Welcome to planDisney, Trisha! I also live in Colorado and I'm happy to help you plan your vacation to The Most Magical Place on Earth!
I just returned from a vacation at Walt Disney World Resort with our multi-generational family of 9, so I know what it's like to want to plan a special family trip! While finding dining for larger groups can be a challenge, I have some suggestions that will help you Be Our Guest for dining! Your best chance of getting some dining reservations is to set a reminder on your calendar for 60 days from your arrival date. If you are staying at a
Disney Resorts Collection Hotel, you can start making
advanced dining reservations for your entire stay, 60 days prior to your check-in date, beginning at 6:00 a.m. EST. If you are not staying at a Disney Resort hotel, you can still make dining reservations from the 60-day mark, but you can only do this one day at a time. I was able to make reservations for up to 10 people at some locations, while others required making more than one reservation and splitting up the number of people I was searching for. If you have 1-2 other family members that can assist with making a reservation, you can try to reserve times that are the same or within 15 minutes of each other. When I had to reserve more than one table, I asked a cast member if our dining party could be seated together. While there was no guarantee that our dining party would be accommodated, we were lucky enough to be seated together each time. Cast members will always do their best to work their magic!
Some of the locations I can recommend that might be able to accommodate larger parties would be those that serve a buffet such as
Biergarten Restaurant at
EPCOT or
The Crystal Palace at
Magic Kingdom Park.
Chef Mickey's at
Disney's Contemporary Resort could be another option where there is an all-you-care-to-enjoy breakfast or dinner. Our family enjoyed breakfast at
Trattoria al Forno located at
Disney's BoardWalk and it was the perfect way to start our day before heading to the theme parks! Our large group also loved dining at
The BOATHOUSE at
Disney Springs which is a must-do, personal favorite of mine!
I hope you get the dining reservations your heart is dreaming of! With the
Walt Disney 50th Anniversary Celebration happening this year, there are many fun things to see and do! I hope your family vacation will be a magical one! Please visit us again at planDisney if you have any additional questions. We are happy to help!
Happy Planning!
Lisa