September no longer "off season" for ADRs?

[NoMoneyThanks2Disney]

Just wondering. I remember last year when we went in September I got online right at 6am on day 180 to try to get BOG, and there was nothing. I called at 7am, and got told that was correct and that all the on site guests must have taken them. Ok. I get it. I mean " off season" is kind of a misnomer. Disney is always busy, and so is BOG. However, just out of curiosity I checked BOG this afternoon for the date that's currently out 180, some time in July, which I would think is busy season, and lo and behold tons of reservations pop up. So, is September not off season now? Do they just have a lot more reservations open during busy season? Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[scard192]

Just wondering. I remember last year when we went in September I got online right at 6am on day 180 to try to get BOG, and there was nothing. I called at 7am, and got told that was correct and that all the on site guests must have taken them. Ok. I get it. I mean " off season" is kind of a misnomer. Disney is always busy, and so is BOG. However, just out of curiosity I checked BOG this afternoon for the date that's currently out 180, some time in July, which I would think is busy season, and lo and behold tons of reservations pop up. So, is September not off season now? Do they just have a lot more reservations open during busy season? Any input is greatly appreciated!

A lot of people make ADRs for September in anticipation of Free Dining.

 

[wendow]

Agree with the pp. Free Dining has made Sept a rather busy time for dining. We typically go in Sept (but we rent points rather than free dining promo) and we pay oop for meals. We have a very hard time finding restaurants that have seating other than The Plaza and a few resort ones. Most of the character meals or other popular choices, like BOG, are gone at 180 days.

We are going this April when the crowd calendars are showing things to be much busier than Sept. Yet there are tons of choices open for dining. I'm shocked to even see some of these places coming up in my searches. But it's b/c there is no free dining

 

[snowweisz]

Agree with pps about free dining.
This changed a little bit last year because credit card guarantees are now in place for every TS so people are being more decent about stocking up on reservations they won't keep.

Last year, I observed a couple of things.

At the 45th day mark when people have to start paying off packages, a bunch of reservations would open up. This was because people were either paying off and making final decisions or canceling.

Another thing was that a lot of people were finding openings the week or couple of weeks before September. Again, quite possibly because people were canceling.

None of that makes it easier, because you still have to check constantly to find openings but those are my observations from last year.