Hi Megan!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you so much for sending this Disneyland Resort Dining question to us hEAR! Ooooh, I love thinking about all of my Dining options for our Disney days. With all of the seasonal menus, super cute treats, standby classics and Walt's favorites, I like to say that Disneyland is like an
Eat Park, too!
I am so sorry that you're having trouble securing advance dining reservations, Megan. I don't have the proper magic mirror to lookup your party details but I have a few guesses and tricks that might help. Disney's parks are still encouraging social distancing measures, and one of the ways they did that was by limiting dining reservations to parties of six and under. I did, however, find a few tables where eight could dine, but it seems that the locations that can accommodate a bigger group are either few and far between or are already booked for most time slots. If you're looking for a table that will seat seven or more, what you can do is split your group up into two smaller reservations and book them as close together as you can find. (ie: one table of six and one of two, etc.) Then, when you check-in, ask the host if your tables can be close together. There aren't any guarantees, but they'll try their hardest! (Pro tip: two people in your party will each need to book one reservation.)
A second trick when searching for
dining reservations is to select an exact time (ex: 11:30 A.M., 2:00 P.M.) vs. the broad meal category. (Ex: "lunch".) If you do this on the main dining page you'll get results for every location with an opening within 60 minutes of your search. If searching in an individual restaurant page, you should get the three nearest reservation results for that meal period. If you still can't find what you're looking for, don't give up! Guests schedule and drop dining reservations all the time. I like to check my
Disneyland Mobile App for openings during those little pockets of found time throughout the day, like when waiting in line at the bank or at school pick-up. And to add that it's never too late to hope for some magic, there are
11 dining locations that offer Mobile Walk-Up Wait Lists that you can try as a same-day last resort!
Don't forget about
Mobile Food & Beverage Ordering for over
40 Quick-Service locations. Many of these fast favorites also feature limited-time and seasonal eats so it's worth scoping their menus out again; even if you were just hEAR, you never know what might have been added! And speaking of fun food additions, I'm so happy to share that the
Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival kicks off during your visit! Keep your eye on the
Disney Parks Blog as they usually announce all of the festival marketplace menus a few weeks before the start of the fun.
I hope this helped to clEAR up some of your dining dilemmas, Megan! And if you have any more Disneyland Resort planning questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen