Restaurant Availability - struggling

[Elbee]

We are struggling to book any meals anywhere for lunch or dinners at Disney in the first few days in December - anyone else having issues or just me? Tried to book Brown Debynfor Friday 3rd Dec - no times coming up at all, tried Via Napoli at Epcot for dinner later on nothing. Can’t get anything at all 😳now I know we won’t starve but it’s the first time I’ve ever not been able to book anything at all 🙀 It’s just me and a gal pal going for a few days so 🤷

[Bozza]

There was another thread on this recently.

Availability seems to be very tight, even at 60 days, for a lot of the popular spots. A combination of restricted capacity in some open spots (due to covid and/or staff shortages), a few places still closed and high hotel occupancy meaning that there's simply not enough dining spaces to go around unfortunately.

[loldis]

As above. It's a case of sign up to alerts from reservation finders (Mouse Dining, Touring Plans, etc) and crossing fingers for a cancellation.

[saratogajan]

I found the same (arriving on 30 November for 3 weeks), especially for my first week. We’re just going to go offsite on days we haven’t got anything booked.

[Scotsmomma2]

I reckon we'll be eating off-site most of the time,very little availability in the parks,Disney Springs seem to have more,The Boathouse shows for lots of dates,I remember when it used to be a hard one to get booked over Christmas,Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club used to be a hard one to get too,but since they expanded it it seems a lot easier.

[Bozza]

Of all the supposed and actual reductions in offering that people are unhappy about, I think it's this somewhat silent one that would get to me most.

A big part of our WDW trips are the meals we get to enjoy as a family, both in the parks and the resorts (and Disney Springs) and our enjoyment would be diminished somewhat if we had to spend time travelling to and fro off-site for meals.

In most cases we're perfectly happy to pay more when we dine at WDW, and we have a list of family favourites which don't let us down.

I hope they are able to get back to full capacity across the entire operation as soon as possible.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

We are here now and although you can’t guarantee exactly what will appear a really good selection of places opens up the night before as people holding spots cancel on the 24hr rule. I can literally sit watching reservations appear as I refresh the page from about 8:30 pm onwards.

[Florida Gator]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

We are here now and although you can’t guarantee exactly what will appear a really good selection of places opens up the night before as people holding spots cancel on the 24hr rule. I can literally sit watching reservations appear as I refresh the page from about 8:30 pm onwards.

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We have done this too for most of our reservations. It’s worked really well for us. We are off to the yachtsman steakhouse tonight with a reservation that we got last night.

[loldis]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

We are here now and although you can’t guarantee exactly what will appear a really good selection of places opens up the night before as people holding spots cancel on the 24hr rule. I can literally sit watching reservations appear as I refresh the page from about 8:30 pm onwards.

See more...

Yup, I'm holding about 4 Plaza ADRs right now because I haven't decided which day to go. The day I'm most likely to go isn't at a great time though, so I'm leaning towards cancelling that one and then waitlisting a table on the day. It's my first one so can then cancel the rest if I get a spot.

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by loldis

Yup, I'm holding about 4 Plaza ADRs right now because I haven't decided which day to go. The day I'm most likely to go isn't at a great time though, so I'm leaning towards cancelling that one and then waitlisting a table on the day. It's my first one so can then cancel the rest if I get a spot.

See more...

At a wider scale, this may also be part of the problem.

Scarcity of options mean people book far more than they need, to give themselves flexibility - "I don't want to be without a dinner option at all" - knowing they'll cancel multiple ones later.

It's the dining version of panic-buying fuel.