Finally! ADRs without any drama.

[lumpydj]

The last 2 times we went to WDW - we've had drama when making our ADRs. When I was making them for our Feb 2010 trip, the ADR window was 90 days. However, WDW decided to open the window up to 180 days at some point in November - about 10 days before my 90 window opened up. What's the big deal you ask? Well, anyone who had a trip planned that was 90 - 180 days from that infamous November date were all making their ADRs that day. I had training off-site for work, so I was online right at 6am. Because of the volume of people making ADRs, the website crashed. I couldn't make the ADRs online and I couldn't call because I was either traveling to training, or in my training class. I had to leave it up to DH to make the ADRs. I made him a very nice spreadsheet with our Resort Confrim #, all the adrs he had to make and the approx time I wanted him to get. I also had to sort the list so he would ask for the most difficult and/or most important ones first. Well, he was getting "all lines are busy" for hours. Finally, around 10:30am he got through. Took him about a total of an hour on hold and making the ADRs, but he did it!

Our next trip was for Dec 2010. My 180 day mark came at the same time they were trying to upgrade the online ADR system. There was a slight glitch in the system where it allowed everyone to book 190 days in advance - instead of the 180+10. More drama, because some people were getting mad that others were taking advantage of the glitch and booking 190 days out. However, if you didn't take advantage, you'd miss out. Not my proudest moment, but I caved and booked 190 days out (sorry to anyone that is offended) . Again, it was something different that I had to dedicate more time than I wanted to in booking my ADRs.

Finally - today was my 180 day mark for our October trip. I logged on to the site at 5:59 and entered my resort info. It told me that I was outside of my window Yikes!!! More drama . Anyway, I waited until my computer clock changed to 6:00 am, and hit the button again. SUCCESS! . I booked all 9 ADRs in 15 minutes! Got everything we wanted too. Now, I wait for the Fireworks Dessert Party, MNSSHP, and Haunted Hayride bookings to open up. Will there be more drama??? Hope not, but to be continued...

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Wow. What a mess on those earlier bookings.

I'm glad you got what you wanted this time. Good luck with the remaining 3!

 

[sassyredhead]

I got stuck in the infamous November 2009 fiasco for a March 2010 trip, so I feel your pain!

Congrats on a drama-free ADR experience!

PS-- I was able to schedule the Wishes dessert party at 6 weeks out with no drama. Keeping my fingers crossed for ya!

 

[deakam]

same thing happened to me this year except they kept telling me I did not have a resort reservation. I had to search for reservations after each dining request. I did get what I wanted but it was far from easy. After I called and strongly suggested that the internet team be replaced my reservations we miraculously found and now posted to my account. I had to remind them that there is no such thing as a computer error---only human errors in computer programing..