am continually surprised at the length of vacations many people here take. "In real life" most people I know take about 1 week trips. Here, 10 days to 2 weeks isn't uncommon at all - no fake reservation needed!

 

[dbramer]

Depends on your dates. Right now for dates in Sept and Oct, people are booking based on the past availability of FD. So many visitors have booked with a deposit and made their ADR's in the hopes that FD will be offered during their stay. Then when it is announced, they will change their dates or cancel if it isn't offered. 5 years ago, FD was offered mid-August. Lately it has been pushed back after Labor Day. Might be even later this year. I think people trying to get the jump on FD are just going to push it back farther. Disney will only offer it if they need to fill the hotels. If people are booking ro with a deposit waiting for FD, then Disney will not see the need to offer it.

My ADR date was Feb 2 and I was on at 6AM here in the east. Got everything I wanted when I wanted it. One of the tricks I learned was not to choose a meal period, but choose an early time. When I chose a meal period, I was getting later times. When I switched to starting at 6:30, I was able to get pre-opening times for my character breakfasts, BOG Dinner at 6:15 on my first day at MK (before lunch ADR's and breakfast were offered), CRT for later in the morning at 10:00 am (my DD has a BBB appointment at 8:30 that day).

 

[nalajms]

BOG dinner is also hard to get because of the Halloween party. I don't believe they are taking reservations after 7pm on those nights.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

TAs will go in each day and book huge blocks of reservations for their clients.