What is going on with ADRs?

[PoohsFan1]

First I want to say that my family are WDW veterans and we have always vacationed all different times of the year, however for our next trip we are going in mid October due to my oldest DD being in High School and we are going around her school schedule (she has a 4 day weekend that week). I have been trying to find a couple of restaurants to add to our list of other restaurants and am having a very hard time doing so, and I am not talking about the extremely hard to get ones either. These could be potentially hard to get but normally I would find something for any time of the day (we aren't picky). The restaurants I am looking for include the Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian (I know the place is small so I kind of understand that one) and Mama Melrose for dinner. Mama Melrose is the one I can't believe to be booked up, we have been known to walk up and get a table for a large group without having to wait for a table, I am trying to settle on other restaurants in DHS too (like 50's PT) but I am having no luck whatsoever with that one either. Sorry for the rant, I just had to vent. Is anyone else having trouble making last minute ADRs too or am I just the unlucky one?

 

[bare necessities]

I think we are starting to see the effect of these sites popping up that are selling dining reservation times after scooping them up in bulk. We are going in November during a slow week and it is impossible to find anything at even the oddest of times. I am becoming fearful as fastpass selection day is coming up that there will be nothing to choose from even though I will be on at midnight of the day I can start choosing.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Reservations this fall were hard to get even at 180 days out. Disney dining buddy and the many sites like it are not helping because they are tipping everyone off as soon as anything is released, so it's making it impossible to just find something. Now there is this new website booking all the ADRs up and selling them too. We go every year too, and I have not been able to find anything a month before for quite a few years now.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I think we are starting to see the effect of these sites popping up that are selling dining reservation times after scooping them up in bulk. We are going in November during a slow week and it is impossible to find anything at even the oddest of times. I am becoming fearful as fastpass selection day is coming up that there will be nothing to choose from even though I will be on at midnight of the day I can start choosing.

I just did my FP yesterday morning at midnight and didn't have a problem except the first 2-3 days were picked over, but not horrible. I got mine train for day 3, and there was nothing that I wanted that I couldn't get, just had to alter times. We have 6 people too, so I thought I would have trouble, but got all 9 days done in 45 minutes. Did get A & E too on day 8.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I definitely agree that one major reason for all of this is due to these websites that keep popping up all of a sudden (who knows, they may of been out there all along but I had never heard of them before), I think that is what makes me so iritated about the whole situation . Of course I am going to "stalk the system" and hope that some Pixie Dust comes my way and I will be able to find at least one of the two that I am looking for.

As for FP+, at our 60 days, I was up at midnight the night before and was able to get everything we wanted (minus A&E) but we did get 7DMT for each of our MK days, however one of the days it is a bit late for us...I am one of those people that will schedule our FP+ early so I could potentially get a 4th, 5th, etc. later in the day, but every day (multiple times during the day) I have been trying to find a better time for that one, and that too is all booked up. Again, I will be "stalking the system" and hope that some Pixie Dust will come my way. And if I do happen to get some, I will in turn throw some Pixie Dust to everyone else who's looking for ADRs or FP+ and are unable to find what they need.

 

[wdwrich]

October is also part of the "free" dining promotion. That always fills restaurants well in advance.

 

[texnmickey]

I'm going the first week of dec and it's the same story. I've had to use disney dinning buddy to get a CRT dinner on the 4th. Didn't want to but didn't have time to keep calling.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I'm going the first week of dec and it's the same story. I've had to use disney dinning buddy to get a CRT dinner on the 4th. Didn't want to but didn't have time to keep calling.

The Disney Dining Buddy is a different beast IMHO because the way I understand how that website works is that you pay them to look for a reservation, but then once they find it, it is up to you to make the reservation. I am more frustrated with the websites that Disney is investigating because they presumably take a lot of the ADRs and then sells them at an outrageous price (again presumably). I wish you luck getting your CRT ADR, I can totally understand using that site because you don't have the time to check the availability often in a day. Also like a PP mentioned, we are going during free dining, and that too does not help with making ADRs. Oh well, that is what I get going this time of year .

 

[disneypolybride2008]

how is a website able to book and sell adrs when they are non transferable?

 

[PoohsFan1]

how is a website able to book and sell adrs when they are non transferable?

There is a website out there that will book ADRs under a fake name and then sell that reservation to you for $$. You would then use that name to get into the restaurant when you go to check in. The Orlando Sentinel covered the story and there is a whole thread on the DIS that talks about it.

 

[CodeGoddess]

We did our ADRs just a couple weeks ago and didn't have any issues. My sister and I split our list and were online at 5:45 just to make sure. We were able to get BOG dinner and a BD at 4:30 without any issues. Even BD right now has some openings. I also wonder like @wdwrich if the fall ones are getting harder to get due to free dining?

 

[Minniesgal]

I think as well as the dining site we also have a year where the fall attendance is looking like it will be well up and there is free dining as well.

 

[Jestocost]

Many theories, no real answers. I suspect the rise in sites that help you find and in some cases book ADRs doesn't help, free dining certainly is an issue. You also may run into individual issues. Mama Melrose, for example, is expected to be closed permanently soon (not sure if that's confirmed or still a rumor) to make room for part of the new Star Wars land so you may be seeing people book one last visit there before it's gone.

 

[Disneyliscious]

I think we are starting to see the effect of these sites popping up that are selling dining reservation times after scooping them up in bulk.

I understand this is the mentality people want to run with but the math says otherwise.

(posted from another thread regarding the website that prebooks)

Including those that have already sold (for the month of October)

4th
6th
8th x 2
9th
10th
12th X 5
13th x 2
14th
15th x 2
16th
19th x 2
20th
21st
22nd x 2
23rd
28th
31st

Thats 26 ADR's for an entire month which result in (if I counted right) 107 seats for the whole month. 14 days of that month there aren't any ADR's offered at all.

BoG alone seats 500 people at a time. If they had 6 seatings a day (6 x 1.5 dining hours per seating = 9 hour park day) thats 3000 people for ONE restaurant EACH DAY which means 93,000 people for that one restaurant per month. Given the volume of the Disney restaurants, I really don't think the place who is seating 107 people for an entire MONTH is the problem. I'm not saying it doesn't cause issues or that I even agree with it, but looking at it objectively makes a BIG difference. The scalper site and bot sites are not the reason people can't find seats. Its regular people hoarding.

Also adding, I only see BoG, Akershus, Garden Grill, Crystal Palace, H&V, and a few Ohana. How does that explain the shortage at the other restaurants? Simply put: Disney is just more popular. Crowd levels are up and free dining is a huge draw.

 

[tcherjen]

I understand! I too couldn't get any ADR's for this trip.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Disneyliscious I would of never of thought of it like that...I am really in awe with your mad math skills . You are so right about people in general being the problem, hoarding reservations have always been a big problem when it comes to ADRs. I have read countless number of posts where people said that they had x amount of BOG ADRs (or any one of the other hard to get restaurants) and they will wait until the last possible second to get rid of them because they are unsure which time will suit them best. As everyone knows it isn't fair, but until Disney enhances their dining site to where this can't happen anymore, it will still be a problem.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

besides a photo id at check-in, they could also require you to use your pin number that you associate with your MDE account to make the reservation and you have to then provide it when you check-in at the restaurant.

 

[caisland]

We just came back from CBR inlate August, early September.
When we made our ADR's we were having issue with getting some times we wanted.
We were going with my sister in law and since she had an MDE account she was checking ADRs with me.
We were seeing totally different things available.
She was looking for O'hana breakfast on a certain day and time. I could find.
i was looking for another one that I can't remember right now, Yak & Yeti, I think. She could see it, I couldn't.

Why does Disney show different ADRs to different people?

 

[rpb718]

Why does Disney show different ADRs to different people?

First one in gets the reservation showing up in their MDE, and there's probably a short delay until it is available for others after you move on to checking another restaurant. May also depend on how many in your party, how many tables of a correct size are available, etc. It's kind-of like buying tickets to a concert, they don't show 2 people the same set of seats to a show at the same time. Not a great analogy, but it's as good as I can come up with now to hopefully get my point across.

 

[mom4fun]

Many theories, no real answers. I suspect the rise in sites that help you find and in some cases book ADRs doesn't help, free dining certainly is an issue. You also may run into individual issues. Mama Melrose, for example, is expected to be closed permanently soon (not sure if that's confirmed or still a rumor) to make room for part of the new Star Wars land so you may be seeing people book one last visit there before it's gone.

I haven't heard this rumor about MM. Have you heard if it will still be open in March?