BB dining reservations. Frustrating!

[disneyerin]

Since 1987 The Blue Bayou was part of all our Disneyland trips. My husband and I ate there the night he proposed and it has been a MUST do every trip after that. We would never need to worry about getting a reservation there. There was no rushing to make it the second it dropped. No worrying that we might not be able to eat there on the day we wanted. It became an integral part of feeling the magic at Disneyland.
But, I knew this time would be different so I prepared.
I've been preparing for practically 6 months. I've read every post there is about how to jump on reservations the moment they drop. I've been practicing at 3am and 6am for a week. I've been trouble shooting every possible scenario in my mind in case things hit a bump.
When 5:59am hit this morning I was ready.
I had gotten in to the reservation process far enough so that when I saw that October 17th date pop up I was ready to hit the "Search times" button.
6am....no October 17th. 6:01am no October 17th. I kept trying until 6:10am, refreshing like every 5 seconds. No October 17th. So I closed out of the website and was going to try later but decided to log back on and try one more time. I logged back on. October 17th was there and everything was gone. I'm sure it was there at 6am but for some reason I had to completely log off the website and log back on to refresh. Refreshing the normal way did not work.
I tried for Olgas next and everything was gone.
I've signed up for two separate dining alerts and I'm just sitting here right now staring off into space. After 50 years of going to Disneyland it has never stopped being magical. Preparing was magical too; always fun and mostly effortless. Even in 2018 I had absolutely no problem getting a BB reservation for the exact time I wanted. I cannot believe how much that has changed just over the past 4 years. This isn't fun. There is no magic in this.

 

[elenex]

That's probably because August has 31 days, thus October 17th is 61 days away. Try again tomorrow morning.

 

[katyringo]

17th opens tomorrow!

 

[disneyerin]

17th opens tomorrow!

 

[PrincessTuanTuan]

I am not a Disney expert. I have just been researching a lot and just starting making reservations for our October trip. At 60 days I got an Oga's reservation, but couldn't get a Bibbidi hair appointment for my daughter because the date wasn't available. I've checked for days and it didn't show the date. Last night I checked again and finally the date dropped plus more past my date. It said there were no times. I was bummed, I thought I missed my daughters only chance. This morning I got on to check and there were several times available. I'm wondering if the system dropped the date to prepare to offer times. I could be wrong, but I would keep checking to see if more times become available.

 

[disneyerin]

I am not a Disney expert. I have just been researching a lot and just starting making reservations for our October trip. At 60 days I got an Oga's reservation, but couldn't get a Bibbidi hair appointment for my daughter because the date wasn't available. I've checked for days and it didn't show the date. Last night I checked again and finally the date dropped plus more past my date. It said there were no times. I was bummed, I thought I missed my daughters only chance. This morning I got on to check and there were several times available. I'm wondering if the system dropped the date to prepare to offer times. I could be wrong, but I would keep checking to see if more times become available.

I'm so happy for you! I know that when it came to my daughter it was 10 times more upsetting to not get an experience for her than it was not getting one for me.

 

[disneyerin]

I am not a Disney expert. I have just been researching a lot and just starting making reservations for our October trip. At 60 days I got an Oga's reservation, but couldn't get a Bibbidi hair appointment for my daughter because the date wasn't available. I've checked for days and it didn't show the date. Last night I checked again and finally the date dropped plus more past my date. It said there were no times. I was bummed, I thought I missed my daughters only chance. This morning I got on to check and there were several times available. I'm wondering if the system dropped the date to prepare to offer times. I could be wrong, but I would keep checking to see if more times become available.

I'm so happy for you!
I know that when it came to my daughter it was 10 times more upsetting to not get an experience for her than it was not getting one for me.

 

[AJA55]

Good luck tomorrow disneyerin!

 

[katyringo]

For what it's worth I'm going on day 6 of booking in a row and I could have gotten blue bayou every time if I wanted. This morning things opened up around 3am but every other morning I just clicked on the time I wanted in the app right at 6am and had many to choose from. I think if your ready to go you will be fine!

 

[soniam]

Better a daily early, than a day late.

 

[elenex]

Good luck this morning Erin! My 60-day window is approaching and in my test runs, at 6am pst I've seen several BB times available.

 

[disneyerin]

Good luck this morning Erin! My 60-day window is approaching and in my test runs, at 6am pst I've seen several BB times available.

You guys are so awesome!
It's 3:45am and I just got up. For the next 2 hours I will be watching re-runs of Cheers while munching on TUMS.

 

[katyringo]

You guys are so awesome!
It's 3:45am and I just got up. For the next 2 hours I will be watching re-runs of Cheers while munching on TUMS.

Hey! Go to the website and try to book. They are open for me!

 

[disneyerin]

I think next time I'll take a Valium first...

Story Time:
I was so ready. Staring at “5:59” on my screen..…staring…staring….6:00! BAM!
TWO CHOICES!
I pick one
I GOT IN!!
My heart is going a mile a minute. It wasn’t my ideal choice but I GOT ONE!
I filled in all the information, re-checked it 3 times.
Clicked the button to confirm it.
Message comes up “Verifying information”
Then a message saying that they will be sending confirmation to my email. Took a picture on my phone (I’m so smart).
It’s done, it’s done, it’s done.
I go to my email with a wide grin on my face and wait.
I’m not getting anything. That’s OK, typical email speed.
A minute goes by.
No worries, it’ll happen.
Decide to go back to the reservation page. Yep, everything still looks good.
Casually scrolled further down.
Oh, a little box they would like me to check, something about an agreement. I’ll do it now.
Button lights up…..”Reserve”. It’s asking me to press it…..because for some reason it’s important to actually reserve the time.
Clicked it. I think you all know what message I got when I did.

I think I went through all the stages of grief within 20 seconds. I know they don’t end in ‘Panic’ but I did.

And then.
I had signed up yesterday (also in a panic) for Blue Bayou notifications. I had forgotten that I had.
Within the next 60 seconds I had 12 notifications of times that had just opened up. It’s like they started pouring down from the sky. For the next 5 minutes it was me grabbing the first opening, starting to fill out the info, getting another notification for an even better time, jumping out of the one I was making and starting to fill in the info for the new one.
It was like the episode of I Love Lucy where she is stuffing chocolates in her mouth as fast as possible before they fall off the conveyor belt.

Then, “Well I’ll be darn”. My number one choice became available. Actually, my first, second and third choices had all become available.
Jumped on my first choice, remembered to click the box, and miracles of miracles.

The notifications just kept coming and coming. There must have been 30 cancellations within the first hour. Each notification felt like someone was pouring half a cup of pixie dust on my head.

So, if there is a takeaway from my experience it is this:
If you are feeling stressed about getting the dining reservation you want, SIGN UP FOR NOTIFICATIONS!

And just a heads up. I signed up with two vendors. Both begin with ‘Mouse’. I won’t name the second one, but Mouse Watchers has been amazing. And, it’s the only one of the two that has been notifying me.
Not a peep from the other.
Of course, with my track record I probably gave them an expired credit card number by mistake.

I did it!

And thank you all SO MUCH for all your encouragement! It helped a lot!

 

[Jrog92]

Hey! Go to the website and try to book. They are open for me!

What time did they open for you?

 

[katyringo]

What time did they open for you?

It was something between 3-5am

 

[Jrog92]

I think next time I'll take a Valium first...

Story Time:
I was so ready. Staring at “5:59” on my screen..…staring…staring….6:00! BAM!
TWO CHOICES!
I pick one
I GOT IN!!
My heart is going a mile a minute. It wasn’t my ideal choice but I GOT ONE!
I filled in all the information, re-checked it 3 times.
Clicked the button to confirm it.
Message comes up “Verifying information”
Then a message saying that they will be sending confirmation to my email. Took a picture on my phone (I’m so smart).
It’s done, it’s done, it’s done.
I go to my email with a wide grin on my face and wait.
I’m not getting anything. That’s OK, typical email speed.
A minute goes by.
No worries, it’ll happen.
Decide to go back to the reservation page. Yep, everything still looks good.
Casually scrolled further down.
Oh, a little box they would like me to check, something about an agreement. I’ll do it now.
Button lights up…..”Reserve”. It’s asking me to press it…..because for some reason it’s important to actually reserve the time.
Clicked it. I think you all know what message I got when I did.

I think I went through all the stages of grief within 20 seconds. I know they don’t end in ‘Panic’ but I did.

And then.
I had signed up yesterday (also in a panic) for Blue Bayou notifications. I had forgotten that I had.
Within the next 60 seconds I had 12 notifications of times that had just opened up. It’s like they started pouring down from the sky. For the next 5 minutes it was me grabbing the first opening, starting to fill out the info, getting another notification for an even better time, jumping out of the one I was making and starting to fill in the info for the new one.
It was like the episode of I Love Lucy where she is stuffing chocolates in her mouth as fast as possible before they fall off the conveyor belt.

Then, “Well I’ll be darn”. My number one choice became available. Actually, my first, second and third choices had all become available.
Jumped on my first choice, remembered to click the box, and miracles of miracles.

The notifications just kept coming and coming. There must have been 30 cancellations within the first hour. Each notification felt like someone was pouring half a cup of pixie dust on my head.

So, if there is a takeaway from my experience it is this:
If you are feeling stressed about getting the dining reservation you want, SIGN UP FOR NOTIFICATIONS!

And just a heads up. I signed up with two vendors. Both begin with ‘Mouse’. I won’t name the second one, but Mouse Watchers has been amazing. And, it’s the only one of the two that has been notifying me.
Not a peep from the other.
Of course, with my track record I probably gave them an expired credit card number by mistake.

I did it!

And thank you all SO MUCH for all your encouragement! It helped a lot!

What time did the reservations open for you? Sounds like 6am, so it's totally weird they were spotted earlier (see above)! Curious if you were on the app or website?

 

[disneyerin]

What time did the reservations open for you? Sounds like 6am, so it's totally weird they were spotted earlier (see above)! Curious if you were on the app or website?

Actually I didn't try until the clock hit 6am. It could have been available before that but I never checked.

 

[julesann]

I don't see how to get BB F! on the App (just on the website)...can someone tell me where to look in the App for this. Thank you.

 

[BecBennett]

I don't see how to get BB F! on the App (just on the website)...can someone tell me where to look in the App for this. Thank you.

I click the search button down the bottom and type fantasmic in, then click on fantasmic dining packages. The option to reserve is on that page.