Can someone explain why at 180 days out I can get NOTHING?

Why can't you get your money back for the DxDP? It's not a non-refundable thing.

I apologize. For some reason I was under the impression I couldn't be refunded. We booked through David's and I thought I had read we couldn't refund it, but looking back, I was incorrect.

Either way, it's a lot of money paid for dining that I am going to have to fight to get.
 
Keep in mind that most of the EPCOT restaurants will have a ton of availability open up once they release the Candlelight dining packages. Like most others have reported, we were unable to book the EPCOT restaurants even at 180+10. I got everything I wanted except the ROL and Fantasmic dining packages (which were not released yet) and the three reservations we wanted at restaurants which will eventually offer Candlelight dining, including those in EPCOT and Trattoria Al Forno!
 
Literally all dining I had planned is taken. Except Hollywood Brown Derby. How? How on earth is this possible? I saw someone say something like Touring Plans and other travel agencies take a bunch of them like robots, but is that true? Because if so, we paid an extra $1200 for the deluxe dining plan for nothing. Im genuinely so upset right now. I just do not understand.

  • Touring Plans does not make reservations. What Touring Plans does is to alert people when hard-to-find reservations become available (so it might be helpful to you right now- you can get a free account by clicking Basic Access). But they can't reserve it for you. If you get a message from TP stating that they found a ressie you wanted but you take too long to make the ressie yourself, someone else will get that ressie. Touring Plans can also only search for 2 ressies for you at any one time. So no, Touring Plans isn't causing this problem.
  • There used to be problems with different websites using bots to nab ressies & sell them, but Disney shut those rackets down quite awhile ago.
  • To make ADRs, you have to put down personal information and a credit card guarantee. Travel agents can book ADRs on behalf of their current clients, booking for them when their individual ADR window opens up, but due to ADR requirements, they are not able to make dining reservations en masse to later parcel out to future clients.
  • Yes, dining packages are sometimes released slowly, but that alone is not enough of an issue to account for the extreme difficulty in getting reservations you have experienced, and that has been experienced by the dozen other people who have complained on these boards about how unusually hard it has been to get ADRs for this November and December.
  • One likely cause of this problem is that next November and early December are going to be very crowded at Disney World. Fall in general has become Disney's overall peak season in recent years, displacing summer as the most popular time for American visitors to go. So many people have read online about the great weather and historically low crowds, and been attracted by the fall events and parties, that fall and early winter are now uber popular.
  • Another cause is Free Dining. That always drives up the demand for ADRs in a major way.
 
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Trying to get reservations online this morning was a joke. The site kept crashing. Such a tease had both Ohana and Akershus reservations but went to confirm them and got stitch telling me someone ate the page. On the phone, with a 30 minute wait, to talk to someone. So frustrating!
 


When I tried at 180 days i wasn't having any luck either...we're going over thanksgiving. I used touring plans reservation finder and all my choices have since opened up. Hopefully the same will work for you :)
 
When I tried at 180 days i wasn't having any luck either...we're going over thanksgiving. I used touring plans reservation finder and all my choices have since opened up. Hopefully the same will work for you :)
I'm so happy. Spent 45 minutes on the phone waiting to speak with a representative but ended up with Reservations at Ohana, Be Our Guest, and Akershus Royal Dining, I couldn't be more happy!
 


I think part of it is Disney's IT acting quirky. The other day, I wanted Boma or Jiko at 180 days. I filtered the resort, no availability. Frustrated, I tried the time-nothing. Then I tried "Cuisine-African" and up popped several available times at both. Yesterday I wanted something, but with no filter, the restaurant wasn't listed. With certain filters it wasn't, but I finally hit on one that gave me several available times there. "Just keep..." not swimming, but playing around and something might pop up.
 
Oh good. So we paid $2777 for dining, and someone with "free" dining is getting all of the reservations I was hoping to make. Fabulous.
Did you get a resort discount? Hopefully so (rack rate is a ripoff at WDW). Free dining is a different kind of discount which comes out in the fall, in which you have to pay full price for the room, so between the two different discount types, the money savings is kind of even.

I think you should return your dining package. Those are overpriced, anyway. You'd save money by eating the same meals but paying as you go.
 
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I would be very upset too. Try not to lose hope though. People cancel all the time when they solidfy their plans (changing parks days, fast pass scheduling and even canceling or moving their trip dates).

Be patient and keep checking. Often. Also sign up for the free res finder on touring plans and mouse dining. Literally jump when you get a text alert to mde to book it.

I'm also going during free dining and we didn't get the promotion. Our hotel and room type weren't part of it.

Editing to add. Follow the December canceled adr thread here under restaurants/dining reservations and try to coordinate people dropping their res and you grabbing it.
 
We won't be going untill oct'18 but I've been doing a testrun this year for the dining reservations, as in what to expect.
I've tried getting a CRT breakfast reservation for a group of 8 and have not succeded. So I just kept my trys going for another 6 weeks (since your 6 am is midday over here, so no getting up early hence no worries and always right on time) and nothing...
Even tried groups of 4, nothing...

I've read the books and forums, I knew it would be hard, but I just thought that was for the un-informed casual WDW trippers, not for us, the planners and the try-to-know-it-alls! I really thought putting in the "effort" and getting online at 6 sharp on the 180 day mark would do the trick...
Alas :sad2:
 
I think part of it is Disney's IT acting quirky. The other day, I wanted Boma or Jiko at 180 days. I filtered the resort, no availability. Frustrated, I tried the time-nothing. Then I tried "Cuisine-African" and up popped several available times at both. Yesterday I wanted something, but with no filter, the restaurant wasn't listed. With certain filters it wasn't, but I finally hit on one that gave me several available times there. "Just keep..." not swimming, but playing around and something might pop up.

Yeah it's still acting up today. I have one more ADR to make and everytime I go to confirm I get Stitch telling me someone ate the page. It's a pain but if you call the Dining line they will set it up so I'll probably have to do that today.
 
We won't be going untill oct'18 but I've been doing a testrun this year for the dining reservations, as in what to expect.
I've tried getting a CRT breakfast reservation for a group of 8 and have not succeded. So I just kept my trys going for another 6 weeks (since your 6 am is midday over here, so no getting up early hence no worries and always right on time) and nothing...
Even tried groups of 4, nothing...

I've read the books and forums, I knew it would be hard, but I just thought that was for the un-informed casual WDW trippers, not for us, the planners and the try-to-know-it-alls! I really thought putting in the "effort" and getting online at 6 sharp on the 180 day mark would do the trick...
Alas :sad2:

Assuming you're staying onsite you'll be able to book 180 +10 so you'll have an advantage of booking days that aren't available to book for everyone.
 
At the advice of many here, I tried out the touring plans reservation finder for my stay September 12 - 19. I entered my searches last Tuesday into the Reservation Finder and was able to get Cindarella's Royal Castle yesterday. Don't give up hope and try it out!
 
Assuming you're staying onsite you'll be able to book 180 +10 so you'll have an advantage of booking days that aren't available to book for everyone.

This. Booked today CRT 180+4 lunch. Just looked and still see breakfast and lunch. With onsite guests booking like that though it is easy to see zero left at 180. Hang in there! :)
 
Oh good. So we paid $2777 for dining, and someone with "free" dining is getting all of the reservations I was hoping to make. Fabulous.

I feel the exact same way!! Deluxe dining isn't cheap for a family. Been trying every single day since my 180 day window opened and can't get what I want. Part of me thinks the system is messed up or they are holding back some reservations. Im trying to stay positive and don't want to believe its going to be so super crowded that everything is already sold out. We have always gone this time of year and never had any issues with major crowding or being unable to get ADR's this far out.
 
I feel the exact same way!! Deluxe dining isn't cheap for a family. Been trying every single day since my 180 day window opened and can't get what I want. Part of me thinks the system is messed up or they are holding back some reservations. Im trying to stay positive and don't want to believe its going to be so super crowded that everything is already sold out. We have always gone this time of year and never had any issues with major crowding or being unable to get ADR's this far out.
I'm nervous too. It seems many on here are going early to mid December. I'm hoping it's just people on the board and not the general public.
 

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