January 29, 30, and 31 res today or tomorrow?

[TheDailyMoo]

I just started wondering about making a reservation for January 29th and 30th and 31st at 11 months. Do all three open up tomorrow or can you make them today?

 

[Sandisw]

Tomorrow.

 

[sndral]

I just started wondering about making a reservation for January 29th and 30th and 31st at 11 months. Do all three open up tomorrow or can you make them today?

I’m in the same boat & asked this question a couple of weeks ago - it’s tomorrow, there’ll be 4 days worth of 11 month & 7 month windows opening .

 

[TheDailyMoo]

Wow that's kinda crazy when you put it like that lol. And I'd imagine a leap year is even a bigger free for all with yet another day added to that mix!

 

[ehh]

I tried booking for Jan 29-31 between midnight and 8am ET just to see if there was a glitch in the matrix...and there kinda was! But ultimately no success in booking.

My hypothesis:

• On Feb 28, booking can be made up to Jan 28 the next year.
• On March 1, booking opens up for Feb 1 the next year.
• Crux of my hypothesis: the date checker checks what is 11m from [today], we'll call that [Gated Until 8am Date] then compares if [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date]
  • If [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date], then allow booking
• If the above were true, then on Mar 1 between midnight and 8am ET, it would be possible to make a reservation with [reservation start date] of Jan 29, 30, or 31st.

Alas, it didn't work.

Testing results:

• Booking a reservation with start date of Feb 1:
  • 'Wait until 8am ET' error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 31:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 30:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 29:
  • Didn't test

It looks like they do show the 'Wait until 8am ET' error based on the logic in my hypothesis (!), but there is another mechanism that blocks Jan 29-31 from being booked.

 

[sndral]

I tried booking for Jan 29-31 between midnight and 8am ET just to see if there was a glitch in the matrix...and there kinda was! But ultimately no success in booking.

My hypothesis:

• On Feb 28, booking can be made up to Jan 28 the next year.
• On March 1, booking opens up for Feb 1 the next year.
• Crux of my hypothesis: the date checker checks what is 11m from [today], we'll call that [Gated Until 8am Date] then compares if [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date]
  • If [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date], then allow booking
• If the above were true, then on Mar 1 between midnight and 8am ET, it would be possible to make a reservation with [reservation start date] of Jan 29, 30, or 31st.

Alas, it didn't work.

Testing results:

• Booking a reservation with start date of Feb 1:
  • 'Wait until 8am ET' error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 31:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 30:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 29:
  • Didn't test

It looks like they do show the 'Wait until 8am ET' error based on the logic in my hypothesis (!), but there is another mechanism that blocks Jan 29-31 from being booked.

To add another data point to yours, I checked last night around 11 p.m. my time (2 a.m. east coast time) just in case there was a glitch in the matrix & the start dates after 1/28/26 were still greyed out. This morning at 7:55 a.m. eastern time I tried booking a reservation for 1/31/26 & was able to select my start date + 8 nights but then ran into the “wait until 8 a.m.” message.
I know nothing about tech & have little faith that Disney’s tech is unreliable in a predictable/explicable way, but maybe it depends on how many times you try to book in the same session (first time you try you get a wait until 8 & after that you just get a general error message) or maybe it depends on how close to 8 a.m. you are trying?
The one positive about booking for a stay starting in late Jan. was that I was able to get all 8 nights of my reservation this morning rather than my usual 11 month dance of booking 7 nights then adding on my extra nights a few days later .

 

[ehh]

To add another data point to yours, I checked last night around 11 p.m. my time (2 a.m. east coast time) just in case there was a glitch in the matrix & the start dates after 1/28/26 were still greyed out. This morning at 7:55 a.m. eastern time I tried booking a reservation for 1/31/26 & was able to select my start date + 8 nights but then ran into the “wait until 8 a.m.” message.
I know nothing about tech & have little faith that Disney’s tech is unreliable in a predictable/explicable way, but maybe it depends on how many times you try to book in the same session (first time you try you get a wait until 8 & after that you just get a general error message) or maybe it depends on how close to 8 a.m. you are trying?
The one positive about having to booking for a late Jan. stay was that I was able to get all 8 nights of my reservation this morning rather than my usual 11 month dance of booking 7 nights then adding on my extra nights a few days later .

I'll add another data point: I was testing at about 9:10pm my time (12:10am ET), but had my computer's clock set to eastern time (thanks DCL check-in process!), and had no such issues selecting Jan 29 - Feb 1 as reservation start dates. This was around 2 hours before you tried.

So the date selector is based on the device's time, it seems?

 

[Sandisw]

Booking opens exactly at the 11 or 7 month window. If there is no exact date, it moves to the next one.

Same happens when a month only has 30 days and you want a 31st.

March 31st opens May 1st because there is no April 31st.

 

[sndral]

I'll add another data point: I was testing at about 9:10pm my time (12:10am ET), but had my computer's clock set to eastern time (thanks DCL check-in process!), and had no such issues selecting Jan 29 - Feb 1 as reservation start dates. This was around 2 hours before you tried.

So the date selector is based on the device's time, it seems?

Interesting, I’m a tech dinosaur although I like a good mystery & Disney’s IT is certainly a mystery to me, the IPad I was using is set to west coast time.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

I tried booking for Jan 29-31 between midnight and 8am ET just to see if there was a glitch in the matrix...and there kinda was! But ultimately no success in booking.

My hypothesis:

• On Feb 28, booking can be made up to Jan 28 the next year.
• On March 1, booking opens up for Feb 1 the next year.
• Crux of my hypothesis: the date checker checks what is 11m from [today], we'll call that [Gated Until 8am Date] then compares if [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date]
  • If [reservation start date] is less than [Gated Until 8am Date], then allow booking
• If the above were true, then on Mar 1 between midnight and 8am ET, it would be possible to make a reservation with [reservation start date] of Jan 29, 30, or 31st.

Alas, it didn't work.

Testing results:

• Booking a reservation with start date of Feb 1:
  • 'Wait until 8am ET' error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 31:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 30:
  • 'Unexpected error occurred' type of error
• Booking a reservation with start date of Jan 29:
  • Didn't test

It looks like they do show the 'Wait until 8am ET' error based on the logic in my hypothesis (!), but there is another mechanism that blocks Jan 29-31 from being booked.

To add another data point to yours, I checked last night around 11 p.m. my time (2 a.m. east coast time) just in case there was a glitch in the matrix & the start dates after 1/28/26 were still greyed out. This morning at 7:55 a.m. eastern time I tried booking a reservation for 1/31/26 & was able to select my start date + 8 nights but then ran into the “wait until 8 a.m.” message.
I know nothing about tech & have little faith that Disney’s tech is unreliable in a predictable/explicable way, but maybe it depends on how many times you try to book in the same session (first time you try you get a wait until 8 & after that you just get a general error message) or maybe it depends on how close to 8 a.m. you are trying?
The one positive about booking for a stay starting in late Jan. was that I was able to get all 8 nights of my reservation this morning rather than my usual 11 month dance of booking 7 nights then adding on my extra nights a few days later .

I noticed, this morning, for the extremely popular room types that there was availability on January 29, 30 and 31 as well as the first of February. As soon as 8 am hit February 1st was gone yet the January dates remained. I can only assume that this is a function of walkers with February UYs starting a walk? Not sure why else the January dates remained open for a bit longer than the Feb 1st date. Only thing that makes sense to me.

 

[Cyberc1978]

When February 1st opened yesterday you could but was not required to book January 29,30 and 31st. You could also go straight for February 1st - which I did.