Quick ADR run down to calm my nerves, please

[RedWhiteandBlugold]

It's been 2 years since I booked ADR's for our trip that got canceled and is now finally going to happen. My reservation day for our trip is tomorrow morning. Can someone give me some quick reminders? Everything should be open at 6am Eastern for my entire trip at 60 days, correct? Has anyone had any problems lately with all days of the trip not being available to book? If I have my first ADR lined up and ready to search for times, do I just keep refreshing as it gets close to 6am, or do I leave it and it just becomes "clickable" when 6am comes around? Also, is it better to search by specific time or using the "lunch" or "dinner" search. And finally, can anyone tell me how they do this with multiple devices at once? I don't think I can operate that quickly Sorry for all the questions. I thought I felt very prepared, but as I have been seeing that just about everywhere we want to eat is fully booked already for the days leading up to our trip, I started panicking today that we wouldn't get anything we want.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RyanKough]

It's been 2 years since I booked ADR's for our trip that got canceled and is now finally going to happen. My reservation day for our trip is tomorrow morning. Can someone give me some quick reminders? Everything should be open at 6am Eastern for my entire trip at 60 days, correct? Has anyone had any problems lately with all days of the trip not being available to book? If I have my first ADR lined up and ready to search for times, do I just keep refreshing as it gets close to 6am, or do I leave it and it just becomes "clickable" when 6am comes around? Also, is it better to search by specific time or using the "lunch" or "dinner" search. And finally, can anyone tell me how they do this with multiple devices at once? I don't think I can operate that quickly Sorry for all the questions. I thought I felt very prepared, but as I have been seeing that just about everywhere we want to eat is fully booked already for the days leading up to our trip, I started panicking today that we wouldn't get anything we want.

Thanks in advance!

We used multiple devices (2 laptops). I had some help with it. Make your priority list as must haves and work with those. Sometimes, it is easier to get those at the back end of your vacation. A lot of people start with day 1 and go from there. If you are trying to get Cinderellas, or other hard to get, it cold be easier to schedule it toward the back end of the trip.

All of our days were not always available to book (frustrating). We had better luck on the main dining page rather than the actual restauant webpage for that problem. It is frustrating.

If you are worried about dessert parties, it is different than it was a couple of years ago. You will find those under "Enchanting Extras" instead of just dining. Enchanting Extras have had a habit of opening at midnight instead of 6am. Just be aware of that.

 

[Smugpugmug]

My ADRs opened up about a month ago and I had an Excel spreadsheet open with my list of desired restaurants so it was really easy to see which one to book on which day. It's a good rule of thumb to try for the more popular restaurants at the end of your trip since people with shorter trips won't have access to those days yet. I found it to work better to have the restaurant's main dining page open and to click on "check availability" rather than searching for times on the main dining page and having to scroll until you see the restaurant you want. Some people have reported being able to start booking at 5:45 EST but for me it didn't open up until exactly 6 so it doesn't hurt to try to refresh at 5:45. Yes it is better to check for a specific time rather than 'lunch' or 'dinner'. More times will come up that way.

Something to be aware of is a glitch that has been happening to a few people where the system won't let you book ADRs after your initial check in day despite staying on WDW property. This happened to me on my reservation day (I was on desktop and using Chrome) so I had to swap over to the app and finish booking from there.

Don't freak out if you don't initially get the restaurants you want. After the 30 day mark to your trip is when people start canceling so you will be able to fill in the blanks of anything you're missing. You can also use a reservation finder for more popular restaurants. I use Touringplan's free reservation finder in the past and I was able to grab Space 220, Tiffins, Sanaa, Homecoming, Morimoto Asia, etc.

I hope you get all of your choices : )

 

[RedWhiteandBlugold]

My ADRs opened up about a month ago and I had an Excel spreadsheet open with my list of desired restaurants so it was really easy to see which one to book on which day. It's a good rule of thumb to try for the more popular restaurants at the end of your trip since people with shorter trips won't have access to those days yet. I found it to work better to have the restaurant's main dining page open and to click on "check availability" rather than searching for times on the main dining page and having to scroll until you see the restaurant you want. Some people have reported being able to start booking at 5:45 EST but for me it didn't open up until exactly 6 so it doesn't hurt to try to refresh at 5:45. Yes it is better to check for a specific time rather than 'lunch' or 'dinner'. More times will come up that way.

Something to be aware of is a glitch that has been happening to a few people where the system won't let you book ADRs after your initial check in day despite staying on WDW property. This happened to me on my reservation day (I was on desktop and using Chrome) so I had to swap over to the app and finish booking from there.

Don't freak out if you don't initially get the restaurants you want. After the 30 day mark to your trip is when people start canceling so you will be able to fill in the blanks of anything you're missing. You can also use a reservation finder for more popular restaurants. I use Touringplan's free reservation finder in the past and I was able to grab Space 220, Tiffins, Sanaa, Homecoming, Morimoto Asia, etc.

I hope you get all of your choices : )

Thank you! I was worried that my full trip wouldn’t open, so it’s good to know it worked for you on the app. I was also going to look for a good reservation finder because I couldn’t remember which one I used last time, so that was also super helpful information! Your last paragraph was reassuring

 

[RedWhiteandBlugold]

Thanks for the responses! I got everything I was looking for. The reservation system started out allowing me to book 60+ days, but after I finished getting my reservations and went back to re-check some things or look for slightly different times, it was no longer allowing the 60+...interesting glitch. Glad I got them in before it glitched.