Have alternate dates and restaurants in mind as back ups. Assuming you are staying on property, start with your hardest to get ADRs and work from the last day forward.
I was doing ADRs for 7 and had a very difficult time getting what I wanted. It took me about 10 days of checking back to more or less get my desired ADRs.
Good luck.
oh wow - ok!
Did you log on exactly at 6am? I wonder if that time is published to those not “in the know”?
I think maybe I read this morning that people were having having trouble until 6:30am - it sounded like maybe the system was down.
Yes - I’m going to try my Christmas Day dinner first, then Christmas Eve… then everything else…
Glad to know you got at least some of what you sort of wanted?
I was on the site at 6 a.m. Eastern, 3 a.m. my time. It was working. I got Be Our Guest which was on 60+8. I got Chef Mickey’s on 60+4, I was able to get Biergarten, Spice Road Table, Tony’s Town Square. It took me over a week to get H&V, I had to split our group to get HBD after several days. So far I have The Plaza for only 4 out of 7 of us. On my ADR day I could not get The Plaza on 60+ 3, + 7 or 60+9.
We’re departing Disney on 20 December. Split stay. So my experience is not helpful likely since you’re interested in Christmas day particularly.
I had overthought dinners because most of our favorite restaurants are closed. Finally decided on Kona for our arrival supper. I didn’t get on line until about 8 am central time and 5 pm was still available.
As we’re at AK on Friday, I decided to do any Yak and Yeti available when our next ADR window opened. But I completely forgot yesterday that it was ADR day. I didn’t recall at all until just now reading your post. A quick search shows that I’m now going to be doing the reservation search for that Yak and Yeti meal any time on Friday 18 December.
I did mine recently, was logged in right at 5 am CST (6 am EST) and was able to start right away. I had 6 ADRs to make and only got 3 of what I actually wanted. Luckily I had a list in order, and a backup time or backup place (sometimes I had 2 backups) right under each ADR in case that one was not available. I was glad I did that because I ended up with a different plan but I think it’s actually (somehow!?) better than my original plan. For example, I wanted Liberty Tree tavern for dinner but none were available. I looked down on my list and I had written Be Our Guest 6:50, so I searched. Nothing available. Then I looked at my lists second backup (California Grill) and there was a 8:55 available, so I grabbed it. Had I not had backups and times written down I may have just starred blankly at the screen trying to think of a restaurant near by and wasted time. Good luck!
Me too Specifically forgot that all ADRs open for the days booked on the first day of your trip. (so much has changed I assumed that had changed too) Was looking for Y&Y for Sat or Sun, Dec. 19 or 20. Anyway off to the Finder!!
We’re a group of 4 - no availability.
Before I went to the reservation finder I checked for parties of two.
I did find two different times for parties of 2. So we have reservations for all of us. Pretty sure we’ll be a able to get the two closer together in the next two months.
Reservation finder has been successful in the past in locating times - when I’m unable to snag that reservation. Which is totally a difficulty on my part.
If we’re not successful in moving the times we have closer together, I’ll try reservation finder again. Maybe I’ll get a notification when I’m not heading into a dead zone. With no shoulder to pull off on.
Gah! Tomorrow morning is my morning for ADR’s!! It’s silly - but I’m so nervous! I’m scared to death that I won’t wake up - I set two alarms.
I’m sure I’ve lost my mind planning a trip over Christmas Day… but I already know wait times will be long… so I guess I’ll just accept it and hope I get some good dinner reservations!
I didn’t start looking for November until about 6 weeks out. Within 7-10 days I found everything I wanted just by checking several times per day. Of course a party of 2 is easier than a bigger party, but just keep looking! Also it seemed that today some later times were coming open to reflect the later hours at some parks.