Dinner reservations available- suddenly!

[lorenae]

I have no idea if it's related to Dining Buddy or other sites- but today just now there are literally dozens of reservations available for our desired day/time.

The "big" character meals are not available, and we aren't going to a park on our arrival day anyway. But suddenly California Grill, Kona, etc all appear.

It's just me and my 5 year old GS. I'd like to take him for a monorail ride, so either the Contemporary or Poly would be great. He's not picky, but he won't probably want to eat sushi. Otherwise, he'll do just fine.

The Wave at the CR is also available.

I have never heard of it, so was wondering if anybody can tell me if it's a decent value and if we can still ride the monorail and look around the resort before or after dinner? We'd drive over.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

For what dates?

 

[NJlauren]

I also noticed a few reservations opened up today!

We really enjoyed the Wave and I would recommend it. Good value is subjective, but the food and service was good and I would go back again for sure.

You can ride the monorail but you can not see it from this restaurant.

 

[lorenae]

I also noticed a few reservations opened up today!

We really enjoyed the Wave and I would recommend it. Good value is subjective, but the food and service was good and I would go back again for sure.

You can ride the monorail but you can not see it from this restaurant.

Ok, between the Wave and Kona, I think I'd lean towards the Wave then?

We could also go over to Boma, but I think on our first night it'd be so cool to drive over to the CR and then take a little monorail ride!

 

[NJlauren]

I haven't been to Kona so I can't comment . Sorry

 

[JimmyV]

Not likely a Dining Buddy issue. They weren't making and holding enough ADRs to make a dent in the overall availability, especially at less popular restaurants. Sometimes it is a function of final payment due dates. People book ADRs 180 days out on the hope that they will be able to make the trip, but as final payment date approaches, they are forced to re-think their plans and end up cancelling. That typically frees up a lot of spots.

 

[lorenae]

For what dates?

The weekend after Thanksgiving. There was NOTHING at all up until about 20 minutes ago, and we made an initial reservation at DTD for Rainforest Cafe. It was my preference, but I couldn't find a single thing at all, and I knew my GS would enjoy it. I'd rather stay onsite (ish) but not go to a park since that is our arrival day.

 

[bumbershoot]

I haven't been to the Wave for dinner, but I loooooove their breakfast buffet.

 

[lorenae]

Not likely a Dining Buddy issue. They weren't making and holding enough ADRs to make a dent in the overall availability, especially at less popular restaurants. Sometimes it is a function of final payment due dates. People book ADRs 180 days out on the hope that they will be able to make the trip, but as final payment date approaches, they are forced to re-think their plans and end up cancelling. That typically frees up a lot of spots.

I didn't mean Dining Buddy per se- just whatever was "hogging" up a ton of reservations suddenly just let loose. Before, there wasn't even a restaurant onsite that showed availablity- now there are bunches plus the Candlelight processional packages. There is still no BOG or Chef Mickey's, but I was able to find a TS restaurant for each day of our stay suddenly this afternoon.

 

[Kelly loves Food]

And I just got 1900 Park Fare and Crystal Palace for dinner - neither of those have been available since I started looking.

 

[Happy_Haunt999]

I wouldn't suggest Kona. It's not the best, I'd suggest somewhere at GF or CR.

 

[Madteaparty001]

I noticed a few open up for mid December as well this morning.

 

[Adrieske]

We went to the Wave a few years ago and it was just ok. I had heard it was great, and it really wasn't for us. However, we all loved Kona the most (3 kids included.)

 

[AngiTN]

If you saw none that was a glitch. There are never, or only in very rare instances, no ADR period. Disney Dining Buddy didn't book anything so it closing down would have no impact any way. It had to be a glitch

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Just a guess, but I'm going 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving and have noticed a few reservations open up, too. I'm assuming it has something to do with FastPass scheduling that happened about a week or 2 ago for my travel dates, as well as the 45 day payment window which for me is tomorrow. I'd imagine folks are getting their FP's and dropping some duplicate reservations they had until they firmed up those plans. Also, with the payment date approaching, even if it's still a couple of weeks away for some, I'd have to imagine if you have to cancel your vacation for financial reasons you would know by now. If you don't have the money now, you won't have it in a day, a week or 2 weeks most likely. Just a hunch that some folks are either canceling ADRs as schedules firm up or because they are canceling their vacations before final payments come due.

 

[SueM in MN]

If you saw none that was a glitch. There are never, or only in very rare instances, no ADR period. Disney Dining Buddy didn't book anything so it closing down would have no impact any way. It had to be a glitch

Disney Dining Buddy didn't actually ok anything, but there were other companies that did.

 

[stormer]

We love Kona, too.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

If you saw none that was a glitch. There are never, or only in very rare instances, no ADR period. Disney Dining Buddy didn't book anything so it closing down would have no impact any way. It had to be a glitch

But you don't really know what was going on behind the scenes. Could very well be they were making reservations and releasing creating alerts to make their site seem valuable.

They could also have been bombarding the Disney site causing issues for the average user getting errors.

 

[bellrae]

Yup, I just found a whole heap for my dates in November that were not there for the past 140 days! Even BoG!

 

[AngiTN]

But you don't really know what was going on behind the scenes. Could very well be they were making reservations and releasing creating alerts to make their site seem valuable.

They could also have been bombarding the Disney site causing issues for the average user getting errors.

I used Disney Dining Buddy. They did not make and release any reservation. There it no way based on how you get the reservation when it alerts you. You aren't even required to go through their site to get it once you know it's there. They just make it easier if you did opt to. Now, their searches could have caused a glitch but they didn't book them