Hi Jennifer! Welcome to planDisney.
You are getting closer and closer to your September visit to the Walt Disney World Resort - hurray! The
EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will be in full swing, happy haunts will be out to socialize at the
Disney After Hours BOO Bash, and excitement will be in the air for
The World's Most Magical Celebration. As Mickey's friends would sing, it's going to be "a good, good, good, good time!"
Currently, Guests
staying at Disney Resorts Collection hotels may
make dining reservations 60 days in advance of their check-in date for the length of their stay, up to 10 days. If you won't be staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, you may make your reservations 60 days from your visit date and will log in each day at the 60-day mark to make your reservations.
As for timing, reservations may be made online beginning at 5:45 a.m., EST. You'll see that some Walt Disney World webpages note 5:45 a.m. as the time reservations open, but in my experience reservations have opened at 6:00 a.m. I always set myself up around 5:40 a.m. on the morning my dining reservation window opens, and I begin to check at 5:45 a.m.
My favorite tip for dining reservations is to make them in order of difficulty. If there's a dining experience that's really important to you, like breakfast at
Chef Mickey's or a special dinner at
California Grill, I would suggest planning that for the later days of your visit to give yourself the greatest chance at availability. Make your dining reservations in order of difficulty, not chronological order.
Finally, don't give up! I'm finding dining reservations much trickier than usual these days, but keep checking, and be flexible with your times. On my recent visit, my family wanted to experience
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The only reservation we could find was at 11:00 a.m., which seemed early for lunch, but it turned out we were ready for a break in the air conditioning and it worked out perfectly! (PS: they have great milkshakes!)
I'm sending pixie-dusted wishes that your dining reservations all work out the way you're wishing. As you count down to your September visit, please come back and see us if you think of any further questions.
Wishing you a magical vacation,
Robyn