I have only ......... days/months till I go again.

[theBIGyowski]

Got up bright and early to make ADRs this morning...

Our top 3 choices were all unavailable. HUGE bummer.

1) Lunch at Chef Mickey's
2) Lunch at BOG
3) Dinner at Coral Reef

Day 4 of our trip is our non-park day...so we were planning on doing lunch at Chef Mickey's. At freaking 6:01 AM...completely booked up for breakfast and lunch. Unbelievable. I was able to book breakfast on our very last morning...but we're planning on being at MK that morning for a few hours before leaving for home. So this tentative ADR is only there as a last resort.

Day 2 is our MK day. We'll be there in the morning for rope drop and then leaving around 4:00 PM when the MVMCP folks start showing up. We were hoping to eat lunch at BOG...but of course it was unavailable. That is insane. At 6:00 AM this morning this was the first ADR I tried to get. I am near speechless. So I eventually found a breakfast ADR for 9:45 AM and grabbed that in hopes that a lunch ADR opens up over the next 180 days. The park opens at 9:00 AM that day so we were hoping to get all of our must-do attractions in before lunch at BOG. Not sure that is possible now.

After leaving MK at 4:00 PM, our plan is to head over to Epcot. We're hoping to do a few rides and then eat dinner at Coral Reef. So at 6:03 AM this morning I tried to get an ADR. Either Disney hasn't opened up Coral Reef for ADRs in December yet (haven't been able to find that anywhere online so far) or every single ADR for every hour of the day has already been booked for Coral Reef from Dec 1-10. I am hoping it is the former and not the latter because we really want this ADR for our kids (age 2 & 4). Just to be safe, I booked an ADR for San Angel Inn for dinner that night so we'd have a place to eat that is fun. I booked an ADR for lunch for San Angel Inn for the following day since it is our official Epcot day and we were already planning on eating lunch there. I'm hoping Coral Reef opens up and I can change the ADR to that.

We were able to get all of our other ADRs. I'm going to try out the WDW Reservation Finder on TouringPlans.com to see if they can help me snatch up what we want. Other than that...I'll just be checking the site every day to see if anything opens up and then it's FP+ time at the 60 day mark (10/6/2016).

[zhoover]

Got up bright and early to make ADRs this morning...

That was me on Saturday morning, though most of ours aren't hard to get - just places we love for tradition's sake. New experiences for us will be STK and the Skipper Canteen!

[theBIGyowski]

I was able to find a breakfast ADR for BOG the day we'll be at MK for 8:35 AM. Normally I wouldn't want this, but since the park opens at 9:00 AM, this would get us in 45-60 minutes before the park opens. We're hoping we can use the empty park to get some good family pictures for our Christmas Card. If we can keep breakfast to around 30 minutes, we can use our location to ride Fantasyland attractions before the bulk of the crowds make their way to the back from the entrance.

I also called Disney Dining to see if they could help with my other ADRs and they were able to get me lunch at Chef Mickey's on the day we were trying. So, our only thing outstanding is Coral Reef which is apparently booked up solid. It's okay if we can't eat there as we have Teppan Edo as our back-up (and I got an ADR for that). I know Hibachi is something our kids would love since they've never experienced it before. I'll still keep checking every day for Coral Reef to open up though.

Other than that...120 days until we make FP+ reservations!

[Amy]

Wow ~ it's amazing how difficult it is to get reservations anymore I hope you are able to secure your last one at the Coral Reef. I bet the kids will love looking at all the fishies!
I guess it's good that people are able to plan ahead, but it would be nice if they allowed some walk-up reservations like they used to in years past.

[theBIGyowski]

Wow ~ it's amazing how difficult it is to get reservations anymore I hope you are able to secure your last one at the Coral Reef. I bet the kids will love looking at all the fishies!
I guess it's good that people are able to plan ahead, but it would be nice if they allowed some walk-up reservations like they used to in years past.

There are a few restaurants that have reserved tables for walk-up guests, but those are rare. I believe Sci-Fi is one place that does it during the off-season. You can only get inside of the cars if you book in advance, but there are tables available for walk-ups.

Strangely, I have found it a little bit easier to look for ADRs using the MDE app on my phone rather than the WDW website. I have yet to make one using the phone, but it's much simpler than the website.

[Amy]

Wow ~ it's amazing how difficult it is to get reservations anymore I hope you are able to secure your last one at the Coral Reef. I bet the kids will love looking at all the fishies!
I guess it's good that people are able to plan ahead, but it would be nice if they allowed some walk-up reservations like they used to in years past.

There are a few restaurants that have reserved tables for walk-up guests, but those are rare. I believe Sci-Fi is one place that does it during the off-season. You can only get inside of the cars if you book in advance, but there are tables available for walk-ups.

Strangely, I have found it a little bit easier to look for ADRs using the MDE app on my phone rather than the WDW website. I have yet to make one using the phone, but it's much simpler than the website.

That's good to know ~ I kind of figured all the table service restaurants had to be booked in advance. I never tried making an ADR on my phone, but the FP+ system sure worked better on my computer than my phone!

[acp]

Round number day again...

100 days to go until Hong Kong, 105 until Japan.

(and 160 until Disneyland Paris...)

[theBIGyowski]

We got our ADR for Coral Reef...so it looks like Disney opened up some tables overnight. Still not sure why they held out like this...but at least we got what we wanted. Garden Grill still doesn't show any availability, so maybe it will sometime soon. We weren't planning on going there anyway because there's clearly better dining in Epcot.

Our only question now is whether to eat lunch at San Angel Inn or Teppan Edo. San Angel Inn is a tradition in my family that goes back to me being a child. I have eaten there every single time I've been to WDW, so taking our kids there would be special. Plus we know they love Mexican food and the chips and salsa would keep them at bay while waiting on our entrees. On the flip side, Teppan Edo is hibachi-style, which is awesome for kids. We know they like fried rice and chicken. I've eaten at Teppan Edo before and it was great, but it was very crowded and loud. Plus we can find hibachi-style food where we live and get pretty much the same experience. DW says go with San Angel Inn and I think I agree. Thanks to everyone who read this while I convinced myself on a decision. Your attention is greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah...bought our park tickets last night. So we are definitely going to WDW now. I found them ridiculously cheap at BoardwalkTicketing.com. They are a reputable company according to the great Len Testa, so I felt comfortable buying from them. They buy up and sell Expedia vouchers...so I should get my ticket numbers in a day or two and will then link them to our MagicBands. Then it will just be the waiting game until we make our FP+ reservations. I guess this means I need to make an official thread now in the Trip Planning board.

::scurries off::

[Amy]

...Thanks to everyone who read this while I convinced myself on a decision. Your attention is greatly appreciated...

So glad we could help! I would have agreed with your ultimate decision as well. The chance to carry on a family tradition from your childhood will make for awesome memories!
I wonder if maybe they hold on to some reservations and open them up a bit later to help out people that aren't in the whole make your reservations 180 days before your trip loop?

[acp]

91 days to go until HK/JP. 150 days until DLP.

I'm thinking I should have bought my currency for Hong Kong and Japan before this morning's catastrophe... Sigh.

[Amy]

91 days to go until HK/JP. 150 days until DLP.

I'm thinking I should have bought my currency for Hong Kong and Japan before this morning's catastrophe... Sigh.

It should bounce back ~ at least I hope it does for your sake!

[ambrmk108]

19 days until my fiancé (soon-to-be husband) and I will in in WDW for our honeymoon!!!

[Amy]

19 days until my fiancé (soon-to-be husband) and I will in in WDW for our honeymoon!!!

How fun ~ got anything special planned, dinners, tours, while you are there? Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Are you in the northern/southern/eastern/western part of Indiana? One day we're going to try to get the Midwestern subbers together for a meet up ~ our last planned outing to Chicago fell through because of snow and icky weather

[ambrmk108]

19 days until my fiancé (soon-to-be husband) and I will in in WDW for our honeymoon!!!

How fun ~ got anything special planned, dinners, tours, while you are there? Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Are you in the northern/southern/eastern/western part of Indiana? One day we're going to try to get the Midwestern subbers together for a meet up ~ our last planned outing to Chicago fell through because of snow and icky weather

Thank you!! The most special thing we have is that we're staying at the Contemporary with Theme Park view , very excited about this! Something else special is I was able to score 8:00 breakfast reservation at CRT for the first day we're in the parks. We also talked about riding some rides we haven't ridden before and eating at some new places; right now we have a dining reservation at Chefs de France, we've never ate there before.
I live in the eastern part of Indiana. That would be so much fun to do something like that!

[Amy]

Sounds like you've got a few really nice things planned ambrmk108 ~ the Contemporary with a theme park view should be awesome! And you should be able to get some really nice pictures in the park without any/many other guests around at that hour of the morning!
What are some of the attractions you haven't been on before? Just the newer things that have opened since your last trip, or things you've had to pass up due to crowds, too cold, etc.??
Nothing planned as far as a meet-up yet, but if we get something together, we'll be sure to let you know