My ADR Success Story - and some tips for you!

[papertraveller]

Thank you for this thread. I have been tremendously frustrated by the new site, not least of which because it won't let me finalize a restaurant reservation without having a valid U.S. cell phone number. Not great for international visitors at all. Once I went to the old site, everything was smooth and easy.

But the tips on increasing the size of the party were the charm. I was able to shift one reservation to a much better time simply by saying we were a party of four, instead of a party of three!

Thanks so much. And happy eating all!

 

[ScarletFire]

WOW! THANK YOU!!

I woke at 5:55am this morning; followed your instructions; done at 6:15am; back to bed!

Cape May, Captain's Grill, Tusker House, 'Ohana, Liberty Tree Tavern and Be Our Guest!!! I had my choice of times.

Thanks again,
Denise

 

[bigmac5]

I wish I had found this thread when I was making my ADR's! I was unsuccessful in getting an ADR for BOG

Since our 180 DBF and I have been trying everyday, calling and checking online, to get an ADR for any day 9/13-9/20. Its just the 2 of us so we've been searching for tables for 2 people.

Any tips on what else we should do? Should we up our people count?? Are there a limited amount of tables for 2? What else can we do to increase our chances?!

you could up your party numbers. I have been looking for an earlier ADR for 'Ohana and I was looking for party of 2 to no a vale. So just for the fun of it I punched in party of 4 and I was able to get 8:15pm (better than 9:35pm) I am still looking for and earlier one but getting closer. I have been told by many sources that we won't be penalized if not all show up

 

[Gamegrl1]

Thanks very much to the OP for all those instructions! Our hotel res should be made in two days and our 180 is 7/30 so I'm printing your tips and will be following them to the letter. Also will have to "practice" a bit beforehand and get familiar with the site...so far I have seen it but not logged on. We only have one shot at this and I have to be up at 3am local time...phew! SO want it to go right so I can get the res's I want and go back to bed!

I'm glad the OP is so detailed...yesterday I was writing down my res's in order of importance...heck, I only have about 2 that should be a bit more challenging...but I'm glad I'm not the only one that did that! I was thinking "Is this over the top?" but I guess on these boards, no matter how odd you think something is there's always someone who can top it.

 

[vinotinto]

So, I tried using the old site first. I had been successful in searching and starting to book restaurants that were within 180 days out. But, I tried the old site this morning in IE, Firefox and Chrome and none of them were able to link my resort reservation to show 180+10. If you are booking only 180 days out, the old site works very well. If you want to link your resort reservation to dining to be able to do +10, well, it may not work. BTW, I could see my resort reservation just fine in the old site. It would even tell me that it was 180 days out and to not miss out, make my dining reservations now. But then, it just could not link it.

So, I braved the new site and was able to make the reservations in it. By the time I started it was a little past 6 am. They show up just fine on MDE. Yes, it's aggravating. Donald Duck is always showing up and saying Site is Temporarily Down. You often have to hit the back button. You often have to re-sign in. But, I was able to make ADRs, including MM F! and BOG (for a party of 4, we were a party of 5, but there was nothing available for a party of 5).

Oh, and the confirmation emails have been trickling in. S l o w l y. Some took 15 minutes to arrive. Some took more than 2 hours to arrive. Some have not yet arrived. I have faith all the confirmation emails will show up ... at some point.

That's my report...

 

[Figment56]

Got on the old site to try dry run. Got on site okay, but BOG is not listed as a valid restaurant? Help! Making resides tomorrow (today) lol!

 

[ScarletFire]

Got on the old site to try dry run. Got on site okay, but BOG is not listed as a valid restaurant? Help! Making resides tomorrow (today) lol!

That's interesting. Shutdown and try again. I just checked and it appeared in the drop down bar as I typed BE.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Priorityonecb]

Thanks for the great thread and tips! I wasn't able to get to the old site this morning. But, was able to use the new site and had all my ADR's by 6:15! I got BOG, CRT, Chef's and Kona.

 

[StewHouTx]

Great suggestions! Just booked our Jan 2014 trip yesterday so have a couple of weeks before we can book ADR's and this was just the info I was looking for, so thank you.

Quick issue though...I have tried the "old site" several times, I try to log in and it just takes me back to the main page without me being logged in. I thought I was possibly getting my password wrong, but went over to the new site and logged in using same info and had no issues.

Is there a trick to the old site I am missing? If so, any info would be greatly appreciated

 

[PaGaLaGirl]

So infuriated. Got up early and neither website or the ap will let me book the 180+10. Just keep getting error messages, We're sorry there is a problem searching for reservations at this time. Ahhhhh! I will just have to wait another 30 minutes and call. So angry.

Update: I just called and it was sooooo much easier and I got every reservation at the exact time I wanted. Next time I will just take the extra hour of sleep and save myself the frustration.

 

[lcvb]

I'm with you. 5am in our time zone. What a waste!


Edit At least I had no problems on the phone. Got all the times I wanted and it only took 15 mins.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Yeah, I can't get the old page to load.

So, assuming this is the case (and I cannot book online), I have to call at 7 am (eastern) to book by phone, correct?

 

[lcvb]

Yes. The number I used was 407.939.3463. It took me right to a dining reservations CM.

 

[LSUfan4444]

5:45 wake up to make Disney Dining reservations at our 180+10 window and got everything we want. Hoop De Do, Via Napoli, Ohana, Crystal Palace, Be Our Guest and Tusker House.

Now back to bed; have a Magical Day.

 

[pilferk]

Made ours this morning.

"Old" site would not link our DVC ressies, no matter how hard we tried.

"New" site worked like a charm, though. Got everything we wanted for our 7 day trip, including BOG for 1/17 (5-ish) and Ohanas Dinner (6-ish) for 1/14. Done by about 6:20

 

[apocalyps3]

Successfully made our ADR's this morning.

The "Old" site would not work for me. It would never let me make a reservation outside of the 180 day (it didn't recognize my +10 days).

So I tried the "New" site and other than it being slower, it worked with no problems. I was able to make all our ADR's for the times we wanted (or within 20 minutes of it).

Hard to believe the site is so poorly designed. I feel like Disney should have better design than this. Say a site where it shows your a calendar of your reservation, you just click on the day, select a time, a use a pull down menu to select your restaurant.

Its strange that even though the system knows when your reservations are, it makes you click on the calendar, browse through all the months till you get to january and then pick the day. Why doesn't it just take you directly to the days that represent your stay and let you just click away.

Its nice looking right now, but very clunky.

 

[Vincent405]

Old site would not let me reserve past 180 days, recognized me and room reservation, but would not work. And I simply could not stay logged in and get to the new site. Shut down the internet, opened back up and logged into the new site. Worked fine and not crazy slow. Had to enter cc info most times, but I thought I would and I didn't want the site to save it. With the Cali Grill not accepting reservations yet, I booked extra BOG dinners. We now have 3 there, plus I got the Castle on Sat night (my daughter's b'day) and Crystal palace that morning at 8:05.

Had all I wanted and made a few extra lunch reservations "just in case". Was still looking at maybe adding another lunch right after I made my last one and then the site went "goofy". Said my cc was not valid (but I then got a confirmation for the res I made and it shows up), then kept giving server busy errors. That was at 7:15, glad I got on a 6:00 and very glad I was done!

 

[rt2dz]

My experience this morning was that the old site could not recognize my reservation. I got a red notice that said they were experiencing technical difficulties and could not access reservations. This was immediately at 5 am EST. I could book for the first day of my reservation otherwise. I tried the new site also, and could not get through at all, however the ADRs I made on the old site were showing up. I called immediately at 6 am EST and was able to get everything I wanted, including BOG. The CM told me there was only one time available for my party size on the date I wanted, but it turned out to be the exact time I wanted. I never gave the CM a time beyond "dinner".

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[luvallprincesses]

Same experience as the few previous posters. The old site did NOT work to recognize the +10 days. It looks like the time has come to depend on the new site. It was user friendly and quick. By the time I goofed around between the sites and different browsers and re-opened the internet, I didn't actually start reservations until close to 6:30 am, but got everything I wanted for January within 30 minutes. I will consider that success!

 

[middlesista]

So infuriated. Got up early and neither website or the ap will let me book the 180+10. Just keep getting error messages, We're sorry there is a problem searching for reservations at this time. Ahhhhh! I will just have to wait another 30 minutes and call. So angry.

Update: I just called and it was sooooo much easier and I got every reservation at the exact time I wanted. Next time I will just take the extra hour of sleep and save myself the frustration.

Just wondering how long you were on hold for if at all? Thanks!