Unusually Difficult Time Getting ADRs?

[jayhjay]

I am curious if my experiences have been typical, but we are having an awful time trying to get ADRs. We are staying offsite at the Swan, so we haven't been able to do 60+10, but we are getting online on the stroke of 6 am and finding nothing available. I am not talking about the highest or most in demand restaurants, these are places we have never struggled to make reservations. Places seem to be fully booked already before we even get online with on-site folks.

We have stayed offsite in the past and never had anything even vaguely approaching this difficulty. We are finding virtually nothing available 60 days out. Any chance I'm doing something wrong or there are better ways to approach this? We have utilized open table as much as possible where applicable. Is it just too many people with too few places open? Or something else I can be trying? Thanks!

 

[sewingmolly]

I'm staying on property and this morning was my day to book ADRs for the first part of my split stay. I got one of the 7 reservations that I wanted at an acceptable time. I can not warn people enough about doing a split stay if you care at all about dining. I am so disappointed. I didn't expect to get Space 220 or Olga's, but I thought that I would be able to get Tiffins and Biergarten at times that would work for us. I was trying to book a party of 3.

 

[FSU Girl]

Ya I’m staying on site with a split stay and only got one of the restaurants I wanted. Was able to pick up a second a few days later someone dropped but everything else I’m still looking for. Doesn’t help I want everything super hard to get lol

 

[jjb1974]

Watching the reservations 10 to 2 days out from your arrival is becoming more and more important as I believe people are hoarding reservations and not dropping them until very close to their vacation as they finalize their plans. This is happening on both coasts from my experience and friends of mine as well. For WDW, here's a shoutout to Len's reservation finder over at touringplans.com. I know how much it stinks to not have anything concrete and feel like you have no plans, but things will open up. Cold comfort for people with slight anxiety issues, but best we can all do I think.

 

[jayhjay]

OK, so it is clearly not just us who are having trouble. I am not even trying for particularly difficult reservations, it just seems like everything is booked up before the 60 day window even opens.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We're doing a short on-site stay in May so I was trying to book one reservation each for days 60+1 and 60+2 - I got one out of the two we wanted, granted Space 220 lounge was the one we didn't get, and I pretty much assumed that would be the case. I've checked multiple times a day since then and nothing has come up. I will say, I was browsing around and there seemed to be a lot of good options available for things that I think are typically popular - Ohana breakfast, Topolino's dinner, California Grill. I'm hoping maybe a Space 220 will open up with a last minute cancellation once we're there.

 

[flipflopmom]

Someone mentioned weird hours on restaurants week of June 5 (Sunday). On the 5th, I do no see any Epcot restaurants open for dinner- granted I did not check them all but the ones I clicked on only had lunch listed for that day. MK restaurants all appear to be closing at 6pm on the 5 and 6th, which is as far out as I can see. I have been poking around at availability since we arrive on the 18th. Is this theme of less dining hours all week?

 

[Her Dotness]

Discouraging though it is, nothing at all available is typical these days.

It can, I think, be due to the delightful experience Disney tech has always been.

A factor, particularly now that booking for the busiest season (late spring through summer) is approaching, could be the glut of people desperate to return after a year or two of Disney starvation.

Try at various times during the day if possible, particularly mid-morning or afternoon ET. We've sometimes had better luck very late at night and first thing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

 

[Mutant]

We are staying offsite at the Swan, so we haven't been able to do 60+10

Just an FYI. You can book 60+10 if you’re staying at the Swan, just not online, you have to call (Disney IT glitch). The hold times are ridiculous though. I called yesterday for my 60+10 stay at the Swan and was able to book breakfast for 8 at Topolinos and at CRT at the end of my trip! 4 hours on hold though…

 

[Chiasgirl]

Just an FYI. You can book 60+10 if you’re staying at the Swan, just not online, you have to call (Disney IT glitch). The hold times are ridiculous though. I called yesterday for my 60+10 stay at the Swan and was able to book breakfast for 8 at Topolinos and at CRT at the end of my trip! 4 hours on hold though…

We are staying at the Swan and were able to make ADRs at 60+10. Do make sure that your hotel reservation is in My Disney Experience. It was a bit glitchy and I had the best success by using the add dining (5th step?) button on the first page after logging in to my account. Hope that makes sense! This was just a couple of weeks ago.

 

[poofu02]

I also ran into issues....

 

[LDod]

Doing a split stay onsite beginning 6/13. Had 2 people with different accounts all ready with a plan for 1st bookings by 5:30 am this morning— was pretty shocked that we could get nothing for Sanaa or Yak & Yeti for 1st portion of our trip. We pivoted and secured a Boma & Tiffins for decent times. Only needed to do a split party for our group of 7 at Tiffins across the 3 reservations we booked. Realizing we will have to be very flexible with plans and open to changing as things open up closer to travel.

I have been surprised to see that now in the late morning there is more availability where there was none at 6am.

Having 2 ppl ready to book smaller parties at the same time was helpful. Best of luck!

 

[k5xs]

We’ve been trying ever since our window opened with minimal success.

It would be interesting to know at what capacity the restaurants are operating, as it might be reduced due to staffing constraints, but maybe not. But if you compound any reduction at all in staffing with wall-to-wall attendance, it seems you’d have a formula for difficult ADR availability.

 

[Disneyonthe5]

Our window opened up this morning for Hollywood Studios. Had everyone in my family (7 of us) on line at 5am to get somewhere for lunch. We were going for tables of 4. What a joke! Only place available was Melrose. Anyone suggest a quick service place for lunch at Hollywood Studio?

 

[Smugpugmug]

I think part of the reason why ADRs are hard to come by is because of capacity. On my last trip I was able to get everything I wanted except for Whispering Canyon. The place was booked solid until the day before where I was able to grab a spot. When I went in however, half of the tables were empty. Some of these restaurants straight up do not have enough staff for them to operate.

Our window opened up this morning for Hollywood Studios. Had everyone in my family (7 of us) on line at 5am to get somewhere for lunch. We were going for tables of 4. What a joke! Only place available was Melrose. Anyone suggest a quick service place for lunch at Hollywood Studio?

ABC Commissary is solid. It's indoors with air conditioning (which automatically wins in my eyes as places with Woody's have limited seating with no shade) and the food is really good.

 

[LDod]

Our window opened up this morning for Hollywood Studios. Had everyone in my family (7 of us) on line at 5am to get somewhere for lunch. We were going for tables of 4. What a joke! Only place available was Melrose. Anyone suggest a quick service place for lunch at Hollywood Studio?

Prime Time Hollywood&Vine and Brown Derby all have availability right now (just checked) if you split your party — BD could even keep your 7 together.

I’m also booking for 7 and am feeling the “what a joke” vibe intensely right now! Good luck!

 

[Disneyonthe5]

I saw saw times in late afternoon but that’s too late for lunch with little ones! Thanks for checking though!

 

[MississippiMom]

Our window opened up this morning for Hollywood Studios. Had everyone in my family (7 of us) on line at 5am to get somewhere for lunch. We were going for tables of 4. What a joke! Only place available was Melrose. Anyone suggest a quick service place for lunch at Hollywood Studio?

We are a family of 6 adults. I have been searching for a lunch option at Hollywood Studios for the past three days. There are three that pop up for us, but we aren't interested - Hollywood & Vine, The Brown Derby and Mama Melrose's. I did discover that if we split to 4 & 2, we can get PrimeTime Cafe and that is tempting, but the whole point is to be together. (It will be our youngest's 20th birthday weekend.)

We, too, would like quick service recommendations at Hollywood Studios.

 

[LDod]

We are a family of 6 adults. I have been searching for a lunch option at Hollywood Studios for the past three days. There are three that pop up for us, but we aren't interested - Hollywood & Vine, The Brown Derby and Mama Melrose's. I did discover that if we split to 4 & 2, we can get PrimeTime Cafe and that is tempting, but the whole point is to be together. (It will be our youngest's 20th birthday weekend.)

We, too, would like quick service recommendations at Hollywood Studios.

Many people in other threads here have said they’ve been successful booking the 2 reservations and then arriving 15-30 mins before the reservation to politely request being seated together and/or nearby. Not fool proof, but it sounds like folks have found pretty good luck with this approach.