5 Best Tips to Snag Disney World Dining Reservations

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Walt Disney World Dining Reservations can be very difficult to get so read on for 5 tips on how to snag those hard-to-get Disney World dining reservations!

After making dining reservations at the 60-day mark, I wanted to share with you my favorite tips for how to get those hard-to-get reservations like Be Our Guest Restaurant and Beaches and Cream.

When can I make Disney World Dining Reservations?

In 2021, Disney World does not allow guests to make dining reservations until 60 days before their vacation begins. If you are staying on property, you can make dining reservations for the length of your stay (up to 10 days).

If you are staying off-site (including the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resorts) you will need to make a dining reservation for every day of your trip at the 60-day mark for each.x

Once things get back to normal, Disney World will likely change its policy to allow reservations 180 days before your vacation begins, as it was in the past.

You can make your Disney World dining reservations online with the MyExperience App or on the Disney website.

If you absolutely must, the Disney World dining reservations phone number is (407) 939-3463 but this number should be used only as a last result because the phone lines open an hour after the online reservations begin.

What are the Hardest to Get Walt Disney World Dining Reservations?

Be Our Guest Restaurant (c) Disney Parks

Due to Disney’s social distancing regulations and the fact that some of the Walt Disney World restaurants are temporarily closed, reservations are even harder to make not only for the parks but for the restaurants.

Some of the hardest Disney World restaurants to get reservations for –

Be Our Guest Restaurant, Magic Kingdom

Beaches and Cream, The Beach Club Resort

Chef Mickeys (includes limited Disney World Character Dining), Contemporary Resort

Cinderella’s Royal Table, Magic Kingdom

Le Cellier Steakhouse, Epcot

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, Hollywood Studios

Tip #1: Make Disney World Dining Reservations for the Furthest Day Out

One of the best tips I can offer is to make your dining reservations for the furthest day out and work inward to the soonest date of your trip.

Example: For my trip to Disney World in July I was able to make a Be Our Guest reservation for our last full day in the parks. The restaurant had no availability for our first day couple of days.

Tip #2: Be Flexible With Your Disney Theme Park Dates

I had made theme park reservations at Disney World a while back when we planned our vacation. Thankfully the availability was green for the week we were going so I was luckily able to change park reservations based on dining availability. If this is an option for you too, I’d highly recommend being flexible with your dates so you can get hard to make reservations!

Example: We had planned on visiting Hollywood Studios on our second date in the parks but could not make a Sci-Fi Dine-In reservation until a couple of days later so we made the dining reservation and then changed our park reservations to reflect the dining reservations. We ended up changing all but 1 of our park reservations because of the dining availability.

Tip #3: Look for Disney Reservations By Exact Time

Disney’s dining reservations site allows you to look up available times based on either Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dinner or by specific times (every half hour).

It was recommended to us by our travel agent, Christina Salisbury with Ears of Experience, that we try for reservations based on specific times we wanted to eat. This turned out to be a great tip!

For example 2 restaurants we especially wanted to eat at were Sci-Fi Dine-In and Be Our Guest. Instead of clicking ‘dinner’ or ‘lunch’, I tried closing time at each park. We lucked out and got reservations for 5 minutes before each park closed. Out of curiosity I tried searching the same restaurants under the ‘dinner’ tab and that time did not come up.

Tip #4: Consider Non-Disney Restaurants on Property

Did you know that some of the restaurants on Disney World property are not owned by Disney? For example, Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom or The Boathouse at Disney Springs. These restaurants still take Disney gift cards, are still on Disney property, and yet you can often make reservations for them before your 60-day mark.

Yak and Yeti allow you to make reservations by calling them directly at (407) 824-9384.

The Boathouse and other restaurants at Disney Springs allow you to make reservations via OpenTable.

Tip #5: Look for Disney Reservations the Day Beforehand

Folks can make reservations at Disney World restaurants without a deposit. However, if they cancel their reservations within the 24-hour window they will be dinged a penalty. So often many people will release reservations the day beforehand.

Example. I have peeked at the dining reservations availability the last couple of weeks and found reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table, Be Our Guest, and Beaches and Cream available the evening beforehand.

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