Help with making ADRs for a large party

[SJSloan]

We are a family of 5, but in December we are travelling with another family, a family of 4 which includes a 3 year old toddler.

I hadn't been worried about getting ADRs until recently when I've been searching in the mornings to see what is available for a party of 9.

Here is our list:
1900 Park Fare - dinner
Tusker House - breakfast
Whispering Canyon Café - lunch or dinner
BOG - dinner
Garden Grill - breakfast
Minnie's Holiday Dine - dinner
Rainforest Café AK - dinner

The only ones I have been able to find with an opening for 9 or 10 are Whispering Canyon and Tusker House. All of the others show "No Times Available."

But when I search for 8 there are often openings with the exception of BOG and Minnie's Holiday Dine.

So here's my questions, should I book an ADR for a party of 8 and beg them to let the toddler in and we just hold her? Or should be try to book 2 separate ADRs one for 5 and one for 4 (or whatever combination) and beg them to let us sit together?

We are going during what may be free dining and I've heard people hoard ADRs during that time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I booked for a party of 9 last year and had no problems at all. I was online right when my ADR's opened and got everything I wanted at the exact time I wanted. My advice would be get online right when it opens with a list in front of you with the ADR's prioritized. Have plan B options in case you don't get your 1st choices and book the hardest to get first, then go back for the rest.

 

[SJSloan]

I booked for a party of 9 last year and had no problems at all. I was online right when my ADR's opened and got everything I wanted at the exact time I wanted. My advice would be get online right when it opens with a list in front of you with the ADR's prioritized. Have plan B options in case you don't get your 1st choices and book the hardest to get first, then go back for the rest.

That is my strategy and thankfully have I another person that will be booking at the same time. My window doesn't open for a while still but I'm just trying to prepare for "worst case" and figure out which would be better.

I'm thinking if we can't get a party of 9 then booking 2 separate, one for 5 and one for 4 and hoping they can seat us close or maybe even together. We will deal either way.

 

[purple figment]

We are a family of 5, but in December we are travelling with another family, a family of 4 which includes a 3 year old toddler.


The only ones I have been able to find with an opening for 9 or 10 are Whispering Canyon and Tusker House. All of the others show "No Times Available."

But when I search for 8 there are often openings with the exception of BOG and Minnie's Holiday Dine.

So here's my questions, should I book an ADR for a party of 8 and beg them to let the toddler in and we just hold her? Or should be try to book 2 separate ADRs one for 5 and one for 4 (or whatever combination) and beg them to let us sit together?

We are going during what may be free dining and I've heard people hoard ADRs during that time.

Your reservations need to include every person in the group because of fire code regulations so book for 9 or 10. It can be very busy throughout December so booking for 8 and hoping your extra person will be seated is not a good idea. While it is rare, if the restaurant won't seat extra people one adult in your group will have to eat elsewhere. We saw this happen when a restaurant was running far behind schedule and would not seat latecomers, walk ups and anyone not on a reservation.

If you cannot find a reservation for your entire group, you can make 2 separate reservations for the same time and request to be seated together when you check in. You may have to wait longer or you may end up at separate tables depending on how busy the restaurant is.

 

[SJSloan]

Your reservations need to include every person in the group because of fire code regulations so book for 9 or 10. It can be very busy throughout December so booking for 8 and hoping your extra person will be seated is not a good idea. While it is rare, if the restaurant won't seat extra people one adult in your group will have to eat elsewhere. We saw this happen when a restaurant was running far behind schedule and would not seat latecomers, walk ups and anyone not on a reservation.

If you cannot find a reservation for your entire group, you can make 2 separate reservations for the same time and request to be seated together when you check in. You may have to wait longer or you may end up at separate tables depending on how busy the restaurant is.

Thank you. I kind of knew that about the fire code but I guess I am in some sort of denial that I can't seem to find reservations for 9 or more for many restaurants. It almost seems like it's telling me their table max is 8 even though I know it's not.

Booking 2 parties will be the way we go. We will just show up a little bit before the first reservation and "beg" to sit together. Thanks for your help!

 

[Linleedo]

We have booked two separate ADRs at the same time(4&4). Arrived a half hour early, and asked if we could be seated together. They were eager to accommodate , but mentioned it may take a little longer than your reservation time. It was 10 extra minutes.

 

[SJSloan]

We have booked two separate ADRs at the same time(4&4). Arrived a half hour early, and asked if we could be seated together. They were eager to accommodate , but mentioned it may take a little longer than your reservation time. It was 10 extra minutes.

That is what I ma thinking we will be doing. I am glad to hear they were accommodating. While we could split up, we are travelling together for a reason and that includes experiencing everything together so I would hate to have to split up.

There are several restaurants that seem to always have availability for 8 but not for 9 or above. Could you tell me which restaurants you had success with this? Also, did you have to book the reservations under different MDE accounts? Won't it only let you have 1 ADR at a time even if it's only for 1 person?

 

[Linleedo]

Flying Fish and Ohana were the ones we booked two separate ressies. This was a couple years ago. There weren't so many rules about booking ADRs. We stayed in 3 different rooms. We were the test group for the Magicbands. We did book reservations using two different people's accounts. We forewarned the host as we arrived a half hour earlier for both. We also wanted to have family time together. We were an extended family with grandparents, parents, aunts, and grandkids. I hope it works out for you. Can you call and ask Disney to add a comment on the reservations that you would like to be seated together?

 

[maxiesmom]

Thank you. I kind of knew that about the fire code but I guess I am in some sort of denial that I can't seem to find reservations for 9 or more for many restaurants. It almost seems like it's telling me their table max is 8 even though I know it's not.

Booking 2 parties will be the way we go. We will just show up a little bit before the first reservation and "beg" to sit together. Thanks for your help!

Please know going in that they may not be able to accommodate your request to sit together. As long as you are fine with that, then I would go with the plan of making two ADRs. If that is not acceptable at all then I would continue to check for ADRs that will seat all 9 of you.

 

[Funfire240]

WE went last November with a party of 9. Granted we had a 10 day trip so that might have helped but I had no problems when I made my ADR's as soon as I could - we had CRT dinner, BOG dinner, BOG breakfast, BOG lunch, O'Hana breakfast, Mama Melrose, Chef Mickey breakfast,Tusker House breakfast and Hollywood & Vine Disney Jr. breakfast.

ETA - I saw you mentioned Rainforest Cafe - that one you will probably have to split your party. I tried there and it kept telling me they couldn't sit a part of that size. I think that was the one that if we would've went we would have had to do 5 and 4.

 

[SJSloan]

Please know going in that they may not be able to accommodate your request to sit together. As long as you are fine with that, then I would go with the plan of making two ADRs. If that is not acceptable at all then I would continue to check for ADRs that will seat all 9 of you.

I understand if I book 2 ARD that we may not sit together. What I don't understand is why it's so difficult to find tables for 9 or 10 available for certain restaurants. But it is what it is and hopefully when the time comes to actually make by reservations I'll have better luck.

WE went last November with a party of 9. Granted we had a 10 day trip so that might have helped but I had no problems when I made my ADR's as soon as I could - we had CRT dinner, BOG dinner, BOG breakfast, BOG lunch, O'Hana breakfast, Mama Melrose, Chef Mickey breakfast,Tusker House breakfast and Hollywood & Vine Disney Jr. breakfast.

ETA - I saw you mentioned Rainforest Cafe - that one you will probably have to split your party. I tried there and it kept telling me they couldn't sit a part of that size. I think that was the one that if we would've went we would have had to do 5 and 4.

Thank you! That makes me feel better that you didn't have any issues. Hopefully the same with be the case for us.

 

[CheriePenguin]

We have a party of 7, and have come across the same difficulty finding tables during our test runs looking for ADRs. I suspect (I hope anyway) that part of the difficulty is that our test runs are for days <= 180 days out, and when we do our actual ones we will be >=180 days out (since we get to book the 180+10). The farther into the vacation the date of the meal is, the easier it should be to get it (theoretically, anyway!).

Tomorrow is our 180 days date, so here's to keeping our fingers crossed!

 

[SJSloan]

We have a party of 7, and have come across the same difficulty finding tables during our test runs looking for ADRs. I suspect (I hope anyway) that part of the difficulty is that our test runs are for days <= 180 days out, and when we do our actual ones we will be >=180 days out (since we get to book the 180+10). The farther into the vacation the date of the meal is, the easier it should be to get it (theoretically, anyway!).

Tomorrow is our 180 days date, so here's to keeping our fingers crossed!

On all of my test runs I was having the same problem and I was also hoping because it was just 180 days rather than a few days after. But I also know we are not the only ones to have that opportunity so that still makes me nervous.

In all of my searching I have still not found a 9 party opening at 1900 Park Fare dinner or Minnie's Holiday Dine. I think we are going to do Minnie's Holiday Dine at the very end of our trip, so that will be 180 + 7. We have since changed BOG dinner to lunch and I have seen many 9 party openings so I am not worried about that one either.

Good luck to you! You are probably already done actually, so I hope you got everything you wanted. If you have a chance could you please let me know how it went and what your ADRs are for? TIA

 

[CheriePenguin]

On all of my test runs I was having the same problem and I was also hoping because it was just 180 days rather than a few days after. But I also know we are not the only ones to have that opportunity so that still makes me nervous.

In all of my searching I have still not found a 9 party opening at 1900 Park Fare dinner or Minnie's Holiday Dine. I think we are going to do Minnie's Holiday Dine at the very end of our trip, so that will be 180 + 7. We have since changed BOG dinner to lunch and I have seen many 9 party openings so I am not worried about that one either.

Good luck to you! You are probably already done actually, so I hope you got everything you wanted. If you have a chance could you please let me know how it went and what your ADRs are for? TIA

Hi! My parents got a BOG lunch for 2 on 10/29 (not sure if they were trying for breakfast or lunch though),
we got a party of 7 Fantasmic Dining package for Minnie's Seasonal Dine @ H&V for 10/25,
and we got 7 for the Supercalifragilistic breakfast at 1900 Park Fare for 10/28.

My Mom & I were both on at 6am (5am our time). I had tabs open for the 2 restaurants I wanted, and had the dates preset to October with the time and party size I wanted. And I was logged into my My Disney Experience account on another tab (and I added my credit card to MDE the night before). When it hit 6:00, I needed to refresh, and that first one did go back to a April calendar default, but the others ones kept my Oct. When the time hits, the calendar opens up all the days of the trip.
It automatically pulled in all my party members from MDE (we had been planning to save time and not add them until later). Though since we were all in there, my parents got denied when they were trying to do a Park Fare one since they were already included in ours.
Also we have a peanut/tree nut allergy. There is a part with little check-boxes for major allergies - then later you can submit a form with more details.

Hope that is helpful and that you are able to get what you need!!

 

[SJSloan]

Hi! My parents got a BOG lunch for 2 on 10/29 (not sure if they were trying for breakfast or lunch though),
we got a party of 7 Fantasmic Dining package for Minnie's Seasonal Dine @ H&V for 10/25,
and we got 7 for the Supercalifragilistic breakfast at 1900 Park Fare for 10/28.

My Mom & I were both on at 6am (5am our time). I had tabs open for the 2 restaurants I wanted, and had the dates preset to October with the time and party size I wanted. And I was logged into my My Disney Experience account on another tab (and I added my credit card to MDE the night before). When it hit 6:00, I needed to refresh, and that first one did go back to a April calendar default, but the others ones kept my Oct. When the time hits, the calendar opens up all the days of the trip.
It automatically pulled in all my party members from MDE (we had been planning to save time and not add them until later). Though since we were all in there, my parents got denied when they were trying to do a Park Fare one since they were already included in ours.
Also we have a peanut/tree nut allergy. There is a part with little check-boxes for major allergies - then later you can submit a form with more details.

Hope that is helpful and that you are able to get what you need!!

That is very helpful! Thank you!

I am traveling with another family and thankfully she is familiar with the ARD process so we plan on splitting it up just as you all did. I'm glad to hear you got Minnie's Holiday Dine with the Fantasmic package, that's our goal too!

Thanks again for reporting back. Have a great trip!