Dining Reservations Strategy

[Psymonds]

So, Since my family will care, (once we are there, but probably not until the week before)

I'm planning dining reservations for our trip in early July ("but why go then?" you ask, it's a long and perilous story). I want to write out my priority list because I'll be doing this at 2:45 am my time... (and maybe from a hotel room on a business trip)

I have a list of dining I want to do and maybe one evening package. Do you prioritize your reservations when your booking window first opens?

I'm thinking:

1. Evening Fireworks package on prime day we are there, if availalbe
   1. backup evening package
2. High priority restaurants based on demand (Daughter might want CRT late in trip)
3. Restaurants in order on trip by day of trip, going first to last.
   1. does dinner matter over lunch? should I book all my dinners first?

Does anyone else go through a list?

 

[Psymonds]

So, Since my family will care, (once we are there, but probably not until the week before)

I'm planning dining reservations for our trip in early July ("but why go then?" you ask, it's a long and perilous story). I want to write out my priority list because I'll be doing this at 2:45 am my time... (and maybe from a hotel room on a business trip)

I have a list of dining I want to do and maybe one evening package. Do you prioritize your reservations when your booking window first opens?

I'm thinking:

1. Evening Fireworks package on prime day we are there, if available
   1. backup evening package
2. High priority restaurants based on demand (Daughter might want CRT late in trip)
3. Restaurants in order on trip by day of trip, going first to last.
   1. does dinner matter over lunch? should I book all my dinners first?

Does anyone else go through a list?

I guess I should probably give more specifics to get better advice.

Generally order:
Group 1, end when I get one
60+2 Fireworks on major holiday Epcot
60+1 Fireworks package alternative 1 - MK
60+5 Fireworks Package alternative 2 - MK
60+5 CRT (if no fireworks)
60+2 Rose and Crown non fireworks if not above


60+1 Skipper Canteen
60+2 Biergarten
60+3 Dine in or 50's prime time
60+4 Sanaa
60+5 skipper canteen if not above
60+6 whichever of dine in or prime time we did not get on +3

 

[Psymonds]

I guess I should probably give more specifics to get better advice.

Generally order:
Group 1, end when I get one
60+2 Fireworks on major holiday Epcot
60+1 Fireworks package alternative 1 - MK
60+5 Fireworks Package alternative 2 - MK
60+5 CRT (if no fireworks)
60+2 Rose and Crown non fireworks if not above


60+1 Skipper Canteen
60+2 Biergarten
60+3 Dine in or 50's prime time
60+4 Sanaa
60+5 skipper canteen if not above
60+6 whichever of dine in or prime time we did not get on +3

wife has added Roundup Rodeo BBQ 60+3 or 60+6 to list

 

[shpooey]

In terms of difficult to get/in demand reservations that should be in group 2, I'd say Round Up should be on that list, and probably Sci Fi too. So I'd go for those before the rest of your reservations.

 

[Psymonds]

In terms of difficult to get/in demand reservations that should be in group 2, I'd say Round Up should be on that list, and probably Sci Fi too. So I'd go for those before the rest of your reservations.

Generally order:
Group 1, end when I get one
60+2 Fireworks on major holiday Epcot
60+1 Fireworks package alternative 1 - MK
60+5 Fireworks Package alternative 2 - MK
60+5 CRT (if no fireworks)
60+2 Rose and Crown non fireworks if not above

Group 2
Roundup Rodeo BBQ 60+3 or 60+6 to list
60+3 Dine in or 50's prime time
60+6 whichever of dine in or prime time we did not get on +3

group 3
60+1 Skipper Canteen
60+2 Biergarten
60+4 Sanaa
60+5 skipper canteen if not above

do you know if you can be logged into the same account on 2 computers to do reservations?

Debating the merits of waking up DS14 to help do this at 2:45am here on the west coast

 

[Psymonds]

Generally order:
Group 1, end when I get one
60+2 Fireworks on major holiday Epcot
60+1 Fireworks package alternative 1 - MK
60+5 Fireworks Package alternative 2 - MK
60+5 CRT (if no fireworks)
60+2 Rose and Crown non fireworks if not above

Group 2
Roundup Rodeo BBQ 60+3 or 60+6 to list
60+3 Dine in or 50's prime time
60+6 whichever of dine in or prime time we did not get on +3

group 3
60+1 Skipper Canteen
60+2 Biergarten
60+4 Sanaa
60+5 skipper canteen if not above

do you know if you can be logged into the same account on 2 computers to do reservations?

Debating the merits of waking up DS14 to help do this at 2:45am here on the west coast

OR ALTERNATIVELY should I log DS14 in on DW's account since she can "manage plans" too?

 

[PDXmouse]

I'm not necessarily the best to answer questions about what to prioritize as we don't go to Disney regularly. But I just got done booking our ADR's and here's what I did:

Prioritized the KNOWN hard to book ADR's like fireworks dining packages and dessert parties.
Then moved on to the harder ARD's.

We are at the Swan for 14 days so I put the harder to get reservations further out so I could book them at 10+8,9,10.

The morning of I had a tab open for every ADR I was trying to book. I pre-loaded the restaurant/event I wanted - with priority 1 in the first tab, priority 2 in the second tab, etc.

Then at 6 am I went through each tab, booked, and moved to the next tab.

I had a spreadsheet printed in front of me with each restaurant, date, and time I wanted, and checked them off as went along.

Good luck!

 

[cchevela1023]

I echo PDXMouse. #1 would be the fireworks/dessert packages. #2 would be roundup rodeo. I think you said 50's primetime so that SHOULD be ok, but I would have that kind of up there. Jungle cruise should be fine where you have it. I just checked MDE for my trip and several dining slots still available 4 days after my booking window opened.

Yes, you can have multiple devices logged in with same account - just make sure to have the CC on profile so you can reserve away

I used Chrome browser, opened incognito mode tab for each restaurant and had each restaurant loaded up ready to make ressie. Then just start going through the list.

I used this clock: https://clock.zone/ as it had milliseconds on it, and it really did work. I clicked reserve for Ohana as my priority and I still barely made it!

 

[Psymonds]

got everything but skipper canteen, which is:

"We were unable to check for available tables at this time. A problem may have occurred while looking for availability. Please ensure if you have a valid resort reservation, it is linked to your My Disney Experience account and try again."

some of the others I got this message initially then upon refresh (sometimes multiple refreshes) got times and booked.

MK fireworks package showed up at midnight but it was a mirage, couldn't actually book.

didn't get Epcot fireworks, but did get MK pre-party.

Thanks all for the help!