Summary of my first fun-filled experience making ADR's at 6am!

[ALittleWhistle]

We've always gone to WDW during non-peak times. This year we'll be going 12/15 to 12/22. I've scheduled early morning/late evening park visits to try to cut down on the crowds some. This is the second time we've gotten the dining plan with table service credits, and my first time knowing that I needed to wake up early at the 180-day mark and madly scramble to get the reservations we wanted.

5:45am - So excited! Bring it on!
6:00am - Scored 8am at BOG!
6:03am - No dinner available at BOG.
6:05am - No breakfast available at Garden Grill

I'll skip the rest of the play-by-play, but by 6:20am when I was finished, I was looking at less than a 50% success rate. I didn't get Sci-Fi, Yak&Yeti, 50's Prime Time, BOG, or Garden Grill at the times I wanted. So I snagged up what I could find (lunch at Sci-Fi and 50's, a 9:05pm at BOG, and a very late Y&Y lunch).

One very surprising thing to me was that BOG breakfast was still available after all was said and done. If I had anticipated that, I would've gone for the Garden Grill breakfast first! Maybe because the breakfast isn't table service?

I called the reservation line at 7:00am just to see if I could get a GG breakfast; no dice.

After checking diligently yesterday, and again this morning, I found what I wanted at Sci-Fi, 50's, and Y&Y!

Here are the results:
12/15 - BOG 9:05pm. I also reserved Crystal Palace for 3:50pm, because we're doing MVMCP that evening and the BOG reservation is during Holiday Wishes and I can't decide if it's worth it.

12/16 - 50's at 6:20pm

12/17 - Biergarten at 6:55pm

12/18 - Sci-Fi at 6:45pm

12/19 - Yak & Yeti at 11:45am

12/20 - Marrakesh at 6:45pm

12/21 - Raglan Rd. at 6:45pm

12/22 - BOG at 8am

We're paying for Marrakesh OOP and sharing because my other half is a non-adventurous eater, and I'm all about trying new things.

We've never done 50's, Y&Y, Marrakesh, or BOG breakfast, so I'm pretty happy with the results. But honestly, I could eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and still be happy at WDW.

I recently discovered the reservation cancellation thread on the boards, so I'll be checking that. I also signed up for alerts from Touring Plans for any earlier dinner openings at BOG or breakfast at Garden Grill. So who knows?

And we may do something completely different for dinner at MK. We've never done a TS there, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

 

[Her Dotness]

I'm not that surprised that BOG breakfast was still available.

Word has gotten around on Disney forums and by word of mouth, I'm guessing, that the breakfast is not that great a value for its price. I've also seen lots of people say that it's not an ample enough breakfast for the price.

Plus, I've read a dozen or more reports that breakfast entrees were cold. That was certainly DH's experience last December with the open-faced bacon and egg sandwich. He insisted I try a bite, saying his fruit cup was actually warmer than the sandwich. I discovered to my astonishment that he wasn't kidding. That thing was as cold as if it had been pulled out of a fridge and plated immediately!! (We talked to the manager who apologized, assured us that he'd see that was corrected, and refunded the credit. Less than a month later, I saw two reports of that same sandwich being served quite cold. Hmmmm....)

My eggs florentine were warm but hardly contained any spinach worthy of the name "florentine." It was very fresh-tasting baby spinach but no more than 3 teeny-tiny leaves of it. Echoing the famous Wendy's "Where's the beef?" lady was my immediate reaction.

We both concluded in view of other similar reports that BOG breakfast staff just hasn't gotten it together yet in view of the extraordinary draw that breakfast ("OMG!!!! BOG has breakfast!") has proven to be. Or else BOG management isn't as effective as one would expect.

 

[ALittleWhistle]

I'm not that surprised that BOG breakfast was still available.

Word has gotten around on Disney forums and by word of mouth, I'm guessing, that the breakfast is not that great a value for its price. I've also seen lots of people say that it's not an ample enough breakfast for the price.

Plus, I've read a dozen or more reports that breakfast entrees were cold. That was certainly DH's experience last December with the open-faced bacon and egg sandwich. He insisted I try a bite, saying his fruit cup was actually warmer than the sandwich. I discovered to my astonishment that he wasn't kidding. That thing was as cold as if it had been pulled out of a fridge and plated immediately!! (We talked to the manager who apologized, assured us that he'd see that was corrected, and refunded the credit. Less than a month later, I saw two reports of that same sandwich being served quite cold. Hmmmm....)

My eggs florentine were warm but hardly contained any spinach worthy of the name "florentine." It was very fresh-tasting baby spinach but no more than 3 teeny-tiny leaves of it. Echoing the famous Wendy's "Where's the beef?" lady was my immediate reaction.

We both concluded in view of other similar reports that BOG breakfast staff just hasn't gotten it together yet in view of the extraordinary draw that breakfast ("OMG!!!! BOG has breakfast!") has proven to be. Or else BOG management isn't as effective as one would expect.

 

[ALittleWhistle]

I'm not that surprised that BOG breakfast was still available.

Word has gotten around on Disney forums and by word of mouth, I'm guessing, that the breakfast is not that great a value for its price. I've also seen lots of people say that it's not an ample enough breakfast for the price.

Plus, I've read a dozen or more reports that breakfast entrees were cold. That was certainly DH's experience last December with the open-faced bacon and egg sandwich. He insisted I try a bite, saying his fruit cup was actually warmer than the sandwich. I discovered to my astonishment that he wasn't kidding. That thing was as cold as if it had been pulled out of a fridge and plated immediately!! (We talked to the manager who apologized, assured us that he'd see that was corrected, and refunded the credit. Less than a month later, I saw two reports of that same sandwich being served quite cold. Hmmmm....)

My eggs florentine were warm but hardly contained any spinach worthy of the name "florentine." It was very fresh-tasting baby spinach but no more than 3 teeny-tiny leaves of it. Echoing the famous Wendy's "Where's the beef?" lady was my immediate reaction.

We both concluded in view of other similar reports that BOG breakfast staff just hasn't gotten it together yet in view of the extraordinary draw that breakfast ("OMG!!!! BOG has breakfast!") has proven to be. Or else BOG management isn't as effective as one would expect.

Sorry about the previous reply; for some reason I was unable to type text into the reply box.

Anyway, this is good to know. Our main reason for getting BOG was to get into the park early. Not sure what we're going to order yet, but this helps. Thanks!

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Good luck with your search. Cancellations do come up especially at 60, 45 and 30 day marks with FP+ tweaking and package cancellations.

We have been to BoG for lunch and dinner, I wouldn't miss Holiday Wishes for it or spend valuable party time there.

Enjoy!

 

[Candycane83]

Great list! I have the same problem for garden grill but I think they are holding tables for CP? We may still get that! for BOG, I think the dinner is much harder to get because of party nights. As PP have mentioned, I don't think it's worth missing holiday wishes (just a personal opinion of course)