How difficult is it to get seating for 5 at the tougher ADR's?

[Abbeysmom]

We are planning our trip to WDW in November. It will be be me, DH, DD, and my brother and dad. My DD (who will be 4 on the trip) loves the princesses, especially Cinderella and is already talking about eating at the castle. I never thought about having any trouble making ADR's for our group for breakfast as long as I got up early and made the call first thing on our 180 day, but the post regarding the difficulty getting a ressie with an infant has me wondering, is it going to be hard for us to get some of the more difficult ADR's such as Le Cellier, CRT, CM's and a few others? My daughter will be so disappointed if we can't go to the castle to eat. Any tips from anyone?
Thanks!
Monica

 

[Aliceacc]

My sister called for us (family of 5) at 7:10 on our 180 day mark.

I didn't try for CRT but had no trouble with any of my reservations for August.

She also called for her own ADRs at the 170 day mark for July. (That's why I chose that sister to ask ) She had no trouble for her own family of 5, including CRT.

As long as "November" doesn't mean "THanksgiving" I would imagine you'll be OK.

 

[Bama mom to 3]

Its so funny seeing this post. I was just reading a post about parties of 5 having to be split at Le Cellier. Which was worrying me since we too are a party of 5. And we are going in Novemeber during the last week of F&W Festival so I was worried that we might have trouble getting ADRs there. Since I don't want to split my oarty up then if I can't get a table for 5 then I will just have a back up plan.

 

[magicmouse2]

We have always had good luck getting ressies for 5, so far!!

 

[Aliceacc]

We didn't have to split up. Neither did my sister's family.

 

[Bama mom to 3]

We didn't have to split up. Neither did my sister's family.

That makes me feel some beter. I guess I will just have to wait and see when I make my ADRs how things go. The only ADR I really don't want to change is the breakfast at CRT on our first official day there. I really want to start our trip by eating breakfast in the castle.

 

[Allison]

Its so funny seeing this post. I was just reading a post about parties of 5 having to be split at Le Cellier. Which was worrying me since we too are a party of 5. And we are going in Novemeber during the last week of F&W Festival so I was worried that we might have trouble getting ADRs there. Since I don't want to split my oarty up then if I can't get a table for 5 then I will just have a back up plan.

We have eaten at LeCellier several times with my family of 5 and have never been split up. It's never even been mentioned to us.

I have never had any trouble getting our reservations for 5 when I make them at the 180 mark.

 

[Bama mom to 3]

We have eaten at LeCellier several times with my family of 5 and have never been split up. It's never even been mentioned to us.

I have never had any trouble getting our reservations for 5 when I make them at the 180 mark.

Oh good. I plan to call at the 180 mark for sure.

 

[kim_o]

We are planning our trip to WDW in November. It will be be me, DH, DD, and my brother and dad. My DD (who will be 4 on the trip) loves the princesses, especially Cinderella and is already talking about eating at the castle. I never thought about having any trouble making ADR's for our group for breakfast as long as I got up early and made the call first thing on our 180 day, but the post regarding the difficulty getting a ressie with an infant has me wondering, is it going to be hard for us to get some of the more difficult ADR's such as Le Cellier, CRT, CM's and a few others? My daughter will be so disappointed if we can't go to the castle to eat. Any tips from anyone?
Thanks!
Monica

I was the started of that original post (also have a post floating around about party size affecting adr's). I personally think if you book at your 180 day mark - or at least out in advance, you shouldn't really have a problem - you may not get your first pick of times, but I would bet you'll still get in with a bunch of choices. My trip is only 3 months away....on a holiday weekend, so that's a big reason as to my difficulty. If you wait to book until closer to your trip - finding seating for 5 becomes rather difficult.

 

[JenSop]

We are a party of five going down to WDW in July. I had no problems getting tables for 5 at any of the restaurants. However, even calling at 7am on the 180 day mark out, I still did not get first choice of times at Le Cellier.

There is one day where we have extended family (they live in FL) coming in for the day, bumping us up to a party of 8. We had to get split into two tables for that ADR.

 

[EastonCat]

If you have trouble getting seating for five, call back and try for six. Disney's system is weird.

 

[ampc3]

Family of 5 here had no problems getting the ADR's I wanted and still calling and making changes with no probs.... I got Le Cellier and Coral Reef but had to do lunch which is fine for us... If you call right at your 180 mark you won't have a problem.. I would book your crt first then ask for Le Cellier
Good luck!

 

[Abbeysmom]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your help!! I plan on calling as soon as I possiblly can since my daughter would be crushed if we couldn't eat at Cinderella's castle!! We are going the 10th through the 15th of November so hopefully that won't be a very busy time.
Thanks again!!
Monica

 

[Briggidge2]

I'm way way behind on the ADRs! LOL, I've been planning for a while now and after joining this board i'm worried that I won't be able to get any ressies anywhere. LOL! I haven't been able to plan too much up until now b/c the DH has been deployed and we were told he might be extended. Now that we know that he's not going to be extended i've been given the go-ahead to plan, i'm worried that it's too late. (we're at the 130 day mark) Do you think it will be hard to get ressies for a family of 5? And since it's my first time to do all of this, do I have to put a deposit down for all my ADRs or is it just that they hold your credit card number?

I've got so much to learn. Thanks!

 

[Aliceacc]

Call now and give it a shot. Just be flexible; if you can't get what you want, play with the times and dates and consider a lunch instead of a dinner.

You don't need a credit card for most of the ADR's; we needed on only for the Fantasmic dinner package.

Let us know how it goes, OK?

 

[teacher31]

I'm way way behind on the ADRs! LOL, I've been planning for a while now and after joining this board i'm worried that I won't be able to get any ressies anywhere. LOL! I haven't been able to plan too much up until now b/c the DH has been deployed and we were told he might be extended. Now that we know that he's not going to be extended i've been given the go-ahead to plan, i'm worried that it's too late. (we're at the 130 day mark) Do you think it will be hard to get ressies for a family of 5? And since it's my first time to do all of this, do I have to put a deposit down for all my ADRs or is it just that they hold your credit card number?

I've got so much to learn. Thanks!

First off, don't panic. Congrats on your DH not being extended! You have to hold certain ADRs with a credit card, but most you don't. CRT is one where you need to leave a credit card, though. Just remember, it all works out in the end. If you don't get something that you really wanted, no big deal. In the end you'll not even think twice about not going. That being said, I would go ahead and schedule just a few so you feel better. It all doesn't have to be done at once.

 

[Briggidge2]

Ok, so I booked all my ADRs today, Easter Sunday. While the kids were chowing down on all their Easter candy, I got some quiet time to call and make all the ressies and someone must have blew pixie dust on me b/c I got all my ressies!!! I was so worried and I thought about booking them tomorrow and then I saw they were available 7 days a week from 7-10pm, including holidays! SOOO, here's how it looks for me and my crew:

Day 1-Coral Reef for lunch 1pm
Day 2-Princess Storybook Breakfast-8:35am
Garden Grill-4:30pm (we wanted somewhat of a late lunch/early dinner b/c of the breakfast)
Day 3-Play and Dine Breakfast-8am
Day 4-Crystal Palace for Breakfast-8:10am
Day 5-Ohana Breakfast-8am
Whispering Canyon for Dinner-5:20pm
Day 6-Chef Mickey for breakfast-8:10am
Kona Cafe for dinner-5:30pm
LAST DAY -Kona Cafe for Breakfast-7:50am. (the DH loves Kona Coffee)

We are early risers since we have two kids under the age of 3 and a 7 year old who think that sleep is overrated. And of course eating dinner early works well for us too so I guess it all worked out in the end! I'm so excited now! I've got the resort(s) booked and the ADRs booked. I just have to buy the park tickets (which is no big deal since we're FL residents) and have it be August already and we're ready to go!!! SOOO glad I got on this board when I did rather than later!

 

[Briggidge2]

Call now and give it a shot. Just be flexible; if you can't get what you want, play with the times and dates and consider a lunch instead of a dinner.

You don't need a credit card for most of the ADR's; we needed on only for the Fantasmic dinner package.

Let us know how it goes, OK?

The only ressie that we needed a credit card for was for the Princess Breakfast @ Epcot. My daughter is going to flip eating breakfast with the Princesses!

 

[canadianmom2three]

Last year my inlaws surprised our kids at the end of school with a surprise vacation to disney for August. It must have been the end of June by the time I found out about it, and maybe even early July by the time I figured out that we needed to make ADR's. So forget about the 180 day mark, we were like the 50 day mark!! We were a party of 7, and I remember for many of the ADR's they SAID they were going to have to split us, but at every single one we showed up for, we got seated together, even CRT. After reading about everyone who calls right on the 180 day mark, I now consider my self VERY grateful that I got most things on my ADR wish list, esp. CRT.

 

[Melrosgirl]

If you have trouble getting seating for five, call back and try for six. Disney's system is weird.

Exactly. Or try for 8. Then when your party of 5 shows up, just say they aren't feeling well (the other 3 people). The system is flawed. It's ridiculous.