Good luck for Disney Dinner Ressies Late Sept.!

[thedisneyfan]

To those going to WDW in late September and hoping to get ANY dining reservations for dinner, I say good luck!

I tried getting reservations for Cinderellas Royal Table, Tony's Town Square, Libert Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace. All booked out. Also booked out: Mama Melrose, Sci-Fi, 50's Prime Time, Italy, Canada, and on and on. Disney obviously overbooked the promotion for free dining and it will be a nightmare for both guests and CMs. This is so wrong! How will anybody hope to get a meal under the wonderful dining plan? Get ready for the complaints because they are going to be severe (and justifiably so)!

"Dining your way" sounds more like "Dining, NO WAY!"

:fork: :fork: :fork:

 

[skiddles]

dont worry...you will all be fed

I just booked a Cindy lunch on the sunday 10/2, aand liberty tree for dinner on 9/29, both had only a few tables. I called yesterday for any date on the Cindy lunch and everything was filled from 09/27 thru 10/4. But today it was open.......how strange.

checked numerous restraunts throughout the parks and everthing has openings for many of the days. relax, the walkups will be wide open since many people are making reservations that will not show up.

 

[MareSINY]

I'm going 9/26 - 9/30, and we gave our restaurant choices to our travel agent last week, she made us reservations with no problems. We told her any time after 4:30 pm would be fine.

Maybe you just aren't flexible enough?

 

[Moonshadow1]

Just made a ressie for four at wilderness point to day for 9/27 and had my choice of times.

 

[mikeymouse]

I'm sorry for being dumb, but what is this "DINING YOUR WAY"? I've never heard of it. Who is getting to eat for free and why? Is it a new ticket package or what? I want to eat at the Biergarten for lunch once the last week of Sept and another time the first week of Oct.

 

[thedisneyfan]

relax, the walkups will be wide open since many people are making reservations that will not show up.

I believe that this is part of the problem that needs corrected as I'm suspicious that many unscrupulous people that book early book a ressie for each park for each night and then decide at the last minute and fail to ever cancel the others since there are no penalties for doing so.

As to the flexibility issue, I do feel that it is a problem when NO, ZERO, NADA times and restaurants are available for Magic Kingdom on certain weekday days during an off season. And sorry, but all of my earlier confirmation letters neither advised nor warned about booking such an extreme time in advance. Again, I'm not just talking about the most popular restaurants which I can understand much more. I did originally post as a matter of frustration and as a matter to inform people of the difficulties that they too may encounter if attempting the same. To those whom have responded in a constructive way with offerings of advise and tips I say thank you. To certain others who had a problem with my complainig I hope that there is never a complaint about some sort of service, attraction, amenity, resort, etc. as I will be watching! :lookaroun I will have this post on speed link if I ever see such things from you. I am officially on complaint watch.

 

[AEfx]

Free dining means a MUCH higher percentage of people are going to be eating sit-down meals than normal, AND I believe they will be much more likely to show up for said ressies if it's already paid for (FREE). They will show up if they are hungry or not, just because...it's FREE.

To anyone going during free dining and expecting to walk-in anywhere, especially if you aren't on free dining yourself, good luck to you. I have a feeling they may squire away a couple of extra-tables to appease hot-heads who come in yelling "I'm entitled to eat here whenever I want - I'm on the FREE dining plan!" but walk-ups are turned away at the most popular restaurants even on the slower days without free dining.

Unless you want to eat exceptionally early or exceptionally late, don't mind waiting hours for tables throughout your vacation, or don't care where you eat (i.e. no Sci-Fi for you), then I'd make some PS's (ADR, whatever) ASAP.

AEfx

 

[wdwishes2005]

WOW! i love (mostly) dining by myself, with the occasional group meal. even when others wait 2-3 hours for dinner the longest ive ever waited was 15 minutes.

 

[brkgnews]

Disclaimer -- I have absolutely NO basis of fact in this. It's pure speculation on my part. Some who actually knows what they're talking about (JPVD, that's you) may correct me.

Perhaps they have only a certain number of table slots available for the free dining plan, and another amount set aside for standard (paid) dining? Today when I made my regular ressies (Sep 18th-ish, btw) the first thing they asked me was if I was on the dining plan. So perhaps they are trying to keep some space open for "traditional" dining reservations?

 

[mousermerf]

Um, no.

They ask cuz it's required. It's supposed to make people ask "What dining plan?" and serves really no purpose when booking a ressie unless it's a prepaid or deposit event.

There is no great dining conspiracy.

 

[dixiegirl]

oh and if i do get a better ressie while i'm at disney....i always cancel my original one....i'm good like that!!

 

[TrentMom]

Dinner PS

D

To those going to WDW in late September and hoping to get ANY dining reservations for dinner, I say good luck!

I tried getting reservations for Cinderellas Royal Table, Tony's Town Square, Libert Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace. All booked out. Also booked out: Mama Melrose, Sci-Fi, 50's Prime Time, Italy, Canada, and on and on. Disney obviously overbooked the promotion for free dining and it will be a nightmare for both guests and CMs. This is so wrong! How will anybody hope to get a meal under the wonderful dining plan? Get ready for the complaints because they are going to be severe (and justifiably so)!

"Dining your way" sounds more like "Dining, NO WAY!"

:fork: :fork: :fork:

I am sorry you ran into trouble. We booked a last minute trip to Disney 2 weeks ago for Sept. 10-15th. I called just two days ago and got dinner reservations for 1900 Park Fare, Biergarten, 50's Prime Time Cafe, Cinderella's Castle, Chef Mickeys and breakfast at Ohanas, all with no problems. I had to hold for 20 mins before I got someone on the phone, but I got all that wanted. I wouldn't give up yet. People constantly cancel, so I woul call back daily and check for the ones that you really want. Do not cancel your old reservation until you have the one replacing it.

Good luck
Trentmom
27 Days to go!!!
All Star Movies

 

[wannabeBelle]

Free dining means a MUCH higher percentage of people are going to be eating sit-down meals than normal, AND I believe they will be much more likely to show up for said ressies if it's already paid for (FREE). They will show up if they are hungry or not, just because...it's FREE.

To anyone going during free dining and expecting to walk-in anywhere, especially if you aren't on free dining yourself, good luck to you. I have a feeling they may squire away a couple of extra-tables to appease hot-heads who come in yelling "I'm entitled to eat here whenever I want - I'm on the FREE dining plan!" but walk-ups are turned away at the most popular restaurants even on the slower days without free dining.

Unless you want to eat exceptionally early or exceptionally late, don't mind waiting hours for tables throughout your vacation, or don't care where you eat (i.e. no Sci-Fi for you), then I'd make some PS's (ADR, whatever) ASAP.

AEfx

Hi there all, I like AEfx make all my PS, ADR whatever they are calling them this week, usually at the 90 day window, especially when dealing with a group. I make PS/ADR even when it is just one or two people just because that way I am assured to eat in the places that I want to without a problem. I hadnt ever made it into Le Cellier, 50's Prime Time, Cindy's Castle etc without a ressie. I have seen people be turned away all over EPCOT so I am not quite sure about these tables that are squirreled away.
As far as asking if you are dining on a plan, JPVonDrake had explained that once. The reason is that, say you are dining on the MYW Dining Plan, and you are trying to make a ressie for the Fantasmic Dining Package or Victoria & Albert's, the dining CM can tell you that this is not an inclusion of the plan and that you will have to pay for it! Simply to advise the Guest and prevent an unpleasant scene at the restaurant itself when the unexpected bill comes! Belle

 

[pinkrose]

Unfortunately not always true. I've seen several people completely turned away from Sci-Fi and told that there were no tables available, even at 5pm. Not even given the chance to stand around and wait for an opening (of which I saw several while I was eating).

I've seen the same thing happen at 50's Prime Time.

 

[Tigger1988]

oh and if i do get a better ressie while i'm at disney....i always cancel my original one....i'm good like that!!

Me too! I want someone else to get a chance at my old ressie, I know I would appreciate it

 

[loxley44]

It might be a lil harder to get what you want...but keep tryin. I have gotten into everything I wanted...even cindys table. Just keep trying it took me almost 3 weeks of calling, but i got want we wanted.

 

[brkgnews]

There is no great dining conspiracy.

I wasn't accusing them of a conspiracy. I just knew that for some other benefits (AP room discounts, etc) that there were a limited number of slots available. Thought that might be the case here, too.

 

[PixyDust]

We always go in the VERY-off season of early December. And I always make my PS/ADRs at 7 am 90 days out. Do I have to do this? Probably not, but food is a big part of our vacation, and worth planning for in our opinion, so I do. I already have an alarm set on my cell phone to remind me to set my alarm extra early the night before my booking date. In fact, I made my list of meals/times/pricing a few months ago. And now that I can make all of my ADRs at one time, it will be so easy to just go down my list!

And we also have Disney Dining programmed into the cell in case we get hungry for something at a sit-down and don't have a ressy. Glad to know I'm not the only one who takes the meals so seriously!!!

Good luck to those of you who take the chance of walk-up availability. We've tried that and been turned down several times (family of 4), thus my obsessive tendancy.

 

[rowdyray]

I made PS for six table service restaraunts at around 1:00 P.M. today and had no trouble getting anything but Cinderella's Royal Table. I made PS at Le Celier, Garden Grill, Chef Mickey's, Whispering Canyon, and Crystal Palace. For the most part, I was able to get close to the time I wanted. The only really odd time is 9:10 P.M at Chef Mickey's. Just thought I would share my experience.

 

[wdwnj]

reservations--free dining

we have 4 reservations for 5 days when we arrive (free eats on disney !!) reservations for ohana's character breakfast, alfredos in italy (dinner), sci fi for lunch, dinner at cape may cafe had no problesm getting times i wanted. however a couple of reservations we were told that we got last available. we are traveling 1st week of oct 2005, going without kids (me and the mrs. first vac alone in 13 yrs--yippee !!!)

 

[mousebymarriage]

late dinner reservations...

sorry about your reservation dilema. If you are looking for a princess thing and can't get cinderella's try Akershus in Norway, they have a great princess breakfast. Also, most people ask for reservations on the 1/2 hour or on the hour, however I have heard that asking for lunch at let's say 11:55am instead of 12noon is possible. Same with dinner at let's say 4:55pm or 5:05pm or 5:10pm versus 5pm. These reservations need to be asked for specifically with some of the CM that handle the phone at the call center(let's be realistic, some CM's will make the effort on their own, some won't and only look for the exact time you request). As with most customer service jobs that are handled mainly via telephone the employees are expected to answer a certain number of calls in a certain amount of time,in addition many times these customer service reps get pressure from the boss for spending too much time on 1 call because there are many others on hold. therefore some will not make the extra effort so they can move on to the next call.