Making Reservations

[Pamjr]

When we went to WDW last week and used the DDP, we called WDW-DINE to make our ADR's. One of our reservations was cancelled by the restaurant because they had to close for the night due to some "technical difficulty" which was all they would say. Anyway, we didn't find out until we arrived at the restaurant. They offered to send us to WP's downstairs cafe or Raglan Rd and we didn't want either.

So, we called back to DINE from our cell and the only other reservation they could give us in the entire WORLD was at 9:45pm at CB, 3 hours after our original reservation at a DTD rest. We were coming from OKW by boat so we accepted the reservation and went back to OKW by boat. Walking down the pier we realized there were lots of empty tables at Olivia's so we went in to see if we could possibly get a reservation and they said, "sure, you want to eat now?" Of course we had timed our meals all day for the 6:45pm ressie (not to mention the type of food) so we were elated that it was 7:30 and Olivia's could take us.

Backing up here I did ask the host at DINE when we were talking on cell if they could check Olivia's for us and they said they did and Olivia's was full. Something told us it since it was such a slow period at WDW it was impossible that a 9:45pm was the only thing available in all of the entire WDW. But, we didn't want to travel too far without a ressie and then have to come back again to DTD to change buses. SO...here are my questions...

Do you all use the WDW-DINE to make your ressies or do you call the restaurants directly? Also, if you use DINE, do you know if they have a limited number of ressie's they can give out every night or something like that? I'm just curious to know why their information was that all the restaurants were full yet Olivia's had a lot of availability, indicating many restaurants around WDW probably had availability.

Thanks.

 

[Aimeedyan]

To make a reservation by phone, you have to use the Dine line. The individual restaurants do not take calls for reservations. Many times you can walk up to the podium once in the park/resort and ask about availability and they can usually check for you. Sometimes they can get you in later that day, even if the DINE line shows they are full. Sometimes the opposite can happen. A few years ago, Sci Fi wasn't taking walk ups but if you called WDW-Dine they could get you a table within 5-10 minutes.

So, if we want a reservation ahead of time, we make it (have to use the dining line). If we want to wing it, we'll stop by the restaurant and see abotu avaliability then.