Advice for successfully booking ADR's?

[DisneyMama811]

Looking for advice from the pros on the best strategy for booking ADR'S.... I don't quite get all the rules for booking timelines...we are staying on site (AoA) January 16th - 24th does that mean 60 days before Jan 16th I can book ADRs for the whole stay? or only for the 16th then the next day anything on the 17th? etc...Does this include Disney Springs as well? we fly in on the 16th arriving 11am, not doing a park this day but want to have supper at T-Rex... I'm not planning table service for every single day the main things I want to score are Disney JR breakfast at HS, Garden Grill at EP and on a mid week non park day Breakfast at Chef Mickey's, travel agent advises that Chef Mickey's will be very hard to score... does booking at the 60 day window open at midnight? 7am? another time? we are Canadian, live in Ontario so the same time zone as FL. is it better to try online via a computer or via the MDE app?

 

[SunMonkeyAZ]

Some input I know. You can book 60 days out from your first day and at that time book ADRs for up to 10 days of your trip. Since your whole trip is less than 10 you can book for all the days.
I’m on Pacific time and used the MDE app to check at about 6:30am Pacific time and got everything we wanted. No in park dining but did Steakhouse 71, Ohana, Sanaa and Ale and Compass. I don’t believe there is an exact time times are released. It fluctuates.

 

[Anna131517]

It’s 60 days from your first check in. Opens at 6 a.m. eastern time but sometimes is available up to 15 minutes earlier. Have the website up and running with your party and payment method loaded. Start with the hardest to get, in your case Chef Mickeys and Garden Grill. Search by time if searching by meal doesn’t work.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yes, it's 60 calendar days from your check-in and can book for entire stay (up to ten days) provided it isn't a split stay (i.e. checking into another resort). In the case of a split stay, you'd have separate windows for each check-in date. For a 1/16 check-in, your ADR date is 11/17. As noted above reservations open online at 6am Eastern (more like 5:45am in practice) and the phone line opens at 7am ET (407-WDW-DINE).

For most Disney Springs restaurants (except Homecomin') you can also look on OpenTable for reservations -- there's often more availability there, it isn't restricted to the 60 day calendar count, and doesn't have the same cancellation penalties.

Disney IT is infamously unreliable. I tend to have both my laptop and phone ready to go and it honestly varies as to which one works on any given day.

Lastly will just say that if you don't get what you want on the day reservations open, do not lose hope. People are changing plans all the time. Keep looking. There are also some reservation finder tools (Touring Plans has a free one - you have to register so it knows who to alert but it's free) that will alert you when a reservation you're seeking becomes available ... but it's still up to you to log in and book it yourself.

 

[DisneyMama811]

Yes, it's 60 calendar days from your check-in and can book for entire stay (up to ten days) provided it isn't a split stay (i.e. checking into another resort). In the case of a split stay, you'd have separate windows for each check-in date. For a 1/16 check-in, your ADR date is 11/17. As noted above reservations open online at 6am Eastern (more like 5:45am in practice) and the phone line opens at 7am ET (407-WDW-DINE).

For most Disney Springs restaurants (except Homecomin') you can also look on OpenTable for reservations -- there's often more availability there, it isn't restricted to the 60 day calendar count, and doesn't have the same cancellation penalties.

Disney IT is infamously unreliable. I tend to have both my laptop and phone ready to go and it honestly varies as to which one works on any given day.

Lastly will just say that if you don't get what you want on the day reservations open, do not lose hope. People are changing plans all the time. Keep looking. There are also some reservation finder tools (Touring Plans has a free one - you have to register so it knows who to alert but it's free) that will alert you when a reservation you're seeking becomes available ... but it's still up to you to log in and book it yourself.

thank you for the great concise information! also working with a travel agent so she will be working to help secure reservations, I just figure it can't hurt for us to both try!

 

[Figmentv]

I just figure it can't hurt for us to both try!

Absolutely !! If you can get anyone else to help out when your window opens, all the better.

When our 60 day window opened up, there was 4 of us working on getting our ADRs. We each had a list of what we wanted, then set up a group text. As soon as someone got an ADR, a text was sent and we crossed it off our list. We had 2 people looking from the 60+ last day working backwards to the first day, then 2 people doing the opposite. After a rather frenzied 30 minutes, we got every ADR that we wanted.

 

[nursejackie]

I had three devices open at 10.59am (UK equivalent time) but it was dead on 11am when my window opened. I had all three set for Space 220 lounge and when I booked that one, I moved on to our other top choices. I was flying between the three devices for about 10 minutes, it was chaotic but managed to get everything I wanted for our 10 day trip.

 

[lynnfitz]

I did ours at 6 a.m., Eastern standard time for end of July and August stay. I was able to get Space 220 and CRT, which I was very pleasantly surprised. I did have an issue with CRT, it kept saying it wasn't accepting my payment and couldn't complete the reservation, but it actually deducted it out from my checking acct several times. Bank was great about it-refunded it immediately. Anyway, I thought I was pretty lucky to get those 2 especially in the summer months!

 

[lynnfitz]

It's funny, I'm reading the PP and had to laugh, I was sitting at the desk on the desk top computer, yelling to my husband to get my IPad and had both going when I was having trouble with CRT. Things we do to get those reservations, lol! I also was on hold with Disney all the way driving to work!