Hello all powerful and knowledgeable liners. We are 60 days out from our first WDW trip since February 2020 (and first ever DCL vacation), and things went somehow horribly wrong when I attempted to book our pre-cruise dining reservations today.
Right at 6am EST (12pm CET here in Amsterdam), I went to refresh all my pre-loaded tabs and they all went immediately to a white ACCESS DENIED message. I couldn’t access any of Disney World’s site. My iPhone app wouldn’t load either, it just spun for eternity. This is so frustrating.
After clearing our all my cache and cookies, the site finally loaded around 6:03. Then things got worse.
I wanted Topolino’s breakfast on April 28th. Nothing, only dinner reservations (we don’t want to do the dinner). How does anyone book breakfast here??
I then went to try for Beaches & Cream for April 28th lunch/dinner. Then at checkout, right as I hit ‘continue’ I then get an error message (‘error_code=500’ in the url) that my session has timed out and the reservation is released.
This error now happens every time I try to book anything on any of our pre-cruise dates. It’s the same on both my laptop and the app on my iPhone.
Not sure if the problem is Disney or me being in Amsterdam. I never had these problems on any of my pre-pandemic trips, even the one time I booked all my ADRs from Mexico.
Bottom line – I can’t book anything!! Any tips are greatly appreciated!!
ETA update: I am able to book now using my phone data, but still not able to on the wifi at my location.
Tuesdays are the day Disney’s tech seem to be most likely go bonkers. Fairly consistently, when things go wrong, it is on Tuesday…probably because that is the day they likely do updates and such.
I would keep trying. They usually get it resolved within a couple hours or so.
Ok, an update. And i’d like to add that I am really NOT a tech person
It’s some combination of disney’s site and the wifi i am on. I am able to book now using my phone data, but still not able to on the wifi at my location. But very strange that things went awry right at 6am.
Now I would just like to know how people snag Topolino’s character breakfast reservations. I am seeing only dinner reservations.
You have the unfortunate coincidence of having ADR day be not only on a Tuesday, but also a Tuesday when an an entire new year’s worth of bookings opens. Tuesdays are IT upgrade days and have the highest number of folks booking ADRs because most people arrive on a Saturday which will make 60 days fall on Tuesdays most of the time. Coupled with 2025 bookings opening, you are bound to have IT glitches and/or site traffic overload
I would try via the app.
The good news for you is that you’re not probably alone in your troubles. And dining bookings have been much easier in the last few months; that 2hr cancellation window has made a world of difference in terms of availability
I am getting confirmations and cancellations in my inbox for some of the bookings I was unable to make when the window opened
I have moved to a new WiFi location and am having the same error code (cell data still works). Is it possible Disney is somehow blocking/deprioritizing international traffic?
It’s funny, I’ve seen this sentiment on the forums for years but it always seemed to work ok for me. Until now. Guess my number is up. Also dredding my first foray into Genie+!!
@amsterdad , I’ve read of this being an issue this year for international guests. And seemingly Disney IT know (but haven’t fixed it).
One thing I’ve seen that works for many is to switch to private or incognito mode.
Alternatively you could try using a vpn to book.
Incidentally I often have a problem with public wifi and my iPhone. It won’t load website pages if I have wifi on, so I have to switch it off and use data.
++ @OBNurseNH … There will be a lot of churning for the next seven days while people make/break and update reservations. Then, there will be another session of churning 7 days before the date you are looking for. I’ve stalked my way into a number of hard to get reservations.
Just a quick note to mention that I had no issues booking all of my post-cruise ADRs when my 60+10 window opened today. Why it couldn’t have been this easy last week? We may never know.
A few curious observations however directly tied to living abroad and trying to book experiences. I was completely unable to book Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom or Droid Depot at Hollywood Studios without the use of a VPN. When I tried booking on desktop, I never had an option to ‘check availability’. And the app just crashes after clicking the ‘check availability’ button. With a VPN routed through New York, everything was smooth sailing.
@len - Do you think Disney intentionally excludes internationals from these bookings? And if so, why give those living outside the US equal access to dining, but not experiences? Do they not think my money spends the same as those living in the US?
did I say that out loud?!?!
