Restaurants Full

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I don't think they should give the advantage to people with the dining plan. I agree with the idea of opening dining up at the 60 day mark. Or 59 days so you do your FP and park plans first, then do dining around that.

Plus you can always remove the dining plan. So hypothetically people could add the dining plan, and then before the deadline to pay remove it.

Personally those of us who are actually PAYING more for our meals and therefore more profitable should get the advantage LOL!

But honestly, the food quality is going so far downhill that I am eating only on site at True "Signature" (AKA NOT LE CELLIER LOL!) or Swan/Dolphin. And the Swan/Dolphin are my first choice! Otherwise I just get in the car and go offsite.

 

[Hopefully]

I admit it- I'm hoarding a Chef Mickey breakfast and a Le Cellier lunch for multiple reasons. And I don't feel bad about it at all. Blame Disney. You want me to plan my dining for a 9 day trip 180 days in advance? With very little hope of getting what I need if I wait? During free dining, a busy fall, and now with the possibility that these dining services may be snapping up a lot of dining reservations to sell? Then I'll do what I need to do to CYA. Sorry, I'm not really sorry.

I've been looking at moving things around for the week of 10/24-11/2, and there is nothing. I finally snagged a 1900 Park Fare breakfast on Halloween. The restaurants with the best availability are the less popular ones at World Showcase.

This attitude is totally selfish, IMO. Thousands of others are also taking an expensive, sometimes "Once in a Lifetime" trip, and your actions lead to them being locked out of ADR's they will use if able.

 

[River Country]

Do we really think that 60 days or 180 days actually makes a difference as far as availability? Its bad enough I have to know what rides I want to go on 60 days out

 

[Aurora0427]

This attitude is totally selfish, IMO. Thousands of others are also taking an expensive, sometimes "Once in a Lifetime" trip, and your actions lead to them being locked out of ADR's they will use if able.

That's fine, I don't really care what you think! I'm also spending $5000 on my vacation and want my plans to work out the way I want them to- although I don't really think the dollar amount you're spending really matters. Don't blame me, blame Disney. It's their crappy system. We booked our trip 180 days out to get everything, and when we've booked last minute trips, we take what we can get with dining and don't complain. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for making extra dining ADRs. And when I cancel a couple in two weeks, people who have kept checking, as I have also done, will get my cancellations.

 

[RustManFan]

People are more and more, every year, to jump at the chance for FREE!

 

[karrit2000]

Do we really think that 60 days or 180 days actually makes a difference as far as availability? Its bad enough I have to know what rides I want to go on 60 days out

It probably wouldn't make much of a difference as far as overall availabilty. But, it would cut down on the months of stress some people are putting themselves through. Most of us book what we can get & then continue to spend excessive amounts of time trying to make changes that mesh with the rest of our plans better. So if anything it is causing way too many people hitting on the Disney servers all the time slowing everything down & thousands more cancelled ADR's.

 

[senadler]

This attitude is totally selfish, IMO. Thousands of others are also taking an expensive, sometimes "Once in a Lifetime" trip, and your actions lead to them being locked out of ADR's they will use if able.

I have a few extra reservations as well. I do not see it as locking others out. We are still over 60 days from our trip, and I am finalizing plans over the next week or two and will release them. I have also been able to move some things around with persistent checking as other people adjust their plans as well.

I do the best I can to plan everything at 180 days, but there are some days that we don't have set in stone that far out.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think the better plan would be to just change the booking window back to 60 days prior to the actual reservation. I admit that I too am guilty of currently hoarding some reservations. As others have already said the actual reservations needed are dependent on being able to book FP's to coincide with the reservations for a particular park. Restaurants being booked up 6 months before hand is totally insane. I am no longer able to wing it while @ WDW. My old touring style pre FP+ was I would pick two parks I wanted to possibly visit on a particular day. Whichever bus showed up first was where I went. Now I find myself having to wait sometimes up to 45 minutes for the right bus to arrive if I have specific ADR's or FP's.

Or even 90? I'm not sure which should be booked first. I guess ADRs before FPs? Anyhow, I agree, 180 makes no sense anymore.

 

[cchevela1023]

To the original posters statement -- I really do feel the primary reason is special package offers. Take a look at all the special package offers available. I've never seen this many at one time. As of right now, there are 7 available. Free dining is just ONE of the packages available. Regardless of whether it's free dining or not, people need to make reservations and with this many packages being offered, there's more people to make reservations. On one hand, I agree with you -- free dining is a piece of it, but not the whole reason why. Also, many states up north don't go back to school until September, so many northern families are taking trips at the end of summer (like I am next week with my boys LOL).

Adding my two cents on some of the recent posts, I completely agree on booking as soon as you are able to. I booked restaurants in Feb as soon as the window opened before I even booked any package. I still wasn't 100% sure I'd be going at the time I reserved. I got every restaurant I wanted -- and even then, I still got a lousy time for T-Rex. I think it just comes with experience when you book trips like these. You know what the tricks are to get what you want. The system is the system. I would never expect Disney to change the system because of all the locals who go out to eat throughout the week. They won't be expected to provide a package number to book a reservation. Plus -- this is an abnormally busy late summer/fall season. Everyone follows the same rules when it comes to reservation window -- I don't fault anyone for getting what they want because they know to book early.

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

I think FP+ is behind the dining (non)availability. If I have to book my meals at 180 days but can't book my FP+ until 60, I have to have a backup plan in case I can't get the FP times I want. I've had several reservations for the same meal on different days under different MDE accounts until I can get my plans in order, then I'll release them.

As others have stated, blame Disney -- they created this monster. I would be MORE than happy to "only" be able to plan my every move on vacation 30 days out, but Disney forces me to start at 180.

 

[brazzledazzler]

While there are many reasons, on top of "Free Dining," ultimately, Free Dining is the #1 impacting factor. I have never booked any of my ADRs 180 days out, and I have had no problems getting the places I wanted. But, I never stayed at Disney during Free Dining. The restaurants look to be very busy in September!
Reading this thread, I didn't realize the ADR ghosting/hoarding/whatever-it-is-called that is going on. But, you do what you gotta do to make your trip how you want it, and I don't begrudge any family for working the Disney system; the Disney system certainly works our wallets!

Hope OP is able to get some good ADRs, I would check the week right before, or days right before, I've seen some full restaurants have 1 or 2 openings.

 

[bumbershoot]

Really?!? Did you even read any of the hundreds of FP+ vs. FP- flame wars threads?

If you read the Dis rules you'll see that it's true. No sarcasm allowed. Just because some don't get in trouble for it, or you don't know if they got warnings for it, doesn't mean it's not the rule.

I agree.

I also don't think the $10 pp charge has helped getting ADRs at all, since you don't get charged until the 24 hours before or whatever it is. No incentive against hoarding (can't think of a better word there, not to sound too negative)

You get charged after you don't show up.

She is not asking WHY the restaurants are full. She is asking why....

Sorry, lost part of what I was quoting. I see both questions. As to the second question, how would we know?

She said in a follow up post that she wondered if maybe there was a big convention. That would have been a terrific thing to throw into the original post. If that's part of the question, then ask it!

But conventions keep people away from parks. In hotel rooms and resort dining, but not necessarily in park restaurants.

I'm impressed that people are able to keep up with so many additional MDE accounts to make multiple bookings at the same/similar time. Isn't that the only way to make multiple reservations? Because every time I try to book something even within a couple of hours of what I have I get the "you need to cancel the reservation you have before proceeding" message. I can only handle one MDE account. Kudos to those who can do more than one I guess...

You can make adrs for different people inside your MDE though, as far as I know. And the delay between legal, same-people, adrs isn't huge.

And can I mention that it is utterly insane that in June, I have to figure out what I want for dinner in December? I'm not sure what I want for breakfast today.

That's where a limited diet is useful! And I choose to focus on gearing myself up for that meal, instead of focusing on my silly whims. So if I have HBD booked I don't think "what if I don't want that experience on that day", but get myself excited for the tofu noodle bowl. It helps!

I still got a lousy time for T-Rex.

Did you call them directly? Better and more times to be had by calling them. Or get the landrys select card (not a cc, just google it) and use the cardholder rules to do a walk in.



SciFi keeps those tables in the back for walkins! The ones that are like picnic tables, and the small tables set inside of car cutouts. Not the tables "inside" the cars where you sit two side by side facing forward; those are for adrs.

 

[bumbershoot]

wifi going in and out, my phone tells me it didn't post. ha!

 

[bumbershoot]

seriously, I hate my home wifi.

 

[bumbershoot]

augh

 

[AquaDame]

Eh, like she said free dining has been out in other years too, so I'm not sold on that even being the major reason. I think having so many restaurants closed as well as people booking FP+ is a larger factor this time. More people being forced to think ahead in more detail + less options + higher crowds according to the data = less available ADRs. Knowing you have 3 major rides nailed down may help people feel less guilty about taking time out of their day at a sit down restaurant. Or it could be the "better" economy means more people are willing to pay for the DP & OOP too. Labor day is also late this year. I bet its tons of reasons.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The last thing Disney needs to do is make adr booking windows more.complicated.

 

[ArwenMarie]

You get charged after you don't show up.

Right, but you still get until the day before to cancel. So it doesn't really prevent against ADR hoarding (can't think of a better word to use there)

 

[sunflare]

Why are people insisting that there are ADR scalping services out there? Every single one that I know of relies on the user to go to MDE by themselves to get a reservation that may or may not still be there when they finally log in. If they were truly "scalping" there would either have to be a third party website where the exchange is made, or some sort of coordination of drop/pick up between the scalper and the recipient - whether that be through phone, email or the scalper having access to that person's MDE account.

All the services do is alert you. They don't do anything more.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Right, but you still get until the day before to cancel. So it doesn't really prevent against ADR hoarding (can't think of a better word to use there)

Exactly. I used Disney Dining Buddy to get a Jedi Mickey dinner during SWW (because plans changed and so my original dinner time no longer worked for us) and though I was able to get an ADR for the time I wanted right around the 30 day mark, I kept the notification on out of curiosity. I was shocked at how many drops there were just the day before. You know when it comes to SWW not all those people just decided not to eat at the last minute...there had to have been a ton of people who were holding on to them as at the last minute "just in case." And just in case is what's making Disney planning so hard. I know I snatch up FP+s for certain attractions "just in case" because I KNOW that if I don't get 'em while they're hot, I'll be shut out. ADRs are the same. I have CRT, 1900 Park Fare, two BOG dinners, and two BOG breakfasts I'm holding onto right now "just in case." I'll release them eventually, but until our plans are final-final (i.e., after FP+s and after we figure out what's going on with TSMM) I'm not dropping any of them because I know they'll be impossible to get back without extraordinary effort (either paying a service to watch for me or checking MDE constantly).