ADR Strategy 12 People!

[adventures_in_magic]

Hi Everyone!

Our 60 day window is fast approaching and I need some advice. We have 12 people in our party for most of the reservations we have to make (8 the other nights). I know its has been a bear to get the hot restaurants and of course my travel party want pretty much exclusively the hard to get reservations. I am going to enlist my mom to help me at 5:45 am ET. Our plan of attack was to sit together with lap tops in hand and have her make reservations for 6 while I would do the same for the same restaurant, at the same time. Do you think this is the best way to do it? Can anyone give me advice on which to attempt first? Should I start with the harder reservations and then work our way down to just start at the earliest reservation? Our 60 day window is 11/22 and we check in on 1/21. We do have a plan A and plan B for each day. Here's our "hopeful" plans.

1/21: Topolino Terrace (8 people)
1/22: Steakhouse 71 (8 people)
1/23: Jiko
1/24: Teppan Edo
1/25: Flying Fish
1/26: BOG
1/27: Cinderella's Royal Table (late breakfast)
Space 220 Dinner
1/28: California Grill

Signed - A stressed out oldest daughter

 

[thanxfornoticin]

It usually seems best to take advantage of 60-days + when you have a Disney reservation. There might be some discussion around which are the toughest on your list, but I expect Space 220, BOG, and SH71 right now. I would start there, then work back to the beginning dates and go through to the last. FYI - it's important to note that Jiko is not yet reopened from the Covid closures. You'll want to keep an eye on that one. Good luck! Seems like you have a good plan - now you need to go get them!!

 

[disnemimi]

I am looking for a reservation for BOG in January for a party of 13. Do you think one reservation with a party of 7 and another for a party of 6 will work? I am worried I might have to do 3 reservations!

 

[kappyfamily]

So for our party of 10 (in 2019) I had to just split it up into 2 reservations of 5. To be honest, it was really nice to get a slight break from the big group and then we would just meet up after dinner. You can book for a larger party but there's a really good chance you will be waiting for quite awhile. Basically anything over 6. Remember, just because you have an ADR at 6pm doesnt mean that table will be ready then. What I did was book one reservation (example) at Crystal Palace for 5 at 5:30pm and then immediately I did another reservation for 5. I pretty much was able to get everything close. Sometimes it was like 20 minutes later. We still all checked in at the same time and they pretty much always got us in at the same time, just not sitting together. They often got us "close" by but again this just wasnt as big of a deal as I thought it would be. It actually worked out perfect. Good luck!

 

[adventures_in_magic]

Hi all! Thank you all for the recommendations! We had our booking morning today and were able to get every single ADR that we wanted on the day we wanted them by breaking it into 2 reservations. We are so excited!

 

[twix516]

Piggybacking on this post to ask a logistical question. How do you get the system to allow overlapping dining reservations to accommodate a larger party? Two mde accounts?

 

[CarolynFH]

Piggybacking on this post to ask a logistical question. How do you get the system to allow overlapping dining reservations to accommodate a larger party? Two mde accounts?

Using two MDE accounts will work - some people have two devices open to separate MDE accounts and work back and forth between them or have two people coordinating their MDE accounts. An alternative is to set the person managing the first ADR for a given meal as one of the other guests, not yourself (being aware that only they will be able to modify or cancel the ADR), then leave yourself as the manager of the second ADR.

 

[twix516]

Using two MDE accounts will work - some people have two devices open to separate MDE accounts and work back and forth between them or have two people coordinating their MDE accounts. An alternative is to set the person managing the first ADR for a given meal as one of the other guests, not yourself (being aware that only they will be able to modify or cancel the ADR), then leave yourself as the manager of the second ADR.

Thanks! How do I set someone other than myself as the manager of an adr? Can I do that after already booking, or only before?

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks! How do I set someone other than myself as the manager of an adr? Can I do that after already booking, or only before?

During the booking process you'll be presented with a screen that will ask who will manage the ADR. You can't miss it! It will tell you that once set, it can't be changed. The drop down box will default to your name, but you can click the arrow and then pick anyone who's in your F&F list. You finish the ADR the normal way. Then when you go back to book for the remainder of your party, just leave your name in that box and finish the process.

 

[twix516]

During the booking process you'll be presented with a screen that will ask who will manage the ADR. You can't miss it! It will tell you that once set, it can't be changed. The drop down box will default to your name, but you can click the arrow and then pick anyone who's in your F&F list. You finish the ADR the normal way. Then when you go back to book for the remainder of your party, just leave your name in that box and finish the process.

Thank you!!

 

[disney-inspired]

Hello!
I had to book for 9 people and found it easiest to book 2 reservations around the same time, splitting up the group.
It may be harder for your 6 and 6 so you may want to try a 4/4/4 set up.

Do you have anyone who can help grab reservations?

 

[dis444me]

I am looking for a reservation for BOG in January for a party of 13. Do you think one reservation with a party of 7 and another for a party of 6 will work? I am worried I might have to do 3 reservations!

I had realtime experience with this last night - as there was a BOG available and I decided to test the number of guests I could. It was for my time period in December, so not something I could have gotten for you. For the timeslot it allowed me to book 8 - no more - whic I did. I then logged in as another member of our party and searched again and for the exact same time slot BOG was showing again - but this time it maxed out at 6 guests. I booked it. I then did the routine a third time - and there it was again for the same time slot - and again maxed at 6 guests. After that there were no more for that time slot - but as rare as BOG was, there was another one with a slightly later time. I did not check that. . I am thinking a large party released the entire lot. With all that said - ADRs like BOG are really hard to find for just one reservation - let alone multiple reservation to satisfy a large group. My recommendation is to call Disney reservation support in advance and get specific instructions on how to handle reservations for your large group. I read on my of their pages that they provide support services for family reunions - so perhaps you large group falls under that.

 

[BJoy82]

If any in your group are at all interested in Oga's Cantina, please check out the January cancellations thread! (I noticed that you're a party of 12. I accidentally wound up with two simultaneous reservations for 6 at 9:20pm on Wednesday, January 26th that my family won't use. This is a very sought-after and hard-to-get reservation, and this is probably the only way a group your size could all hope to enjoy it together.) You just need a few more posts to be able to participate in "conversations" to coordinate.

 

[mamaofsix]

Thanks for this thread - we have party of 18 in March and I'm so nervous about booking ADR'S - thinking we will need to break it up into 3 bookings.