One of the biggest hurdles to planning any Walt Disney World Resort vacation is reserving dining and knowing all of the ins and outs of Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) at Walt Disney World. To increase your odds of securing your dining wish list check out our Tips For Getting Popular ADRs at Walt Disney World before you begin planning your next magical memory!
- Schedule your dining at 6 AM EST on the morning of your 180th day prior to arrival.
- Don’t fall prey to thinking you can get away with no dining reservations and still get all the most sought after locations as walk-ups. There are some dining locations that you can almost always get a walk-up table however that is not the case at the most popular places so trust us when we say ADRs are a must.
- Use a Couponing to Disney Dream Team Agent to not only help you pick the perfect dining locations for your family and bounce ideas off of but also to secure them for you! This will save you a lot of time (and early morning zzz’s) and headache should your dining selection day not go as exactly perfect.
- Schedule the more difficult to obtain ADRs first. These would include locations such as Be Our Guest, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Akershus and Ohanas. After these most sought after locations are schedule then work on scheduling the rest of your dining.
- Flexibility is a must! Be flexible with your dining times. Often times you will have better luck finding a reservation time when your times are flexible (think early or later that typical dining times).
- Depending on when you are traveling it may be wise to plan your park days around when you are able to get your dining wish list reserved unless you have Park Hopper tickets.
- Have a dining back-up plan! This is a very good idea in case you don’t get all of your dining reservations at first. You can always cancel (at least 1 day in advance for no charge) your back-up reservations if one of your wish list locations opens up.
- If you are looking to reserve a fireworks dinner make sure to schedule it 90 minutes to 2 hours before the scheduled fireworks show.
- When you first don’t succeed…try, try again! Don’t get bummed out if you don’t get your full wish list right at first. Sometimes it takes time and patience as people that have arrival days before you can schedule 180+10 days which will overlap your dates. Because of this sometimes there will be sparse availability depending on when you are traveling. However 9 times out of 10 if you keep checking pixie dust will follow and you will complete your dining wish list. Many times I have literally got the dining reservation I needed the night before we were wanting to go there!
Andrea Fuller says
For one trip, I missed the 6am 180 day scheduling due to last minute trip decisions. The Be Our Guest restaurant was still relatively new and we really wanted to eat there. After trying 3 times a day for 2 weeks, looking for possible openings due to cancellations, Disney sent an email stating they were trying out a new type of service. We were able to get our reservation for exactly when we wanted, being a participant for this new service. It was wonderful! The service went very smoothly and we loved the food!