I think techinically the first day they take ADRs will be their openin date...anythin before that could be considered a soft opening.
I may have some rose-coloured glasses on but I think they will have the ADRs startin around Thanksivin and a soft openin a month before that. I think to have walk ups during Thanksgiving or Christmas would be a service nightmare...to mom2K's point all the cancelled ressies for those that got in and all the dissapointment for those that didn't durin such high peak traffic times.
On separate note...how many are going to try for both CS lunch and TS dinner? I am thinkin twice in a week might be overkill...hmm...
If nothing more... consider my point simply the counterpoint to keep the rampant optimism in check here on the DIS. you know... keep that slimmer weight on the hopes so that if things don't end up exactly like we all want them too, we don't hurt ourselves too much on the crash down.
That being said... I can totally see your point. The Holiday's without ADR's could be choas. BUT... I'm still not totally convinced they'd want to fully commit yet to those dates. Delays happen. Just look at Dumbo. We were given a 3/1 official opening date which ended up getting pushed almost 2 weeks before the it finally opened with any regularity.... with several times the date not getting officially pushed until the day before it was supposed to open.
with BOG, BatB, and LM, They really won't be able to get away with that kind of delay. That's why they haven't announced a hard date yet for the open. If they haven't announced a hard date yet, I don't see any reason for them wanting to announce a hard date in a month. There are still a lot of things that could happen between august and "the holidays" which could cause a decent unforseen delay. Even if BatB and LM are ready, there are legitimate reasons for delaying the opening.... such as to get all the structural steel in place for the Coaster (You don't want to be lifting big steel I-beams over the public, and the area they have to work in is pretty tight).... Or maybe completing the restrooms that are going to be across from LM just to add nearby bathrooms.
And they'll totally want to address how the CS lunch is going to work in practice, complete with the transition from CS to TS. With Seating before getting your food, China which likely means you won't self-clear your table like at a typical CS, and having to provide plenty of time for lunch service followed by clearing out the restaurant and transitioning to TS in time for dinner.... They really aren't going to want to force themselves into shortchanging their soft opening period where they can work out any quirks. (including the possibility that either the china goes, or they go to a full-time TS location in order to avoid the switch over hassles).
The absolute last thing they want to do is lock themselves into ADR's for Thanksgiving or christmas, only to discover once the location is soft opened that the CS to TS transition takes longer than expected resulting in needing to cancel some early ADRs to allow for more transition time.
