***Official August 2023 Thread***

[Eoywin]

I'm a little late but we got all the ADR's we wanted - including Ohana and Chef Mickey's, both of which we couldn't get for our last trip last October

 

[scrappinginontario]

I booked our 2 ADR's this morning and will say I was very happy with the number of options that are open! Even at exactly 60 days I still see reasonable dinner times for 77 different restaurants!! This is for a party of 2 which can be a harder reservation to find as so many of the table tops are 3+ guests.

I'm hoping the availability bodes well for lower late-August crowds!!

 

[Eoywin]

I booked our 2 ADR's this morning and will say I was very happy with the number of options that are open! Even at exactly 60 days I still see reasonable dinner times for 77 different restaurants!! This is for a party of 2 which can be a harder reservation to find as so many of the table tops are 3+ guests.

I'm hoping the availability bodes well for lower late-August crowds!!

We are a party of two as well My TA got us everything but Chef Mickey's but told me to look in the evening on the day we could make reservations and I nabbed a noon reservation.

Chef Mickey's is mostly for my daughter - she's 14 and she doesn't remember eating there for her 5th birthday. Partly because I have no pictures of it because my digital camera are them

 

[suse66]

Had excellent luck with ADRs and tours as well. I have to do it in two parts as I am doing a split stay. So far I have the Seats and Sweets dessert party at MK, Via Napoli for lunch, Caring for Giants tour, Yak and Yeti lunch, Savour the Savannah tour, Sanaa dinner and Garden Grill breakfast.

Still trying for Up Close with Rhinos and Sangria University when my second window opens on Tuesday.

 

[figmentdream]

Staying at Poly, Aug. 19 - 26th. Last year was our first year staying on the monorail loop (Contemporary). My daughter fell in love with the Poly, so she is very excited for this year's trip!
Got all the ADRs we wanted except for Narcoossee, so I booked California Grill instead.

 

[BeckyEsq]

There are no times listed for Festival of Fantasy parade after the first few days of August. I'm wondering if they stop showing it once Halloween season starts? We were really hoping to see it!

 

[Eoywin]

There are no times listed for Festival of Fantasy parade after the first few days of August. I'm wondering if they stop showing it once Halloween season starts? We were really hoping to see it!

They won't stop the Festival of Fantasy parade for Halloween - the Halloween parade is only for people who go to the party

 

[BeckyEsq]

They won't stop the Festival of Fantasy parade for Halloween - the Halloween parade is only for people who go to the party

Okay I hope so! Maybe they just haven't listed the times yet for mid August.

 

[StacyStrong]

Booked ADRs on Sunday. I honestly forgot about it until late in the day and was still able to get EVERYTHING including Round Up Rodeo. Heck even today there’s still availability, albeit more limited.

I’m really really hoping this says something about crowds! I even got an upgrade offer on my room, but traveling with another party so not making use of it. I’m holding off on a Genie+ decision to see how crowds look in the week leading up to the trip.

We are going August 24-29.

 

[StacyStrong]

Did anyone receive an upgrade offer email? I received one with the offer to upgrade from POP to either CS or POR.

Yes. And i checked it again today and they added AoA, but removed CS

 

[han22735]

Booked ADRs on Sunday. I honestly forgot about it until late in the day and was still able to get EVERYTHING including Round Up Rodeo. Heck even today there’s still availability, albeit more limited.

I’m really really hoping this says something about crowds! I even got an upgrade offer on my room, but traveling with another party so not making use of it. I’m holding off on a Genie+ decision to see how crowds look in the week leading up to the trip.

We are going August 24-29.

We once got an upgrade offer and were traveling with another group and the person the phone when I called gave it to them as well. Maybe worth looking into if its a good upgrade.

 

[DeeBee3]

Totally forgot about dining until last night (my husband doesn't believe that's possible), but I had no issue getting things today. Didn't do it at opening either. I will say I wasn't looking for very exclusive reservations. We have been many times so this is a more "relaxed" trip for us.

I'm doing a split stay so I could only do a few days; however, I am optimistic that this means low crowds compared to rest of summer.

 

[Palaura]

Ultimately, the Skyliner as well as Pop being our "home away from home" led me to pass on the offer!

I passed---If CBR was on there I may have bit

 

[Justrose]

I passed---If CBR was on there I may have bit

Same!

 

[MarieLightning]

We'll be there from July 29 - August 7, two nights at the Sports and 7 nights at the Contemporary!

We also had a ridiculously easy time getting ADRs for early August when our window opened, though we're only doing 3 and not necessarily super hard to get ones. I did change one just today though and the restaurant I changed it to was also wide open at the times we wanted. The only thing I haven't been able to change around is an earlier time at the Harmony Barber Shop, it's full for the day we were looking at (we have a booking at 9:40 so it's not terrible either, I would have just preferred closer to 9).

Fingers crossed it means good things for crowds!

 

[han22735]

Hit the 40's today!! 49 days to go!

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

Well, after moving some dates around (due to me FORGETTING I'd purchased tickets to a concert and accidentally booking Disney over that, oops), my August/September girls trip with a friend is really starting to take shape!

We're going right over Labor Day weekend, so the last few days of August and first few of September, and actually ended up doing a triple split stay :

• 4 nights at VGF resort studio
• 1 night at CBR
• 3 nights at Universal Portofino Bay

We're renting points for the VGF stay, otherwise I would have just added a night there vs resort hopping twice. Not to mention by the time we decided to tack on another night to the Disney end there was no availability. I love the Skyliner though, so honestly not super mad about it.

Made ADRs for the VGF portion no problem, but of course I decided Topolino's breakfast would be a fun thing to do on the Disney-Universal transfer day and that was way trickier to book due to it only being 60+1. I managed to get a reservation for 3, so either my sister will join us or I will change it if I can. (Shout out to @scrappinginontario's tip to look for a party of 3!)

Here's the plan as it currently stands:

• DAY 1: Check into Grand Floridian, visit Trader Sam's and watch MNSSHP fireworks from Poly or GF
  
  
• DAY 2: DHS early entry, break, MK extended evening hours
  
  
• DAY 3: DAK early entry, break, Hoop Dee Doo (HDDR is one of my favorite things in all of WDW but I rarely get to book it with a resort stay, so curious to see how close our table will be!)
  
  
• DAY 4: MK early entry (party day), then hop to EPCOT for Cosmic Rewind, Food and Wine and Eat to the Beat
  
  
• DAY 5: EPCOT early entry for more Cosmic Rewind, then hop to DHS for my other favorite thing (and favorite way to close out a Disney trip), Fantasmic!
  
  
• DAY 6: Topolino's breakfast and transfer to Universal
  
  
• DAY 7-8: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

In addition to HDDR, I grabbed an Oga's Cantina res (gotta say hi to R3X) and a Fantasmic! dining package at the Hollywood Brown Derby, which I've always wanted to try. Was disappointed with Sci-Fi recently so hopefully Brown Derby is worth the splurge.

The friend who is joining me is a second-timer to WDW and has never been to Universal. I am SO EXCITED to share some of my favorites with her for the first time, like Cosmic Rewind and Rise of the Resistance at WDW and Revenge of the Mummy and Hagrid's at UO. In fact I am fully planning to splurge on ILLs and hopefully ride Cosmic Rewind four times because I am so delighted by it. Top five attraction for me for sure.

Wow, this basically turned into a pre-trip report .... it's just so exciting when it all starts coming together!

 

[Pills]

Staying at Poly, Aug. 19 - 26th. Last year was our first year staying on the monorail loop (Contemporary). My daughter fell in love with the Poly, so she is very excited for this year's trip!
Got all the ADRs we wanted except for Narcoossee, so I booked California Grill instead.

I couldn't get Narcoossee's, either. We were trying on our rest/non-park/Springs day. Got Ohana instead; couldn't really eat there before they changed the menu because of my daughter's peanut allergy, so it's something new, at least.

 

[Eoywin]

We are less than a month away! We hit a month yesterday and I was more excited about our upcoming Disney trip than yesterday's holiday

 

[han22735]

F&W food booth menus were released today. Anyone else besides me planning on spending a fortune at Epcot this August?