Crash Course on ADRs

[jhlmendez]

Hello,

I believe our reservation window opens tomorrow morning (we arrive on Saturday 10/23). Can someone give me some tips on how best to proceed?

Questions:
1) Should I use the app or website. Looking in the app, I do not see a spot for making reservations except by looking for availability at all restaurants as opposed to navigating to the restaurants we want and looking form there on the site.

2) When I look for availability, all dates after 10/22 are greyed out. Tomorrow morning, will I see all dates after 10/23 greyed out or will the dates of our vacation (we stay through 10/29) be available for picking? We are staying at Swan & Dolphin.

3) Am I deluding myself hoping to get Sun. night (10/24) reservation for Sci-Fi Drive In and a Wed. night (10/27) for Cinderella's Royal Table?

4) Is there an order I should try to get reservations in? By date of arrival? By order of preference?

5) Is the website really buggy for anyone else? I keep getting a lot of error messages when I click on restaurant pages.

6) Anything else I should know / best practices?

I realize I am a little late to the party w/ these questions and I apologize if they've all been answered before (as I am sure they have) but I am finding myself a little overwhelmed. Any advice/help is greatly appreciated!

 

[RookieLady]

I could only register one day, not length of trip, on the website. The app allowed me to book length of trip, but it would not accept my credit card (my account was linked to an expired card). So i had to book my first day and update my credit card on the web, and then i booked everything else on the app. There is a + button on the bottom of the app that opens choices, which include making dining reservations. I would go to the app tomorrow and make sure today on the web that i had a good credit card saved to MDE.

 

[gregf71]

I booked our October ADRs about 10 days ago. I mostly used the website and it was fine for the most part. It crashed twice on me and denied me access to the WDW site when I tried to refresh the page. In both instances, I was in the middle of making an ADR. Also, in both instances, I immediately grabbed my phone, got into the app, looked up the restaurant and managed to make the reservation there. Still, each time that happened, I returned to the website after clearing my browser cache.

Advice...login 15 minutes early and make sure that you have your valid credit card already linked to your MDE account. Most importantly make sure that your trip is linked into MDE too. Sometimes the ADR window opens a few minutes early I hear...it didn't for me 10 days ago, but you never know, so be ready.

Have a priority list of those ADRs that mean the most to you and book them in that order. If you get the 60 days +10 to make ADRs, the more popular locations are easier to get later in the timeframe.

Have backups already chosen if your choices are not available. I wanted Le Cellier for my birthday dinner during our trip, but nothing was available when I first tried, so I pivoted to Rose & Crown. When I was done with all of my other ADRs, I checked Le Cellier one last time and there one was!!! Grabbed it and canceled R&C.

Also, I have heard mixed advice about this one, but some folks swear that selecting an ADR by meal (i.e. breakfast, lunch, or dinner) sometimes shows no response, where searching by specific times does. Don't know about this one, but the advice is to try both options.

Lastly, if at first you don't succeed, keep checking back. You never know when someone is going to cancel that coveted ADR.

 

[jhlmendez]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. T-5:56:21

 

[CBMom01]

I can vouch for the thing about specific times vs searching by breakfast/lunch/dinner.

 

[twincruisers]

If you can prioritize by popularity, you’ll have a better chance. Cinderella’s royal table was gone quick and so was Sci-fi, and Yak & Yeti’s.

 

[jhlmendez]

Thanks for the help, everyone. Got all the bookings we wanted including dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table to celebrate our anniversary.

 

[dato63]

Thanks for the help, everyone. Got all the bookings we wanted including dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table to celebrate our anniversary.

Just curious - did you end up using the app or website?

Our ADR day isn't until October - but CRT is on our list.

 

[jhlmendez]

Just curious - did you end up using the app or website?

Our ADR day isn't until October - but CRT is on our list.

I ended up using both as things got a bit flaky at a couple of points. I believe I booked CRT through the website. I went for the last night of our trip toward the latter end of the evening (about 8:00) and ended up w/ a 7:25 reservation.

Despite my best efforts to make sure everything was set, I was forced to enter a credit card number when I booked CRT through the website. Luckily, it did not end up biting me. Other restaurants that I booked through the app did not have that issue.

 

[dato63]

I ended up using both as things got a bit flaky at a couple of points. I believe I booked CRT through the website. I went for the last night of our trip toward the latter end of the evening (about 8:00) and ended up w/ a 7:25 reservation.

Despite my best efforts to make sure everything was set, I was forced to enter a credit card number when I booked CRT through the website. Luckily, it did not end up biting me. Other restaurants that I booked through the app did not have that issue.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

I do know that CRT is one of the few that requires payment at the time of booking. And, I am planning to try for it later in our trip. Hoping the 60 day + 10 works in our favor.

Hope you have a great time on your trip!

 

[VineHeart]

Just curious - did you end up using the app or website?

Our ADR day isn't until October - but CRT is on our list.

Just a heads up, CRT cannot be booked via the app. It has to be done on the website.

 

[dato63]

Just a heads up, CRT cannot be booked via the app. It has to be done on the website.

Thank you!