Chicken/egg question for OCD planning experts

I%26#39;m trying to plan our vacation so that on the magic 180th day out I%26#39;ll be able to have my ducks in a row to make reservations (several character meals are desired, so I know this is important). However, how do I decide which park on which day when I don%26#39;t yet/can%26#39;t yet find out the information for which parks have Extra Magic Hours on specific days.

From my understanding, that info won%26#39;t be available until six months in advance, giving me no time to plan in advance for the restuarants.

How do OCD planners handle this discrepancy???

Thanks!

Chicken/egg question for OCD planning experts

I think www.allears.net have common dates, and ';peak days'; charts. to let you know what days are best for which park during the time of year you go.

There are several guide books, I suggest you try to pick one up.

Well unless im doing math wrong... 180 days is 6 months.... so you could have a loose plan, look at the magic hours, compare them with your peak days chart and make a decision. Its certainly a mornings worth of work, but if you do it that first day (6 months out) than you can pull it all together that day and be one of the first people to get reservations.

I suggest going to barnes and noble or borders and getting a planning book, they will help gather a loose plan that might have some minor last minute tweaking as magic hours tend to be the same for the same parks at the same time of year.

Chicken/egg question for OCD planning experts

Unless you%26#39;re going at Christmas, or another very busy time, you can be a couple of days into the 6 month window. In January, I had booked some places a month before, %26amp; walked right in to the Garden restaurant (Chip %26amp; Dale) at Epcot at the last minute. One exception to this is Cinderellas dining in the MK castle. Be on the phone at the beginning of the business day (Orlando time) exactly 6 months to the day/minute. I%26#39;ve heard of people phoning at 9:15 am 180 days prior, %26amp; it%26#39;s booked!

As seminolegirl said, get a book, or check touringplans.com to determine crowds. Another thing you could do is book a restaurant for 2 days, maybe one under your husband%26#39;s name if they%26#39;re fussy, %26amp; then cancel one when you get the extra magic hours schedule. Just be sure to cancel it ASAP, so somebody else can book the time. Good luck!

You%26#39;ll have a much easier time if your trip begins at the latter end of a month (you didn%26#39;t specify the dates you%26#39;ll be traveling to Orlando).

Say for instance, you%26#39;re traveling at the end of September, so you really can%26#39;t call for dinner reservations until the end of March. However, the Dinsey calendar for September is posted at the beginning of March, so you have some ';lead time'; to see which days in September are having specific events.

If, however you are traveling at the beginning of a month, you won%26#39;t have quite the lead time, but the Disney calendar does post 6 full months ahead of time, so you%26#39;ll have a small window for planning.

We are going in two weeks and I made all my reservations 180 days in advance. I asked questions on this forum, read all the menus and wrote down what we were interested in. Then when I was able to see what parks had the extra magic hours I made my final plan and called right away. I had several choices written down just in case one of my choices was already booked full. We are going during a very busy time but it all worked out. I am a planner so it killed me to wait until the 180 day mark. Good luck and have fun.

I do enjoy the planning part.....and it is kind of fun watching my family becomed convinced that I%26#39;m crazy!

We are going Thanksgiving week, from Saturday before until Friday after, so it will be quite a busy time, but given the information you all shared, I will have a little leeway between knowing the EMH info and being able to book.

One other question:

Is the 180 day out date the calendar date six months earlier (like May 19th for a Nov.19th arrival) or is it actually 180 days (counted out) before arrival?

Thanks so much!

Do these restaurants really book out 180 days in advance?

I am having enough trouble deciding what to eat for dinner in 2 hours time. I really can%26#39;t think about what I might want in 6 months time!

I%26#39;m having the same issue. And I didn%26#39;t even begin to plan our late June trip until a month or so ago, so I missed that 180 day mark. I don%26#39;t care if we do the Cinderella thing, but we do have the dining plan and we want to be able to get the table service we paid for. Do I REALLY need to make reservations this far out? Or am I out of luck even as we speak?

jenlagirl- I believe that they actually count out the 180 days. When I called in September for our trip this month they told me I called 2 days too early because I had called on Sept. 25 for a March 25 arrival.

jolynda- I%26#39;m no expert but I believe summer time is quite busy so you may want to check into making some table service reservations. From what I%26#39;ve read on this forum over the past 6 months the dining plan is very popular so places book up pretty fast. Maybe just give them a call and see what is available. We are going in less than 2 weeks during a very busy time so I made my reservations exactly 180 days in advance and still had to use some of my second choices because my first choices were already full on the days I was looking for.