Howdy Margaret!
Welcome to
planDisney. Enjoying the amazing dining experiences at Walt Disney World is one of my family’s favorite things to do. There are so many options available that you can satisfy even the pickiest eater.
Alrighty, so based on my experience, the best thing to do is to prioritize which restaurants you would like to dine at and work your way booking them backward from there. If you are staying at a Disney World Resort Hotel or another Select Hotel, you can book dining reservations for the entire length of your stay (up to 10 nights) starting around 6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. Knowing that you might book a more sought-after reservation like Be Our Guest on the day you are at the Magic Kingdom, towards the end of your visit. Once you have prioritized these by importance, I would review their menus and decide whether you would like breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The
Dining page on the Walt Disney World website has all of your dining experiences available, and you can find the menus to help you decide by clicking on the location and then clicking View Menu. For example, I have some friends who love Sanaa so much that they always have breakfast there. Ok, now that you have all of that, let me give you a few tips to help you ensure you get the dining experiences you want. You can book either through the
Walt Disney World website or via the My Disney Experience app. Let’s walk through using the
My Disney Experience app for now. From the home screen, tap the + button, then tap Check Dining Availability. Next, enter your party size. Now, this is the important part: enter the arrival date as the last day you will be visiting the parks, then tap next. Next, you can enter the time range. I would leave it open unless you have a specific time window for dining, as that might limit your options. Next, you will want to select your location. If you tap Filter Search by Area, you can see each park, along with Disney Springs, to help narrow your choices. After that, you will see all available dining locations and times and can finalize your booking from there.
One final tip I would like to share is that I’ve found that you can typically secure most of your desired reservations by continually checking availability before arrival. Many times, guests’ plans change, and they have to cancel a reservation. So don’t give up because you never know when a little pixie dust will come your way.
Margaret, I hope you and your family have an absolutely magical time at Walt Disney World and that all your dining dreams come true. Please stop back by with any further questions, and we’ll be happy to answer.
See ya real soon,
Robert