How Late can I book?

[Gabs12231993]

Might be planning trip at end of June with a restaurant list of the following:

Chefs De France lunch (for Remy)
Via Napoli probably dinner (for Mickey pizza)
Boma dinner (somebody just wants to)

The dates probably will not be known early...what is the latest I can book these ADRs? (these are only the must-do's: I have others but that I could live without).

[Drince88]

It's really hard to tell. You could look online now at your tentative dates and see if there's still availability.

As soon as you're pretty sure of your dates (and your parents agree that they're pretty sure of the dates - didn't they pull a big switch on you last year?) - I'd book then - and then cancel/change them as plans firm up.

[Gabs12231993]

Good memory! Trouble is, they won't know if we're going until...June? And it could be anytime within a two-week period. I'm not booking for every day of the two weeks. I'm gonna check...

[GusMan]

I agree with Drince but keep in mind that the closer you get to June, and the more your dates change, the chances of getting what you want dining-wise is going to go down drasticly. Those who are making the actual travel arrangements need to fully understand that.

On a related note - if you dont have your travel or dining arrangements solidified - don't bother with the dining plan. It will become a lesson in frustration.

Last minute travel may be fine for many destinations, but now is the time to get things in place for a Disney trip. Waiting much longer means that you will probably pay a premium for a room (even off-site) and TS dining options may become limited.

[Gabs12231993]

DDP is not an option, because a certain member of our party has stayed at the CBR, and apparently it was so bad, he swore never to stay on-property again. This was with a wife and 18 month old in 95'.

Thus, offsite-no DDP.

And tell him (he being the one paying for it) that he should decide more than a month before. He doesn't listen.

[GusMan]

A 16 year old grudge. Interesting. Things obviously have changed since then. But to each their own.
I guess if they are the ones who are paying for it, it is completely up to them as to how they want to coordinate things with meals, lodging, etc.
Just do what you can to help and hopefully things will fall into place.

[Drince88]

So long as he knows that the longer he waits, the less the chance of getting the restaurants that are desired, then I'm not sure there's much more you can do. If those are restaurants you really want to eat at, you may just have to wait until you're in a position to pay for your own vacation to WDW and actually PLAN it, if that's just not the way the 'rents roll.

<<Pulling my rocking chair closer to the computer... Maybe you can ask to sit down with him (them?) and understand why they are hesitant to commit, or understand the things that have to happen for the trip to happen (does someone need to wait to see if they are assigned to a big project at work to find out if they can take the time off then?) - and then also explain to them why you really would like to have a tentative idea to make some tentative plans now. There was a chart on MouseSavers I saw one time that identified when restaurants filled up - I'll see if I can find that again. It may not be current, but it might help you 'sell' your case for preliminary planning.

ETA: I found what I was looking for, but it was so out of date that it's worse than no information.

[danyoung]

Chefs De France lunch (for Remy)
Via Napoli probably dinner (for Mickey pizza)
Boma dinner (somebody just wants to)

I actually have an encouraging take on this. The restaurants you want and the times you want them don't really book up solid months in advance. So I think you have a better than average chance of getting what you want. But I'm with all the others here - book as soon as you possibly can, even if you just have some tentative dates. One good thing about the current Disney software is that if a restaurant that you want is booked solid, they'll suggest other restaurants in the area that do have openings.

Good luck!

[GusMan]

Agreed with Dan....
You can try to do walk-ups as well, but you may end up waiting a while. If you go the walk-up route, try eating early, late, or during the middle of the afternoon.

An example, we were told 30 mins wait for a late Boma dinner, but ended up being just over 20 min wait. That may not sound like a lot, but considering that most TS eateries are going to take you around an hour seating to paying the bill, the wait time can add up to quite a bit of time not touring the parks.

[KJSJpipe]

Another thought is instead of doing an actual walk up, go to the Guest Services at the park you are in in the morning/afternoon and have them check availability (at any park) for that night. This is super easy for EPCOT since they usually have a board that will tell you if something is booked for the day or what kind of availability they have.

[Drince88]

Another thought is instead of doing an actual walk up, go to the Guest Services at the park you are in in the morning/afternoon and have them check availability (at any park) for that night. Or call from your cell phone (and for others staying onsite, you can also call from your room)

One time in the studios called about an hour before we wanted to eat - no problem. Another time I stopped by guest services there, made a reservation, walked to the restaurant, and their system wasn't updated with my reservation yet! But I wasn't treated as a walk up, which can put you slightly farther back in the line!

[tappenfeat]

Some of our best meals were last minute ressies made while in the parks. We had great luck with lunch time slots. Dinner ressies were harder to get into. The lunch menus also tend to be a bit cheaper, but similar as the dinner menu. Being spontaneous can work to your advantage sometimes.

[danyoung]

Recently I had a run of trips where I couldn't get into the Coral Reef for dinner. I finally decided that I'd try lunch, and had no problem at all getting a good time. So it seems to be the case that lunch rezzies are much easier to snag than dinner ones.

[KJSJpipe]

Or call from your cell phone (and for others staying onsite, you can also call from your room)

I forgot about that!! I actually did that a few years ago when the sky's opened and we had not planned on lunch since we had an early dinner ADR. I stood under an over hang and called, we ended up with a ressie at China in 15 minutes~Just enough time for the walk over! We enjoyed appetizers and drinks, by the time we were done it stopped raining.

[Gabs12231993]

Update: Our dates are June 28-30 ONLY. Epcot 28th, MK 29th, 30th TBA. So I'm going to call WDW Dine today because the online system appears to be down. Will post results.

[Gabs12231993]

Final ADR list:

28th: Les Chefs de France -1:10, Via Napoli 700
29: Boma 5:55, Tony's 12:50

All of these were extremely easy to get!

[Guardboy21]

well, i booked my vacation 18 days in advance, and the next day, aka 17 days, i did all of my dining reservations. I pretty much was able to get reservations for restaurants and the timing as well except for a few restaurants where i had to adjust the time

[danyoung]

I can just about guarantee that at 17 days out you did not have any reservations for Le Cellier, Coral Reef, California Grill, Cinderella's Banquet Hall (or whatever they're calling it these days). You can always eat somewhere, but during the busy times of year it gets pretty tough to get in to the more popular places.

[TinaMouse]

Recently I had a run of trips where I couldn't get into the Coral Reef for dinner. I finally decided that I'd try lunch, and had no problem at all getting a good time. So it seems to be the case that lunch rezzies are much easier to snag than dinner ones.

Yes, I find this is true too. Most of the places have a lunch and a dinner menu. Lunch being cheaper, you would the ressies would go first. My theory is because so many are on the DDP, they want to get the best "bang" for the buck and go at the more expensive dinner time. I PREFER having a quieter, longer, heavier sit-down lunch and then a qs or snack on the go for dinner. So it works best for me to go there during lunches for me. Bonus: less tip to pay :) (even if on DDP!)

[danyoung]

You may be right about the dining plan thing. But for me, I don't want to eat a heavy lunch. I want to eat light and then have room for a serious, wine filled dinner!

[Cheshire Figment]

The system will allow reservation to be made as long as it is more than two hours to the desired time. However, the possibility of available reservations may be fairly low that close.

[Drince88]

The system will allow reservation to be made as long as it is more than two hours to the desired time. However, the possibility of available reservations may be fairly low that close.

Wow. I've made ADRs 'right before'. Once stopping at the booth in the Studios, then walking directly over to Prime Time. Another time calling from the phone inbetween 'short' Millionaire show breaks to eat during the long one. (Obviously, this was a while ago.) On that one we actually heard someone else calling to get lunch ADRs at Sci Fi and thought that sounded like a good idea, so we called to make ADRs for Mama Melroses (didn't want to seem stalkery!) Mama M's was taking walk ups at that point - but I'm not 100% positive that Prime Time was.

[TinaMouse]

I've also had experiences where I have done a walk-up and they said, "no availability." Then we've called the wdw-dine line and they've had something within 15 minutes. Granted, this was before all of the new changes. I think it's one of those "your mileage may vary" things.