Alexandrea,
Thanks for asking your question to planDisney!
My family is heading off to Walt Disney World for Spring Break this year (
yes, again!), and earlier this week I was busy booking our exciting meal selections. While the time that booking opens seemingly changes, my experience this time was that the availability opened at 6 am. That, of course, is on East Coast, Orlando time. But most sources report that it opens at 5:45 am. I would plan to use that as your start time, but do not worry if they don't open until 6.
WARNINGMany report that
dining availability can open at 5:45 am, and plenty of my planDisney friends have experienced just that. When I got up earlier this week to book those exciting destinations, like
'Ohana and the
Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, I anticipated that time as well. But the time is not set in stone officially, and I did not get to start until 6 am. But if you have a particular restaurant in mind that is hard to obtain, like the two I just mentioned, you may want to give yourself that extra 15-minute window, just in case.
BONUS TIP #1If you are staying at a Disney resort hotel, you can also book up to 10 days into your trip, from that first day. So it can be, in some cases, almost like getting to book 70 days in advance. When you are planning out your schedule, putting those harder to secure meals later in your vacation schedule will help.
Why? Well, for people who booked ahead of you, because their trip dates are before yours, they likely have snatched up more of the available reservations. But they have not gone in and taken the dates at the end of your trip, since they will have already ended their vacation. So, getting those hard-to-get-reservations at the end of your trip will be easier.
EXAMPLE: You are visiting from the 10th to the 16th. People who were going from the 7th through the 13th have probably booked the popular reservations for the dates of their own trip, including those earliest dates of your trip through the 13th. But there would not be as many guests that booked meals for dates from the 14th through the 16th. So, if you don’t see spots early in your week, don’t lose heart and swing to dates later in your trip!
BONUS TIP #2Sometimes I will get up early to score an important reservation, navigate to the restaurant page a few minutes beforehand, and nothing shows for my planned dates.
Maddening! But it is because you might need to refresh the web page, so that the new reservation openings are updated. So remember to refresh, refresh, refresh!
Please feel free to
write me back directly with any follow-up questions.
Have a Magical (and delicious) vacation!
Doug