Do you really book your ADR's 180 days out?

[Brita]

Our first trip. we booked 180 days prior. Last year on our second trip, we booked a month in advance. We didn't get everything we wanted.. but we kept checking back every day to see if there were openings. We made a few changes. Our biggest change was the day of! We went back to our hotel, POR, at around 4:00 and had ADRs for Boatwright's (in POR) for 5:00. We decided to see if Kona miraculously had any openings for that time...and they did! 5:10 we booked it for! But I' pretty sure this is a rarity!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

I booked everything on my 180 day mark & got it just like I wanted it...however...as time passed I changed lots of them.

We added MVMCP & the dessert supper so I had to start changing things up.

We ended up deciding we wanted Ohana for supper, Calif Grill during MK fireworks, & LeCellier on our last day...& I did these later. I looked months & months before I finally got Ohana when I needed it though...it was the toughest to get.

 

[ToddyLu]

I book ADR's at 180 days and our main DVC trip at 0900 at the 11 month booking day . That is how I was able to score two value studios. Our ADR date is 4/29/12 for the Oct 2012 trip and I have it on my calendar. As soon as I booked our May trip a week ago--I started making ARDs. We got back 11/4/11 so I wanted to start working on the next trip immediately.

 

[toontownnutter]

I just did mine 41 days out (kinda dropped the ball there hey) and the day I had picked for Epcot I couldn't get LeCellier for a good time, I could still get it but it was either super early or super late.

The advantage being I haven't planned our park itinerary, I'll plan that around our restaurant bookings.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Unless I'm booking one of the big ones like a character breakfast, I usually don't book until the 150 or 120 day time frame.

Part of that is because I like to figure out which park for which day and I haven't been getting to that part of my planning until that time frame lately.

My next couple of trips will be solo too so I really should step it up since it can be hard to get seating for one.....

 

[want2bamommy]

If my trip is planned that far out (which is usually is since we are DVC members), I always book 180 days out.

I think you would find many many people HERE book 180 days out. In the general public / real world, not so many.

I completely agree with this although I am not a DVC member (hopefully one day, haha). For my next trip I just booked it last week and it is just over 4 months away and the first thing I did after making our hotel reservations was to look at the park calendars, figure out where we'd be on which days and book our ADR's.

 

[miprender]

I book ADR's at 180 days and our main DVC trip at 0900 at the 11 month booking day . That is how I was able to score two value studios. Our ADR date is 4/29/12 for the Oct 2012 trip and I have it on my calendar. As soon as I booked our May trip a week ago--I started making ARDs. We got back 11/4/11 so I wanted to start working on the next trip immediately.

Same here. For our trip in July and our new trip I wanted to snag those Value DVC rooms and I always book our ADRs at 180 days.

 

[angierae]

I didn't do them right at 6a or 7a or whenever it first opens, but I did do them on my 180 day, and I think I only made a couple of changes after that. I don't plan on changing them again before our trip because I got everything I wanted exactly when I wanted it.

 

[cajunprincess]

This was the first time I didn't book my ressies 180 days out, but the only reason for that was because I didn't know I was going 180 days out. However, the night before I booked, I made a list of ressies I knew I wanted so I could book them as soon as I booked my trip! LOL.

Since then I have added a day onto the beginning and canceled one on the end. SO I had to try and find 'Ohana about a month ago after canceling that day. I lucked up on it about two weeks ago but I was also checking for it every day. Then, I had to cancel one it would conflict with sadly.

For the day I added, I just simply looked at what was available and picked what I wanted out of that because I didn't have any other TS I really wanted (besides the one I had to cancel ). I booked TS at a time I didn't like but found it Saturday at a better time and was really excited!

So what I've found is that you can sometimes get lucky and find some that you want closer to your trip, but it is so much easier and less stressful to do it at 180 days out, not to mention a fun part! My DH doesn't like the idea of having to do it so far out, but that's ok since I did all the choosing anyways! Now, I imagine if I had been going in peak times, I would have wanted to reserve my TS the morning I could!