For those that stayed at the Swan/Dolphin between Christmas and New Years...

[flynnmnstr]

Did you have any difficulty booking your dining ADRs for that week especially on the holiday days- xmas eve, xmas, nye and nyday?? Just trying to figuring out how much the 180 plus 10 is going to affect us. We have a large party too- 12 people!! We are trying to book dinner together every night since during the day/evening chances are we are splitting up.

We would like to try to get at the castle for dinner and Ohana but other that than we are pretty flexible. Would love to hear some of your experiences. Thanks

 

[lovedisneycruise]

My daughter and I stayed at the dolphin over Christmas weekend. Two months before I had no difficulty booking ADRs. We were able to get the Christmas brunch buffet at Captain's Grille which turned out to be one of my all-time favorite meals I've ever had in Disney World. The selection and quality was amazing.

However we had booked the fresh Mediterranean market for lunch on Christmas Eve and the day before, as I was on the bus to Magic Kingdom, a reservations agent called me to cancel the lunch reservation and told me they would only be serving breakfast and dinner. I had NEVER had this happen to me before at Disney so I was irritated because by then obviously there wasn't much available. Since we had stayed at Pop the week before, we just ate lunch there before checking into our new room at the Dolphin.

All that being said, I was told by several cast members that it was a slower week than normal, so I don't know if that contributed to me being able to get the ADRs I wanted. (For example I ate at the AK Tusker House buffet three days before Christmas and was one of the only people in my section of the restaurant and the waitress mentioned that they had been really slow.)

So honestly I wouldn't worry about it. Even if you don't get everything you want your first try just keep checking back like you would any other time of year.

 

[Hopefully]

Booking for 12 is always hard. You very well may be split up. Booking for 12 over the holidays will be even harder. Yes this year was slower than average, but it was an anomaly.
I think the +10 will help