Has anyone had success booking dining? I mean......for the love of churros!

[Angel141925]

So we decided late to do a character breakfast on our departure day (no park entry). I know goofys is doing a Halloween dining. Of course the reservations are gone especially since our date is opening day for it (September 21). I have a mouse dining alert set but with it being opening day I don’t have high hopes we’ll snatch one up. What are the odds they’ll be taking walk ups?

 

[ktlm]

So we decided late to do a character breakfast on our departure day (no park entry). I know goofys is doing a Halloween dining. Of course the reservations are gone especially since our date is opening day for it (September 21). I have a mouse dining alert set but with it being opening day I don’t have high hopes we’ll snatch one up. What are the odds they’ll be taking walk ups?

Opening day for the Halloween costumes might be an issue, but otherwise it may depend on what time you go. Our departure day was yesterday and my teen daughter went downstairs about 7:20 a.m. as the rest of us were getting everything packed and on a whim did a walk in-- she got a ton of time with the characters because it was pretty empty. The crowd really picked up about 8:00 am as she was leaving. She thought she probably easily got in and it was pretty empty because those up and moving around that early were on the way to park early hours or opening instead of breakfast.

Also, I had great luck with mouse dining this trip, as I have in the past. It was worth it to pay for the texts. I wanted a couple things and I got everything I wanted, and even at the times I wanted. Alerts popped up during our trip several times as people were canceling times etc. Have the reservation page for that restaurant open on your phone so you can jump in it quickly instead of going through the text alert. It is all about speed once the alert comes up. Be sure you check it now and then to make sure it is staying logged in. I lost a couple because it had logged out. I would grab the first time I could get-- and then when an alert came with a better time, I would book that and then release the first one I had booked. I think there was one I changed 3 times-- until I finally got the exact time I wanted. Every time you change yours because a better time pops up, someone will be grabbing the one you release! Good luck!

 

[Geemo]

Last week as I was practicing-honing my skills for making ADR's the window was opening at 9PM the night before. Not the usual 6am the day of Opening Window.

Tonight as I try the window isn't opening like it was last week. I have a quick 2 day trip in Nov and have a couple of NEEDED ADR's.

So what has been everyone's experience for the 60day window?

 

[maleficent55]

I too experienced a few weeks ago that you could book at 9 PM the day before your 60 day window, so essentially at 61 days out. This last week it was completely different, back to the 6 AM 60 days out.

 

[StarlitNight05]

I too experienced a few weeks ago that you could book at 9 PM the day before your 60 day window, so essentially at 61 days out. This last week it was completely different, back to the 6 AM 60 days out.

Ugh, this is so frustrating! Why oh why can't they just drop all the reservations at the same time? I guess there are other factors into play, but you would think Disney could figure this out.

 

[maleficent55]

Ugh, this is so frustrating! Why oh why can't they just drop all the reservations at the same time? I guess there are other factors into play, but you would think Disney could figure this out.

It seems like the same time that this glitch happened that allowed bookings to happen 61 days out the same moment that Disney switched the appearance of the available times for different Dining reservations on the app, like showing all of the available times versus just a few

 

[orangecuse]

Last week as I was practicing-honing my skills for making ADR's the window was opening at 9PM the night before. Not the usual 6am the day of Opening Window.

Tonight as I try the window isn't opening like it was last week. I have a quick 2 day trip in Nov and have a couple of NEEDED ADR's.

So what has been everyone's experience for the 60day window?

Ive been booking the last few days and while sometimes the day shows up early, nothing has been loaded until the 6am time.

 

[Geemo]

Ive been booking the last few days and while sometimes the day shows up early, nothing has been loaded until the 6am time.

That has been my experience the past two days. I have everything I want and need for the two days.
It took me about 10 to 15 minutes to stumble on to the reservation page for WOC. Not sure how I got there but got it booked

Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[maleficent55]

Ive been booking the last few days and while sometimes the day shows up early, nothing has been loaded until the 6am time.

Same

 

[Tanya Tink]

Are reservations for larger groups limited to only certain times? I booked a Plaza Inn reservation right at 6 am when the reservations dropped for a group of 6, but the latest that was available was 8:30 am. When I changed the party size to 5 or less, pretty much all the times were available. Unless I wasn’t quite quick enough to get anything later for a larger group. I did a trial run for another day though right at 6 am just to check and same thing.

 

[woodys_girl]

Are reservations for larger groups limited to only certain times? I booked a Plaza Inn reservation right at 6 am when the reservations dropped for a group of 6, but the latest that was available was 8:30 am. When I changed the party size to 5 or less, pretty much all the times were available. Unless I wasn’t quite quick enough to get anything later for a larger group. I did a trial run for another day though right at 6 am just to check and same thing.

I only have anecdotal evidence, but when looking for reservations (right when they dropped) for a party of 9 there were like 3 choices, whereas when I split it to 4 and 5, I could have basically any time for both groups. So I do think they limit slots for different size parties and probably larger parties have fewer slots to start with. We may not get to sit together, but at least we don't have to eat at 7:30am.

 

[Tanya Tink]

Has anyone had success with being able to have two separate reservations seated together? We have a party of 4 and a party of 2 booked for 9:40 am at the Plaza Inn.

 

[kikismom]

Has anyone had success with being able to have two separate reservations seated together? We have a party of 4 and a party of 2 booked for 9:40 am at the Plaza Inn.

We've done it before. I went and hour and let them know I had two reservations, an party of 4 and a party of 5. We did this three or four times, one was Plaza Inn, they say us together each time with minimal wait when it was our turn. I feel like we got pushback from one place but they still did it. Definitely wasn't Plaza Inn, I remember her specifically being so nice.

I get online before 6 each trip and have never been able to book a large party together. We normally do a ton of table service so I feel pretty experienced at it and it still never works for me.

 

[Tanya Tink]

We've done it before. I went and hour and let them know I had two reservations, an party of 4 and a party of 5. We did this three or four times, one was Plaza Inn, they say us together each time with minimal wait when it was our turn. I feel like we got pushback from one place but they still did it. Definitely wasn't Plaza Inn, I remember her specifically being so nice.

I get online before 6 each trip and have never been able to book a large party together. We normally do a ton of table service so I feel pretty experienced at it and it still never works for me.

Were you still all able to sit together during really busy or peak times as well?

 

[kikismom]

Yep, every t

Were you still all able to sit together during really busy or peak times as well?

Yep, every time. We went in with the expectation that it might not work but each time they accommodated us. It's kind of frustrating that even booking 60 days out right at the time reservations open we still can't get anything over a party of about 6.

We were there the week of Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day in 2021. The crowds were brutal and we still got to sit together each time.

 

[Tanya Tink]

Yep, every t

Yep, every time. We went in with the expectation that it might not work but each time they accommodated us. It's kind of frustrating that even booking 60 days out right at the time reservations open we still can't get anything over a party of about 6.

We were there the week of Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day in 2021. The crowds were brutal and we still got to sit together each time.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[joseph821]

Also please note that Disneyland is favoring party size of 3 or more in the reservations. If you are a party of 1 or 2, you may get nothing no times, open it up to a party of 3 and youll get all the times. If you are 1 or 2, make the reservations for the time you want even for party of 3. Upon check-in tell them the correct number. But if you cancel with less than 24 hours, you will be charged $10 times the number in reservation..$30.

Disney is stacking the reservations to parties of 3 or more. Just play the game and you'll get the times you want if you are a party of 1 or 2.

 

[kikismom]

I booked dinner for our party of 9 today, I had to split it between a party of 4 and a party of 5 so hopefully they are still working with large parties to sit together like the last time we had to do it this way.

Randomly the only place I could get a party of 9 in at 6:30 was Ogas. That seemed surprising to me. This was at 6:01 this morning and I was booking for 12/1.

 

[IAmElsan]

So I totally spaced out my 60 day window back in AUG for my Oct 23-25 trip. Kept randomly checking the dining reservations ever since and FINALLY secured a lamplight lounge lunch reservation on 10/24 at 12:50 about 10 min ago!

Now if only an Oga’s and/or Blue Bayou can pop up next!

 

[DizMe]

So I totally spaced out my 60 day window back in AUG for my Oct 23-25 trip. Kept randomly checking the dining reservations ever since and FINALLY secured a lamplight lounge lunch reservation on 10/24 at 12:50 about 10 min ago!

Now if only an Oga’s and/or Blue Bayou can pop up next!

Kind of in the same boat. I didn't plan on going to Dapper Day this fall (Nov 12-13) and then my daughter asked the other day if we could go (heck yeah!). She was hoping for Blue Bayou but there was nothing available. So I used mouse dining (you set dining alerts for what you want and it notifies you if something comes up). I set one for Blue Bayou and got a res yesterday. You have to be quick, though! My trip is farther off than yours but I do recommend trying the dining alerts. People do cancel, especially as it gets closer to your dates, and getting an alert when someone does is awesome.

Tip: I use the free version. The biggest downside for me is that it only emails you. If you get a paid subscription, it will text you. I am much more likely to see it and grab the reservation with a text, but I'm also cheap. There is a way to game the system by converting your cell number into an email format that gets sent to your phone as a text. I know that sounds weird, but it works. Each cell carrier has a unique code that you can add to your cell number that will convert it from email into a text. For instance, I have Verizon, so mine is my 10-digit cell number@vtext.com

Here's a list of carriers and what you would add to your cell number to get it as a text: https://avtech.com/articles/138/list-of-email-to-sms-addresses/

You have to be ready to jump on it if you get a notification. I make sure I'm logged in to Disneyland.com and Mouse Dining so if an alert comes through I can go straight to the page

Edited to add that in case that wasn't clear, when you sign up with MD for the dining alerts, when it asks for your email you can use your cell number + the carrier's text code (like @vtext .com) to get the alerts as texts rather than emails.