Step 5: Dining Reservations

The only way to make sure that you get to eat at the restaurants that you absolutely can't miss out on is to make Advance Dining Reservations (ADR). The most popular restaurants- Be Our Guest, Chef Mickey's, Cinderella's Royal Table- book up fast and will definitely require a reservation.

You can make your reservations up to 180 days out for your entire trip.

Don't worry, if you plan a last minute trip you can still get reservations at a lot of places. We have taken two "last minute" trips, planning both a month and a half out and we were able to eat at a lot of great places. On this last trip we were able to score a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest.

Before you can make reservations you need to decide where you want to actually make reservations for. We personally plan where we're going to eat based on what park we have planned for that day of the trip. So, making your daily plan before deciding where to eat is important. (Ex. If we are spending the day at Magic Kingdom we will have breakfast either at a Magic Kingdom restaurant, at a Monorail Loop resort, or at our own resort. We would do lunch inside Magic Kingdom, and for dinner we would consider Magic Kingdom restaurants or one at a Monorail Loop resort, or even Wilderness Lodge which is accessible by boat.)

Once you have made your daily plan and decided where you're going to eat it's time to make those reservations. Or wait for your window to open.

As I said, your window opens up 180 days before the start of your trip. You can make your reservations over the phone beginning at 7am Eastern or you can make them online starting at 6am Eastern.

We prefer to make reservations online because there is no sitting on hold or errors because the representative misheard you. It is always good to have the Disney phone number on hand though just in case the Disney site goes down, which can happen.

When you make your reservations, go in order of importance and not by day. Start out by making reservations for the hard to get reservations-Be Our Guest, Cinderella's Royal Table, Chef Mickey's, and the ones that you don't want to miss out on. If there is somewhere that you absolutely have to eat at during your trip or it will ruin your vacation, put those right after the hard to get ones on your list.

If for some reason the place that you wish to dine is completely book up- you plan your trip less than 6 months in advance- don't worry. Keep going back. You can always cancel one reservation and switch it with another if the one you really wanted opens up. Also, don't be afraid to change your daily plans if necessary to accommodate the dining you absolutely have to partake of.

Now, let's see how to make reservations online, step-by-step.

The “All Dining” Page is the place to start. Here you’ll find all of the Disney restaurants and search filters. These filters include the type of dining experience, the price range, cuisine, guest rating, and whether they accept certain dining plans.

From here enter any filters that will help you make your choices and then select your restaurant of choice by clicking on the restaurant name.

The main page for each restaurant will give you an overview of the experience that you can expect at that restaurant, a link to the menu, the hours of operation, and a box where you can check for availability for a reservation.

This box is the next step. Input your desired date, time or meal, and your party size. If you have a baby or small child that will not be using the dining plan, if you have it, but will be using a high chair or booster seat, include them in your party size so that there will be a place for them at the table.

For the time you can either choose the meal you wish to eat there or an actual time.

  

  

Once you have input all of your information press the find a table button. If there are times available for your selected day they will show up in that same blue box. If there is nothing available it will tell you that tables cannot be found. If you really want to eat that this restaurant try searching for another day or even another meal. As mentioned earlier, keep coming back and looking, you never know if someone will cancel and a spot will open up.

From the available times, if they work for you, select one and you will be taken to a page to confirm the members of your party and your contact information.

Once you have confirmed your dining party, click next, and you will be taken to the payment page. You will be required to use your credit card as a place holder. Your card will not be charged, don’t worry, it is just a place holder.

Input and confirm your card information and continue onto the next page. Before you confirm your entire reservation scroll to the bottom of the page and if you have any special requests, this is where you make them. These requests could be access for a wheelchair or dietary needs. Below is the allergy page…

Mark your requests, confirm your reservation, and then comes the hardest part- waiting for your reservation time.

Happy Planning!