Why in the world did they go back to 180 days in advance?

[jlk806]

It seems that over the past few years (and we go every year, skipping only 2008 with the birth of son,, Disney changes back and forth their dining reservation deadline - last year it was 90 days in advance, now its back to 180 days in advance, as it was a couple years ago. I really do not understand why they start accepting 180 days in advance! We havent even booked our trip yet, but are planning on going the beg. of September as we are waiting for the announcement of the free dining plan (with hopes they will!). So here we are not even booked our trip yet, but we will be making our dining reservations online next week so we will have them!

On the plus side, I do like the new online reservations, so much easier than trying to understand the Cast member on the phone. But how many people really know where and when they want to eat 6 months in advance!

 

[pooch]

thank God for 180 days. I HATED 90 days out, much harder to get what I wanted. Now if they'd just release Sept park hrs, I could nail the whole trip down!!!

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I liked 90 days out much more than 180. We went in May, had no problems getting what I wanted. And it was nice, the trip seemed closer and I felt like I was really able to countdown at that point, it meant the trip was closer
I made my ADRS yesterday morning (180 days out) and there's still tons of snow on the ground here and I thought to myself, "jeees, we're not going til the END of the summer and we're not even through with winter yet"

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

I am sooo happy it is back at 180-we are already booked on a bounceback for Sept. with free dining-I have about 3 weeks to get me plan together but after last years train wreck at 90 days I am glad to be booking before most people are even thinking about it.

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

We have the same dilemma! My question is if we go ahead and book ADR's in the hopes of free dining, do we book them 180 days from the 1st day of the trip or the last day without the reservation?

 

[williamson_ja]

You could book the first day's reservation at the 180 day mark from the beginning of your vacation, then the next day you could book one more, etc. . If you want to do them all at once, you'll have to wait until 180 days from the end of the trip.

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

You could book the first day's reservation at the 180 day mark from the beginning of your vacation, then the next day you could book one more, etc. . If you want to do them all at once, you'll have to wait until 180 days from the end of the trip.

Okay awesome thank you!! I would just ago ahead and book it so I could do the +10, and then cancel everything if they don't offer free dining. But my boyfriend is totally against booking it without knowing and since we are paying for our entire family I kind of have to be a team player!! So annoying!!

 

[TDC Nala]

We have the same dilemma! My question is if we go ahead and book ADR's in the hopes of free dining, do we book them 180 days from the 1st day of the trip or the last day without the reservation?

If you do not have a Disney resort reservation, you will have to book them at 180 days from EACH day of your trip, meaning you have to call or book online on multiple days. That's if you want to book all your reservations at 180 days out. If you wait until the 180 day mark of your last day, you can book them all with one call or one online session.

 

[BillSears]

Sorry you're not happy with it but I say....


Yeah for the 180 days!!!!!

It makes it so much easier for us planners.

 

[eyor44]

I am reallly happy about the 180 days also. 2008 I got everything exactly when I wanted it. 2009 was so stressful and I did not get all the times I wanted.

Go ahead and book your ADRs. There are only a couple that you have to leave a CC with, so just don't book those.

or....go ahead and reserve your trip. IF free dining comes out, then you can call and apply it. We did last year and it worked great.

 

[tami82]

180 days much better. We did 90 days last year for August and it wasnt good especially before online came out. I got a few late times which were definintely not good for us, especially when free dining offer came out end of March werent able to book anything until May. I would never want them to go back to 90 days.

 

[jlk806]

We are going to go ahead and just book the ADRs so we will have them. If they dont offer the free dining and we dont end up going, we could just cancel them it will still be far enough in advance. We will still go, just at another time, and probably just not get the dining plan.// We are just not sure exactly what day we will be arriving.

 

[thej]

Our last couple of trips were using the 90 day window... and it was just fine. Tho for new year's I did do 90+10 to get the NYE ADRs (which we canceled and ate at the Pepper Market)

It was very strange to be booking ADRs for our June trip to SWW just a few days after getting back from our New Years trip. Oh, and some were already unavailable! I don't understand the 180 days either... it just forces us to book every meal every day and then cxl the ones we won't do when we arrive. Feels wasteful to me!

 

[kamikazecat]

I love the 180 days out. I was able to plan and get everything I wanted to. At 90 days this wasn't a possibility for me even though I was on the phone at 4 am (West Coast) to get my ADR's at 90+10. It was a nightmare.

 

[Tricia1972]

I have most of my ADRs planned out in my head for our trip next January. However, I still will miss the 90 days when it comes time to make our reservations at 180 days.

 

[Mickeyfollowers]

Being a DVC member and not able to get free dining I like the 180. It works for my family because of what has been said, people are booking their ADRs just in case the free dining comes out. What sucks about that is what if it doesnt come out then people are canceling these ressies that us planners could of had 180 days out and have to keep checking for the earlier times. TJMO

 

[Mickeyfollowers]

thank God for 180 days. I HATED 90 days out, much harder to get what I wanted. Now if they'd just release Sept park hrs, I could nail the whole trip down!!!

We too are waiting on the park hours for Sept. We already have our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices picked out for each day that we will be there. Need those hours so we can decided what days we will be going to them. We avoid EMH, Fantasmic, and also wish I knew the dates of the MNSSHP, plan on going to that also. Good luck on your ADRs.

 

[lawsonsontour]

i wish that they would do a two tier system as people booking adrs on trips they "might take" is one of the things that blocks up the system. i had 3 adrs that i couldnt make last trip and yet when we were on the trip we were able to book them on the day. the CM told us that about 50% of advanced booked adrs dont get used.
now i know the whiplash im going to get with this but IMHO the way they should do it is if you are booked in to disney hotels, you can book 180 days out and any one else gets to book at 90 days.this woul make getting an adr better for everyone...even people not staying onsite.

 

[bleeps]

IMHO the way they should do it is if you are booked in to disney hotels, you can book 180 days out and any one else gets to book at 90 days.this woul make getting an adr better for everyone...even people not staying onsite.

I don't disagree. I think it would be great if they took this extra step as a benefit to staying on-site.

But overall, from a business perspective, I think the 180 days really serves WDW executives very well -- it gives them a much better idea of what people are planning to do, and helps them better project park attendance, etc. If it weren't in their interest, they wouldn't have brought it back.

 

[kehlyrsmom]

I think they should go back to the 90. I got exactly wanted I wanted last year at the 90 never have at the 180 mark. We booked a bounce back offer last fall for free dining, but my parents who usually go with us did not. We are fast approaching the time for me to make our ADR's and I will not know until Disney officially comes out with the free dining offer if I need to make my ADR's for 4 or 6. I'm worried if I only make them for 4 and find out a month from now my parents are going I will probably will not be able to add them on.

No offense to anyone and I am probably going to get slammed for saying this but I really think people making reservations in hopes of free dinining is really going to skew things from Disney point of view. From a business perspective they will see all of these dining reservations being made why would you offer free dining. I also would not be surprised if in the very near future the change it so you have to put a cc number in when making the reservations.

We just made an unplanned Adult only trip back in January for this coming May for our Anniversary we bought the quick service dining since I looked at the reservations and realized that I was going to have hard time getting anything. Especially since I am diabetic and my choices are some what limited to where I can go. We did decided to make a sit down reservation and pay for it out of pocket for the night of our Anniversary and I had a horrible time getting us this single reservation for just the two of us.