[OtherVoices]

I have two questions regarding dining reservations.

I understand that you can't make your reservations until you are 180 days out. My trip begins May 5th. Now, does this mean I can call 180 prior to May 5th and make dining reservations for my entire trip, or do I have to call back each day for 7 days to make each day's reservations?

Also, how do you guys decide on what time to make reservations for? We've never been to WDW before so all of this is new for us. We'd like to see Wishes, Illuminations and Fantasmic, so I don't want to be stuck in a restaurant when they start. I'm considering a Fantasmic dinner package, but I'm not too thrilled with the restaurant choices, so I'm not sure about that yet. How much time do you give yourselves so that you don't miss anything? And how do you know what time Wishes, Illuminations and Fantasmic start 6 months before??

I guess I have more than two questions.... I'd really like to do Mickey's Backyard Barbecue, but since it's seasonal and dates aren't out yet, I'm not sure what to do. Do I leave an open evening for it and hope that they schedule it for that night? If they don't have it on my "open" night, then it might mess up our other reservations trying to move stuff around. My second choice would be Hoop-de-Doo, so should I schedule that and then cancel it if Mickey's is available that night? Or is Hoop-de-Doo one of those that you have to pay in advance and you can't be refunded for?

Decisions... decisions! I'm sure some of you experts out there have some advice!