Hi there, Rachel! Welcome to planDisney. Table service dining at The Happiest Place on Earth is one of my favorite parts of visiting the parks. Especially when we have a big group of family or friends, it’s always a treat to share a meal at our happy place. I’d love to walk you through some of my favorite tips and tricks for dining with larger parties.
Whenever I need to make reservations for a large group using the
Disneyland app, my tried and true trick is to break the party into smaller groups. I’ve always found luck with groupings of 3-5 guests. While the app may allow reservations for up to 20 people, I’ve found it can get tricky when the party exceeds 10. This is partly because the tables at these restaurants aren’t quite big enough to fit that many guests.
In addition to breaking the party into smaller groups, I also like to stagger our times. Often, the available reservation slots are spaced in increments of 5-30 minutes. Overlapping or booking them back to back allows your party to dine at relatively the same time. I also like to ask the Cast Member at the host stand if there’s any possibility of being seated together or nearby. While this may not always be guaranteed, it never hurts to ask!
When booking dining reservations with large parties, I find that
character dining works especially well. Because the food is typically served buffet-style, you can keep an eye on your party as you grab your food at each station. That’s always comforting, just in case you can’t be seated together. Our favorite character dining spots are a toss-up between
Goofy’s Kitchen and
Storytellers Cafe. We love dining with our loved ones while getting visits at the table from our favorite characters. It always puts a smile on my little guy’s face!
Rachel, thank you so much for visiting planDisney. I hope this helps with booking dining reservations for your upcoming visit. If you have any further questions, planDisney is here to help!
With a Sprinkle of Pixie Dust,
Bev