ADR's easier when it's not free dining?

[chris7]

From what I can tell free dining is from August 16 - October 3, 2009. I've been reading a lot about how tough it is to get ADR's, even first thing in the morning 90 days out. Someone speculated that it's bad now because of free dining. We're going over X-mas, so no free dining then. I'm hoping it's not as tough. This is our first trip where we could not book at 180 days. And I was one of those nuts on the phone 180 days out getting exactly what I wanted. I'm kind of bummed. I'd liked knowing that to the obsessive, neurotic planners go the rewards.

 

[Mulan2]

I was just told by a CM that the new system is down more than it is up. I waited all day to make my ADRs!

 

[RMulieri]

Free dining is tough.But Christmas week is harder ime. It is the busiest Disney gets all year and lots of people are booking TS.Particularly bad is Christmas dinners.

 

[Colleen27]

I don't think it is ever as bad as it is right now, because of the combination of free dining and the new dining reservations software. How bad it is for holiday travelers will probably depend on whether or not they have worked all the bugs out of the new system by then.

 

[jojohnhn]

i once called 40 days after my 90 day window during indepedance day week and i got everything i wanted

 

[RMulieri]

i once called 40 days after my 90 day window during indepedance day week and i got everything i wanted

But that is easier than Christmas week.Christmas week can be difficult.

 

[princessjane]

I think the problems are partly because of free dining and partly because of the new system that crashes daily. the new software was put into place for Travel Agents to make Online ADR's for their clients. As we can see so far, it's been nothing but a total nightmare for both guests making ADR's and the CM's who work for Disney.

From my observations I can honestly say that timing is everything. Meaning that I've seen people call in to get their ADR's First thing in the morning, only to have the system crash because it cannot handle the volume.

When I called Sunday. I waited until 9:30 am eastern time. Waited about 15 minutes on hold and got a great CM who knew the problems of the system and took her time. She kept apologizing for the slowness of the system. Indeed it was. Took about 25 minutes to make 10 ADR's. Kind of long.

I started with the one that I thought would be the hardest to get first. Typically character Breakfasts at park opening. I asked for an exact time. Like 8:10 am. she looked in 1/2 hour increments. that seemed to work the best and I got everything I wanted within 30 minutes of the time I wanted.

I heard that later that day, the system crashed again. I think it is a daily occurrence. One thing I can say from chatting with other folks going during free dining, It seems that when the system starts to crash, nothing seems to come up. Making them think there is no availability when in fact there is ADR's available. You have to remember, regulars at Disney know they need an ADR. Non-Disney people normally have no clue even what an ADR is and don't make ressies until it's too late.

Sorry for the rambling, I've just been thinking about ADR's a lot lately. I made mine and now I'm bored...lol

I do think that the Hardest ADR's to get is Thanksgiving day and Christmas Day and probably New Years a close 3rd. Sure Free dining makes it tougher but even when they don't have free dining people purchase the dining plan and have to make ADR's too. They also bae availability on Manpower (Servers, kitchen staff etc.) Layoffs, cutting back hours and high turnover make the restaurants less staffed therefore not enough servers to go around.

 

[RMulieri]

It kind of stinks with all the system crashes, and yet they think that allowing the public to make online adrs will work. They need a bigger/faster server to handle the volume and they need to get IT on fixing it pronto.