Melissa,
I am sorry that searching for a dinner reservation has frustrated you. It can be a hassle when you have a particular restaurant in mind, but it is not available.
I have found that the best way for me to search for a dining reservation at a specific mealtime is to search more broadly before narrowing down to a location or time. Here are the steps I follow
- From the main Walt Disney World website on the main menu, I hover over "Things to Do", and select "Make Reservations".
- When you get to that landing page, instead of picking a specific hour and minute of a dining time, select the "Dinner" option in the "Time" drop-down menu. This will give you a broader set of results. Also enter your date and party size, and you will then see all the venues available.
- If you know you are going to be in a specific location, you could then narrow down the results further by selecting from the drop-down menu that will initially be listed as "All Parks & Resorts" down to just that location you have in mind.
When I tried this, based on your arrival date, I got results at more than 50 restaurants, with about 35 others that were listed as unavailable. Of course for some of those 50 results, the available dining times may not have been ideal for your family, but there were a lot of options.
BONUS TIP #1When you narrow down your selections based on a location, like picking just restaurants at the
Magic Kingdom Park, you are not going to see some nearby options from area resorts. Tag area resorts too, like
Disney's Contemporary Resort and
Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, so that you don't miss some great dining options, like
Steakhouse 71. Leaving the park, riding the monorail around for dinner, then heading back into the park is a great alternative if no options are open in the park.
BONUS TIP #2Remember as well that walk-up dining is still an option. You may have to wait for a table, but not having a reservation does not always mean you are totally shut out.
I hope that this helps.
Have a Magical Vacation!Doug