If you are planning on dining on Walt Disney World property, it’s in your party’s best interest to be dining with advance Disney dining reservations (called ADR). An advance dining reservation guarantees you a table at the restaurant of your choosing around the time you specify on the reservation (your actual seating time varies depending on how busy the restaurant is). With the dining plan gaining popularity each year, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to walk up and request a seating at a restaurant especially the popular ones like Cinderella’s Castle. It’s important to plan your meals and reserve your ADRs before you arrive at Disney World in order to eat where you want when you want to eat there.
How does Disney’s Advance Dining Reservations Work?
Unlike a typical reservation at a restaurant where they book you at a specific table at a specific time, Disney of course does things their own way. They have a set number of tables available during each specific block of time. They book those seatings without booking you at a specific table. Say they have ten 4 person tables available at 2 pm on a given day. They book ten parties of 4 at those said tables without assigning a particular table to any party. The first of the 2 pm parties to arrive at the restaurant gets the first seating available even if that said party was the last party to book their reservation. So if the Smith Family booked their reservation for 2 pm 6 months ago and the Jones family booked their reservation for 2 pm a week ago and the Jones family arrives at the restaurant first, they get the first available seating since there are no particular tables assigned.
How do you book your Advance Dining Reservation?
To book your advance dining reservations, you can call Disney directly at 407-WDW-Dine starting at 7 am EST on the 180th day before you arrive at Disney World. You can also book your reservation online starting at 6 am EST on the 180th day before you arrive at Disney World or if you are using a Disney travel agent they will do this for you.
If you are staying on Disney property, not only can you book your ADRs 180 days in advance, you can also book all the ADRs for the first 10 days of your stay when you are 180 days from your arrival date. So say you were arriving at Disney on January 23rd, 2012 and you wanted to book your dining reservations. Since July 27th is 180 days from that arrival date, you could call Disney on the 27th and book your advance dining reservations. But instead of calling again on July 28th to book the reservations from January 24th (which are 180 days apart), you can book your dining reservations for the first 10 days of your stay on July 27th for the dates January 23rd to February 1st, 2012.
Tips on Booking your Dining Reservations:
- Do your research before the 180 day mark arrives. Know where you want to eat and roughly when you want to eat there.
- Be flexible. You won’t always get the reservation time you want. Be sure you have alternative times and dates prepared before you call.
- Most people book their reservations either on the hour or on the half hour. Try booking your reservations on the quarter hours (such as 1:15 or 1:45 pm).
- If you plan on dining during off peak times (such as before noon or between 3-5 pm or after 8 pm), you are more likely to get the time you want.
- If your child is under 3, they still need to be included in your party size even if their meal is free. It would be hard to squeeze a party of 3 at a table for 2.
- Take the reservations you are offered (if every other time you wanted is booked) even if it isn’t at the time you desired. Then call back every day or every couple of days (especially as your trip gets closer) to see if a better time is available. You can always cancel the less desirable time if nothing else comes up and you decide you don’t want to dine there after all.
- Select restaurants do require a credit card guarantee and some even require that you pay for them ahead of time (such as Cinderella’s Royal Table). If you have a dining plan, you will still have to give the credit card to guarantee the reservation but you won’t have to pay for it ahead of time.
- If you have special dietary concerns, let Disney know when you book so they can note the reservation. This includes allergies such as gluten or wheat, shellfish, soy, lactose or milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, or eggs. Email [email protected] at least 2 weeks before you depart to provide further details on your needs and to confirm the dietary accommodations.
- If you are celebrating something special, make sure they note it on the reservation.
Tips on Using your Dining Reservations at Disney:
- Call and confirm all your reservations before you depart just to be safe. Plus make sure you carry the reservation numbers with you in case you need them.
- Allow up to an hour to get to your dining reservation. Add an additional 30 minutes if your reservation is at a resort as transportation isn’t available from resort to resort. You will have to go from your resort, to an open park and then board a bus, boat or monorail to get to your dining reservation at the resort.
- Arrive early. We usually arrive up to 30 minutes before our set reservation time. If it’s busy, you will wait. You could wait up to an hour even though you have an advance dining reservation.
- If you aren’t going to make it to a reservation, call 407-WDW-Dine or let the concierge at your resort know so they can cancel the reservation. This way they aren’t waiting on you to arrive and can give your spot to someone else.
- If you have a larger party (6 or more) it may help get the reservation you want if you split up your party
Do you have any tips to add on booking or using a dining reservation?
If you love Disney Characters, here is my list of ideal Disney Character Dining Reservations.
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
One thing we learned about ADR’s…if you have a larger party (6 or more) it may help get the reservation you want if you split up your party. We go with my cousins and their 2 kids and discovered that our party of 7 often ends up waiting up to 45 minutes past our reservation time, while parties of 3 and 4 walk right in. Even if you already made the reservation for your whole party…you can offer to split at check in if it will help get you seated faster.
I don’t have any major food allergies, other than chocolate which is fairly easy to avoid. But I did ask at Port Orleans if they could make sure that they rinsed the scoop between dipping my son’s chocolate ice-cream, and my vanilla. They were SO cautious and washed it in HOT water and went to great lengths to be sure I was safe. Compared to the reaction I get in our small town when I ask similar questions, it was amazing.
How do I get a reservation at the restaurant in Canada. I have been going to WDW for years and have never snagged a reservation there. Is there a secret??
Honestly…I feel Le Cellier is way overrated. We have eaten there twice and both times had some pretty dismal service and food that was barely edible. That’s not to say everything we’ve had there is terrible…but both times we ate there my husband ordered prime rib and it wasn’t good. That last time it was so tough he was literally sawing it with his knife and couldn’t even chew it. My cousin’s salmon was raw in the middle. I had the mushroom fillet mignon which was wonderful as was the cheddar cheese soup…but it was about the only thing that turned out good. Even the kids meals were terrible. They comped us a side order of soup to make up for the inedible prime rib. They definitely have their moments…but for the prices they charge…it should all be spectacular and it was far from it. If you are going to WDW during the peak seasons, most likely you are not going to have much luck getting a reservation there. We go in the off season and always book at our 180 day mark. If you can’t get the reservation…don’t feel bad. There are a lot of other much better restaurants at Disney.
If I have a reservation for a restaurant in a park for a time before opening can I take resort transportation? How do you usually do it?
@Becky, The busses start running at 6 am. Sometimes the drivers will take you right to your destination if you are the only ones on the bus! (instead of transferring to another bus or monorail)
We went last December with a group of 14. My family of 4 was on the Dining Plan so I had all of our reservations made 180 days in advance. Throughout those 6 months other members of our party decided they wanted to join us. Sometimes I was able to add them in advance. Sometimes not. But when we checked in for our ADR I always asked if we could increase the number and we were able to
every time. The moral of my story is to book the higest number you can and then try to increase once you check in. They are very accomodating!