Strategy at 60 days

[TheBigErn]

How do you prioritize making dinning reservations? Do you start with day one of your trip and proceed day by day or do you jump around, booking the most difficult reservations to get first?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If you are a resort guest then look for the extremely difficult ones toward the end of your trip, and do that first.

 

[JZCubed]

How do you prioritize making dinning reservations? Do you start with day one of your trip and proceed day by day or do you jump around, booking the most difficult reservations to get first?

Most difficult reservation(s) first - which means the places most likely to be fully-booked most quickly.

For my family, this means Sci-Fi Dine-In, (some) in-park Character meals, & CA Grill for fireworks.

Strategically, we sometimes make our difficult reservations at the end of our vacation to benefit from the 60-day plus-10 rule for making advanced dining reservations (ADR).

However, keep in mind, if you happen to be staying on-site, and also have a split-stay (between more than one hotel) - your on-site advantage for making reservations later in your trip is limited by the end of each stay. In other words, your 60-day window starts with each of your reservations.

 

[SteveH]

Some great advice already so I'll add this, pray.
Pray that Disney IT is having a good day and everything with the ADR system is working, otherwise all the strategy goes out the window.

 

[JZCubed]

Some great advice already so I'll add this, pray.
Pray that Disney IT is having a good day and everything with the ADR system is working, otherwise all the strategy goes out the window.

.....you just made me soil my keyboard......

Thanx.

P.S. at least dining plans have a 60'ish-day window, Genie+ is same day, everyday.......

 

[Jacq7414]

I don’t start on day 60. When I booked I started with my last days and worked backwards because I placed the harder to get reservations at the end of my trip. Space 220 seems like one of the hardest to get, so I did that first. Then Topolino’s breakfast, storybook dining, and CRT. I was able to get everything I wanted except chef Mickey’s breakfast on day 60+2 on my trip. We could have gotten a dinner though but I didn’t want that.

 

[Bostonjetset]

Does one get an email confirm for the reservation once it’s booked? My window hasn’t opened yet so I am just prepping for next month. I am one of those crazies that likes printed copies of confirms to bring with me “just in case something goes wrong with the tech” lol.

 

[Jacq7414]

Does one get an email confirm for the reservation once it’s booked? My window hasn’t opened yet so I am just prepping for next month. I am one of those crazies that likes printed copies of confirms to bring with me “just in case something goes wrong with the tech” lol.

Yes

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Well our ADR day is next week. We have a bigger group and we'll need to split our reservations in most cases, so I'm recruiting my husband to get up early with me. I'll handle Group A and he can handle Group B. I've already planned our itinerary so that the hardest to get reservations will land on the late end of our trip, so I'm just going to make a list in order of priority and we'll tick them off (hopefully) moving down the list. That's the plan anyway - you never do know with Disney IT. I've actually taken the morning off of work so I can fully focus We have a split stay, so next week I'll be doing it all over again for the second leg.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Does one get an email confirm for the reservation once it’s booked? My window hasn’t opened yet so I am just prepping for next month. I am one of those crazies that likes printed copies of confirms to bring with me “just in case something goes wrong with the tech” lol.

Honestly I don't think you're a crazy for this. Maybe it's because I'm crazy too but I like to be prepared. It doesn't hurt anything, and in a pinch you'd be glad you thought ahead.

 

[blabadie]

I don’t start on day 60. When I booked I started with my last days and worked backwards because I placed the harder to get reservations at the end of my trip. Space 220 seems like one of the hardest to get, so I did that first. Then Topolino’s breakfast, storybook dining, and CRT. I was able to get everything I wanted except chef Mickey’s breakfast on day 60+2 on my trip. We could have gotten a dinner though but I didn’t want that.

Could you share what 60+ day you booked your high demand restaurants? We seem to have similar priorities and I'm working on my ADR strategy.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Could you share what 60+ day you booked your high demand restaurants? We seem to have similar priorities and I'm working on my ADR strategy.

I think what they're saying is they aim to schedule the high demand restaurants as close to the end of the trip as possible. So if you have a 7 day trip, you might try booking Space220 on day 7.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Could you share what 60+ day you booked your high demand restaurants? We seem to have similar priorities and I'm working on my ADR strategy.

I'd like to know this also. You guys are really helping me. I've never booked "hard to get" reservations, so I've never booked more than a week or so out. But our upcoming trip is an anniversary trip, so I really want a special one. These tips are helping.

 

[Jacq7414]

60+1: Sanaa lunch
60+2: Homecomin brunch
60+3: CRT breakfast
60+4: H&V
60+5: BOG dinner
60+6: storybook dining
60+7: Topolino’s
60+8: space 220
60+9: sci-fi (I ended up cancelling this though)

I didn’t book anything our first day since we are flying in. I’ll probably just do a QS at our hotel

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I'd like to know this also. You guys are really helping me. I've never booked "hard to get" reservations, so I've never booked more than a week or so out. But our upcoming trip is an anniversary trip, so I really want a special one. These tips are helping.

Here is what I do. I make a list of all the reservations I want to get, and I put them in order of what's in highest demand. For our upcoming trip, we'll be trying to book Space220, Topolino Terrace, Storybook Dining, O'Hana, and possibly California Grill for a date night. There are a bunch of other ADR's we'll be looking to make as well, but the ones I mentioned are going to be the hardest to get out of what we have (loosely) planned. So the ones I just listed will go at the top of my list, the rest go at the bottom, and at 6am on ADR day I will go in order down that prioritized list in order to give myself the best chance of getting the reservation. I also try to keep the timing flexible for those days so I open myself up to a range of time slots.

We have an 11 night trip but it's a split stay, which means I can't book ADR's for the second leg of the trip until the 60 day mark opens up for that resort stay. We check out of resort A on Day 7, so I'm going to try for top reservations on Day 6 and 7: O'Hana on day 5, Topolino breakfast Day 6 or 7, Space220 Day 6, and Storybook Day 7. Cali Grill will fall during our second leg which means I'll be crossing my fingers for a reservation at 60+2 or 60+3, which could be a long shot. I'm hoping since it's just two of us and our timing is flexible we might luck out.

So on ADR day for our first leg, my list will probably be:
Space 220 (book for day 6)
Topolino (book for day 6)
Storybook Dining (book for day 7)
O'Hana (book for Day 5)

If I have success with all of those, then I'll move on to the rest of my list. If not, I'll try booking the backups we chose. Then when the 60 day mark opens up for the second part of our stay, I'll do the same for those days, with Cali Grill at the top of my list.

 

[bethsg]

I have been "practicing" for my very short 3 night stay at the end of April. So far, I'm never ever seeing Rose & Crown Fireworks dinner... (never ever seen it available), and never seen the "Celebration at the TOP at the Calif Grill" (I know its not offered every night). If you book traditional dining at Calif Grill will you be able to go any where to watch the Fireworks from there? Finally, barely see any times for the Garden Rocks Dinner package past 4:50 PM.. which for us is kind of early for dinner? Any advise appreciate.

 

[Bostonjetset]

I have been "practicing" for my very short 3 night stay at the end of April. So far, I'm never ever seeing Rose & Crown Fireworks dinner... (never ever seen it available), and never seen the "Celebration at the TOP at the Calif Grill" (I know its not offered every night). If you book traditional dining at Calif Grill will you be able to go any where to watch the Fireworks from there? Finally, barely see any times for the Garden Rocks Dinner package past 4:50 PM.. which for us is kind of early for dinner? Any advise appreciate.

Please let us know how you fare. My upcoming trip is also only three nights so I’m particularly interested in how many good ones you get on a shorter stay. My main desire is ‘Ohana on our last night but will take Cali Grill as second choice (also hard I know). We plan to go to Tiffins on our last day and it seems that’s not so hard to get. And Chefs de France on our Epcot day. ‘Ohana appears to be my most difficult.

 

[Anna131517]

Most difficult reservations first - Space 220, BOG, CRT, Toppolinos, then by how much I really want to go there

 

[shb5007]

Quick question... when making reservations (say for 4 people). Do you have to add members (the other 3) to your party? Or can you do that later... and just make a reservation as the primary person... and try to get through them a little quicker?

 

[Jacq7414]

Quick question... when making reservations (say for 4 people). Do you have to add members (the other 3) to your party? Or can you do that later... and just make a reservation as the primary person... and try to get through them a little quicker?

They were already on my computer so it was easy to just click them.