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[trixiedixie]

Have just gone round the bend

Trying to book ADR's has been a nightmare. Online dining reservation system doesn't acknowledge the resort stay while the main Disney site has the SSR AKL K and all my dining reservations right there with my log in... the dining part of the system is clueless.

WDW DINE have had 3 people who knew what they were doing and 1 who shouldn't be working there and 1 who didn't know the way "thru" that system to make ADR's 180+10 as we marched thru the longer trip.

For example, the last hurdle was today. Sunday 11-20 had booked thru May 27 of trip.

Waited till today 11-23 to call for 5-28 and last days of trip
WDW DINE said it couldn't book it.
DVC Member Services booked it.

I have 1 more ressie on the day we leave that IS OUTSIDE the 180+10 rule. Its Boma breakfast so I am not worried. I say that as DVC has to operate within the rules but they understand the rules and their system does. Maybe its their experience with overall longer than 10 day stays...Im not sure...maybe Tim can weigh in on that....

Here is my advice IMHO and from the last few days of trying to make ADRS...

Try online first as it does open earlier than everything for those hard to get ressies like CRT.

If that doesn't work and you need CRT I would still deal with WDW DINE but talk fast and book CRT as late in that 1st 10 day window as you can (7-9 days?)...

If you don't need CRT or you would rather do them all at once wait till DVC Member services opens.

If you have a longer than 10 day stay or split like my trip has both - deal only with Member Services.

If you dont get aggravated easily than this is all not for you. But if you have no time like I do and expect people to know what they are doing most the time LOL - then this is the method again IMHO and in my experience.

(Anyone know any contact numbers for Disney for me to politely point this out to them Id appreciate it. )

You are almost all more experienced than I so let me know what you think....

[themorg]

Wow, sorry you had such a non Disney experience! I would agree that if you need CRT that you make it later in your stay, and call right away to WDW Dine. For the rest, we have never had an issue with the on-line system not recognizing our DVC reservation. Once we login to the Disney site, make our ADRs, it just adds them to it. When I go back later to check, my DVC reservation is there, along with all of my dining reservations.

Maybe a glitch in the Disney system when you logged in? Did it recognize that you had a resort reservation already, before you tried making the ADRs? If not, I would suggest doing the "Find Missing Reservations" link first to ensure it is tied into your user login. Good luck in the future!

[shnewell]

I'm sorry you had so much trouble. The online dining reservation system can be frustration-inducing. I had no trouble getting it to recognize a DVC reservation for our upcoming trip, but getting it to actually make an ADR was a whole other issue. I ended up calling WDW-DINE and getting it all squared away with them.

[tjkraz]

I've heard there is some glitch with the dining system not properly recognizing DVC reservations.

That said, I think booking the 180+10 is truly unnecessary these days for about 99% of dates and restaurants. I picked 4 random dates in May and tried to get a table for 4 at CRT for breakfast. Every time I had numerous options (8:40am, 9:20am, 9:40am, etc.)

Since Disney started requiring pre-payment for CRT, demand has plummeted. As I understand it, years ago there was a group of people who would intentionally book dozens of CRT reservations every single day and then auction them off to guests they deemed as being worthy. Now that you have to pre-pay, it's not nearly as hard to get.

Additionally Disney has taken steps to curb double-bookings and required a credit card guarantee at many restaurants.

I wouldn't wait until 2 months out and expect to have unlimited options but you really don't have to book 180+10 to get what you want. Go in after your entire trip is within 180 days and pull up some of the restaurants already booked. I bet all of them have times left.

[trixiedixie]

Originally Posted by themorg

Wow, sorry you had such a non Disney experience! I would agree that if you need CRT that you make it later in your stay, and call right away to WDW Dine. For the rest, we have never had an issue with the on-line system not recognizing our DVC reservation. Once we login to the Disney site, make our ADRs, it just adds them to it. When I go back later to check, my DVC reservation is there, along with all of my dining reservations.

Maybe a glitch in the Disney system when you logged in? Did it recognize that you had a resort reservation already, before you tried making the ADRs? If not, I would suggest doing the "Find Missing Reservations" link first to ensure it is tied into your user login. Good luck in the future!

Did that many times but thank you - at least I got everything we wanted!!!

Originally Posted by tjkraz

I've heard there is some glitch with the dining system not properly recognizing DVC reservations.

That said, I think booking the 180+10 is truly unnecessary these days for about 99% of dates and restaurants. I picked 4 random dates in May and tried to get a table for 4 at CRT for breakfast. Every time I had numerous options (8:40am, 9:20am, 9:40am, etc.)

Since Disney started requiring pre-payment for CRT, demand has plummeted. As I understand it, years ago there was a group of people who would intentionally book dozens of CRT reservations every single day and then auction them off to guests they deemed as being worthy. Now that you have to pre-pay, it's not nearly as hard to get.

Additionally Disney has taken steps to curb double-bookings and required a credit card guarantee at many restaurants.

I wouldn't wait until 2 months out and expect to have unlimited options but you really don't have to book 180+10 to get what you want. Go in after your entire trip is within 180 days and pull up some of the restaurants already booked. I bet all of them have times left.

Curious when the prepay for CRT started?
I couldn't get it 2009 and many of ressies I have had trouble getting - Ohana Dinner and Garden Grill I easily got this time. I am just glad that except for a little ole Boma Breakfast ressie that it is done!!! And we got them all!

I am always more concerned about our ressies as we can't go during September tor October or February when demand is low... We have to face the crowds, but thats why we chose DVC so we could have longer trips and more of them to get everything done despite crowds.

[tjkraz]

Not sure when pre-pay started but 2-3 years seems about right.

CRT also expanded to 3 character meals per day. Used to be they only had the princesses at breakfast. Now you can see them all day long.

Oh, and the price went through the roof, too.

Maybe some are having different experiences but from all of my bookings in the last couple of years, 180+ is absolutely not necessary. Disney's chipped away at the "holes" in the system little by little. Things like the CRT pre-pay / more meals / high price have helped. Le Cellier was always popular but that changed when it moved to Signature Dining on the DDP.

It's been a good 5+ years since I rushed to book anything at 180 days and we've always gotten what we wanted. Just last week I booked lunch at Sci-Fi for December 7th. What's that...about 3 weeks out?

We actually ate breakfast at CRT last November. Just checked my old email folder and the reservation was obtained on 7/27 for an 11/10 breakfast. About 100 days out. 9:20am reservation for party of 4. I'm certain they had later seatings available, too.

I think guests have also benefited from the ease of cancellations under the new on-line system. I'm guessing that when it was all phone calls, not many people bothered to cancel when plans changed. Now they system forces you to cancel one reservation if you try to book the same meal elsewhere, and it's just very simple to cancel unwanted reservations.

[trixiedixie]

Originally Posted by tjkraz

Not sure when pre-pay started but 2-3 years seems about right.

CRT also expanded to 3 character meals per day. Used to be they only had the princesses at breakfast. Now you can see them all day long.

Oh, and the price went through the roof, too.

Maybe some are having different experiences but from all of my bookings in the last couple of years, 180+ is absolutely not necessary. Disney's chipped away at the "holes" in the system little by little. Things like the CRT pre-pay / more meals / high price have helped. Le Cellier was always popular but that changed when it moved to Signature Dining on the DDP.

It's been a good 5+ years since I rushed to book anything at 180 days and we've always gotten what we wanted. Just last week I booked lunch at Sci-Fi for December 7th. What's that...about 3 weeks out?

We actually ate breakfast at CRT last November. Just checked my old email folder and the reservation was obtained on 7/27 for an 11/10 breakfast. About 100 days out. 9:20am reservation for party of 4. I'm certain they had later seatings available, too.

I think guests have also benefited from the ease of cancellations under the new on-line system. I'm guessing that when it was all phone calls, not many people bothered to cancel when plans changed. Now they system forces you to cancel one reservation if you try to book the same meal elsewhere, and it's just very simple to cancel unwanted reservations.

Thats a good point - it makes it easier to cancel. When our 2010 trip was messed up at the last minute late May for a late May trip there were things I could rearrange and change online and things I couldn't. Like I was able to get the 1900 Park Fare Breakfast but couldn't rebook Ohana or Garden Grill Dinner. I didn't have to rebook Chef Mickeys or it would have been gone. I was trying to keep characters, special places while others got cut because work robbed me of a couple thousand....

Thats why I wanted to get what I want when we want it and we were easily able to do that. I think CRT is the only one you really have to book early and the rest are probably fine....

Now we are looking at Christmas 2013 because I cannot 1 trip only on this set of AP's and I know nothing about Christmas at WDW. Will I have to make sure of the 180+10 rule then because of crowd level? Or is system making it easier then too?

[shnewell]

Originally Posted by trixiedixie

Thats a good point - it makes it easier to cancel. When our 2010 trip was messed up at the last minute late May for a late May trip there were things I could rearrange and change online and things I couldn't. Like I was able to get the 1900 Park Fare Breakfast but couldn't rebook Ohana or Garden Grill Dinner. I didn't have to rebook Chef Mickeys or it would have been gone. I was trying to keep characters, special places while others got cut because work robbed me of a couple thousand....

Thats why I wanted to get what I want when we want it and we were easily able to do that. I think CRT is the only one you really have to book early and the rest are probably fine....

Now we are looking at Christmas 2013 because I cannot 1 trip only on this set of AP's and I know nothing about Christmas at WDW. Will I have to make sure of the 180+10 rule then because of crowd level? Or is system making it easier then too?

I have booked at less than 180 days, but always for times of year when crowds are low anyway.

We are going at Christmas this year, and I called first thing in the morning at 180 days from our check-in date and still couldn't get some of what I wanted (for example, Yachtsman, Garden Grill, Via Napoli). But over the course of the next few days, as people sorted out their plans and made cancellations, everything we wanted opened up. So, I suppose that further proves Tim's point, but I'm still too paranoid NOT to reserve at the beginning of my 180+10 window!

[fluffybunny]

I only ever use member services to book my dining reservations. I can't ever figure out how to use the online one and I hate calling the dining line because of all the stupid questions they ask you. I called the dining line a couple of months ago because member services was closed and I totally goofed on making the correct reservation at the 180 day mark. It was a miserable experience.

[norm & linda]

I am having good success booking under 180 days - we just switched our reservation from BWV to AKV and I rebooked all the dining we wanted at 120 days.

My sense this is due to the fact that it is now impossible to double book on-line - there must be many more reservations available due to that, and this was not restricted a year ago as i could book two reservations at the same time and then the onus was on me to cancel the one not used. Now the system just doesn't allow that.

That being said, i did have a glitch booking both on-line and calling disney dining on the 180 day mark because i had 1 night studio reservation tied to 6 night 1-bedroom reservation and neither system would allow me to make 180 plus ten day reservations. The cast member i spoke to was also puzzled, since she couldn't make razzes either. When i called back 24 hours later all was good. i'm not sure if that was because the Disney Dining cast member put a note on the system. The entire tied reservation was under the same reservation number, hopefully this gets fixed.

It sounds like this may be the problem you are having with the split stay, perhaps??