How much do you like the 180 day booking in advance for dining?

9. I love it. I think it's fun to look at the restaurants. Now, by the time our trip rolls around I will have changed most, if not all, of the ADRs. I move stuff around. Drives my husband crazy when I start sending him texts and email with menus and asking him for his opinion. I've got my countdown started for February when i can start making my ADRs. Our last trip, last month, we booked 63 days out. I was able to get everything I wanted. Including a pre-park opening to Be Our Guest. So, I don't think booking 180 days out makes a huge difference, but to me it adds to my excitement.
 
60 days out is too close it would be a complete mess. You would never get an adr. I plan and the 6 mos. is fine. The system works ok it's not perfect but it works. But no longer then 180 days out though.
 
I'm pretty much "meh" about it. I do think it'd better to do them closer to trips just because Disney changes hours quite a bit (my biggest complaint is planning ADRs during party months and party dates not being released until after everything is all said and done) but really...doesn't really effect me much. I always seem to figure it out.
 


I go back and forth with this. On the one hand, I love it because it provides some sort of structure to our day. We can know in advance what park we'll be at and that in turn helps when it comes time to do FP. On the other hand, I have no idea what I want to eat tonight for dinner - let alone 180 days out. I guess I'll go with a 5/10 since I'm conflicted.
 
Late poster! I'll give it an 8 - like planning this out as early as possible so I can deal w all the other fun things to plan!
 


I'd say a 5. In the "pro"column - I'm a planner, so I love having everything already decided and set. In the "con" column, it can be stressful to get the fast passes to line up with the ADR times since you can book ADR's at 180 and fast passes at 60. I'm used to planning for it, but I can only imagine how overwhelming it might be to someone on their first trip!
 
I'll give it a 7. I really like the planning part but for some hard to get reservations (CRT, etc) it means you are locked into that park for the day. We don't use park hoppers so it kind of sets where we will be before we are able to grab our fast passes.
 
I would give it an 8 it would be a 10 if they posted the park schedule at 190 to 200 days out. Its hear people complaining about not knowing what they want to eat but this way everyone in my family knows where they will be eating. I saw something on our last trip that reinforces my view of booking. We were checking into Cinderella's Breakfast at the castle when a man walked up and told the greeter he needed a table for 8 anytime in the next 15 minutes. The confused greeter asked him for his ADR number. He informed her he didn't need one he was staying the Grand Floridian CL level and that was it. The greeter told him that everyone in the room and behind him had reserved at 180 days out. He actually called her a liar and said no one plans a meal 6 months in advance ( that is semi true I begin planning meals at least a year in advnce). He got very angry and said he was going back to GF to get that reservation number. I plan our Fastpasses around meals it can be done.
 
I personally love the 180. I always book 6 months or more out. I can't even imagine the system overload if they waited until everyone knew what they wanted and were on at the same time trying to get ADRS. At 60 days, it would be a mess. They really need to fix how many they let you make in a day through. I seriously just saw someone cancel 3 reservations for the same day all for dinner. REALLY???2 were for the same restaurant- like an hour apart. I'm sorry but did you really need to book 4:30 and 5:30 just in case???

This didn't use to be prevalent. I personally attribute this to the fact that you had a really good idea of park hours and show times before you book ADRs. I didn't know my ROL dates or times until 90 days out for this trip. They also changed park hours about this time. Since disney is trying to save money and make sure they do not have to overstaff, stay open longer then necessary for crowd level etc, it has caused an effect on ADRs. I personally had 3 Yak & Yetis until those days/times were released.

Also, there must be a huge increase in people preplanning their vacations. My dd16 really wanted sci fi this year. To get it I had to change my HS day and settle for a 2:55. This was the last ressie for thatbday and I could book 180+10. This was the first restaurant I booked. It's crazy to me. In 2011 I didn't book any ADRs until about 5 days before, got crystal palace, 50s prime time, mama melrose, akershus. The change is drastic.
 
This didn't use to be prevalent. I personally attribute this to the fact that you had a really good idea of park hours and show times before you book ADRs. I didn't know my ROL dates or times until 90 days out for this trip. They also changed park hours about this time. Since disney is trying to save money and make sure they do not have to overstaff, stay open longer then necessary for crowd level etc, it has caused an effect on ADRs. I personally had 3 Yak & Yetis until those days/times were released.

Also, there must be a huge increase in people preplanning their vacations. My dd16 really wanted sci fi this year. To get it I had to change my HS day and settle for a 2:55. This was the last ressie for thatbday and I could book 180+10. This was the first restaurant I booked. It's crazy to me. In 2011 I didn't book any ADRs until about 5 days before, got crystal palace, 50s prime time, mama melrose, akershus. The change is drastic.
So funny because while I was there in march and last month, you could get just about any ADR you wanted the day before. We added 2 BOG lunch and changed our sci fi. So it's not really that big of a deal if you can't get what you want or need to change plans.
 
So funny because while I was there in march and last month, you could get just about any ADR you wanted the day before. We added 2 BOG lunch and changed our sci fi. So it's not really that big of a deal if you can't get what you want or need to change plans.

Well I'm checking everyday so I'll let you know if I get that sci-fi changed. What is 2:55?? Late lunch, super early dinner? Lol.

Also I am always telling people this same thing but keep checking day before and rarely seeing sci fi.
Currently nothing available lunch or dinner fo Oct 7-12.
 
Well I'm checking everyday so I'll let you know if I get that sci-fi changed. What is 2:55?? Late lunch, super early dinner? Lol.

Also I am always telling people this same thing but keep checking day before and rarely seeing sci fi.
Currently nothing available lunch or dinner fo Oct 7-12.
Don't worry- I had the same (3:05), the day before I had multiple times show up to choose from to change it.
 
7

I enjoy being able to begin planning my trip very early, so I typically have fun booking this far out. However, it does get complicated in the 30 day window when FP+ opens and I need to rework my schedule. Often, closer to the date other things will change, like a friend will join us and then we do not have the right party count. All-in-all, I have a lot of fun starting the excitement early though.
 
6?

It was nice back when you were able to just pick a place the day of and walk up to get a table. But I think the dining plan killed that more than the early ADR system. In all honesty, I plan most of my vacations out that far in advance already. If I were going on a cruise my meals (to a certain extent) would be chosen a year or more before embarkation.

However, I'd also be fine with 60 day out ADRs.
 
I give it a 1.

Hate that I have to worry about what park to eat at 6 months before I arrive. If we were able to make them say right around the 60 day mark to coincide with FP+/check in, I'd give it a 7+.
 

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