Hi Chaleen!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you so much for sending this great Disneyland Resort Dining question to us hEAR!
Storytellers Cafe is one of my favorite dining locations at Disneyland Resort. The restaurant is beautiful, the buffet is always top notch, and the location at
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa cannot be beat. I've seen large groups dining hEAR; I once saw a large wedding shower at a table tucked away in a corner during the Mickey's Tales of Adventure Brunch Buffet, and Chip & Dale were attempting to sneak off with the box of bunt cake shower favors the hosts had planned to pass out to their guests! Those silly chipmunks sure are something else!
Disneyland Resort is still slowly easing the various pandemic protocols put in place for the
reopening of its parks and restaurants last year. One of those still in place is limiting the number of Guests who can be seated at one table per dining reservation, which is a maximum of six (6). But! I'm happy to say that there's a workaround to this, which is by booking multiple reservations with as many tables needed to cover your entire crew, and then requesting that you be seated near each other. In your case, Chaleen, you'll need four separate tables to seat your complete party of 19. Needing this many reservations comes with its own issues, but I have some tips and tricks to set you up for success:
~ Storytellers is open for breakfast from 7:00 A.M. until 11:00 A.M., for brunch from 11:00 A.M. until 1:30 A.M., and for dinner from 5:00 P.M. until 9:30 P.M. Your best bet in securing four reservations around the same time AND having them seated close together will be to aim for the last seating time of Brunch between 1:00 and 1:30 P.M. or as soon as the Dinner service starts at 5:00 P.M. (Booking the last times available during a character meal period is my favorite Disney Dining tip; not only will these furry friends continue making their rounds until the very last guest leaves, the buffet line will stay put too, with dishes being replenished well past that 1:30 timestamp.)
~ You're going to try to get the reservation bookings as close together as they can get. You might not get four tables at exactly the same time, rather within five to 20 minutes of each other. This is fine. Notate in each reservation that you're part of a large group (include the other reservation numbers if you can), and when you check-in for the first table, let the Cast Member know all of these reservations are together and you're trying to sit as close together as possible. It may take a few extra minutes, but these Cast Members will try their hardest to get your group all together.
~ The four different reservations will need to be in four different names. The reservation system won't allow one guest to hold multiple dining reservations within 90 minutes of another reservation. So be sure to coordinate your other three bookers as
the three other Guests who are guaranteed to show up.
~ Lastly, you might have to mix up how you book the reservations. Instead of sEARching for three tables of six and one for a party of one, look for two tables for six and two tables for four, etc. There isn't a penalty for showing up with slightly fewer guests than the number you booked (ie: booked seats for 22 but only 19 attend), however, don't go overboard because there is a cancellation fee if you drop an entire table at the last minute.
I hope this helped to plan your upcoming party, Chaleen! And if you have any more Disneyland Resort planning questions, We're all Ears!
~Kristen N.