Hey there, Jenny! Thank you so much for visiting planDisney with your question. I hope we can get you some helpful information so you can continue planning your upcoming visit to 'The Happiest Place on Earth' during this
holiday season!
I see that you're hoping to secure a
dining reservation for a larger travel party. Your approach to splitting the group into smaller dining parties is actually a very good intuition! In my experience, I have found greater success when
booking reservations for two smaller parties. This may be because some dining locations have a maximum table capacity and may not be able to open up reservations for larger groups either online or within the
Disneyland mobile app. The key to remember here is that you may need to recruit some help from another adult in your travel party, as the reservation system will typically not permit a single Guest to hold multiple "conflicting" reservations (at or near the same time). When I travel with my extended family, my husband and I are usually the ones who make two dining reservations for 4-5 people under each of our accounts. We aim for reservation times within about 15 minutes of one another. Then, we kindly visit the table service dining location on the day of our reservation and check with the Cast Member at the host desk to see if they can accommodate our larger party by combining the reservations or seating our tables near each other. While this is not a guarantee, my experience has always been very pleasant and the Cast Members always work so hard to ensure that they take great care of Guests!
If this is still not resolving the issue for you, it may simply be that dining reservations are quite limited during highly popular visit dates such as Christmas Eve and other holidays. But, don't despair! Keep trying to access the reservation system periodically as your visit approaches, as Guests regularly change or cancel their plans which may free up inventory in the dining reservation system. I hope this has been a helpful overview for now, Jenny. If we can lend any other support or share other recommendations for your magical adventure to Disneyland Resort, please feel welcome to visit
planDisney again soon.
I'm wishing you and your loved ones a practically perfect Disneyland Resort experience this holiday season!
Magically yours,
Tishra