Really Disappointed in ADR Selection

[helenm29]

I'm not sure what part of the country you are in but since we are in California we had to be up and making our ADR's at 3:00 A.M to even get MOST of our choices. We still missed out on a few things I'd love to try. San Angel has always been really good for us and we got ADR for that one for this trip. Keep at it and GOOD LUCK!

 

[sndral]

I've been to Rainforest and with just 2 adults, it's not something I want to repeat.

If you were searching for a party of 2 that may be your problem - when I practiced in the days leading up to ADR day I never found decent times for 2, if I tried for 3 people restaurants and times available really opened up.

 

[aubreighk]

are restaurants back at full capacity?

No, due to staffing shortage

 

[aubreighk]

I’ll reiterate what I said in a previous post: I rarely book 60 days out when everyone is panicking to get their ideal restaurants. Disney releases new reservations daily and people also cancel. I have better luck periodically checking for reservations leading up to the day, but I usually find the best reservations the night before. Due to Disney’s reservation policy, everyone is required to cancel the night before otherwise they’ll get charged for not showing up. So all those people who chose to sit on prime reservations and can’t keep them all will let them go between 11pm - 12am the night before. It’s definitely worth checking within this period - I’ve booked Cinderella’s, Cali Grill, Be Our Guest, Akershus, Monsieur Paul, etc like this. Another risky tactic is to find reservations the day of. I find excellent reservations the day of all the time.

 

[sndral]

If anyone else is like me they are sitting on more reservations than they know what to do with and will cancel as it gets closer.

Exhibit A for aubreighk’s advice.

I’ll reiterate what I said in a previous post: I rarely book 60 days out when everyone is panicking to get their ideal restaurants. Disney releases new reservations daily and people also cancel. I have better luck periodically checking for reservations leading up to the day, but I usually find the best reservations the night before. Due to Disney’s reservation policy, everyone is required to cancel the night before otherwise they’ll get charged for not showing up. So all those people who chose to sit on prime reservations and can’t keep them all will let them go between 11pm - 12am the night before. It’s definitely worth checking within this period - I’ve booked Cinderella’s, Cali Grill, Be Our Guest, Akershus, Monsieur Paul, etc like this. Another risky tactic is to find reservations the day of. I find excellent reservations the day of all the time.

For a time Disney made you cancel before the system would let you book a second ADR for the same day/meal, that appears to be gone so I guess people are back to hoarding ADRs.

 

[a1tinkfans]

We love rainforest lol. And CRT, been there done that, wouldn’t return. You really can’t go by others all the time. Here’s hoping you get some or all of what u want. Enjoy!!

 

[Rickat96]

May have some Epcot ADRs being held back for Candlelight processional too.

 

[zackiedawg]

I just booked a few this morning for my trip beginning Dec 10 - 3 days past the 60-day booking window...mostly just looking for dinners, not lunches. I was able to find most of what I wanted without too much difficulty - like others, I'd agree that some of the restaurants you listed are ones I quite like. Tiffin's has occasionally had menus that don't suit my taste as much (too seafood-heavy and I don't eat seafood), but the menus change frequently and anything I've had there has been very high quality. In wintertime, I love eating at Liberty Tree Tavern just because it's holiday-like food and plenty of it - was able to book that for MK day. I grabbed Hacienda de San Angel - though I like both San Angel Inn and Hacienda, so I'm good either way, for Epcot day. On DHS day, I could have picked from 50's Prime Time, Brown Derby, or Mama Melrose...since I'm driving up and checking in to SSR that day, I decided to pick an early dinner at Wine Bar George which I can walk over to from my resort first, then head to DHS to close out the night.

The ADR system was a bit wonky - sometimes saying no times could be searched and try again later - but refreshing a few times ended up getting me through. Some restaurants I find always show up as not available, no matter the time, party size, or number of days out - I honestly don't believe they're all booked up in the opening minutes of the 60 day window and I'm just not fast enough...I think those restaurants just don't play well with the ADR system or purposefully don't provide their ressie availability...in the past, I've managed to get reservations for some of those by calling Guest Services rather than trying on the ADR system online.

 

[aubreighk]

Exhibit A for aubreighk’s advice.

For a time Disney made you cancel before the system would let you book a second ADR for the same day/meal, that appears to be gone so I guess people are back to hoarding ADRs.

I think they’re still able to do this because you can choose multiple reservations as long as they’re 2 hours a part from each other. The system doesn’t allow you to get a bunch for dinner, but you could realistically book a 5pm, 7pm, and 9pm dinner on the same day and be “hoarding” since you won’t actually end up eating at all of them.

 

[Dakota731]

We like the all restaurants you got - which ones were you hoping for? Liberty Tree isn’t my kind of food but everyone is different. I reserved this week too and didn’t get all my choices but got some with off times but that’s ok. Must be luck sometimes because I wanted Skipper Canteen but couldn’t get it.

 

[Dakota731]

Exhibit A for aubreighk’s advice.

For a time Disney made you cancel before the system would let you book a second ADR for the same day/meal, that appears to be gone so I guess people are back to hoarding ADRs.

I definitely wasn’t trying to get more than one dinner booked, however I made a mistake and tried to book two for same day and system asked me to cancel first reservation before booking another. So I’m glad it’s not allowing people to book multiple reservations and then others get nothing

 

[zebrastreyepz]

We like the all restaurants you got - which ones were you hoping for? Liberty Tree isn’t my kind of food but everyone is different. I reserved this week too and didn’t get all my choices but got some with off times but that’s ok. Must be luck sometimes because I wanted Skipper Canteen but couldn’t get it.

At MK, I would have liked Liberty Tree, Be Our Guest (never been), CRT (DH has never been), Plaza (never been)

At AK, I would have liked a Tusker House lunch or dinner for our 2nd day there or Yak and Yeti.

At EP, I would have liked just about ANYTHING except the 2 choices available to me.

At HS, I would have liked 50s, Hollywood and Vine, and Sci Fi.

 

[Dakota731]

Funny I had 50s available, but I don’t like their food. So I guess it depends what park you are going to each day. Our last trip we had to call Yak & Yeti directly to reserve, and we didn’t have to wait on hold at all so you may want to try that. I’m not sure if they still take reservations by phone since it was 18 months ago but worth a shot!

 

[tguz]

Keep checking. You’ll see stuff popping up for sure.

Also, IMO San Angel is amazing. Definitely not a horror story.

We are so excited to try San Angel on our December trip! We have always wanted to try it but on our trips, we have been qs people (which we like) but it is our Honeymoon and we are doing 5 table service meals this time.

 

[shoegal9]

At MK, I would have liked Liberty Tree, Be Our Guest (never been), CRT (DH has never been), Plaza (never been)

At AK, I would have liked a Tusker House lunch or dinner for our 2nd day there or Yak and Yeti.

At EP, I would have liked just about ANYTHING except the 2 choices available to me.

At HS, I would have liked 50s, Hollywood and Vine, and Sci Fi.

If you want Yak & Yeti then join the Landry's Club. You pay $25- but get a $25 gift card to use. You can also just call the restaurant, say you are a member and have any reservation date and time you want. So worth it.

There are probably a lot of people with longer trips than yours that booked up the other places before you could book since its 60 days + length of trip. But it seems odd to not be able to get Plaza at least.

 

[sndral]

I think they’re still able to do this because you can choose multiple reservations as long as they’re 2 hours a part from each other. The system doesn’t allow you to get a bunch for dinner, but you could realistically book a 5pm, 7pm, and 9pm dinner on the same day and be “hoarding” since you won’t actually end up eating at all of them.

I definitely wasn’t trying to get more than one dinner booked, however I made a mistake and tried to book two for same day and system asked me to cancel first reservation before booking another. So I’m glad it’s not allowing people to book multiple reservations and then others get nothing

Monday 2 of us were booking at 60+10, we had 2 possible dates for Space 220 & actually got both. So we booked our second choice restaurant to replace our extra Space 220 & the system let us & didn’t even warn us we were double booking. I had to go in & cancel Space 220 after my son got the replacement restaurant - times were about the same on both. Perhaps it was because I was the lead guest on the Space220 we ended up replacing & my son was the lead guest on booking the replacement?

 

[Matt'sMom]

Sometimes, if you can be more flexible with dining times, or if you consider resort restaurants close to the park (such as a short hop over to the Poly or Contemp, on your MK day)... it will open up a lot more options also.

 

[bsmcneil]

At MK, I would have liked Liberty Tree, Be Our Guest (never been), CRT (DH has never been), Plaza (never been)

At AK, I would have liked a Tusker House lunch or dinner for our 2nd day there or Yak and Yeti.

At EP, I would have liked just about ANYTHING except the 2 choices available to me.

At HS, I would have liked 50s, Hollywood and Vine, and Sci Fi.

I found the Landry's Select Club to be super helpful generally and it takes care of the Yak and Yeti ADR issue (FYI). I recognize it may not be everyone's cup of tea - but it's definitely something to consider. Admittedly, I went while my birthday reward was still an option - so I made off like a bandit (I also went to RFC for breakfast at DAK though I haaaaated it).

 

[muffyn]

i see biergarten all the time.
we have been to san angel several times. it has great atmosphere & good food.
the menu at the diamond horseshoe is the same as liberty tree tavern

 

[tiana1989]

For Yak and Yeti, you can also do the QS window. They don’t have the full table service menu, of course, but it’s still delicious. In general, DAK has a really solid QS line-up. And I agree with whoever mentioned the candlelight procession dining package earlier. Disney already confirmed those will be available, so that’s setting aside a huge chunk of EPCOT reservations over the holidays. If you’re not into that, Skyliner and Crescent Lake resorts have excellent restaurants and are easy to get to from EPCOT and DHS, so I would look into those if you haven’t already. And definitely use one of the reservation finders. I got multiple TS alerts for MK on 10/1 when there was literally nothing available on my 60+10 window.

Also, pay attention to the park hours calendar on Fridays. They usually post boilerplate hours to start and then add hours a few weeks in advance. When this happens, the restaurants usually expand their hours within a couple days of the parks doing so, and it’s easy to snag ADRs when that happens because it’s unannounced and you’re not competing with a bunch of other people. I was successful at getting BoG over a holiday weekend with that strategy.