…When it comes time for me to make my dining reservations…is it wise for me to make the hard- to- get ones first, instead of just making them in order of how I want to schedule them? These are the restaurants and dining times I want for our 8 day stay…which should I jump on first?
Cape May-5:00 PM
Brown Derby Fantasmic Package-5:00 PM
Hollywood And Vine-8:00 AM
Crystal Palace-8:00 AM
Ohana-6:30 PM
Akersus-8:00 AM
Tokyo Dining-6:00 PM
Tusker Rivers Of Light Package-8:00 AM
Boma-6:00 PM
Raglan Road-8:00 PM
HoopDeeDoo-4:15
I haven’t been to many of those restaurants so I can’t say the right order, but definitely do them by which are hard to get. I’d do TH first, then Ohana, CP or Akerhaus. I don’t know how difficult HDDR is to get.
Dining packages are rarely available at 180 days, you will probably have to wait a month or more before being able to book. Same with HDDR.
I would have thought Akershus and H&V would be the hardest to get, given the Jedi Training and FEA popularity, and the number of liners wanting earlier times for breakfast.
Good point on H&V breakfast, we did F! package at dinner so I didn’t think about JTA.
We’ve had no problem getting dining packages at 180 but it does seem to have been a problem over the last year. You could try making an ADR 180 days from today to see whether there’s availability - if nothing pops up, you’d know not to go for those first.
Certainly lots of issues recently for ROL packages, plus a few for F!
HDDR always seems to open late now, I think I was near the 4 month mark before it opened up for me. And desert parties too. H&V Fantasmic was more like 5months for me, when booking for Christmas 2016.
I would try for the 8:00am reservations. Those seem to be the only difficult ones on your list. As others have said, dining packages are rarely available at 180 days and I am not confident a HBD package will be available at 5?
Yes, I know you cannot get a dinner reservation for Mama Melrose. I am just concerned because usually they have a mandatory time with a signature meal before a show.
I set up separate browser windows for each reservation and then kick them all off when the reservation window opens. I then cycle through each window step by step, so it is a parallel process rather than one at a time.
Once you decide which days you will be in what parks, you should pick the ones that are the hardest to book first at 180 days out (or, as far out as you can) from when you will be in the park (or the area where your meal will be). I would do the Packages and the breakfast meals first, they are the ones that reservations fill up first. Ragland Road & Cape May will have the most availability (I’ve booked Ragland successfully a few days before the meal), so I would leave those for last.
If you can book at least five months in advance, you really should not have any trouble booking any of the choices you have made.
If you are staying on property you can book 180 days out. The thing is you get to book 10 days worth of reservation the first day. Those no staying at Disney resorts can book 180 days out but only a day at a time. So you see except for the first days of your reservations at 180 days out you are ahead of many that can only book that one day and not 10 days in the future. Hard to book reservations will be much easier to get in this time period.
Definitely book your 8AM ressies first! I would say Akershus first. And as already stated, dinner packages won’t open up right away but if you really want the 8AM TH, I would go ahead and book it. When they release dining packages you can drop the reservation as a breakfast only and rebook as a dining package. You’d have to be quick because you could lose it that way, but that’s how I converted my breakfast reservation into a dining package. I had my computer ready to pick it up as I dropped it using MDE on my phone.