Are we stalking ADRs now too?

[Artemis Fowl]

We've got our first large group family trip (6 adults, 6 kids ages 1-12) and tomorrow is our first day to book ADRs. We only are looking for 3 ADRs over our 8 day trip and it looks like there's almost no availability on the last day before we arrive.

As I understand it, all 8 of our days will open up for us tomorrow so I've been looking at reservation availability and there seems to be nothing for a group our size before 8:30 at night at just about every restaurant. When I search for ADR for 6 people, more options open up but not many.

I guess I need to be ready to book ADRs at 6am tomorrow, but it seems a little crazy that we need to decide what we want to eat 2 months ahead of time, and even then we may not get it.

 

[kes601]

We just booked ours this morning, but there are only 2 of us. We got everything we wanted -- including Flying Fish on day of check in and Sci-Fi at 10:30a the day after.

That said, I did notice an issue. Restaurants that are in MK, HS, or AK have incorrect closing times from June 12 on. MK shows everything closing at 6, HS at 7, and AK like at 5 (Yak and Yeti anyway). This makes virtually no availability in the evenings. I am sure it will get straightened out, but for now it is a problem and will take away the 60+ length of stay advantage.

 

[Akck]

I think you’d have more success if you booked 2 parties of 6 than one of 12.

Also, I don’t know if the booking glitch has been fixed, where it wouldn’t let me book length of stay. The workaround is to go online on the reservations page and search for the date and time you want. It will list all that are available.

 

[RoseGold]

I mean it used to be 180 days, and we were stalking then too. Nothing new.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I mean it used to be 180 days, and we were stalking then too. Nothing new.

Agreed - us, too. Just likely we had a little less stalking competition at 180!

 

[mistysue]

Most days of our trip we are a group of 8. We have a lunches at 10:50 or 11:00 in the morning because that is the best time I could get at 60+ up to 5 days. I really wish I was exaggerating, But I was up at 5:45 in the morning making those reservations with all of my tabs ready and there was nothing open because they are not opening tables for larger groups at all. A couple of meals I fell back to scheduling multiple small tables to get a reasonable time, But you have to remember to book the first one in someone else's name because it won't let you search again if you book it in your own name.
The day that we are only a group of six I even had trouble. The couple meals we are a party of four It was wide open.

Eta- for some examples, at 60+3 The best time we could get for prime time cafe Is 10:50 a.m. at 60 + 4 we have an 11:10 a.m. lunch, and as a group of 6 at 60+5 yak and yeti couldn't get us in any later than 11. I have had alarms set for over a month now to let me know if anything better opens up and I have heard nothing back.

 

[Doingitagain]

This may be too late for you, but I posted this recently. https://www.disboards.com/threads/tips-for-large-group-dining-reservations-adr.3875522/

 

[Nappy1380]

I stalk for a few days at the 60 day window and then pay one of the AI Bot sites to do the watching for me if it's a reservation I really want on a certain day. Why stress out about it and spend what amounts to possibly hours of time wasted when I can spend $10 and have 24 hour scanning for availability?

 

[Artemis Fowl]

This may be too late for you, but I posted this recently. https://www.disboards.com/threads/tips-for-large-group-dining-reservations-adr.3875522/

I appreciate the tips. I'll be able to give them a try when my window opens for the back half of my split stay

 

[KSL]

How did it go with ADRs for the first-half!?

 

[Artemis Fowl]

How did it go with ADRs for the first-half!?

terrible. We got nothing for the group of 12. I was able to get a table for 6 at CRT for the little kids and a couple adults. I'm hoping round 2 goes better.

 

[keishashadow]

Not sure with a larger party but, consistently, over multiple trips; have seen ADRs at decent places pop day prior for 2 to 4 pp. Even the day of, just keep checking.

 

[mistysue]

terrible. We got nothing for the group of 12. I was able to get a table for 6 at CRT for the little kids and a couple adults. I'm hoping round 2 goes better.

It really seems they did something to break the system. How horrible it is right now truly isn't justified by it being at 60 days instead of 180 either. I've been making dining reservations for at least good 12 years, This trip I have in a few weeks we got nothing at the days or times we wanted and I was looking for less crowded places because I knew we were a larger group. A few years ago we had exactly what we wanted, when we wanted, at the popular places.

On what some might consider a bright side, We had a little bit of trouble last year with our reservations but noticed they obviously held back reservations to make walk-ups available for people while they were there. This doesn't help for people who need to have a meal plan for dietary reasons unfortunately.

 

[skshain1020]

Have you checked back the last couple days, some of the dining reservations were not showing the correct hours in the evening? We noticed there were no Oga's for our group after 5pm even though we had a 10 day advantage my husband then checked the MK ones and noticed similar things so he reached out to chat and told them. We've since been able to get the Oga's haven't looked at much more...

 

[Artemis Fowl]

We ended up getting some of the things we wanted for the second half of our split stay. We had to make them as groups of 6 and I plan to follow the tip someone posted about stopping by the restaurant early in the day to let them know we're one group and to ask them to seat us together. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Doingitagain]

We ended up getting some of the things we wanted for the second half of our split stay. We had to make them as groups of 6 and I plan to follow the tip someone posted about stopping by the restaurant early in the day to let them know we're one group and to ask them to seat us together. Thanks for the tips.

We had a group of nine and we’re successful every time we asked them to put us together. May have helped that they could use a table of 8 because one was an infant.

 

[Chuck S]

I'm not surprised by this at all, the online system is not set up for large parties, we always book two reservations as close in time as possible, and then let the restaurant know as soon as we enter the park that we are really a large group. Sometime is works out, sometimes it doesn't. Most restaurants don't have tables to accommodate 12 people, and they don't show up in the booking system. Same for non-Disney restaurants, even at home.