This may be a long shot, but I have a slight hope that the space-themed restaurant by Mission Space may be open by the time we get there for our Sept 31/Oct 1 trip. (Yes, going to be there for the Illuminations/Epcot Forever transition)
Does anyone have experience on how to snag a reservation at a restaurant that is just opening, never been in that situation before. It is just trolling the Disney Park Blog looking for announcements and then pouncing on WDW dining reservations as soon as you see something? I’m up for the trolling if there is a chance that may work. It just seems logistically challenging to open up a restaurant where the normal reservation lead time is 180 days and I’m sure they can’t predict to the day when the place will open six monhts in advance, so there must be some different way reservations get started.
People who know more than me will hopefully chime in, but when skipper canteen opened in MK, I’m not sure they did ADRs at first. I know we just walked in and ate about 6 weeks after they opened.
Just my one experience to share . I Don’t really know how it will be with a new restaurant at epcot.
Until they announce the details. there really is no way to plan. Sometimes that offer no ADRs , other times they do. I’m in a similar boat, but my trip isn’t until early Dec.
I just spent about 45 minutes scouring through the WDWMagic forums - usually a very good source of “insider” info, and there is nothing about an opening date. The consensus is “before the end of the year” and a “feeling” that Nov/Dec is the most likely month - but no facts, just guesses.
Thanks, I did scour the Disney official Blogs last night and saw no more than you did and fully understand it is impossible to pick a day too far out. WDWMagic looks interesting too, may add that to my list. I do fear that “end of year” is much closer to the end of December instead of my early October timeframe. Fun to dream though. We probably won’t be going back for at least a couple years after this trip, hence hoping it might happen. I can safely say Mission Space is my favorite ride in all WDW, so gives you an idea of my reference point!
I don’t know how much time the company running it will need once the restaurant is ready to allow enough time for staff training in situ.
The job advert said training would start in May 2019 and opening in the Autumn. Now in Europe, that would be taken to mean September/October but of course they could have been translating from “Fall” and therefore been misinterpreted.
4-6 months of “training” for a restaurant? Yes, there will be non-cook/server related jobs on the technical side of things (keeping a 200 ft curved projection system up and running), but very little “training” can be accomplished until a restaurant is essentially finished and furnished. If you hire experienced servers, this should only take a couple of week - a month at the most.
Unless, of course, the CMs will all be wearing harnesses and will “float” to your table via a complex series of wires pulleys, and motors…
Nickysyme and bswan26: That is interesting on hiring dates, that at least makes me feel better about taking the time to troll on a regular basis. That does seem to suggest something very un-ordinary too which which is kind of cool to think about.
ChooseJoy: Yep, that would be un-ordinary!
The claims on wine lists is alas wasted on me, not a wine drinker. I think I’d be OK with freeze-dried ice cream too (That is an obligatory purchase each visit to KSC that I cannot logically explain) if the theming is half as good as I am imagining. That is probably where I may be having unrealistic expectations. The trouble will be if the place does open before my trip, am I going to read online reviews which will essentially be spoilers or wait and be surprised. Hoping to have that dilemma.
Given the way the 180 day ADR cycle works, I think new restaurants are very likely to be underbooked when the they first open. Skipper Canteen was certainly that way early. My guess would be if it is open, it won’t be a problem either getting an ADR or walking in to eat there. You just need it to open in time for your trip…
A senior Imagineering staffer has said they are trying for late July, and thinks they might actually make it. This is a lot earlier than probably any of us thought.
I’ve continued trolling the Disney Parks Blog to no avail yet. While I don’t think this restaurant is going to be SWGE-class popular, I did notice by the time they announced ADR availability for Olga’s Cantina, all the ARDs were completely booked–at least for the time period I was looking at. I may need to start trolling the ADR site and not just the Disney Parks Blog.
