october reservations, 11 people, many questions

[Sue1016]

hey everyone. i'm in charge of planning and booking everything for our big family trip in october
there are 4 rooms, so i have 4 reservation codes

1. when will the calander be updated to show hours and fiewworks for october? (we are going oct 2-9 ) i need to know which nights fantasmic is and also which nights MK closes early for the halloween party
2. hear / reading conflicting info. called yesterday and lady on the phone said u are able to book online 180 days in advance at 6am for only the 1st day and after that u must call at 7am to book the rest of ur stay's dining reservation -- online reading different --- anyone know which is accurate

3. if i am able to book all online how will that work with multiple parties, multiple confirmation #s? (example 4 people going to one place one night and the other 7 to another -- noting that some people from 1 room may be split ie, me and my husband going to dinner solo and our son goes to dinner with his grandparents)

4. any advice on how to plan for 11 people --- odds of getting reservations for everyone? out of 7 nights, we are planning to only dine altogether 3x --- and the others will be split up. thinking of via napoli, tucker house breakfast and mama melrose fantasmic will be the 3 reservations i need for 11

please help, this is totally stressing me out

 

[Mikie]

Your trip is almost exactly like my family of 12, 4 rooms, me doing all the planning last October.
1) sorry, not sure when complete hours are posted. But be prepared that even once posted, hours may change. I know I planned a fantasmic day and nearer my trip they added a second showing, animal kingdom hours were extended, etc. have a plan, but don't assume it's set in stone!

2) you're supposed to be able to book 180+length of stay online, but many have reported problems doing so lately, while calling is working fine. Perhaps that's what the CM was talking about.

3) personally, I like calling as they have always been efficient and helpful. They also seem to navigate much more quickly than I can refresh the slow web page if I'm checking multiple times, places or dates. Online, I'm not certain how you'd keep the people all organized, but I do know that at the time I booked ADR'S, I was the only room of our 4 that was even booked yet and we linked up the ADR's later after everyone had hotel reservations and MDE acvounts established. I also think the online booking system prevents you from having multiple ADRs at the same time in the same account, so your split dinners may be tricky (again, phone CMs can definitely do this, and maybe online too, I just don't know how)

4) of course all experiences differ, but at 7am Eastern on our 180+10 morning I was able to get all 12 of us on one reservation for 1 table service per day on our 7 day trip. We ate at very traditional meal times - 8:00 hour breakfast, noon lunch, 5:30-6:30 start times for dinner, so I'd be optimistic that you can do this without a lot of challenges if you can book your first available morning. If you have troubles finding one big reservation, you can try for a 5 and a 6 within a few minutes of each other then tell them upon checkin that you're together. I believe I wanted mama Melrose F! and wasn't able to get it for 12. You may have to consider whether you'd switch to Hollywood and vine for the package or keep mama Melrose as a regular non-package for the meal and see F! With standby or a fastpass.

Good luck! If you have any questions, the phone CMs were really helpful to me, even when I called before my booking day just to ask details.

 

[purple figment]

1. Here's the current October calendar , but as with anything there will be changes as it gets closer to October:
http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_October.pdf

2. If you are staying at an onsite Disney resort you will be able to take advantage of the 180 + 10 either online (6 AM Eastern time) or by calling (7 AM Eastern time). There have been a lot of glitches booking online so if the system won't let you do up to 10 days of your vacation, you will need to call.

3. For reservations where you will all be dining together, one person can make the reservation for everyone.

For times when you'll be splitting up and need more than one reservation at the same time it's easier to have a second person make the second res or use a different MDE account.

4. Try booking for 11 first. If that doesn't work, try 12 because the res system likes even numbers better than odd and as long as one person shows up for the res, you will not be charged for any "missing" party members. Next option is to try splitting your group up and making reservations as close in time as possible. Always include everybody, regardless of age or whether they'll be chargedeating/charged or not, because of fire code regulations. It is always easier to show up with fewer because there's no guarantee that you can add extra people when you check in.

For Fantasmic be sure to book the Fantasmic! Dining Package and not just a regular reservation at MM.