Newbie Question - How long to make reservations?

[sayla27]

I Am planning my first family trip to Disney for July 2014 and we are currently 190 days away from booking our ADRs. Therefore, I'm scouring the boards for all the information I can get. Here's my situation. My 180 day is a Tuesday. I am a teacher on the East Coast so getting up for 6:00 am is no problem, but I need to leave for work by 6:30 am. Is it possible to book all the reservations online within 30 minutes? Our biggest concerns are BOG, CRT, CM, and CG in that order. I can easily call at 7:00 am but again I would only have 30 minutes before my first class. My next opportunity would be to call at approximately 9:45 am.

Here's my other thought...if I add a day onto my reservation it makes my 180 on MLK Day which I'm off. Then I could simply cancel that additional day at a later time. A bit unethical I know but the time constraints have me worried.

Am I being foolish? Will I get everything done in the time frame allowed? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[iheartdisney123]

Lol a half hour is more than enough time. You'll be fine

 

[sayla27]

Thank you. That does make me feel better.

 

[sayla27]

Thank you. That makes me feel better!

 

[ses1230]

I Am planning my first family trip to Disney for July 2014 and we are currently 190 days away from booking our ADRs. Therefore, I'm scouring the boards for all the information I can get. Here's my situation. My 180 day is a Tuesday. I am a teacher on the East Coast so getting up for 6:00 am is no problem, but I need to leave for work by 6:30 am. Is it possible to book all the reservations online within 30 minutes? Our biggest concerns are BOG, CRT, CM, and CG in that order. I can easily call at 7:00 am but again I would only have 30 minutes before my first class. My next opportunity would be to call at approximately 9:45 am.

Here's my other thought...if I add a day onto my reservation it makes my 180 on MLK Day which I'm off. Then I could simply cancel that additional day at a later time. A bit unethical I know but the time constraints have me worried.

Am I being foolish? Will I get everything done in the time frame allowed? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

It depends. The new system is very glitchy. Sometimes it recognizes +10, sometimes not. If it allows you to go through and make all the ADRs you should be ok. If for some reason it doesn't recognize your +10, you should be prepared to call at 7am eastern time.

It didn't let me make my +10 the last time I made ADRs, and there are sporadic reports here on the boards of people having trouble. Good luck.

 

[KaLyn]

You should be done within 30 minutes. I was done in 10 minutes and that included saving the confirmations as PDF files and printing off confirmation numbers because I was worried they'd get lost in MDE.

 

[KaLyn]

A tip to save time and avoid having an "oh my god why isn't it working?!?!" moment....Do not try to reserve by going to the website of the specific restaurant. Instead, once logged on to MDE, go up to "Things to Do" and choose "Make Reservations". A page will load where you search all restaurants by your requested date and time. This page is where you book your ADRs from.

To save time and get through faster, go in a few days before your 180. Make sure your resort reservations are linked to your profile and make sure all your party members are listed on your MDE profile too. You can also add a credit card to your account under the "My Profile" link on the MDE menu. If you do this you won't have to type the card number, expiration date, etc, in each time when making a reservation since a credit card is now required for each ADR made.

Also, have an attack plan. I booked my ADRs for the more popular places first. I then booked in order of very important to less important. Sometimes the more popular places will be booked for the first part of your stay, but you have a better chance of getting them if you reserve them towards the end of your stay.

 

[KaLyn]

Oh and something else...if you're not familiar with the MDE site at all. Use it, practice, go in and click around, pretended to make reservations just to get the feel of it. It sounds funny, but it did help me feel better.

Sorry for the separate posts. My brain is working in spurts today lol.