Hello Emily!
Welcome to planDisney! Here we are a group of experienced Disney travelers and Guests just like you, here to share our expert tips, tricks, and vacation planning advice!
You’ve made a great choice,
‘Ohana is one of the most popular dining locations at the
Walt Disney World Resort and it tends to book very quickly. Everyone loves those noodles and potstickers! As you mentioned, you likely won’t have any luck trying to book a table of 11, I would try for a table of 5 and a table of 6, or if you have to, the 5, 4, and 2 that you mentioned. Know that you won’t be able to reserve two tables in the same name, so either have another member of your party book the second table or make sure you assign the main Guest on that second table to a person other than yourself.
Emily, I recommend you
check for reservations daily, or even twice daily if you can, either online or using the
My Disney Experience Mobile App. Sitting in the school pick-up line? Check for reservations. Standing in line at the market? Check for reservations. Especially in the days leading up to your vacation, other Guests may cancel. Using My Disney Experience is the quickest and fastest way to check for openings.
You can also consider an outside service that will alert you to open reservations. Websites such as Touring Plans and MouseDining can be set up to send you an email alert when a table you are looking for is available. If you are the first Guest to My Disney Experience when you get the alert, you can try to book that table! I particularly like MouseDining. If you are wanting to see availability over a few days, they have an actual calendar. Using that calendar, right at this moment I see a table for 6 on December 6 at 9:30 PM. It is certainly late, but it is a table! Please know that since here at planDisney we are Guests just like you and not Cast Members, we can’t see Disney reservations as a Cast Member would. I can only recommend options that are available to Guests like us.
I would not recommend you wait for two or three tables to all be available at once. That is very unlikely to happen at this point. As soon as you see a table, book it. Then keep trying for the other tables and dates, and hopefully you’ll luck out. Try to get your tables all within a 15-minute timeframe. Then arrive at the restaurant podium a bit early to let them know you are a group traveling together. In my experience, if the last name on all the reservations is the same, Cast Members will sometimes realize you are a big group and may be able to plan for a large table for you. Do keep in mind you may still be seated at different locations in the restaurant. Remember, if you aren’t able to get all the seating you need, cancel your reservations at least 24 hours in advance to avoid cancellation fees.
Sending you all the pixie dust, Emily, for those perfect ‘Ohana reservations!
- Kate