Hello Brittany!
I’m sorry you were having difficultly making your
Advance Dining Reservations. I did my own calculation as well, and I agree that you had the correct date. For a January 4 check-in, your 60-day date would be November 5. We are pretty popular right now here at planDisney, and so I’m sorry it has taken this long for your question to pop to the top of the list. I hope that by now you have had success in making your Advance Dining Reservations.
Sometimes not all dining locations open right at 6 AM Eastern, so perhaps the locations you were trying were not releasing reservations as expected. I also wonder if there was any confusion with the time. On Friday, November 5, the Walt Disney World Resort was not on EST, Eastern Standard Time, as you stated in your question, but it was still on EDT, Eastern Daylight Time. We didn’t switch times until Sunday morning November 7, 2021. I know that Arizona does not change times, so maybe there was some confusion there. Perhaps you were one hour too early.
You should be able to make all reservations at this point. If you were unable to secure some of the more popular locations, I do recommend checking back frequently, especially as the trip approaches. Other Guests do cancel, and I have snagged cancelations with good luck many times. You will also find free services with Touring Plans and Mouse Dining where you can set an alert and they will send you an email if their computer system sees an opening in the system. You would then go into your
My Disney Experience and if you are the first one to get there, you might be able to snag that cancellation. I have also had good luck with these services, so you may want to give them a try.
Sending you pixie dust, Brittany for those perfect dining reservations!
- Kate