Difficulty Getting ADRs

[DisneyStarWisher]

In all of my WDW trips over the past 17 years, I have never had as hard of a time getting ADRs as I have over the last few days for my September/October trip. It seems like NOTHING is available at all! This is our last trip for awhile, and we were hoping to do our favorites. We didn't get Homecoming. That one used to be super easy to get. I guess everyone discovered this hidden gem? The Wave used to be our favorite restaurant. We were excited to try SH71, hoping for an ADR on our last night and heading back to the Poly to watch Disney Enchantment from the beach. The ONLY ADR was at 8:10, and fireworks are scheduled at 9:00 that night. We used to be able to get The Wave for 5:00 easily. It's a good thing I scratched Ohana from our list earlier because there is no way I would be able to get that one! Thanks for letting me vent!

ETA: I signed up for Homecoming and an earlier SH71 on Touring Plans reservation finder. Hoping that works!

 

[redc]

We got all the best ADRs yesterday with 60+7 days during Sep 30 - Oct 6. Homecomin, Hoop, WBG, Morimoto, Cali Grill, Topolinos all at convenient times. We're even trying V&A for out anniversary. The key for you, is be persistent, keep trying right up till the last minute.
Good luck.

 

[tigerlilly]

I too have not had the greatest of luck with ADR's... We are going end of September to Oct. 1 (9/22-10/1). Partly it is my fault for doing a split stay. However, I will admit it is rather disheartening to wake up at 2:45 AM PST to get a dining reservation 2 months in advance and then not get what you are hoping for and trying other restaurants thus extending your "awake" time in the middle of the night! Bleh!

We didn't even want places I felt were overly popular! I feel like reservation times are just so off. I don't really want to eat dinner ar 4:00 PM or 9:05 PM. lol. We are staying at AKL for our last 4 nights and Jiko is closed for 2 of those nights! Who knew?! I was unable to get a reservation for one of the remaining nights and an 8:40 (which is less then ideal and our last full night of vacation).

So I guess I am commiserating with you . I have decided if I am unable to get more of what we want when we want we will just do counter service and go with the flow.

Good luck getting some of the places and times you want

 

[bsmcneil]

Partly it is my fault for doing a split stay.

It's super sad that this is a statement one has to make about a vacation (to be clear - I mean nothing bad/sad about your sentiment - just that it's obnoxious that dining is like this).

 

[sarah4770]

I’m up in the middle of the night as well trying for last week of September reservations. I can’t get what I want, either. I did a split stay, too.

 

[Her Dotness]

I think we're still seeing the wave of "pandemic revenge" travelers with more coming from overseas than formerly now that travel restrictions have eased.

Last fall, it was pent up US travelers finally getting back to Disney destinations. We had more difficulty booking favorite restaurants in November than we anticipated and suspected this was the cause.

I anticipate the crunch will continue for several more months, possibly into spring next year.

 

[Meriweather]

I can't get any thing to come up at all for Oct.
They all say nothing is available.

 

[PrinceRaki]

I have never had a bad time booking dinning as this year. Hope disney let on site guests to book earlier like fastpass back then or even charge something in advance so people stop booking everything like crazy they are not even going to use. Have seen people have 10 to 15 hard to get reservations in one day just to trade for one they want.

 

[Meriweather]

I can't get any thing to come up at all for Oct.
They all say nothing is available.

I got a few but a lot were not available. So sad. my family hasn't been for 4 years and it will be at least that long before they join us again

 

[shoegal9]

I never make reservations for Homecomin' anymore... I just walk up an wait for the bar seating. And for Ohana I have twice recently just walked up, joined the waitlist and waited no more than 45 minutes. I feel like at a lot of Disney restaurants they are now taking less reservations and opening up more of the restaurant for walk ups.

 

[Boopuff]

We got up at 4am MST to book our 60+7. Got everything- space 220, Homecoming, le celliEr. But we had 2 of us on computers- tabs open, and took any available time. What a PITA

 

[tigerlilly]

I’m up in the middle of the night as well trying for last week of September reservations. I can’t get what I want, either. I did a split stay, too.

Is it not the worst! lol... Can't get what you want ...laying there at 3:04 am (I am in Calif.)...thinking well. Does Nine Dragons sound good for September 30th since I cannot have English food? lol. Biergarten was unavailable our entire trip. Like nothing ... No German buffet for you! I hope this doesn't mean end of Sept. will be crazy.

We got up at 4am MST to book our 60+7. Got everything- space 220, Homecoming, le celliEr. But we had 2 of us on computers- tabs open, and took any available time. What a PITA

Wooo Yay! My husband refused to get up and help lol. Have a great trip!

 

[kt_mom]

It was terrible this morning. I was on the app and my computer at 6. Was only able to get sci fi for the very end of our trip, same as last year. Tried for HDDR on Wednesday but couldn't even get it to load until almost 7am and then cat 1 was already sold out. I was able to get it for Thursday night but had to change other stuff around. We usually do our rest/no park day on Wednesday with HDDR for dinner. I was able to get Ohana towards the end of our trip for dinner also. Thought we'd give that a try again since its been awhile.

The app was showing almost nothing available anywhere at any time, and it would change from minute to minute. The computer had more options but also seemed to change constantly. I would refresh and it would go from 20 restaurants available to 45 then back to 15. It was a mess. I've been watching all day so far and its crazy. I keep hoping a better sci fi time will pop up.

 

[isabellea]

I always had more success by choosing a specific restaurant and time (vs. doing a search for all available restaurants and choosing generic lunch or dinner options). We supposed to visit in July and was successful at booking all the most popular restaurants that way. My only issues were with the Droid, Savi and Capture your Moments that became available days after my window opened (was booking 60+10).

 

[magicalfoursome]

Agreed! This 60 days plus ahead stinks! I only have 60 days + four. So many restaurants remain closed and /or don’t have characters and/or breakfast. And princess character dining is impossible! Taking my six-year-old princess crazy niece in October and I could not get storybook or Cinderella’s Royal table. Even though Cinderella’s Royal table is only Cinderella meet and greet before you eat. So disappointing!!

 

[Disneydawg74]

Same here. It also seems that the system sometimes doesn’t properly load all the restaurants or events at the 60 day mark (like Celebration at the Top and Rose and Crown Fireworks which appear after 60 days)seemingly randomly. So discouraging.

 

[wdw4rfam]

We are there Sept 11-21 and had a hard time too but I assumed it was a split stay issue and 8 people. We go twice a year and never have a hard time. We even got space 220 in April.

 

[VicarJT]

In all of my WDW trips over the past 17 years, I have never had as hard of a time getting ADRs as I have over the last few days for my September/October trip. It seems like NOTHING is available at all! This is our last trip for awhile, and we were hoping to do our favorites. We didn't get Homecoming. That one used to be super easy to get. I guess everyone discovered this hidden gem? The Wave used to be our favorite restaurant. We were excited to try SH71, hoping for an ADR on our last night and heading back to the Poly to watch Disney Enchantment from the beach. The ONLY ADR was at 8:10, and fireworks are scheduled at 9:00 that night. We used to be able to get The Wave for 5:00 easily. It's a good thing I scratched Ohana from our list earlier because there is no way I would be able to get that one! Thanks for letting me vent!

ETA: I signed up for Homecoming and an earlier SH71 on Touring Plans reservation finder. Hoping that works!

Most days now we have our main meal at a late “lunch” or “brunch” hour unless the restaurant we want isn’t open at that time. We spend the morning at the parks, do a meal and a break, and then go back to the parks later. QS for the dinner meal - often at resorts rather than in the parks. It works well for us as we book ADR’s.

 

[smile145]

Is it not the worst! lol... Can't get what you want ...laying there at 3:04 am (I am in Calif.)...thinking well. Does Nine Dragons sound good for September 30th since I cannot have English food? lol. Biergarten was unavailable our entire trip. Like nothing ... No German buffet for you! I hope this doesn't mean end of Sept. will be crazy.


Wooo Yay! My husband refused to get up and help lol. Have a great trip!

How many people, what dates? Biergarten has tons of availability in late September right now.

 

[nursejackie]

I was lucky when our window opened and got everything on our wish list. However we eat an early lunch and early dinner, often booking for the fist sitting when a restaurant opens for lunch and dinner, which may have gone in our favour. I get that's not ideal for plenty of others.