Prior to 2020, I had only been to Disney World in Florida via cruise ship excursions so the need of making a dining reservation never crossed my mind.
We went to Disney for a week over Thanksgiving in 2020 and quickly had a very rude awakening. If you don't have dining reservations, you'll have a very hard time eating at a sit down restaurant.
With the current rephased opening since the pandemic, dining reservations can be made 60 days in advance. (It used to be 180 days in advance).
You absolutely want to book those reservations as soon as you can, preferably 60 days in advance!
We were just in Disney and went to book dining reservations about 50 days out and many restaurants were already sold out!
Don't forget that you also need to make park reservations. Make those as soon as you can as well! The last thing you want is to go on your Disney trip and realize you can't visit any parks because you waited too long to make your park reservations.
One thing I found to be helpful was to check dining reservations and then plan my park days around the reservations I was able to make. For example, I really wanted to book Chefs de France for dinner at EPCOT. The only day it was available was the Saturday we would be there, so that's when I booked our EPCOT park reservation.
Dining reservations at the four parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios) can only be made via the Disney App or on the website.
Do note, that dining reservations can be cancelled up to 24 hours prior with no penalty. Less than that, or no shows incur a $10 per person charge. When you make your dining reservations, you'll need to enter a credit card.
If you have some flexibility in your plans, you may want to check dining reservations while on your vacation, the day of or the day prior. For example, we were visiting Magic Kingdom on a Tuesday and I had our dining reservation for 8:50pm at The Plaza Restaurant. I had originally thought it would be a good idea for the fireworks but then started to second guess myself....
Monday afternoon I decided to check the app to see if anything opened up. To my surprise, 7 restaurants showed availability!!! I ended up switching our reservation to 8:50pm at Tony's Town Square Restaurant (the day of) and it worked out SO much better for fireworks!
Apparently some restaurants hold reservations to be released the day prior/day of. They also have limited walk in availability, but that's truly taking a gamble, especially if you have kids and need to stick to somewhat of a schedule.
Tip: You're able to check in at a restaurant up to 20 minutes prior to your reservation time. You aren't guaranteed a table early, but you may get lucky. Also, a reservation means you may be seated up to 20 minutes before or AFTER your reservation time.
Notice how I only mentioned the 4 parks above? I didn't mention the resort restaurants or Disney Springs restaurants.... If you don't see the reservations that you're looking for via the Disney app or website, then check OpenTable! You'll be surprised at how many of those restaurants accept reservations via OpenTable; and many of them have more availability there versus booking thru Disney!
Finally, if you'd like to try to save some money on parking for a day, book a dining reservation at a resort that has boat or monorail transportation to the Disney parks. Then park at the resort using valet parking. Let them know you have a reservation at the restaurant on site. Get on the monorail or boat and visit the park then come back for dinner, or eat breakfast/lunch then go to the park. Most likely the restaurant will validate your parking! Obviously you don't want to try this trick if you plan to get to the parks at opening and leave for dinner time.
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