Online Reservations - theory to alternates suggestions?

[tatafornow]

Is there any rhyme or reason to how the online system chooses what to suggest as alternate reservations?

Sometimes I get a message that just says "sorry, there is nothing at this time" with NO alts.

Sometimes I get nothing for the restaurant I asked for but do get a list of alts.

And sometimes the times are more than just that 2 hour block.

So I'm wondering, if you search for a character meal, will it give you other character meals as options. Or if you search for a restaurant in Epcot will it give you other Epcot places as alts.

Are there any tricks??

 

[RitaE]

I have no idea how it comes up with them. I think it is one of those Disney mysteries. It's kind of fun to glance down there and look at them .... because yes, when I said I wanted Boma at 6:30pm.....I was really looking for Sci Fi at 4:45pm!

Today I've had several searches that turned up no alternates. I don't know if that's because the restaurants are filling up or if Disney has just totally given up on trying to make me happy and wants me to go eat at the Olive Garden.

 

[tatafornow]

ha! I wonder if the system is funky today.
I was searching for Teppan Edo and it wasn't finding it at all.