We have a trip planned to DL 12/16-12/21. We are staying at the DLH. This will be our 5th trip to DL over the past 15 years and we really love the California parks. We also go to WDW quite a bit as well.
My issue is the availability of ADRs for table service restaurants at Downtown Disney and in the parks. I’ve been checking availability generally over the next 60 days (for practice purposes) and very few options are coming up. Does anyone know whether the restaurants are not operating at full capacity? For example, there are no ADRs available for Blue Bayou for the next 60days that I could find even though the restaurant is listed as open. Any strategies to secure bookings? Hoping that this clears up before my December trip.
Prior to June 15th they were operating at the 35% capacity cap put in place and I think they’ve been gradually opening it up to the full 100%.
However, right now there are people looking for reservations as soon as Aug 8th that have been trying and checking daily and nothing has yet been available even when it’s supposed to drop at 3am PST (this isn’t necessarily new as in prior to Covid this would be commonplace for DLR when there’s a change of season coming i.e. they hadn’t yet announced a seasonal overlay or dining options with it so they didn’t get any reservation availability scheduled). Some have even called in to confirm and right now there’s nothing at the resort scheduled past Aug 7th.
In my personal opinion it’s pointing to perhaps a rumored return of Fantasmic! which has dining packages so they are waiting to iron out the staffing and other things needed to get the reservations available to schedule. Also, I see you’re staying at DLH (fantastic choice btw!) and they always hold back a selection of ADRs for onsite hotel guests (and they’ll do it as late as the day before the reservation so that off-site guests only get a crack at them day of) so when dining opens up for your dates, I would call in to the line for it (not sure if it’s a separate number or not to the general dining number) and they’ll be able to set you up! It feels like they have a pretty good system with this that allows on-site guests a lot of flexibility close to their trip and many a time we find that there is good selection of same day ADRs at DLR (probably because these don’t nearly all get booked up in non-peak seasons).
I just got a reservation for Oga’s and Blue Bayou for August 30. Two days ago, reservations were not open for that day. I am not shocked you can’t find anything that far out. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to when things come available that I can see. Crazy making for sure! I also want a couple of reservations for November. I should probably set a calendar reminder or I’ll forget!
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Someone on chat is reporting they finally got a Blue Bayou ADR for 8/13 that they’ve been checking for so it looks like all of a sudden there is availability for Aug. that wasn’t there before!! And maybe even all the way up to close to 60 days out?? (Since I see @Julianne_fki you got some 8/30 ADRs).
ETA: The moral of the story is that this is quite common at DLR and can sometimes (ok a lot of times) be unpredictable.
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Thanks to both of you. As I get closer to the 60 days before my trip, I may call the DLH concierge to see if he/she can secure my family some table service reservations. It would be great if onsite hotel guests got some sort of availability to the ADRs.
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They do! You just have to make them through the hotel CMs instead of dining or online.
The only issue you may face at 60 days ahead is the hotel CMs can’t book anything for anyone if the schedule for the restaurant isn’t available. But keep checking back and be assured that even if the schedule does get added randomly and availability online is sparse or gone quickly, by being a hotel guest you’ll have a different less fought after pool of reservations to go after 
Hi, were you able to book these reservations online/thru the app or did you have to call?