What is going on with dining reservations???

[Coastie]

We tried to make reservations at the 180 day window from day of arrival and could not get ONE dining reservation at ANY of our planned restaurants!! We arrive December 3 and to our amazement NOTHING was available. We had to do some major schedule shuffles to get one or two of our favorites. Akerhus, Le Cellier, O'Hana, and a couple others were not available. By shear luck. we were lucky to get O'Hanas' the last night of our stay. This has NEVER happened in the past 15 years that we have been going. Anyone else have an issue for the first two weeks of December?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Others reporting similar experience. Nothing confirmed but there seems to be some consensus around the thought that some "slots" are being held back as they finalize and prepare to release Candlelight Processional dining packages.

 

[DSNYFRK4EVR]

WOW! I just went through the same thing for dates 12/15-12/18. Nothing we want is available...and we aren't even trying to snag reservations for places that are difficult to book! ADRs, FastPass+, DVC reservation craziness....this is getting out of control

 

[bobbiwoz]

We tried to make reservations at the 180 day window from day of arrival and could not get ONE dining reservation at ANY of our planned restaurants!! We arrive December 3 and to our amazement NOTHING was available. We had to do some major schedule shuffles to get one or two of our favorites. Akerhus, Le Cellier, O'Hana, and a couple others were not available. By shear luck. we were lucky to get O'Hanas' the last night of our stay. This has NEVER happened in the past 15 years that we have been going. Anyone else have an issue for the first two weeks of December?

Nothing was available at California Grill for December first, I was shocked!
However, I just looked for Thursday Dec 7, and found plenty of choices for a party of 7.

 

[rebelbuddhist]

Just had the opposite experience this am. Got all the ADRs we wanted for our Dec 15th trip. Only waiting now for CP to be opened up and for RoL dining packages. Could not book Fantasmic Dining Package -- only available until Dec 15th.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

I just went through the same thing for the first of December. I noticed that as of now, most of the parks are all closing at 6PM, while we know that December is crowded and they will ultimately stay open much later. This means that there are very limited reservations for in-park restaurants (didn't check Epcot). I think when Disney sorts out the actual hours for the parks to stay open, there will be a lot more restaurant slots available. For example, no spots are available after 6PM for BOG all week.

 

[BillPA]

free DP for the resorts.

 

[616cv]

We tried to make reservations at the 180 day window from day of arrival and could not get ONE dining reservation at ANY of our planned restaurants!! We arrive December 3 and to our amazement NOTHING was available. We had to do some major schedule shuffles to get one or two of our favorites. Akerhus, Le Cellier, O'Hana, and a couple others were not available. By shear luck. we were lucky to get O'Hanas' the last night of our stay. This has NEVER happened in the past 15 years that we have been going. Anyone else have an issue for the first two weeks of December?

I'm going that same week. It seems to me that 180 days is new. This will be my 6th trip, always staying on site and I don't remember having to do this at 180 days before. It made it harder because their schedule for park hours/extra magic hours wasn't out yet-I had to go to a non-Disney website to find the info. I used the MDE app to book. There was one restaurant I couldn't get on our list, but I got lucky with the rest. When I tried to call to talk to an actual person about the Candlelight Processional package at 7:30 in the morning the wait time was 45 minutes! I had to go to work so I never found out about it.

 

[CarolMN]

Moved from DVC - Mousecellaneous

 

[mom2rtk]

I just went through the same thing for the first of December. I noticed that as of now, most of the parks are all closing at 6PM, while we know that December is crowded and they will ultimately stay open much later. This means that there are very limited reservations for in-park restaurants (didn't check Epcot). I think when Disney sorts out the actual hours for the parks to stay open, there will be a lot more restaurant slots available. For example, no spots are available after 6PM for BOG all week.

"Most" of the parks are closing at 6? MK does on party nights this year, but what other parks are closing at 6? (And those 6 PM closings in the MK aren't likely to change.)

free DP for the resorts.

They have offered free dining in early December for many years. But for some reason, this seems to be a bigger problem this year.

I'm going that same week. It seems to me that 180 days is new. This will be my 6th trip, always staying on site and I don't remember having to do this at 180 days before. It made it harder because their schedule for park hours/extra magic hours wasn't out yet-I had to go to a non-Disney website to find the info. I used the MDE app to book. There was one restaurant I couldn't get on our list, but I got lucky with the rest. When I tried to call to talk to an actual person about the Candlelight Processional package at 7:30 in the morning the wait time was 45 minutes! I had to go to work so I never found out about it.

It's been 180 days for many years. They went back to 90 days for a while (maybe 2009 or 2010?) but quickly went back to 180 again (and it has stayed that way ever since).

 

[Mdsleiman]

I was able to get all of my dining choices this morning at 6am. It only took me thirty minutes to do six days worth of reservations. I have been stressing this whole weekend. Glad it is over!!!

 

[tndisney5]

This kind of talk is making me nervous! I have 15 days to go before we get to 180 days and with NYE in the mix to try and book...Our last NYE eve trip we got all our dining choices and even changed some as we were there based on our day. I am getting a the feeling that may not happen this go round. Good luck to all!

 

[kjennin3]

We got ours for our dec. 10-17 trip last week. Landed everything but Ohana. However, we aren't trying to get any crazy popular places (besides Ohana.)

 

[loveswdw]

180 day window opened for me this morning. Couldn't get BOG for dinner at all that week. Snagged a lunch on Thursday.
'Ohana had no dinner times for most nights and the ones they did were for very late (9:45 and 9:50).
Garden Grill had no dinner times but a lunch on our last day.

Ugh.

 

[unwritten01]

Same on window this morning - everything except Ohana and all lunches at exact same time - CRT lunch, Garden Grill breakfast, Minnie's Seasonal Dine - Hollywood and Vine lunch, Rainforest Cafe lunch.

 

[supersnoop]

For some reason, late November and early December are always the worst when it comes to booking ADR's. I don't know if they're holding back or if the parties reduce the availability.

On the other hand, I just booked a trip with about 30 days notice and could get CRT and Akershus to match up with my plans. Sometimes I wonder if folks just aren't being flexible enough.

 

[CrazzzyforDisney83]

For some reason, late November and early December are always the worst when it comes to booking ADR's. I don't know if they're holding back or if the parties reduce the availability.

On the other hand, I just booked a trip with about 30 days notice and could get CRT and Akershus to match up with my plans. Sometimes I wonder if folks just aren't being flexible enough.

I got everything I wanted, even picked up a BOG breakfast, but no Akershus and I checked my whole week. We have park hoppers so we can do any day. Still nothing. I was up before the time and was ready to go at 5am(central). I really hope they are just holding back some Epcot reservations. Akershus is the one I'd love to get for my daughter!

 

[Cguiffreda]

free DP for the resorts.

This occurred to us the other day too as probably the source of little to no available ADRs