Hi Carol,
Welcome to planDisney!
I am so sorry to hear about your difficulty making
advanced dining reservations! Since the
dining reservation window opens 60-days prior to arrival, reservations are often all booked up a month prior. When I miss that 60-day dining reservation window, I just keep checking. I know it may seem impossible, but cancelations do happen!
My strategy is to just pick an evening and set aside a few hours to check. I then just check constantly during those two to three hours. If you have a party larger than six, that also may create some challenges. In my experience, the smaller my group, the easier it is to get reservations. When searching for a larger group, I will often pick a planning partner. Then we can make dining reservations for the same meal period with two different
My Disney Experience accounts. If we have a group of eight, for example, we each would make a reservation for a party of four at around the same time.
As you consider booking additional restaurants, try searching by meal period instead of a specific time. When a reservation pops up, grab it, even if the time is not ideal. Then, you can keep searching from there. One of my family's favorite restaurants is
Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom. I always book this restaurant first because it is so popular. One year, I saw a 4:15 p.m. dinner opening, and I took it. Given that it takes a few minutes to take everyone's order, we did not get our food until just before 5:00 p.m..
As you continue to plan, I suspect that a few dining reservations will open. Once, I tried a dining reservation finder business that I saw online. They were able to find a few dining reservations, but generally, I just do the searching myself.
Carol, do keep searching. I always check the hard-to-get restaurants first like
Tusker House Restaurant. Remember to check Disney Springs restaurants. My family loves to dine at
Disney Springs - the atmosphere and the food options are phenomenal! Be sure to keep your eye on the
operational updates as more dining options could re-open and procedures could change.
Magic and memories,
Donyell