Tips on getting ADRs?

[HomeschoolMama]

Does anyone have any tips on getting the ADRs you want for those of us who have never had to call for ADRs before?

 

[Colleen27]

It isn't as difficult as it might sound from reading some of the ADR angst. Jut call early (as close to 7am EST as you can), have a list of the restaurants and times you want in front of you, and a pen handy to write down confirmation numbers.

 

[Tammysue5]

I am new to all this also. I started planning our vacation the end of April. I just called very early (just like the previous post said) had my list of requests. I was able to get all the ADRs we wanted. (I even got lucky to get CRT and it was less then 180 days)

Please note: If you do not have park hoppers then make sure that you make the ADR for the park you will be in that day.

We were able to get: CM, CRT, 50s PT, Sci-fi, O'hana,Restaurantasauras, Akershus, PH, CP, HDR.

Good luck! I have had the most pleasant people when I have made calls for my ADRs... they are very helpful!

ME DH DS16 DD8 DD5

 

[myrsfmly]

Something that helped me get into the different places I wanted to try was being flexible with times and dates... For example I asked about CRT on August 27 for any meal. When i was told they were booked I gave the CM the dates of my entire trip and she searched each day until she found availability. So basically i then planned my park days around my reservations and not the other way around. I am also a party of 7 so it gets a bit tricky to seat us all - at a few places we will be seated at 2 tables, so being flexible was necessary!

 

[Mr. Pig]

Plan before you call. Get your list together and as PP said have alternatives ready both for days and places. We knew we were calling late for our trip in Oct. but we were ready to be flexible. We couldn't get LeCellier for the entire time we were going but we were ready with alternatives to ask for.

 

[lovethecastle]

We did the dining plan the last time we went so I had to make alot of ADR's . The cm on the phone was very nice & very helpful. You should
have a idea of the restaurants you want to go to. The cm will work with you to try & fit everything in. Flexible is good, we had a early dinner at 3:45 in the afternoon at sfi-fi dine in. We really wanted to try it though.
You can research all the restaurants on the disboards. They even have all the menus listed.

 

[Golden Rose]

We're going during free dining, and we didn't even book our trip until less than 180 days out. (We booked somewhere in the 5 month out range.)

Without too much trouble, I got exactly what we wanted:

Chefs de France
CRT
Marrakesh
Playhouse Disney Play N Dine
Coral Reef
Jiko
California Grill
Brown Derby - Fantasmic Dinner Package
Victoria & Albert's (not on DDP)

My dinner reservations (except for Brown Derby, which is earlier) are all between 6 and 7:30, so they are at pretty normal dinner times. My late breakfast and lunch reservations are for 11, 11:30, and 12:25.

Anyway, yes, I got CRT at about 5 months out. No, I didn't get Le Cellier, but I didn't try to. Although we've heard good things about it, there were other places we were more interested in. I was willing to swap days and times around to get into exactly the restaurants I wanted at times I was willing to eat.

I had my list of restaurants all ready when I talked to the (very helpful) CM. (I actually had an extra long list, and was hoping to book all of them, in case we were tired one day and wanted to cancel once we were at WDW.) We started off by finding the times that the hardest ones to get into were available - I think at that point, the more difficult ones were CRT, CG, BD-Fantasmic, Coral Reef, and V & A. Once we had those set, we filled in the other days with the rest of my list.

I know lots of people have horror stories, but I didn't have any trouble at all.