Hi, Ashley! Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! We are so happy that you stopped by to visit us!
I am so excited that it is almost time for you to start making your
Advanced Dining Reservations, and you must be, too! Planning out my meals for my Walt Disney World Resort vacation is always one of the best parts of the planning process, and the eating of said meals is pretty great in itself as well! Although I remember *sometimes* getting an email to remind me to make my FastPass+ Reservations, I can’t say the same about Advanced Dining Reservations. I remember once receiving a magnet with important dates, such as my 180 and 60-day dates, but I haven’t received these for some time now. What I have done in the past, is used an online calculator tool to determine my 180-day mark. I believe there are Walt Disney World Resort date calculators out there on the interwebs as well, but these are third party websites and nothing official. Did you know that you can make your Advanced Dining Reservations either online or by phone? I prefer making mine online as you can typically start a little earlier the morning of your 180-day mark as the Disney Reservation Center is available by phone 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM Monday through Friday, and 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. If you make your reservations online through your My Disney Experience account, you can do so starting around 6:00 AM EST (subject to change). If you are staying at a Disney Resort hotel, you can book your meals for your entire stay (up to 10 days). If you are having trouble finding availability for harder to book Disney restaurants (such as Be Our Guest Restaurant), my suggestion would be to look for availability on one of your last vacation days.
I hope my answer helps you with your planning and that you have a magical vacation! Stop by and see us again soon,
Jen