Do you really make your ADRs 180 days out, now?

[Bay in TN]

CRT isn't impossible any more. I called today, and I'm less than 180 days out (more like 160 days out), and there were many seatings left for CRT -- lunch, dinner, and breakfast. That said, I call as soon as I have my ducks in a row and have a reasonable idea about what we'll be doing.

I learned how to love Disney the hard way. My first trip to WDW was miserable because I didn't have a clue or a plan. My second trip -- seven years later, because DH had to threaten to divorce me to convince me to go back -- was *incredible* because I had both clues and plans. Now I won't go to WDW unless I have a plan, a fall-back plan, and an "in case of total disaster" plan.

That "in case of total disaster" plan really came in handy in '03. I arrived at the World with an upper respiratory infection and ran a fever for three days of our trip. Yikes.

Ya gotta be flexible, y'all.

--Bay

 

[MinnieM21]

I made our ADRs for our June trip yesterday which is about 60 days out and got all the times I wanted. For our January and February trips, I made our ADRs about 2 weeks before our trip and also got all the times I wanted.

 

[Cinders Mum]

we booked this upcoming trip whilst in the Magic last October so it was a full year out, so yes I have done my ADR's at 180days but I have only secured 12 for 21 days, I cannot know where we are going to be on each day, as although we do plan our trips I like our plan to be fluid and open to variation should the mood take us, and personally we find it a pain in the behind to jump parks just for the sake of a dining reservation. So we have made ADR's for the restaurant we really want to eat at and at times which suit having a 10 year old with us (so late dining times is a nono for us)

the one biggie I did insist on with my guys this year is to make sure we have our dining plans set in stone over Columbus weekend, with a resort day for the saturday .... I refuse to stress out in MK on that saturday .... yuck yuck ... nope chilling out in resort will do me nicely thank you very much!!!

 

[majortom]

How about a poll answer for fewer than 30 days out? I usually call on my way over to see where I can eat. I almost never plan anything more than a few days out.

/carmi

 

[MUFFYCAT]

this year i made them about 5 months(150 days) in advance.
i usually do it at 180, but got side-tracked, the the free dining came out.
that pushed me to make them.

 

[donaldtutter]

i make them as soon as i know what our plans are. i made them already for sept. because of the free dining but usually closer to 90 days.

 

[F1Julie]

I make my ADR's at 7:00 AM 180+ days out as long as my trip is planned that far ahead. When free dining came out again this year, I planned an unexpected trip. I was already within the 180 day windown, but I still got all the ADR's I wanted.

 

[TomD]

We made ours yesterday for our Oct 15-21 trip and called today to make a change.

DW decided to change Ohanas dinner for 1900 Park Fare dinner.

 

[disgram]

I started planning our trip this August, a year ago Feburary! Sounds silly, but at the time, it was necessary. I did the ADRs at 180 days. Had everything that we wanted to do. Then the "free dining" came out. Got up early on the 4th of April, and spent 38 minutes on hold to get it!! Now I have changed the ADRs 3 times because now we can eat at places we could not afford before. I am now starting to plan our trip for NEXT August. Will I use the 180 days again? No, I don't think so. I will wait and see if "free dining" is going to be offered.

 

[Houston_Disney_Fan]

When they have Free Dining in effect, I make them as soon as possible. Saw way too many people get turned away the first week of October last year.
When I first called, ressies the week of Sept 9-16 were wide open. As stated by a previous poster, that's not the case anymore. It's well worth it to make
them as far ahead as possible. They cost nothing to make or change.

 

[chuckm403]

I do make mine 180 days out just because it's part of the whole planning obsession

That said, we generally only do 3-4 ADRs (although this trip we may end up with 5 since DH who is sitting on the couch next to me just requested that we eat at Le Cellier twice next trip!). We don't like to commit to too many set times of where we'll be when or we feel like we're tying ourselves down too much.

Agreed. We book our trip a year in advance and then get 3 dinner ADRs 180 days out. Have always been able to get places and times we want. The rest of the meals are late lunches. No problems yet getting seated.

 

[deedeetoo]

We don't plan vacations 180 days out. This year, we are going in June/July and decided on dates and bought the plane tickets in Feb. Then I needed to figure out which parks on which days, etc. I would say I made most of our ADRs about 90 days out, but I just changed one last week and am reconsidering a couple others. I had no trouble getting exactly what I wanted when I called last week.

 

[N&B'smom]

Yep, I booked ours at 180 days out. Even set my alarm to get up to make them!!! Of course I wanted CRT (which was ALMOST all booked by the time they took my call). I think I made 7 ADR's and it was so nice to get the times we wanted!!!

Shelby

 

[magicmommy]

Yes. Right to the day!

 

[gems_smiling]

I would have booked ours 180 days in advance but we are still trying to finalise our plans. We are going from September 1st till September 10th. I think we will be booking ours in the next couple of days - i really hope we can get in when we want to.

 

[tomerin]

I do make mine 180 days out just because it's part of the whole planning obsession

that is exactly how i am. we like to plan our dining just like we plan our days at the parks. we look at our dining as an attraction. so the sooner we can make our reservations the sooner the anticipation can begin

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

For 14 days in a row, I started calling at 6:55 each day. A little excessive, sure. But I got everything I wanted and it helped "up" my excitement! I did call back to switch a breakfast to a different day, and to add a lunch, that was about 150-140 days out. No problems.

 

[gems_smiling]

Just made ours 136 days in advance. No problems with times but have already decided to cancel one because we decided that going to Boma 5 times was being a bit obsessive.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We were about 175 days out when we did ours. The Dining came out and we booked the ADRs as soon as hours and emh times were posted. IMO it's much easier to make ADRs 180 days out now than it was to even make them 90 days out under the old system where hours weren't posted until about 3 weeks before the trip.

I've learned it takes about 9 months to a year for the general public to fully catch on to a major change. So I don't think it necessary right now to make em that far out. But it will become necessary to make them further and further out once the public fully catches on.

 

[tae1218]

I made mine at 180.