Reserving Be Our Guest

[WillowsMom]

I'm normally not one to complain, I haven't been to WDW since 1997, so there are many dining choices that we haven't had yet. I'm staying on property and went to make my reservations at Be Our Guest for dinner 180 days out as was recommended to me. At 6:22am already all reservations were booked online and after making a quick phone call I discovered there were no tables available. How on EARTH is that possible. It's my understanding there is quite a bit of seating here and find it hard to believe that EVERYTHING was reserved in less than an hour for an entire day in October. Do they hold spots for special people or something? I don't get it. It's really disappointing.

 

[Nemo14]

It's possible since anyone staying on property can book 10 days out from that 180 day mark. It's a very popular restaurant right now, so reservations are hard to get. Did you try for a date later in your stay?

 

[WillowsMom]

I tried anytime the 2 days we're going to be at the Magic Kingdom. I guess I should have known to call 10 days out from the 180 days? There's so much information out there I missed this somehow. Oh well. I'm not going to waste my time standing in line trying to walk-in. Maybe next time.

 

[Nemo14]

You can book at 180 days from the first day of your stay. Then if you are staying on property you can book ADR's for the next 9 days as well at that time. Also, guests are known to cancel reservations, so keep trying.

If you really want to eat there, you can wait in line for lunch, since they do not take lunch reservations.

 

[alissafalco]

People have been saying that the lunch line goes pretty quickly.

 

[wdwstateofmind]

I made my reservations for dinner there at the 180 day mark for May. When they say 180 days out, they mean 12:00:01 AM...it's bad but I found if you want the exact times you desire you gotta stay up that one night for the stroke of midnight...

 

[Sweet Melissa]

When they say 180 days out, they mean 12:00:01 AM...it's bad but I found if you want the exact times you desire you gotta stay up that one night for the stroke of midnight...

Since when? Dining phone lines open at 7:00 AM Eastern, and for as long as online reservations have existed, those bookings have opened at 6:00 AM Eastern. When did they change the opening period to midnight?

 

[wdwstateofmind]

Since when? Dining phone lines open at 7:00 AM Eastern, and for as long as online reservations have existed, those bookings have opened at 6:00 AM Eastern. When did they change the opening period to midnight?

I don't know what ur talking about, but dining reservations have always been open on midnight on the 180 day mark online for at least the past 4 years I've made ADRs (prime-time dinner hrs. and locations i.e.: Be Our Guest, Royal Table, Cali. Grill when it's open, etc...)...the whammy's on those who don't want to use the ease of technology and would rather wait the 7 hours to call in...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I don't know what ur talking about, but dining reservations have always been open on midnight on the 180 day mark online for at least the past 4 years I've made ADRs (prime-time dinner hrs. and locations i.e.: Be Our Guest, Royal Table, Cali. Grill when it's open, etc...)...the whammy's on those who don't want to use the ease of technology and would rather wait the 7 hours to call in...

The computer system is not supposed to make that flip until 6am ET- one hour prior to the phones opening. I've done it 4x since 2010 and even at 5:59am it will tell me that I'm outside of the 180 day window. I don't think anyone is shunning technology...I just think the majority of us have found that the website will not permit booking at 12am.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I tried anytime the 2 days we're going to be at the Magic Kingdom. I guess I should have known to call 10 days out from the 180 days? There's so much information out there I missed this somehow. Oh well. I'm not going to waste my time standing in line trying to walk-in. Maybe next time.

A lot can happen in 180 days...i.e. many people cancel. There are also a ton of ADR hoarders out there, so it's very common for spots to open up. Of course, you need to be flexible with your day and time, but you never know what may come up. I like just searching for "dinner" if everything is booked up just b/c the earliest and latest seatings won't show if you pick a specific time. Still- those last few weeks before travel seem to be the best time to stalk the site as people are finalizing plans (i.e. dropping what they don't need), canceling trips, etc. It really is the hardest ADR to get right now and will likely require a bit of stalking, but it can be done.

 

[Tom 55]

I'm normally not one to complain, I haven't been to WDW since 1997, so there are many dining choices that we haven't had yet. I'm staying on property and went to make my reservations at Be Our Guest for dinner 180 days out as was recommended to me. At 6:22am already all reservations were booked online and after making a quick phone call I discovered there were no tables available. How on EARTH is that possible. It's my understanding there is quite a bit of seating here and find it hard to believe that EVERYTHING was reserved in less than an hour for an entire day in October. Do they hold spots for special people or something? I don't get it. It's really disappointing.

When you set your reservations 180 days ahead you can book for you whole trip. So people who are coming a few days before you already made there reservations by the time you reached your 180. Change your plans to use this information. Look for a reservation a few days after your first day there.

 

[wdwstateofmind]

The computer system is not supposed to make that flip until 6am ET- one hour prior to the phones opening. I've done it 4x since 2010 and even at 5:59am it will tell me that I'm outside of the 180 day window. I don't think anyone is shunning technology...I just think the majority of us have found that the website will not permit booking at 12am.

I don't know what to tell you then...I do it at midnight every year at the mark. I even got Be Our Guest at like 6:30 PM this mid-May on a weekend night (I wouldn't have stayed up if it didn't work the other years). The e-mail confirming it does not get sent until 6:00 AM, but if you try to book another online by logging off afterwards, ur reservation time would now not be offered so I assume it books the reservation...I could only suggest maybe for your next trip to stay up and see if it works for you.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

A lot of people heading down in October seem to be having a hard time getting reservations. I wasn't able to get reservations in September until I "accidently" increased the size of my party and then magically their was plenty of available times...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I don't know what to tell you then...I do it at midnight every year at the mark. I even got Be Our Guest at like 6:30 PM this mid-May on a weekend night (I wouldn't have stayed up if it didn't work the other years)...I could only suggest maybe for your next trip to stay up and see if it works for you.

Trust me- I think most of us are envious that it's worked like this for you. Even the travel agents I've spoken to have given me a firm 6am for online booking. Still... every trip, I try at midnight just in case (even on multiple computers) and every trip- nothing before 6am. Actually, 5am for me since I'm central time.

 

[wdwstateofmind]

Trust me- I think most of us are envious that it's worked like this for you. Even the travel agents I've spoken to have given me a firm 6am for online booking. Still... every trip, I try at midnight just in case (even on multiple computers) and every trip- nothing before 6am. Actually, 5am for me since I'm central time.

Boggling...I'm trying my hardest to give ya some proof, but the e-mails don't give you the time the reservation was placed (but like I said, it's my yearly thing, I like to brag to the lady when she wakes up about where we're eating)...maybe it's something they changed recently? Maybe it has to do with the same time zones (I know that's a stretch)? Maybe my Firefox has an add-on that blocks some special script from running that Disney just happens to use, thus not blocking me? I dunno, but I wanna know now!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Trust me- I think most of us are envious that it's worked like this for you. Even the travel agents I've spoken to have given me a firm 6am for online booking. Still... every trip, I try at midnight just in case (even on multiple computers) and every trip- nothing before 6am. Actually, 5am for me since I'm central time.

And wouldn't midnight be so much more convenient? Here in the Mountain time zone, 10:00 PM is much more manageable for me than 4:00 AM. I'll try my hand at midnight next week, then when it doesn't work I'll set my alarm ...

 

[wdwstateofmind]

I just read if you have linked accounts with some disney programs they give you a 180 + 10 days to reserve unless I've read this wrong or maybe it has nothing to do with it. It could explain being able to do it this year, but it does not explain doing it other years as the My Disney Experience didn't exist in 2012 (partially), 2011, 2010, and 2009 when I was also able to do midnight ADRs.

via Mousesavers, "If you are staying on Disney property, link your room or package reservation to your account. Log in and go to My Disney Experience at the upper right. Use the pull down menu to select My Reservations and follow the directions from there. The purpose of linking your account is so that you’ll qualify to book Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) for 180 + 10 days from your arrival date."

 

[Sweet Melissa]

All that means is that you can book meals for the first ten days of your vacation at the 180 day mark, not that you can book at 190 days out.

I'm flummoxed by these midnight bookings. Unless maybe there's a flaw in whatever method you use to calculate back 180 days? I know some of the countdown apps mis-count. Maybe you're booking at midnight 179 days out?

 

[jmorri26]

As for the midnight bookings, I haven't done it personally, but last time I called and made an ADR I mentioned BOG and the CM hint hinted that "the system is glitchy...and sometimes rolls over at Midnight. You just never know when" So take that for what you will.

And for our upcoming trip I called the minute the phones opened 180 days out with a reservation so I could book anytime during our trip. I said this on another board, but the CM was showing in the system 8 days out from then, so over a week before general public could book online/call, it was over half booked. Same deal, but more booked, as you backed up. She said people with room reservations call and will book it every night of their trip and some actually go every night just because they can and some wait til it gets closer and they finalize plans and cancel the ones they don't want. Lame, huh? So by the time you go at 6am on the dot, waking up early 180 days out to book, there's nothing left. I don't mind that you can book before the public if you have a reservation already, but I think it's crazy they don't limit the reservations per location when linked to a reservation like that. It's not fair.

 

[71dsp]

Since when? Dining phone lines open at 7:00 AM Eastern, and for as long as online reservations have existed, those bookings have opened at 6:00 AM Eastern. When did they change the opening period to midnight?

AFAIK they have not. I tried a few minutes before 6am EDT online and was not able to get reservations. Waited until a minute or so after 6am, and I was able to book Nine Dragons and Yachtsman.

I tried calling just before 7 to do the other ADRs and got a recording that the reservation line wasn't open yet. Called a few minutes later and was able to get through with only a 1 or 2 minute wait.