Problems booking DVC dining Thanksgiving week

[dr&momto2boys]

We have had a terrible time trying to book our ADRs for the week leading to Thanksgiving. We've spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with many people trying to accomplish anything...and we have nothing to show for it.

"The system is not allowing them to book past 180 days."

"You have to call the restaurant directly for a group that size on Thanksgiving week." (We have 13 including an infant who will not even need a highchair.)

"There is no availability at Be Our Guest for a party that size." Can we split into two reservations? "There is no way to do that because you only have one reservation number." (We are staying in a grand villa.)

Lord help me! It is tough enough trying to book for a party of 13 on Thanksgiving week. It's so frustrating running into these problems! We've been prepared for months to call this morning as soon as they opened.

 

[cseca]

Unfortunately for a family that size you might need to call the restaurants directly.
I had to do the same thing for our wedding party 5 years ago.
Your best bet is to call dining and ask for Group Sales/Dining.
Good luck!
They might still be able to accommodate you if you call ASAP.
Sometimes they'll give you direct numbers to the restaurants and sometimes they can book over the phone.
But chances are you will have to call some restaurants directly and leave a message with your group qty, dates and your phone number then they'll call you back

 

[cseca]

....

What reservation did you you have to call directly? Usually they are Yak and Yeti, trex, rainforest or planet hollywood.

5 years ago I had to call Boma, GF Cafe and 1 other restaurant ( sorry don't remember now) directly.

 

[Minniesgal]

Have you tried calling member services instead of Disney Dining?

 

[myxdvz]

When is your trip? we have Thanksgiving Week booked as well, checking in on 11/24 and AFAIK, our 180 days start May 28, not May 24 (it's days not 6 months).

What am I missing?

 

[Chuck S]

I think this is more of a party size issue rather than a booking window issue. I'm traveling solo next week, and a lot of places just will not accept a booking for 1 person. At least my favorite spots could book it, Olivia's, however, can not...fortunately, there is rarely a problem getting seated there.

 

[stmize]

I've been trying all day for CRT for 11/23/13 as today was my 180. The system recognizes it but CRT apparently hasn't been loaded into the system past the 22nd. I've also called numerous times to disney dining.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Tried to set up BOG as 2 parties, but were told we couldn't because we don't have 2 reservation numbers (all 13 of us are in one grand villa.)

We were told we had to call for Coral Reef and Sanaa. Turns out that was NOT true! We finally got somewhere. I'll update in a minute.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Have you tried calling member services instead of Disney Dining?

Yes, thank you. After 2 calls to Disney Dining (the first was 75 minutes all by itself), we called Member Services. With the third or fourth person at member services we finally got a bit of help.

Here was the BIG problem...
Our Grand Villa week was booked as 3 nights and 4 nights under separate contracts (we have different use years) and then linked together.
Well the first reservation is 180 days from now but somehow being linked to the second reservation, they had it's start date for booking. So by Tuesday we should be able to book everything (that is still available at this busy time of year.) I don't know why it took over 2 1/2 hours and 4+ people to figure this out, but I'm glad someone finally did and was able to book our first couple of ADRs. (Coral Reef and Sanaa which we were told we would have to call directly because of the party size...but we did not!)

Now the problem is that we still have our most difficult ADRs still left to make...BOG, Ohana, and Boma on Thanksgiving night. And we can't make them until Tuesday.

I really think there should be some kind of manual override in the system for glitches like this. Here we are spending ridiculous amounts of points (read $$$) on a Grand Villa at AKV at a peak time and we cannot even make ADRs for our group the way we would be able to if we were staying at an All Star resort. (Not knocking any resorts, just saying I'd like the same privileges!)

Also I am very frustrated with all of the wrong answers including the way we left the first 75 minute call this morning... Call on Tuesday and ask for Guest Services and talk to ******. She will have it figured out for you by then and take care of you. I asked DH to call back after a few hours and check on the situation having a bad feeling that we would get nowhere on Tuesday. They were not only not willing to put us through to guest services, but had no idea who ****** was or what are problem had been this morning. I'm just frustrated!

Thanks everyone for your replies! I knew you all would know more than we found out on the phone!

 

[spruce]

We had the same problem last October for a party of 19. The last time we had a party this size disney still did grand gatherings and it was easy. I wonder why they stopped that program? Good luck.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I'm sure you're all sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for an update, so here you go... (Just want to dispel the misinformation given to us throughout the day.)

After much trouble and on and off calls for 16 hours yesterday we finally got all of our reservations booked to our satisfaction.

We got an 8:00pm and 8:25pm reservation for BOG for 6 people each. (Yes, technically we needed 13 but since one is an infant that won't even be big enough to be in a highchair, I don't feel bad about leaving him out. It's very likely we'll be taking turns walking him around outside to keep him happy so we won't have to worry about the unlikely objection of fire code restrictions anyway.) We were able to do this with one hotel reservation number for the record.

We still weren't able to make any of these ADRs with our DVC reservation. We ended up using someone else's hotel reservation number. Annoying, but we got the job done.

 

[stmize]

Wish they would load CRT past nov 22 still not loaded

 

[stmize]

CRT is finally loaded for 11-23 and someone else posted for 11-25 and 11-26. So good luck