Best way to make an ADR?

[RIPaula]

Hi,
Planning our first visit since online booking became available. I just tripped over it on disney.go. So, I made some adr's and had a much harder time getting the dates/times I wanted than I used to on the phone. We are visiting Sept. 10-17 with free dining. I'm sure the DP makes things tighter, but I thought this would be a slow period, and that would counteract the free dining.

In the past we've ONLY visited in peak times and I have always, for instance, been able to book R&Crown near IllumiNations time. Not this time!

Is it possible to make out any bettter on the phone? Is that even still available?

Any help appreciated!

 

[vicki_c]

Online is much better than on the phone - the reason you are having difficulty is because it's only 2 months or less until your trip and it's free dining.

At least online, you can put in a time/date and ask the system to show you everything available.

You can still call on the phone, but I find online much preferable.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

The website is the way to go. You may not find everything you want at the time you want the first time you look, but you'll eventually find most of it if you're persistent and stalk it a bit.

From what I understand, the addition of the website and the dining plan/free dining make it imperative to book very early to get everything you want with little effort. Even then, it's still a gamble on some things. Good example is Rose & Crown...we went back in December and R&C timed with Illuminations was the very first thing I booked at day 180 at 5am CT online- the best I could get was 7:45pm w/Illuminations at 9:30p. I checked nearly every day sometimes multiple times per day for 6 months and never was able to get anything better. Sure, I was competing with Candlelight Processional slots and was furious when the restaurant was only 50% full that night and our server failed to get us out to the viewing area to watch the show (we dragged out the meal with apps and drinks)...but the point is...even at 180 days out- R&C during Illuminations is one of the toughest things to get.

As for free dining, while September is slow, free dining most definitely makes it hard to book. The free dining deal for Sept was released to the public very early so you are up against people who were booked well before day 180 and were probably ready to go w/booking all of their dining by the time day 180 rolled around. Free dining in general just makes it tough to book. Free dining coincided w/some of our early Dec trip last year (also a slow time) and it made schedule modification for those days really difficult.

In any event- good luck and just keep trying.

 

[TDC Nala]

You won't get access to anything by calling that you couldn't get on the website. And it is much easier to keep checking online because at this point you are looking for someone to cancel.

Free dining doesn't really affect September crowds in the parks too much, but it does cause the restaurants to be much busier. Guests who anticipated free dining started reserving restaurants before the offer even came out.

 

[mountdew1]

The online reservations have access to the same pool of reservations that the phone operators do. And as several PPs have mentioned, you have the ability to see other times that the operator may or may not mention when you call.

The issues are the proliferation of the dining plan, and most certainly free dining. Free dining makes it very difficult to get most popular restaurants and times unless you call right around the 180 days. And overall reservations are going faster due to the dining plan. Maybe not at 180 during non-free dining, but definitely earlier than they used to.