How accurate is online reservation system?

[AJKMOM]

Just learned that our 3 year old guest for October trip is a huge Cinderella fan. I tried the 1900 Park Fare dinner and Cinderellas Royal Table for all the days. The woman at WDW-Dine said to call them every day.

I wondered if you DIS'ers thought that was better than checking the online system. I have read here that there are problems online, still true? I will call if I have a better chance to get these reservations.

Thanks.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just learned that our 3 year old guest for October trip is a huge Cinderella fan. I tried the 1900 Park Fare dinner and Cinderellas Royal Table for all the days. The woman at WDW-Dine said to call them every day.

I wondered if you DIS'ers thought that was better than checking the online system. I have read here that there are problems online, still true? I will call if I have a better chance to get these reservations.

Thanks.

You will do much better checking online throughout the day to catch something the moment it shows up. Sometimes the CM's on the phone don't seem to check the full range of time and options that you can at home if you are determined.

 

[Cafeen]

Ideally, the inventories are the same whether online or by phone. There have been cases where CMs caught openings that weren't showing online, and vice versa (luck/coincedence more than likely), but those are not the norm.

There can be issues booking CRT online IF you are on the dining plan. Sometimes, the Dining Reservation system does not pick up the dining plan from your Resort Reservation and requires prepayment. If that's the case, you can either choose to prepay and get refunded when you dine, or you can call and try to score the same reservation over the phone. This is pretty much the only issue you'll need to worry about though.

The best idea may be to try both. When you can, throughout the day check online. Give yourself a couple more set times during the day to also give a quick call. The more you search, the more apt you are to snag a cancellation .