We are planners—hardcore Walt Disney World planners—and 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 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
Now let’s 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.
Prepare to Build Your Trip Around these Restaurants
The first group of restaurants you need to know is those you might need to reschedule your trip around. Availability can be so limited that you’ll have to bend your schedule to what’s available rather than just grabbing a time slot that works.
These restaurants are:
Victoria & Albert’s (at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa)
The Cake Bake Shop (at BoardWalk Inn)
Topolino’s Terrace (Riviera Resort, breakfast specifically)
Cinderella’s Royal Table (at Magic Kingdom, inside Cinderella Castle)
Space 220 Restaurant OR Lounge (EPCOT)
Beak and Barrel (Magic Kingdom, bar, kids welcome)
GEO-82 (EPCOT, adult-only bar)
If you’re a guest of a Disney hotel, you’ll have much better luck trying to book any of these at the end of your visit because of the way booking windows are set up (more on this below, CTRL+F “60+10”).
The Dining Room at Victoria & Albert’s—along with Chef’s Table at Victoria & Albert’s and Queen Victoria Room at Victoria & Albert’s—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 very few people are cancelling a meal at Victoria & Albert’s. This is something you plan a trip around.
The Cake Bake Shop® Restaurant by Gwendolyn Rogers is the hottest new restaurant at Walt Disney World. It’s located on the BoardWalk just outside EPCOT and not far from Hollywood Studios, and you could also access it via a short walk from the Skyliner.
Cinderella’s Royal Table continues to be the most popular restaurant inside any of the four theme parks. The character meal always includes several princess greetings, and it’s a chance to dine inside Cinderella Castle. Can’t get much cooler than that.
Both Space 220 Restaurant and Space 220 Lounge remain difficult to book, with the lounge showing notably less availability as I check today. Besides these two reserved experiences, there’s also a bar in the same area that uses a standby queue. You have to be over 21 for the bar, but the lounge and restaurant are both available to all ages.
Topolino’s Terrace at Riviera Resort offers a character breakfast that is particularly difficult to book. Pay close attention to that—dinner does not have characters. This is why you’ll often see this restaurant have availability every day, but when you look close you’ll see breakfast is fully booked.
Finally, GEO-82, the adult-only bar at EPCOT, and Beak and Barrel, the family-friendly bar at Magic Kingdom, continue to be very popular.
Book These Restaurants ASAP
The second group is restaurants you’ll want to book well in advance but that you’re less likely to have to reorganize your trip for. These 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)
Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White (at Wilderness Lodge)
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.
Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue
Finally, I want to call out a single dinner show: Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue (at Fort Wilderness). 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 check the app or website 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!
When Can I Book Disney World Advance Dining Reservations?
Let’s talk through the ways to get a reservation at Disney World, starting with two unconventional options before getting to the heart of the matter—booking windows.
Walk Up Lists and Same Day Reservations
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.
Even if walk-up lists aren’t available, you might try to make a same-day reservation. 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.
Now, moving onto the business of proper, advance reservations…
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. For example, on January 4, if I visit the Disney World website I’d be able to make reservations through March 5, which is that day + 60 days. Here’s a calculator if you need help.
As for what time bookings open:
The website officially starts taking reservations at “approximately 6:00 AM”…
…but restaurants may actually be available for booking online earlier, so be sure to log on no later than 5:45AM Eastern.
The reservation phone line opens at 7AM Eastern Time.
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 length of their trip, up to the next ten days (hence “+10”).
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—the consensus nowadays is that split stays are treated as separate reservations for 60+10 purposes. So a guest who splits their 8-night visit into two 4-night reservations would have to wait until 60 days before the second check-in to book restaurants for the latter half of the trip.
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.
Online booking is set to open at “approximately 6:00 AM”, and you should be checking no later than 5:45 AM Eastern time.
The app isn’t reliable enough for booking the top restaurants ASAP, in our experience.
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.
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 fit them into your trip.
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, or
-Fail to cancel or modify the reservation in accordance with the restaurant’s cancellation and modification policies
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 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
Just writing this post, I found availability at every restaurant except Victoria & Albert’s in the next two weeks—availability does pop up. So, 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)
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 gets 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 canceling their dining reservations as well.
Once you’re within a week or so, people are in complete “rearrange” mode. Maybe they didn’t get the Lightning Lanes they’d hoped. Maybe they realize their flight times or other problems with their schedules. Or 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 it’s the tool I use. Touring Plans has an ADR search tool, but you’ll need a full Touring Plans subscription to use it.
One More Time: Try Walking Up
We mentioned this option one or two times, but you can always try the walk-up list, checking for same-day reservations, or literally walking up to the restaurant.
This is one of those things where your 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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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!
Be sure to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few weeks in advance. Good strategy will 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.
Know what to ride with our guides: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, EPCOT rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our Guide to Blizzard Beach and our Guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip.