Restaurant reservations ???

[Belle Belinda]

Hello, I tried to reserve on the online reservation system for our upcoming free dining vacation on December 10th to the 15th, and none of the popular restaurants are available !!!! Do I have a better chance by calling directly the WDW phone or is this due to the free dining? If that is the case, what's the purpose of having free dining and not bringing my children to experience a meal with the popular characters Please help with some info

Belinda

 

[vicki_c]

Try calling on the phone. Try checking back, either online or on the phone whenever you can. Things change and open up - people cancel things all the time.

Reservations starting December 10th were able to be made starting on September 11th. You are a month behind -- and if it's also free dining - that would explain it.

Popular things are always best booked right at your 90 day window and during free dining even more so.

 

[disney1995disney]

Hello, I tried to reserve on the online reservation system for our upcoming free dining vacation on December 10th to the 15th, and none of the popular restaurants are available !!!! Do I have a better chance by calling directly the WDW phone or is this due to the free dining? If that is the case, what's the purpose of having free dining and not bringing my children to experience a meal with the popular characters Please help with some info

Belinda

You are very late making reservations is why.. All the prime ones will be filled when you are 30 days behind. Just they way the ADR's work..

I am sure, if you are flexiable, that you can come up with great meals for the kids.

Have you thought about a nice late b-fast at Tusker House? Or a b-fast at Cape May? What about a early dinner at Crystal Palace?

 

[Belle Belinda]

I understand, however this is very unfair :-( Thank you for the reply

 

[Belle Belinda]

Nothing seems to be available, I've tried for the Cape May and the only option is the actual day of my twins Birthday. We will be going to Magic Kingdom and we plan on getting there early so that they can be granted a fast past before they run out of them for that day.... Thank you for the reply

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

maybe try eating at off times? Like early dinner or late dinner.... or late breakfast at character places. For your Twin's Birthday did you try Ohana for breakfast, it has characters and usually is lightly booked at breakfast...that way you're only a quick hop from the magic kingdom

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

I found availability for a family of four at Ohana's breakfast and Cape May as far as characters but thats all I had luck with. Places like Rainforest Cafe and stuff are still quite fun and festive

 

[disney1995disney]

I understand, however this is very unfair :-( Thank you for the reply

What is unfair???

You even got times, yet you said you don't want t go then (which is fine).. But if you are not flexiable, what do you expect?

There are over 100 places to eat. You can find something.

 

[Belle Belinda]

You are soooo lucky, my children would of loved to see Lilo and friends, however i tried the whole five days for breakfast at various times, even later times like 10:45 am and the search gave me " Not available" Thank you all for the suggestions and support!

 

[Carmell226]

Just keep trying.....I made reservations for my Aunt and her 2 kids for 1900 Park Fare Dinner, Ohana Breakfast and Akershus Lunch all within a week before they went for Free Dining 2 Weeks ago! It was a last minute trip and she was determined to get some ressies so I just checked a few times online everyday and eventually was given the option for reservations. Like the previous poster said, things open up everyday.
Try not to get too upset, I know you are a behind on the planning but honestly it does not mean you are going to miss out on these restaurants! Good Luck!

 

[Racknack]

I understand, however this is very unfair :-( Thank you for the reply

Some have said that you were not able to get your ADRs because you were late attempting to book them. This may be true to some extent, however when I phoned to book ADRs for a planned visit for Dec. 6 - 12, I was unable to get a single reservation for the spots and times I requested, THIS EVEN THOUGH I CALLED AT 7:00 AM, 90 DAYS BEFORE MY RESERVATION DATES.

My reaction was to cancel the trip. If I could not get reservations when I played by the rules, I decided that the trip wasn't worthwhile at all.

Not wanting to give up on my annual solo visit to The World, I booked again at the French Quarter, this time for a month earlier, Nov. 8 - 14, and began attempting to get ADRs using the WDW computer site. I was successful in getting ADRs for every restaurant I wanted, and within an acceptable time frame with only one exception. (I'm still trying to get a dinner reservation for Le Cellier.)

Four of my 13 ADRs are for breakfasts, three for lunches, and the other six for dinners. As a senior citizen, traveling alone, the ADRs are a major part of my planning when making plans for a week at Walt Disney World.

If I could not have made those ADRs I would have canceled the second room reservation as well, and my string of several years of visiting WDW each holiday season would have came to a sad end.

Karnak

 

[Pumbaa_]

Keep trying, people do change their plans every day. How many people are in your party? sometimes different numbers on the ressie make a difference. Disney's system is odd at times, for a party of 2, if there is no 2 top, it says there is no room. Change it to 3 and voila! times open

Good luck!

 

[ScubaCat]

Keep trying, people do change their plans every day. How many people are in your party? sometimes different numbers on the ressie make a difference. Disney's system is odd at times, for a party of 2, if there is no 2 top, it says there is no room. Change it to 3 and voila! times open

Good luck!

I did exactly that recently. Booked for 3, then called in and the nice lady who answered changed it to 2 for me.

I think it's a bug that they'll fix in their next code release.

Nevertheless, always try changing your party size.

 

[SunniKC]

I would definitely try to call. And keep trying every day if you can. Cancellations happen.
Large parties are going to be difficult but was playing with the system and I just put in Crystal Palace--looking at breakfast for 4 and came up with nada on most days but a 10:25 on Sunday the 13 and a 925 and 10 on the 15th...also a 1045 at 1900 Park Fare came up on that date too.

 

[liamsaunt]

Try calling. I just booked my adrs for December 11-20 last week for a party of six. I did not have much luck online but when I called I got everything I wanted. We have adrs for Ohana (breakfast), California Grill, Artist Point, BlueZoo, Raglan Road, Rose and Crown, Coral Reef, and Kona Cafe.

 

[NOLA_Tink]

The first day to make reservations for your trip was in early-mid Sept. I would keep trying & something may become available. If not, just make the best of it. You may want to look at the 'December 2009 ADR Cancelled thread' (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2283540) for a heads-up before people cancel reservations that you may be interested in.

 

[HeatherBelle614]

I have to agree with other posters; not sure what isn't fair about it. We'll be there around the same time period, and I was up at my 90-day mark at 4am. I still had to be flexible and change a couple days, but got what we wanted. Yes, it stinks that things book up that quickly, but that's just how goes.

And, like others have said, keep trying. The 45 day mark for cancelling trips is coming up soon, so you may get lucky then (if people cancelling resort ressies remember to cancel their ADRs, too.)

 

[RMulieri]

Keep trying. I was on the computer at 300am at my 90 day mark which was Sept 13th for a Dec 12-18 trip, and I had a hard time, so at this point if you want to eat at certain places you are going to have to be VERY FLEXIBLE and/or keep trying.There is nothing UNFAIR about it.DIsney Dining books up at the 90 day mark and moreso with Free Dining going on.

 

[annnewjerz]

Definitely keep trying---there is always hope for getting something. I was up and online at 3:30am on our 90 day mark for a trip December 12-18 and had no problems at all, got what I wanted and couldn't be happier. Then, I started looking over my ressies and wanted to change some---so I signed on a few days later and started to shift and rearrange and still ended up with quite a few picks of times for each restaurant I wanted.

I got Il Mulino, Tutto Italia, Brown Derby, Flying Fish, Sci-Fi, Crystal Palace, The Wave, California Grill, Kona Cafe, Yak & Yeti, Jiko, San Angel Inn, Le Cellier, Kouzzina and The Plaza.

Don't give up, I'm sure you will find some of the restaurants you want, even if you do end up having to compromise on the date/time. Even people who think they have the perfect ADRs make changes, I'm the perfect example of that.

 

[henry72]

I agree - keep trying. I booked my ADRs at 90 days and got everything I wanted except for one I had to take at a time I didn't like. So I checked back a few times and 3 weeks later the perfect time opened up. I would also suggest calling to see what is open. They can probably tell you what is open at a glance verses you spending time punching in different days and times on the computer.