We’re not foodies, but we are planners—and we are hardcore Walt Disney World planners. A big part of planning a Walt Disney World vacation is picking and booking your dining reservations—usually called “Advance Dining Reservations” or ADRs.
In this post, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about Disney World dining reservations, from which restaurants take them to which are the best and most popular, and of course when and how to make them. Let’s get cookin’!
Related Posts
This post covers dining reservations at Walt Disney World. This is a completely separate issue from dining plans, which are a way to pre-pay for credits that you can use for meals at Disney World. We have a Complete Guide to Disney Dining Plans here.
Which Disney World Restaurants Take Reservations?
The Disney World website lists around 400 restaurants. This includes various seasonal and non-seasonal dining “experiences” and packages, but it’s a good rough approximation of the number of restaurants offered. Of those, just over 100 Disney World restaurants take reservations. Roughly a third of those are special packages or unique offerings that we aren’t really covering in this post. That leaves around 70 restaurants that take reservations.
For the most part, this breaks down simply. Most of the restaurants that take reservations are the table service or buffet restaurants. If you’ve got a waiter, it probably takes reservations. Some of these restaurants are at Disney hotels, some are at Disney Springs, some are in the Disney parks. (Yay! There’s more than theme park food in Disney parks!)
If it’s a “quick service” restaurant where you’ll be walking up to a register and ordering, it usually won’t take reservations. There are occasional exceptions. For example, Be Our Guest used to offer quick service at breakfast and lunch while also taking reservations for those meals (now it is all table service).
The bottom line for this section is simple: if you know in advance that you want to dine somewhere, you should always check if it takes reservations.
Disney is changing which restaurants that take reservations regularly, with additions like Beaches and Cream (between the Yacht Club and Beach Club). For a while, even ABC Commissary (a quick service restaurant at Hollywood Studios) took reservations, surprising many.
Most Popular Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World
In this section we’ll talk about the most popular advance dining reservations at Walt Disney World. These are going to be the restaurants that you’ll have to be prepared to book ASAP (which is what the rest of the post is about). We’re not including things like packages or unique events here. These are just standard meal reservations.
Generally speaking, character meals are going to be in more demand. So if you hear that some restaurant is getting characters, or an existing character meal is changing characters (not a common occurrence, but it happens), plan accordingly.
We’re going to break this into three groups.
The first group is restaurants that you absolutely have to book as soon as possible (if you want to eat at them) and consists of four restaurants—Victoria & Albert’s (at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa), Cinderella’s Royal Table (at Magic Kingdom, inside Cinderella Castle), Storybook Dining at Artist Point with Snow White (at Wilderness Lodge), and Be Our Guest (at Magic Kingdom, “inside” Belle & Beast’s castle).
Victoria & Albert’s—along with Victoria & Albert’s Chef’s Table Dinner and Victoria & Albert’s Dinner Queen Victoria Room—is the single toughest reservation to get at Walt Disney World. Not only will it fill up well in advance (we cover booking windows in detail below), but no one is cancelling a meal at Victoria & Albert’s. This is something you plan a trip around.
Cinderella’s Royal Table is just about the same difficulty as Victoria & Albert’s. It fills up at well in advance, and families are very hesitant to cancel, though probably not to the same degree as Victoria & Albert’s.
Storybook Dining at Artist Point with Snow White is a popular character dinner at Wilderness Lodge.
Be Our Guest just barely makes it into this group. I know other sites disagree with me, and I encourage you to read as much everywhere as possible, but Be Our Guest is easier to get into than the above three restaurants.
While it often books well in advance, it sees more cancellations than the above three. That said, I’m grouping it here to be safe!
The second group is restaurants you’ll want to book well in advance but that you don’t need to lose your mind for. These five restaurants are: California Grill (at Disney’s Contemporary Resort), ‘Ohana (at Polynesian Village Resort), Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (at the Norway Pavilion in Epcot), Chef Mickey’s (at Contemporary), and Space 220 at Epcot.
One thing to remember about this second group is that while they may have okay availability, you will probably be looking at really bad times if you don’t book them ASAP.
The third group is a single dinner show: Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue (at Fort Wilderness). We just want to know that you’ll often see wide availability for this show, but it has different categories of seating. So you might see every day on the calendar has availability, but if you clicked through you might find the best seats hard to come by.
But what about [this restaurant]?
The above list isn’t going to be perfect for every trip. If there’s a restaurant that you’re looking into that isn’t there, you should always investigate its availability on the Disney World website just to be safe.
Just visit right now and see—is there space today? Tomorrow? Next week? In 60 days? In 58 days? This will give you a good sense of how difficult it is to get reservations. The best way to tell if an ADR is popular is to look and see if there are many ADRs available!
Walk Up Lists
Before we get to advance reservations, I want to quickly cover an option you’ll want to keep in mind during your trip—walk up lists. Like basically all restaurants in the world, you can always walk up to a Disney restaurant and see if they’re taking walk ups and what a wait might look like. But for select restaurants (those most likely to have walk up availability) Disney now allows you to join a walk up list in the app.
When you search for dining availability in the Disney World app, you’ll see the ability to search “Now.” This gives you a list of restaurants with walk up lists and, if available, their estimated wait. Note that you have to be relatively close to a restaurant to join its walkup list.
When Can I Book Disney World Advance Dining Reservations?
Let’s split this up into two sections—one for the general public and one for guests of Disney’s hotels at Walt Disney World.
But First—Same Day Reservations
Before we got to how early you can book Walt Disney World dining reservations, let’s talk about how late you can do the same. We regularly make same-day dining reservations. While you should never count on this, we want to remind people that it can happen and to highlight one thing…
Oftentimes you can get same-day reservations for restaurants even when their “standby wait” is long. This is especially true around lunch time. Groups who walk up to a restaurant will be told to wait an hour or more for a text when sometimes they could just go online and book the same time—or even an earlier time—as a reservation.
When can the general public make Disney Advance dining reservations?
Anyone can make a reservation at a Disney World restaurant up to 60 days in advance through the Disney World website or the My Disney Experience app. Drafting this section on January 4, if I visit the Disney World website I’m able to make reservations through March 5, which is today + 60 days. The reservation phone line opens at 7AM Eastern Time, but restaurants may be available for booking online as early at 5:45AM Eastern.
When can guests of Disney Hotels make Disney Dining Reservations?
Great question! The answer is…complicated.
Dive into the world of online Disney World fandom and you’re bound to see “60+10 days” sitting comfortably among other shorthand like “LL” and “DH” and “ADR.” Here’s what “60+10 days” means in Disney parlance…
“60+10 days” is a perk of staying at a Disney hotel at Walt Disney World. Guests of these hotels can make dining reservations beginning 60 days before their arrival date (hence “60”) and can book for their arrival date plus the next ten days of their trip (hence “+10”).
Note: I’ve seen people say it is ten days including arrival date, but I’ve seen more examples that it is arrival date plus ten days. I haven’t booked a ten-night stay recently enough to find out (and either way, I’d never trust a single example).
For stays of longer than ten nights, you’ll be able to make reservations for the later days 70 days in advance. That is, 60+10 rolls forward one day at a time (see the last example below if this isn’t clear).
We’re going to run through some quick examples, but keep in mind that the policies may change, Cast Members may have different understandings of this complex rule, and the My Disney Experience booking system can be touchy. If you have or had an experience that differs from these examples, please feel free to leave it in the comments.
60+10 Examples
EXAMPLE: I’m staying at a nearby Hilton from November 1 to November 10 (not actually, stalkers). I want to make a reservation for Be Our Guest dinner on November 7. I will have to wait until September 8—60 days prior to November 7—because I am not a guest of a Disney hotel.
EXAMPLE: I’m staying at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort from November 1 to November 10. I want to make a reservation for Be Our Guest breakfast on November 7. I can make my reservation on September 2—60 days before my check-in date of November 1—because I am a guest of a Disney hotel and the dining date is in the first 10 nights.
EXAMPLE: I’m staying at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort from November 1 to November 5 and then a nearby Hilton from November 5 to November 10. I want to make a reservation for Be Our Guest breakfast on November 7. I will have to wait until September 8—60 days prior to November 7—because November 7 is not within the time of my Disney hotel stay, even though it is within ten days of my arrival date.
EXAMPLE: I’m staying at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort from November 1 to November 15 (ouch). I want to make a reservation for Be Our Guest breakfast on November 14. I can make my reservation on September 5—70 days before November 14, which is outside the initial “60+10” window.
60+10 and Split Stays
While we’re huge fans of split stays—where you divide your stay between two Disney hotels—we’ve seen mixed reporting on how Disney treats them for the purposes of making dining reservations. If Disney treats these as separate stays for “60+10,” you’ll have to make dining reservations for each set of days separately 60 days in advance of check-in at each hotel.
Ideally, Disney would treat a split stay at two Disney hotels as a single stay for dining reservation purposes, so long as there is no gap night between the two reservations. We’ve seen at least one example of this happening (in this discussion). But others complain it doesn’t work that way (in this discussion).
Frankly, we have no idea what to expect in this regard, and it is exactly the sort of thing that could change multiple times without notice. What we recommend for split stays and stays longer than ten days is that you (1) post in forums and on reddit with exactly your plans and whether people have any recent feedback and (2) try to book online and by phone at the earliest date you think you might be able to book. The worst case is a Cast Member tells you to call back on the “proper” date.
Can you eat at Disney restaurants without reservations?
Sometimes. Many, if not most, restaurants at Disney World take walk up guests and will add your name to a list. However, on busier days or at the top restaurants, you’ll basically never get in without a reservation.
Generally, if you’re going to get a table in any reasonable amount of time, there will be an open reservation (check the My Disney Experience app) that you can just go ahead and book to save yourself the trouble of going to the restaurant and sitting around waiting.
If there are no available reservations, then the restaurant is probably full and waits will be at least 30 minutes and probably 60 minutes plus.
Tips for Making Advance Dining Reservations at Disney World
While we’re calling it “tips,” this section should really tell you everything you need to know about making your Advance Dining Reservations.
Know Your Booking Options
There are four ways to book. The first two are online or via the app. We recommend booking online as a default method. The online booking system is very intuitive. Visit it and familiarize yourself with it. The app isn’t reliable enough for booking the top restaurants ASAP.
But everyone knows the Disney computer systems can be glitchy, so it sometimes helps to be prepared to book by phone. The Disney advance dining reservations phone number is 407-WDW-DINE (407-939-3463). Remember—booking by phone opens at 7AM Eastern Time, but restaurants may be available for booking online as early at 5:45AM Eastern.
Finally, you can have someone else do all this for you. If you book your trip through a travel agent, they’ll be able to book your advance dining reservations for you. Note that they don’t have any sort of special or early access, though, so you’re really just trusting that they can—and will—do better at booking than you will.
Prioritize Restaurants Properly
If you want to book one of the most popular dining reservations at Walt Disney World (above), you want it to be the first one you try and book and you want to schedule it for later in your trip. Fewer people are booking for dates further in the future, so availability will be best then.
Be Prepared
Make sure you know what restaurants you want to go to on which dates and when you’ll be able to book them. And keep in mind which days you might be able to book them.
Like we said, if you have a split stay or a stay longer than ten days, there is lots of conflicting information out there about how the 60+10 window applies. It won’t hurt to try to book at the earliest reasonable date. Remember you’ll need your guest count and a credit card when you book—this is to protect from late cancellations, which we cover next!
Disney World Dining Cancellation Policy
As with all things involving potential penalties, you should always confirm with the restaurant to make sure you have the latest information. There are restaurants with different policies, so it’s really important that you check with them.
Most reservations can be cancelled up until 2 hours before the reservation time with no penalty. Disney states the cases where you will pay a penalty in their credit card place holder policy:
Your credit card won’t be charged before you dine unless you:
- Don’t show up for your reservation
- Cancel within the allotted cancellation period provided at the time of your booking and in your email confirmation
I bolded that for a reason—check your email confirmation to be sure of your cancellation window.
For most restaurants, the penalty for a late cancellation or no-show is $10 per person. I’ve never heard of this being applied when only a few members of your party couldn’t make it. We’ve also had the penalty waived when we called early enough to cancel a dinner because of illness, and we’ve had one no-show fee never show up on a day during a wicked thunderstorm.
Note though, that some restaurants, like Victoria & Albert’s, require even more advance notice to cancel or have different penalties. Victoria & Albert’s requires 5 days notice and has a $100 per person penalty for failure to cancel in time.
Another example is Cinderella’s Royal Table, which charges the full (pre-paid) reservation amount if you don’t cancel within the specified time.
Disney World Dining Grace Period (Late Arrivals)
In theory, Disney World’s restaurants hold your reservation for 15 minutes if you don’t show up on time. In practice, We’ve been 30+ minutes late before (lost Uber driver) and not had problems getting a table. That said, I’d be more likely to count on that at a casual dining option than one of the top restaurants.
What to Do If You Don’t Get a Disney Dining Reservation
So, you slept in and missed getting a reservation—what’s next?
Check Again Tomorrow
If you’re interested in a dining reservation on a given day, you should always check daily until you’re less than 60 days out from that day. This applies even if you already searched it as early as possible it because of 60+10.
Basically, between split stays, long stays, regretted decisions, and rumors that Disney saves some tables for 60 days out, you’ll want to check every day until you’re comfortably within that 60 day window. Around 55 days out, things will settle for a bit.
Check Around Major Dates
Here’s a tip—check every day until your trip. That’s sort of helpful, but we’ll try and narrow it down for you a bit. Check around the following dates:
60 days in advance (booking opens)
30 days in advance (vacation package payment date)
Seven days or less in advance (last minute changes)
Just writing this post, I found availability at Victoria and Albert’s, Cinderella’s Royal Table, California Grill, and Be Our Guest within the next seven days. The first two only had one reservation time each in the next seven days, and the others had multiple times. The only two servings I couldn’t find availability for were breakfast and lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table.
Now—a single data point is worth just about nothing. But while availability for restaurants in general may get worse as you get closer to your trip, there are lots of reasons people will cancel their reservations as the date get nearer.
30 days in advance is also when many guests will be making (or not making) their final payments on their vacation packages. Guests who decide to cancel their trip will likely be cancelling their dining reservations as well.
Once you’re within a week or so, people are in complete “rearrange” mode where they realize their flight times or other problems with their schedules. They’re just deciding they don’t care much about a meal, or that they didn’t need to go to Be Our Guest for all three meals, or that the Disney dining plans aren’t working out how they planned.
At 5 days out, people will be facing the cancellation penalty for Victoria & Albert’s. At 48 hours out, cancellation penalties for some other restaurants start to trigger. And of course, the night and hours before will see the last of the cancellations at most restaurants.
Consider Purchasing Some Assistance
There are two popular tools that will monitor the Disney system in search of your dining reservations. MouseDining is dedicated to this task, and they even partner with some travel agencies to assist agents in helping their clients. Touring Plans has an ADR search tool, but you’ll need a full Touring Plans subscription to use it.
We’ve only used either of these in limited fashion so don’t really have an opinion one way or the other. They do seem to work and we frequently hear success stories about both.
Try Walking Up
I’ve never heard of someone successfully walking up to Victoria & Albert’s or Cinderella’s Royal Table and getting a table. I’d guess it happens only rarely at the latter and never at the former.
Beyond those, people do have success walking up to restaurants without reservations (we’ve personally done Be Our Guest, for example). The restaurants with digital walk-up lists in the app are obviously more likely to take walkups than those without, but it never hurts to ask.
This is one of those things where you experience is going to vary greatly, but it’s always worth trying as a last resort. Hosts and hostesses will either tell you the wait or that they only are taking reservations.
Do you have any questions about Advance Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World?
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
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