Trouble with Dining Reservations?

[seesclubhouse]

Oddly the Tomorrowland Skyline Lounge Experience is bookable for October 19th but EVERYTHING else in the parks for dinner is showed as no reservations. Do you think everything, absolutely everything, is already booked? Or is this some weird glitch now on the Tomorrowland lounge where it's loaded reservations but nowhere else has?

my trip is Oct 2nd- oct7th, Ive been checking since the 60 day mark and its been broken, nothing in park has been booked or released. from what I heard in the grapevine Disney is 21 days late out of the 60 day marker so keep vigilant, as you never know when disney will fix this snapfu. you can see if its fixed by going to restaurants disney page and checking the hours for the day, if its still only showing lunch its still broke lol.

 

[pharmama]

I'm shocked they still haven't nailed down their schedule for October! I know things are changing because of the Halloween party being over in DCA, but this is a HUGE company and I'm shocked they hadn't locked schedules and plans months ago and then started opening reservations right at the 60 days.

I don’t think this has anything to do with party moving to DCA. It has everything to do with the unexpectedly low attendance this summer. They probably did have everything planned months ago but threw all the plans out the window after this summer. I think they’re going to wait as along as possible to finalize schedules while they assess if they can even expect seasonal norms crowds once all AP blocks are over (though Deluxe lifting this week doesn’t seem to be having a huge effect) and the typically popular Halloween season gets underway. They’re in major damage (cost) control mode now...

 

[pharmama]

my trip is Oct 2nd- oct7th, Ive been checking since the 60 day mark and its been broken, nothing in park has been booked or released. from what I heard in the grapevine Disney is 21 days late out of the 60 day marker so keep vigilant, as you never know when disney will fix this snapfu. you can see if its fixed by going to restaurants disney page and checking the hours for the day, if its still only showing lunch its still broke lol.

It’s not broken or a website issue. Disney hasn’t decided park hours and entertainment offerings yet so they can’t open up dinner bookings until that’s been determined.

 

[jaymesmom617]

I got the same answer when I called the Disneyland Dining line. Only lunch times until the schedule is set. I did reserve some lunch times but, I would love dinner. I check every day multiple times. It is super frustrating.

I don’t think this has anything to do with party moving to DCA. It has everything to do with the unexpectedly low attendance this summer. They probably did have everything planned months ago but threw all the plans out the window after this summer. I think they’re going to wait as along as possible to finalize schedules while they assess if they can even expect seasonal norms crowds once all AP blocks are over (though Deluxe lifting this week doesn’t seem to be having a huge effect) and the typically popular Halloween season gets underway. They’re in major damage (cost) control mode now...

I find @pharmama theory about low crowds and damage control interesting. If you check hotels, most are sold out or close to being sold out. I think October will be super busy.

 

[pharmama]

I find @pharmama theory about low crowds and damage control interesting. If you check hotels, most are sold out or close to being sold out. I think October will be super busy.

Disney sure hopes so! But they thought the summer was going to be super busy too...and it was quite the opposite. So my point is that I think they are waiting to get as much info as they can to predict crowds for October. Hotel bookings are really only one part of the picture too- local AP holders are a huge part of DLR revenue. There is also a large convention at the convention center in mid October- that fills hotels but doesn't usually have a huge impact on the parks. Other than around those dates, hotel availability still looks pretty good to me in October.

 

[seesclubhouse]

It’s not broken or a website issue. Disney hasn’t decided park hours and entertainment offerings yet so they can’t open up dinner bookings until that’s been determined.

I know that, but seeing as the "norm" is 60 days out for reservations I consider it broken or an issue. Unless Disney comes right out with a formal announcement saying they've throttled or held back in order " get info" Ill take it with a grain of salt, Unless you work for Disney and are speaking on their behalf. Either way its a huge pain for any one trying to plan properly

 

[pharmama]

I know that, but seeing as the "norm" is 60 days out for reservations I consider it broken or an issue. Unless Disney comes right out with a formal announcement saying they've throttled or held back in order " get info" Ill take it with a grain of salt, Unless you work for Disney and are speaking on their behalf. Either way its a huge pain for any one trying to plan properly

Definitely a pain and super annoying to have to keep checking- I totally get that. I'm not trying to take Disney's side here and I certainly don't work for them. Calling it broken came across to me that it was being seen as a technical problem with the website and that doesn't seem to be the case (although Disney has no shortage of technical problems too!!) based on what others have been told when calling etc. In the end, as you say, it doesn't really matter. My apologies.

 

[rachaeld]

Further, you can't seem to book lightsaber building at ALL in September and October hasn't been opened yet. That has got to be a glitch... or is it being shut for a few weeks already for some kind of overhaul/change?

Lightsaber experience is only bookable up to 14 days in advance.

 

[RMiller20]

I am exactly two months away from my trip to Disneyland. I’m trying to make dinner reservations but I can only make lunch ones. Is this new? I saw that I could make like 20 day out dinner reservations but no longer then that. Would it be better to call or try and wait for the 20 day window?

 

[Pumbaa_]

Moving you to the DL boards

 

[kristie73]

It’s not broken or a website issue. Disney hasn’t decided park hours and entertainment offerings yet so they can’t open up dinner bookings until that’s been determined.

But the days and hours that they do have posted for late Sept and early Oct still aren't giving dinner reservation availability? So not sure if it really is broken or they just aren't ready to open up reservations?

 

[AndrewC]

Frozen dining package isn’t bookable NEXT WEEK. How can Disney STILL not know what’s going on 7 days from now?! If the show is going dark for a month or something they should announce that. If they’re doing away with dining packages, they should announce that. If they’re just having a giant cluster F then maybe they should announce something saying that they anticipate keeping dining hours and packages the same but reservations may not open until the day of or something.

 

[Geemo]

But the days and hours that they do have posted for late Sept and early Oct still aren't giving dinner reservation availability? So not sure if it really is broken or they just aren't ready to open up reservations?

The hours may have been posted for late Sept and early Oct but keep an eye on those too.
I have seen Disney change the hours as it got closer to the actual date.

We have had it happen. Where Disney changed to opening at 10am instead of 9am as originally posted.
Can put a real kink in to the daily plan. Opening at 9 is almost too late for us. 10am opening SHOOTS the whole morning...

It is mind boggling that Disney can't think straight past the 45 - 60 day point.

Geemo

 

[AndrewC]

Man, 10am feels soooooo late for just opening. I assume hotel guests those days still get an hour early? That makes that perk really valuable then!

(I also can only imagine how many absolutely pissed off people there must be waiting at the front gates because they thought the park opened at 9am and are from surrounding hotels or within drive distance and came over in the morning. Even if it's a "slow day" you just need a couple hundred people to show up at open and then have to stand around for an hour to have a crazy amount of unhappy people!)

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I am exactly two months away from my trip to Disneyland. I’m trying to make dinner reservations but I can only make lunch ones. Is this new? I saw that I could make like 20 day out dinner reservations but no longer then that. Would it be better to call or try and wait for the 20 day window?

I"ve moved you to this thread where you'll see that there are many other people facing the same problem -- this is a weird situation right now at DLR with fall dinner reservations. Many of us are waiting not too patiently for the books to open already!

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I called today, again, to ask about Fantasmic dining packages at Blue Bayou (trip is Sept. 29 - Oct. 4); just this morning, I saw:

1) what appeared to be regular, available dinner reservations for 10/3 at BB, but when I tried to click on them, they said no tables available, and

2) What appeared to be available lunch reservations for the Fantasmic package on the same date, which also returned the "no tables available" message.

The person I spoke with gave me the same line as all the others about how the "inventory hasn't been released yet, please keep checking." This is getting ridiculous -- and but let's all have mercy on those poor folks answering the phones; it's not their fault, and they know it's ridiculous, even more than we do! Everyone I've spoken to on the hotel guest / preferred reservation line, despite their high level of Disney professionalism, has seemed ...very very wearied by all this. Heh.

 

[BoltzNBrew]

Looks like some dinner hours are updated through Oct 12th but still no ADR available.

 

[hyperminimalism]

I'm looking at dining reservations for dinner right now and I see it available for that date and amount of people in the party.

Carnation Cafe
Wednesday
October 02, 2019

Breakfast	8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Lunch	11:20 AM - 3:55 PM
Dinner	4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

I've never had issues with getting dining reservations even a month out from a Disneyland trip. Heck, I even got a dining reservation for BB the night before we had dinner there (albeit it was probably a one-off cancellation thing that worked out). I wouldn't worry too much about it this far out from your trip. If it was 2ish weeks before, maybe, but you'll probably be okay.

 

[AndrewC]

This is really stressing me out. They're down to like 30 days now with reservations. They're falling further behind rather then catching up. They used to be 21 days behind and now they're 30 days behind. I'm going in late October and I'm half expecting to only be able to book reservations like 10 days out.

A lot of places seem to be booking up really fast too... or they haven't released slots for every location on those days. This basically means every day at least once, and sometimes three or four times I'm checking to make reservations between now and Oct 19th... or until I get my reservations locked.

I have had issues with booking reservations unless planned way in advance. Not so much not getting ANY reservation, but making an early enough lunch to work with a dinner reservation, or being able to book a Fantasmic dinner one night, Frozen lunch the next, and WOC dessert the other night. Things get tricky when you're there three to five days and have like three major dinner things you want to do, they have to fit perfectly to be able to get them all in.

 

[violina]

I have had issues with booking reservations unless planned way in advance. Not so much not getting ANY reservation, but making an early enough lunch to work with a dinner reservation, or being able to book a Fantasmic dinner one night, Frozen lunch the next, and WOC dessert the other night. Things get tricky when you're there three to five days and have like three major dinner things you want to do, they have to fit perfectly to be able to get them all in.

I'm also worried about this; I'm going with my friends not too long after your trip and they particularly enjoy the dining packages. We're there for about 4 days and I'm not sure how to go about this aside from checking daily (which is really annoying). My only hope is that things don't book out too quickly when they are finally released. I know that it's not normally an issue in the past, but for this to happen so close to OBB is introducing a new variable into the planning structure.