Fluid ADRs in days before trip

[Raven01]

Just a note to let others know that ADRs are VERY fluid in the days leading up to a trip. This worried me with the new system, and I stressed over reservations. I had three reservations I wanted to change around, but could not in the last 4-5 months. They were not important enough to worry with a reservation finder, but I wanted to change them if I could.

In the days leading up to our trip, I started checking. And I saw a LOT of reservations, some at prime times and pre park opening (PPO), that would pop up. I never saw CRT, but I did change the following:

BOG 10 am to PPO 8 am.
Garden Grill lunch, 645 candlelight processional to a Garden Grill 8 am PPO breakfast, with a 5 pm candlelight processional (better for my toddler).
I dropped Chef Mickeys at 8:30 am in favor of an 830 am Hollywood and Vine (again, toddler).

I'm thrilled with these. Though I had to rearrange some of my Touring Plans, the PPO will be great for us.

For those that are stressing about reservations, do everything people mention - get on right at 180, set a dining reservation reminder on Touring Plans, randomly check - but know that in the days leading up to your trip, a LOT of people switch things around and that's a great time to pick up reservations.

And a big thank you to the very knowledgeable, helpful people on this board, who have helped me navigate a system that's changed a lot since I first visited in 1985!

 

[AngiTN]

Yep. Heck, we don't make any ADR till we wake up each day.
And we don't eat QS, or off property, only TS, and only using ADR.
There are ample ADR out there. Even what folks think of as hard to find. They are harder to find far in advance than they are day of. Sure, you have to be flexible but we find it easier to work around the times we get than to work around a time we booked 6 months ago
Glad you had great luck

 

[SaintsManiac]

Yep we always change things on the fly, even the day of. It's the reason why I refuse to get up at 5am to do ADRs ever again.

 

[Raven01]

I get the stress if something is important. I wanted specific things for my DDs birthday.

But having gone through this now, I would stress less unless there was a must have thing.

 

[kastoney]

Welcome to the non-ADR dark side We generally make all our reservations day of, based upon what our belies want that day, and are rarely disappointed. I totally understand why 180 days out may work for some, but now you know there is a whole new last minute dining world out there!

 

[Raven01]

There are definitely pros and cons to this system, but absent a special event, I think next time I might stick with the dark side!!

 

[kiford]

I always book my ADRs at 180 days out (I do NOT get up at midnight or even early in the morning to do this - I usually do it mid-afternoon after my brain starts to work). I will typically make a few changes over the next couple of months as I firm up my plans, or when DH starts to ask me to book other activities or accommodate things he wants to do that he had months and months to let me know about and which I asked about several times prior to making ADRs but only now has decided that he should think about it , or our friends in Florida decide to join us as we get closer to our trip. Then I sometimes make changes one or two days prior as I realize that I'm just not going to get up early enough to make it for breakfast at Jiko when I'm staying at GF or I'd rather have an earlier night tomorrow so just not going to keep that 9 pm dinner at Cali Grill. I may run into the odd roadblock but there's usually enough options that I'm able to make acceptable changes at all of these times.

So I never stress out about any ADRs except Victoria & Albert's which I really really want. Once booked, those dates are sacred and never changed.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

I finally calmed my Type A side and realized this on our current trip

We were able to get Jiko the night before Nov 30th, California Grill brunch the night before for 12/2, walked up to Homecoming on 12/3 because they don’t take ADRs less than 24 hours in advance, and Chefs de France on 12/4 for 5:30 at 3 pm. The only thing we haven’t been able to get that we want is the Plaza for lunch today. Might try to see if they have walk up availablity, but I doubt it. I did make other ADRs like ‘Ohana and BoG well in advance, but I’ve seen both of those pop up the day before during our trip this week.