Love the panel. Thanks for so much info. Going to WDW at end of Sept. I called to schedule character meals 150 days in advance and only got into 2 meals and wanted 5. I was told to call back the week we leave and check. Does this really work?”

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Answer 1

Often persistence does work. I have a trip to WDW coming up in November. There's a particular reservation I want that is not currently available. My plan is to call at least once a week to see if it opens up. People do cancel reservations all the time and you can only take advantage of this if you put yourself in a position to be there when the cancelations happen.

Also, it helps a lot if you are flexible with the timing of your meals. If you call Disney Dining back and ask if there are openings for very early or late meals, you may have better luck.

And sometimes you can squeeze into a character meal even at the last minute. A few weeks ago I went to WDW with very little notice. I didn't even try to make table service reservations because it was the middle of summer and I was so late in the game. Well, it was a Saturday afternoon at the Magic Kingdom. I was with two of my daughters and it was about 4:20. We were hungry, so we were going to head over to a counter service restaurant, but I realized that the Crystal Palace was nearby. On a whim, we walked over and asked if they had anything available for dinner that day. They said that if we wanted to eat right then, we could have dine there. So, we had a meal at the Crystal Palace on a July Saturday with no notice. It was very early for dinner, but it didn't matter because we were hungry.

The moral of the story is keep trying and be flexible and you may end up getting what you're after.

Good luck!

Love the panel. Thanks for so much info. Going to WDW at end of Sept. I called to schedule character meals 150 days in advance and only got into 2 meals and wanted 5. I was told to call back the week we leave and check. Does this really work?”

Meet the Panelist: Erin, New York

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