CM Laughed at Me

[kcrew]

So I called to make ADR's for a party of 6 for 9 nights staring Aug. 26th--the 1st day of free dining. I THOUGHT I was being flexible. I have 3 chldren and I wanted to eat between 445 and 715. These are the restuarants I could not get any of the 9 nights during those hours: Le Cellier, Chef Mickey, Ohana, Planet Hollywood, WCC, Boma, 50's PT, Sci Fi. The CM said it was "late" to be making my ADR's, and helpfully suggested that Nine Dragons had a lot of availabiliy..... I mean, I am trying not to be discouraged, but where are we supposed to eat!?

 

[BethR]

I am not surprised that this is happening. I doubt that this is a novel theory, but I believe that people started booking ADRs 180 days out on the CHANCE that there might be Free Dining.

Kind of hard for people who waited until the actual booking time for free dining to have a chance for decent ADRs.

I am getting ready to book ADRs for the end of July/beginning of August with NOT free dining and I am concerned about what I may not be able to get.

 

[travelgirl06]

It seems crazy with these Free Dining ADRs. My friend called to add a person to the room (luckily we had already included them in our ADRs) and he said there was a recording stating that during the Free Dining you might not be able to get any ADRs if you didn't hurry (or something like that). My advice would be to book what you can as soon as possible, and change later if you need to. Also, you may consider splitting into two tables of 3 (depending on the ages of your children and who's traveling), or trying to get lunch reservations.

Good luck!

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Here are some of the restaurants I would try.

Yacht Club Galley
Plaza Restaurant
Concourse Steakhouse
Raglan Road
Restaurant Marrakesh
Rose and Crown
Biergarten
Mama Melrose

Hope this helps. These restaurants are all good but haven't found their way into the "top tier" that everyone knows about. Good luck.

 

[spiceycat]

here is my list

Kona Cafe at the Polyn

Concourse Steakhouse at the Cont

Cape May Cafe - either Goofy's blast (breakfast) or the Clam Bake (dinner)

remember cancelation are a possibility.

 

[thunderbird1]

I'm so sorry--I know how frustrated you must be. The PP's have given some excellent suggestions for less busy restaurants. I would also add that if you really have your heart set on some of the most popular places, you might want to consider making some lunch ADR's. Boma and 'Ohana are the only two that won't have lunch--I think even Chef Mickey's will be open for lunch over Labor Day weekend, even though they usually only do breakfast and dinner.

You could either do a regular-time lunch and then a CS dinner, or do a late lunch (3:30 or so) for dinner. With 3 kids, they might really enjoy the air-conditioned mid-day break. Most of the menus are nearly the same, and since the ddp is free, you don't have to be as concerned about getting the most for your money.

Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[girli565]

Aww, I'm sorry that happened to you! I'm going in about 3 weeks and I booked my adr's in March. Not super early but enough so that I could get into LTT because I couldn't the last time I was there.

 

[n2mm]

I'm sorry to read your thread. Here are some other suggestions. Try some lunches too. Also try Concourse, GF Cafe, Kona....all 3 are wonderful places to eat. I expected LeCellier and Chef Mickeys would be booked up. The others may have some availability. Were you flexible for your days on which you wanted to dine. I usually call and say, which day can I get into ..... 50s Prime Time and work from there.

My only hope is that your dilemma will inspire those folks who plan to not make ADRs during free dining to read your message and beware of what awaits them.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

I'm sorry you ran into a problem. It is frustrating when you get everything worked out only to call and find no availability.

Hope things work out!

Does anyone think there is any chance the restaurants will release more tables at the 90 day mark?

 

[Desnik]

I'm sorry this happened to you! I have already made my ADR's for Nov! I didn't want to take any chances and finally got LeCellier!

After using the DDP in April we found we weren't ready to eat dinner until much later in the evening. We would eat CS for lunch and it is really a lot of food. By 7pm was the time we were ready to eat dinner. You could use your snack credits for breakfast items, then have a late lunch and use CS credits and do a late dinner at 7:30pm. Or like someone else suggested try getting some of those restaurants you want at lunch time. Just as an example, we ate CS at Cosmic Ray's at the MK at 11:30am and weren't hungry until 6:30pm! We ate rotiserri chicken with mashed potatos and carrots and had dessert!

 

[wilde_oscar]

well I am one of the folks that started booking ADRs at 180 in the hopes that free DDP would be offered again this year. But, while I got what we wanted for a vast majority of the trip, we are looking at adding a day and guess what. I have a list just as long of places that are booked.

Forewarned is forarmed... last year we were stuck with mediocre resies because we were late to make reservations, this year I played the odds. Le Cellier 3 nights out of 10 at 7:30... dinner should finish up just in time to walk out and watch fire works.

 

[JimMIA]

Two suggestions for the really popular places.

One is to try other times. If you give the kids a break during the day, they may be able to hold out for a later ADR.

We love dining at Le Cellier late in the shift -- the CM's are less harried, and everything just seems smoother. Then, to walk through WS and the rest of Epcot after everyone is gone is a great, relaxing feeling. We stayed at BCV last trip, and I actually missed the music walking out the main entrance! You miss the fireworks, but if you have smaller kids, that may be a blessing.

The other suggestion is to make whatever you can make and then keep calling trying to improve. Plans do change and people cancel. You can even try from the podium of any restaurant while you're at Disney. Sometimes you get lucky, and if you don't, at least you still have backup ADRs.

 

[supersuperwendy]

I'm sorry this happened to you! I have already made my ADR's for Nov! I didn't want to take any chances and finally got LeCellier!

After using the DDP in April we found we weren't ready to eat dinner until much later in the evening. We would eat CS for lunch and it is really a lot of food. By 7pm was the time we were ready to eat dinner. You could use your snack credits for breakfast items, then have a late lunch and use CS credits and do a late dinner at 7:30pm. Or like someone else suggested try getting some of those restaurants you want at lunch time. Just as an example, we ate CS at Cosmic Ray's at the MK at 11:30am and weren't hungry until 6:30pm! We ate rotiserri chicken with mashed potatos and carrots and had dessert!

I totally agree with Desnik. We just used the DDP for the first time last week and I made my ADR's for dinner way too early. You seriously are never hungry! I scrambled to make new ADR's while we were there because the ones I made were just too early. We found we weren't ready for dinner till at least 8:00.

 

[paulh]

when we did free ddp last year we did 7pms way too early.This year gone for 8pms
Paulh

 

[mickeymousemom]

I also agree that maybe you should settle on later dinner times. If you're taking a break mid day then the kids should be fine with the later times. We've done DDP 2 times now and I can't tell you how many times we were on our way to a dinner ADR and just weren't hungry. We all love to eat(esp. at Disney) but the food is just SO much!
You may also have to make some lunch ADR's instead and eat CS for dinner. Not what I'd want to do, but you may have no choice.

 

[janets]

We booked for free dining through the bounceback promotion offered in November. I booked our ADRs for our trip in mid August in February at 180 days. Got everything that I wanted.

I booked a friend for free dining and called to make her dining ADRs at 120 days out. There was no availability for LeCellier for any night of her trip at any time. She is going with 4 kids and the youngest is 12 so they can eat later in the evening, but the CM told me there was nothing available.

While some people have reported being able to walk up exactly at opening and be lucky enough to get a walk in, I think those are going to be unavailable during Free Dining.

My only suggestion is to consider lunch time at the most popular places (although I'm not sure even they will be available during FD) or continue to call and hope for a cancellation. There are several nice restaurants that are not considered "top tier" that are really great to experience. If you can, try Boma (we love it), Kona Cafe, Wolfgang Puck Cafe.

 

[kcrew]

Thanks for all of the support and suggestions from everyone. I am trying to take it in stride, and pick some "off the beaten track" choices now. As someone suggested I am going to give Concourse and Yacht Club Galley a try, which I had never seriously considered. I was able to get Mama Melrose, which I actually wanted, and also picked San Angel and Tepp. So I still need 4 more and need to hurry up!

I am trying to be open minded about taking some later times as everyone is suggesting, but honestly just can't envision it.....

 

[JimMIA]

The other thing you might want to consider is a "Signature Dining" dinner. They may have more availability because of the cost.

We ate a "heavy" CS at Cosmic Ray's one night and then used the saved TS's for dinner at California Grill. It was spectacular, and will probably be a regular stop on our trips from now on.

 

[marivaid]

Thanks for all of the support and suggestions from everyone. I am trying to take it in stride, and pick some "off the beaten track" choices now. As someone suggested I am going to give Concourse and Yacht Club Galley a try, which I had never seriously considered. I was able to get Mama Melrose, which I actually wanted, and also picked San Angel and Tepp. So I still need 4 more and need to hurry up!

I am trying to be open minded about taking some later times as everyone is suggesting, but honestly just can't envision it.....

Did you try to get an ADR for lunch at Chef Mickey's ? Lunch is only during free dining.

 

[Carol Ann]

I am getting ready to book ADRs for the end of July/beginning of August with NOT free dining and I am concerned about what I may not be able to get.

Don't be too worried about the late July/early August ADRs...we are going the 5th-12th, we booked our CRT, CM and le cellier a month ago, but we called last night for the rest of them and had no problem.