Originally Posted By PUBoxer We opted for the Deluxe dining plan but now I fear we have wasted our money. Our vacation is planned for the first week in December according to the WDW website that is a low traffic week but we are finding no restaurants that have available reservations? Is this common? I know we are only 90 days out but this seem ridiculous. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Originally Posted By Ursula If I may offer help, call a few times as people tend to get different results with different cast members. After that, pick one or two days a week to call in and see if any cancellations happen. As you get closer, people tend to solidify their dining times. Then, if that doesn't cover your bases, call from your WDW resport at the start of your vacation to see what is open, failing that, then call the day of to see if any cancellations happened. Also, search for disney dining and you might find another message board that really nice people use to list when they are cancelling an ADR, so that you can get what they don't need.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo It is a tough one, but are they booked all day? If you ask for a 6pm dinner slot, they way not have it, but they may have a 6:10. Also eat early or late to get the best chance. Personally this is one of the many reasons why we now vacation at other Disney resorts instead. Best of luck!
Originally Posted By MPierce >> This has been a major problem since DDE started. Good luck. << That's a fact. You may have to ajust what time you dine. Also you may be left with eationg at resorts. Personally I would call back to central reservations, and cancel the dining plan.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby We will be there the week before you (week of Thanksgiving) - I called for reservations the week the 6-month window opened and I had trouble myself, especially for dinners. We did okay, but you may be stuck. Good luck. The "economic downturn" sure is hurting their business, huh?
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 definitely keep the dining plan, it is worth it. The first thing you are going to want to do is get a full listing off all the restaurants that are available on the plan. Once you do that, make your top five list for each day. This site has menus but www.allearsnet.com has the best disney menus on the web, they are updated frequntly and provide prices. I went during that week two years ago and got every reservation I wanted, as others said, be flexible with your times. If the restaurant offers lunch and dinner, try go for the first dinner time or the last lunch time. I animal Kingdom you should have no problem with Yak and Yeti, Tusker books early but grab it if you can, its one of the best buffets on property and uses the same food from Boma at the animal kingdom lodge. At the studios, the hollywood brown derby and hollywood and vine are hard, but you should be fine with the others. At Epcot coral reef and le celliear are the hardest but everything else should be pretty simple. Also for EPCOT, ask abaout the candlelight processional dinner package, disney holds a lot of tables for this, as far as I know you can get it on the dining plan. As far as magic kingdom goes, you should have no problem with tonys and the plaza restaurant, and if you want the har ones like cinderlla and crystal palace, just call every day, openings pop up all the time, trust me. as far as the hptels go, you have no problem. If you have any questions with any particular restaurant, please feel free to ask, I have dined at most of them.
Originally Posted By danyoung > I went during that week two years ago and got every reservation I wanted, as others said, be flexible with your times.< Ahh, but times have drastically changed in the past two years. Now a lot of the nicer restaurants book up their prime times (or book up completely!) within hours of their availability opening up 180 days out. This close to the first week of December, it is indeed possible that most if not all dining spots are taken. I'd try to get a very friendly dining reservations specialist who doesn't mind spending some time with you. You're going to have to really dig to find some times that work for you at restaurants that interest you. This is one of the worst side effects of the dining plan IMO. It used to be that you could go into Epcot into those cool video kiosks and book your dining for that night. Now - not a chance. Good luck!
Originally Posted By PUBoxer We have a party of 5 (three adult and two children) and are being told nothing is available for diner before 9PM at most restaurants and that doesn't work for the kids and at a couple restaurants are being told with our party they will have to give us two tables. Say What!!! To blue harvest any trick since you got the reservations last year? I will keep trying.
Originally Posted By danyoung >To blue harvest any trick since you got the reservations last year?< I'm not blue harvest, & I'd love to read any tricks he/she might have. But the reality is that this is a far different situation from bh's visit 2 years ago. Disney wants more seats filled in the restaurants, and has made it cheap and easy to do so. And the end result is restaurants filled with people who were formerly pleased with burgers and fries, and are now forcing chefs to simplify their menus to keep them happy. I know this sounds snobbish, and I'm not at all attacking you, PUBoxer. But the facts of the situation pretty much prove that this is happening, and is not at all good for the formerly super-high quality restaurants all over WDW. You can still get some fine meals, but there isn't nearly the menu diversity that there used to be. Sorry, I rant . . .
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 Sorry danyoung, i should have been more specific, i was referring to one particular reservation i made two years ago. I am local now and dine at WDW once a week. I ate at the california grill last week at 7:20 and made the res. 45 days prior. To PUboxer, I do agree with what Dan said about finding a very friendly reservation person, you will need an hour if you are going to book for the whole week. suggestion number one, call at 7am when they open, you won't wait very long and the perosn is at the very beginning of their 14 hour shist, not the last, so they should be in a very good mood. Ask them to look by theme park, on their screen in front of them they see all the places for each section, theme park, hotel, ect. so if you ask them to check all the availablity for the magic kingdom between 5pm and 8pm on dec 5th, it shouldn't take that long. I made a res for 50's prime time last thurday for this past saturday for night of joy. The availability changes every day, if you don't have the time to call evryday which most of us don't just get a whole list together, talk to your kids figure out their favs, call early and run down the whole list, I promise you will get all the meals you want booked. If you want, I got some spare time right now, i'll call and see whats avaliable for that week and post it for you, just lemme know.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 <<Interesting that you're having that kind of luck - good to hear!>> As the great Yoda once said: "Patience you must, and great Disney dining experiences, have you will, mmmmm"
Originally Posted By cheesybaby Anybody know what their policy is regarding saving some tables for same-day reservations or walk-ups? Do they save x% of tables set aside for these, or would they book every table 100% full in advance if there was demand? Just curious. From a business/staffing perspective I can see why they would book everything in advance if they could, but that sure is crappy service for day guests. I too miss the old days where they only took same-day reservations.
Originally Posted By blueharvest82 based on what their reservations look like for the day will determine their position with walk-in's. I had lunch at le cellier back in february, i went in there when they opened to ask availability, this was 30 mins prior to their first seating time, they said they would have have to wait and see what their staus was with walk-ins. 5 min utes before they opened they said they could take me. If you are looking for same day reservations, your best bet is to hit the guest relations wherever you are first thing in the morning. NOTE; Guest relations can make DDR's for any theme park, resort, and most downtown disney restaurants.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Another point, if you are trying to book dinners, thin about having your main meal at lunhtime, it's often quieter, better service and makes for a great break in the day. But I am with Dan, I do think the DDP is ruining the one great dining experience wdw offered.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle Wow - I went last year in November and didn't have any troubles! We only decided to go 2 months before our trip, and I wrote down the dates I wanted at specific restaurants and with one exception (the Castle, where we couldn't get a breakfast reservation at all for the week we were there) I didn't have to change the dates or restaurants I wanted. I know December's a busier time than November, but still ... Has it changed this much in a year, or did we just get lucky when we went? Good luck PUBoxer, I hope some cancellations open up or something!!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Sadly, I think the first week of December is a crazy time now. We honeymooned at WDW in 2000 the last week of Nov/1st week Dec and it was moderately busy. We returned in 2006 the first 2 weeks of December, and it was heaving with 40 mins waits for Small World!!! Between savvy bargain hunters (like I thought we were), Pop Warner football and cheer competition, closing the MK earlier many nights for the MVMCP and the filming of the Christmas parade. It made me vow that if we ever go back, it will not be at that time of year (a shame as the christmas decorations and entertainment are excellent).
Originally Posted By PoorNanna Their dining experience is miserable for the people that live in Orlando and decide they want to go eat at the parks on a weekend. We just don't even try anymore. We have four and they continued to want to split us into two tables, and make us eat at 9pm, which is when we're getting ready for bed. We just eat before we go now. As for the walk up tables, we had a terrible experience a few weeks ago at Sci Fi. We walked up and asked if they had any walk ups available. The lady said they have 6 tables especially for walk up guests, but there is no wait list. So even if I was standing there waiting on a table to open up and someone else walked up right as one opened and asked for a table, they would be given it. Anyhow, we were just standing there, I kept going back up there to see if anything had opened up and she said a small table had opened up but that with 5, we couldn't fit there and she was waiting for a car of 6 to open up. Several small tables opened up in the 45 mins we were there and we just kept waiting for the "6 person car." Finally I walked up there and she said that something had just opened up. We got back there and of course they crammed us at one of the small tables that we had been told we were "too big" for. And we could have been seated within 5 minutes of walking up if that's the table we were going to be sitting at after 45 mins of waiting. We were told by an indifferent waiter that they only had those small tables for walkups, and that the hostess was lying to us and then he walked away. He could've cared less. This was our very last attempt to eat at Disney. And the menu, don't even get me started on that. It was totally different from the last time we went a year or two ago. No one found anything we would want and so we got up and left. Dining at Disney is ridiculous so we choose not to eat there anymore. I suppose we're making more room for all of the people on the lovely DDP. Good luck finding reservations.
