WOW I forgot! re:dining planning

[ORD84]

I almost forgot how hard it is to get a dinner reservation nowadays! The misses and myself were leaning towards going to DL but do to hotel prices and small flight availability for us is, we are ending up going to WDW...now we know we're going to enjoy ourselves no matter what, but we started looking at making dining reservations because we know it's tough sometimes...

MAN OH MAN! The two nights we're down there, the places we want to eat at are flat out not available(no we actually don't want to eat at the Be our guest) or they have a ridiculously late time...I think 10 pm was the earliest we could get 'Ohana's, and Jan 22-24 is supposedly a slow time at WDW and DL...

Question is, and discussion is, how soon do you start making dining reservations?

And yes I realize we are kinda last minute, but we easily found a DVC room at Boardwalk(not our usual Old Key West but hey I'll try out the Boardwalk), but most of the places are pretty cut throat already and this is still 2 months out, I can only imagine if we decided on a week or month before basis...

[goofy donald]

I almost forgot how hard it is to get a dinner reservation nowadays! The misses and myself were leaning towards going to DL but do to hotel prices and small flight availability for us is, we are ending up going to WDW...now we know we're going to enjoy ourselves no matter what, but we started looking at making dining reservations because we know it's tough sometimes...

MAN OH MAN! The two nights we're down there, the places we want to eat at are flat out not available(no we actually don't want to eat at the Be our guest) or they have a ridiculously late time...I think 10 pm was the earliest we could get 'Ohana's, and Jan 22-24 is supposedly a slow time at WDW and DL...

Question is, and discussion is, how soon do you start making dining reservations?

And yes I realize we are kinda last minute, but we easily found a DVC room at Boardwalk(not our usual Old Key West but hey I'll try out the Boardwalk), but most of the places are pretty cut throat already and this is still 2 months out, I can only imagine if we decided on a week or month before basis...

unfortunately if you want to make sure nowadays it seems 4 months out is the number. however I've found if you look say a day or two before or even day of you can get lucky fairly regularly and find some great reservations from dumb people who take up like 3 dinner spots for one night a year out and decide where they want to go at the last minute. its worked out for me so be sure to bring a laptop.

[kburford]

i made all my dining reservations for places I knew I wanted to go (esp popular ones) 180 days out. As soon as you know you want to eat somewhere, I would just go ahead and make the reservation. You can always cancel up to 24 hours before the reservation.

[SparkInTheDark]

As others have said, you can book up to 180 days out for all dining. It's also important to note that it's 180 days from the first night of your stay. That means you can book more than 180 days out for your entire length of stay if you so choose. What does that mean? The possibility of landing a reservation at certain places a lot easier.

Although January is often a slower time, many popular restaurants remain popular throughout the year. It sounds like you are a party of two -- which oddly enough most restaurants can easily accommodate, but the booking system doesn't favor. I would highly suggest you continue to look at booking many times up until your trip. You never know what will pop open for you as the booking system constantly "shuffles" the table inventory based upon each party size booked.

I hope you're able to find what you're looking for. If not, I hope you find a new experience that you fall in love with. I can help you find some beyond simply 'Ohana. If you have any dining questions, please feel free to PM me.

[redrhino54]

I was supposed to be at WDW right now, but because of having stints put in, ive cancelled untill Feb. I called all the resturaunts i had reservations with , and cancelled. Because i called and let them know, almost all the resturaunts said they would hold a table for me in feb. I think i got lucky.

[kburford]

I was supposed to be at WDW right now, but because of having stints put in, ive cancelled untill Feb. I called all the resturaunts i had reservations with , and cancelled. Because i called and let them know, almost all the resturaunts said they would hold a table for me in feb. I think i got lucky.

That's really nice to hear. I enjoy hearing about disney doing what they can to help!

[ORD84]

i made all my dining reservations for places I knew I wanted to go (esp popular ones) 180 days out. As soon as you know you want to eat somewhere, I would just go ahead and make the reservation. You can always cancel up to 24 hours before the reservation.

Yeah part of the problem is that we pretty much decided on our really quick 2 nighter last Sunday, but I guess people do usually plan these things our further in advance

I was supposed to be at WDW right now, but because of having stints put in, ive cancelled untill Feb. I called all the resturaunts i had reservations with , and cancelled. Because i called and let them know, almost all the resturaunts said they would hold a table for me in feb. I think i got lucky.

That's awesome! Glad to hear that they did something like that for you.

[danyoung]

As others have said, you can book up to 180 days out for all dining. It's also important to note that it's 180 days from the first night of your stay. That means you can book more than 180 days out for your entire length of stay if you so choose.

It's important to note that this is only true if you've actually booked a stay. I tend to book my dining rez's a full 180 days out, but I don't get around to booking a hotel till the discounts come out, usually around 3 months out. So that means I have to book 1 day at a time, but I still can almost always get what I want. But to the OP, 'Ohana is one of those places that books up incredibly fast, so it's no wonder you couldn't get in this late.

[ORD84]

It's important to note that this is only true if you've actually booked a stay. I tend to book my dining rez's a full 180 days out, but I don't get around to booking a hotel till the discounts come out, usually around 3 months out. So that means I have to book 1 day at a time, but I still can almost always get what I want. But to the OP, 'Ohana is one of those places that books up incredibly fast, so it's no wonder you couldn't get in this late.

Ya I guess my frustrations with that arose because it's not busy at all there, but the places we were looking at seemed to be full as all get out...Still can easily get into places like the Liberty Tree and stuff like that more than easily enough

[danyoung]

I would suggest you keep trying. They have cancellations all the time, and sometimes even open up more inventory the closer a date gets. Doesn't hurt to try!

[ORD84]

^Yup Ive been doin that hoping every day...I'm pretty sure 1830 at the Rose and Crownon the night of the 23rd is pretty much best we can do, but ya never know

[Dapper Dan]

Dining reservations are really ridiculous. People really game the system by making multiple reservations for the same meal months in advance, then deciding where they are are going to eat the day before and cancelling all the others. Disney needs to institute a cancellation fee to crack down on the people abusing the system this way.

[danyoung]

This doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to. They've plugged the hole in the software, and now you can only get one rez per dining time. Of course, people can still game the system by using multiple logins, but it's much harder than it used to be. Plus, they've instituted a deposit on quite a few of the dining locations, including a lot of the premiums and most of the buffets.

[ORD84]

This doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to. They've plugged the hole in the software, and now you can only get one rez per dining time. Of course, people can still game the system by using multiple logins, but it's much harder than it used to be. Plus, they've instituted a deposit on quite a few of the dining locations, including a lot of the premiums and most of the buffets.

I haven't seen the deposit though you do have to use a credit card to place a reservation at the premium spots or Character meals I noticed...they charge you 10$ a head if you cancel under 24 hours till the reservation time...

personally I think they still have a ways to go to making improvements on the system, but at least they are starting to do something about all the abusers out there, which I think some peoples attitudes were "Well everyone else is doing it, I may as well too!" which exasserbates things dramatically...

[danyoung]

I haven't seen the deposit though you do have to use a credit card to place a reservation at the premium spots or Character meals I noticed...they charge you 10$ a head if you cancel under 24 hours till the reservation time...

Yes, this is what I was referring to - the requirement to enter credit card information when you book many meals.