Why so many dining openings 8/20-8/27?

[Amii]

We are staying at WDW 8/20-8/27 and our date to make priority seating reservations was 2/2. We have 3 rooms booked and yesterday people decided it would be nice to eat at CRT. For laughs I went online and looked to see if I could snag reservations. There were CRT reservations open for every day during our stay. There were even time slots open for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. I looked and I could also get BOG, and CP any day of our vacation at multiple times each day including before the park opens. Anyone know why so many reservations are still open? Seems so weird.

 

[supersnoop]

It's a very slow time of year when most schools have already started.

 

[Amii]

I know it usually starts to get slower around that time but it has been so much busier at WDW the past few years. Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't be too busy. Thanks!

 

[mcd2745]

It's a great time to go IMO. We've gone at the end of August several times. As stated, many areas have gone back to school already - we do not go back until after Labor Day - so the overall crowd levels were great. However, a handful of years ago, it was right around the time when free dining would have kicked in (as many know, free dining is not offered nearly as much any more). So while the overall crowd levels in the parks were great, desirable ADRs were nearly impossible to get if they weren't made 180 days out (especially since this was also right before the credit card guarantees and no-show fees). Now with the fees, and no free dining offered, I'm not surprised there is plenty of availability for late August.

 

[Betty_Baylor99]

Where we live, the 3rd week of August is typically the 1st week of the school year, and traditionally, most people who would pull their kids out of school for Disney, would not do so to miss out on their 1st day of school. Even then, some school districts across the country start their school year late July/early August, and again the likelihood of people pulling kids out so early in the school year is not as likely as say, doing so later in the school year at a downtime like October, or late January.

 

[Shanti]

We are staying at WDW 8/20-8/27 and our date to make priority seating reservations was 2/2. We have 3 rooms booked and yesterday people decided it would be nice to eat at CRT. For laughs I went online and looked to see if I could snag reservations. There were CRT reservations open for every day during our stay. There were even time slots open for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. I looked and I could also get BOG, and CP any day of our vacation at multiple times each day including before the park opens. Anyone know why so many reservations are still open? Seems so weird.

1. Late August is a relatively low-crowd time. We southerners are back at school that week.

2. Disney put the 3rd party reservation-hoarding websites out of business last year, so you're discovering what it's like to not have to compete with bots.