Anyone ever use planning resources to book dining

[Masonmj84]

in advance when staying on-site.

We have a trip coming up in early January (staying at DLH) and our 60 day window to book dining opens when we are planning to be on vacation in Hawaii (at Aulani).

I know that for most DLR dining reservations it isn't critical to book at the 60 day mark. However, one of our planned ADRs is a Fantasmic! dinner package at Blue Bayou. These seem to book up fast, especially if you have an odd-numbered party (we have a party of 5 and, just checking the site, it seems that there are hardly any remaining Fantasmic! ADRs for a party of 5 over the next 60 days!).

So, in an interest of avoiding waking up at 5 am while on vacation to make ADRs, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience using the hotels' planning resources to book dining for them.

If so, what is the procedure?

How reliable are they? (I've never left it to someone else to book ADRs for me and am especially concerned that they're going to either book the wrong times for us or that they'll miss the boat on booking our Fantasmic! reservation on time)

 

[Geemo]

I think I'd have a family member or friend book for me.

 

[5forMickey]

I used vacation planning for our November trip. The time frames were not coming up and I was getting nervous and our party was rather large. They did just fine and actually notified me before the times opened on the website with a reservation number etc., Just be very descriptive with what you want. For example, make sure if you ask for 7:00 that they know you will take anything around that time. It's the first time I also used anyone (I'm a control freak)but this time I felt like they had a better chance of taking care of it than I did......good luck!

 

[figment_jii]

We have a trip coming up in early January (staying at DLH) and our 60 day window to book dining opens when we are planning to be on vacation in Hawaii (at Aulani).

When in January are you going? The Rivers of America are going to be closed starting on January 11th, which means F! won't be presented after that. Also, it's worth noting that F! is usually only presented on weekends (Fri, Sat, and Sun) in Oct, Nov, and the first half of December so that could also be why you aren't seeing a lot of availability.

 

[Masonmj84]

When in January are you going? The Rivers of America are going to be closed starting on January 11th, which means F! won't be presented after that. Also, it's worth noting that F! is usually only presented on weekends (Fri, Sat, and Sun) in Oct, Nov, and the first half of December so that could also be why you aren't seeing a lot of availability.

January 6-10. I'm figuring Fantasmic! will only be available on the evenings of the 8th-10th (Fri-Sun).