Disney allows you to start making dining reservations 180 days prior to your trip. We didn’t know we were going to Disney World 180 days out – we were more like 80 days out! So I was already late in getting some of the most popular reservations, but ..
I was able to get most of the ones I wanted. I think I was lucky because we are going at a non-peak time. After spring break crowds, and before summer people start piling in. There was wide open availability on resorts for the days we are going (back when I made our reservation), so I think that helped my odds in getting some good dining reservations. I scored some popular reservations: Be Our Guest, Bon Voyage Breakfast, Skipper Canteen, Beaches & Cream.. and even a Cinderella’s Royal Table (but we are cancelling that one). Why am I cancelling? I heard the food is pretty terrible and the value is in meeting the princesses. Well, $80 ea to meet princesses just doesn’t seem like a very good use of our funds! Instead I got us the Wishes Dessert Party, which we both will enjoy a lot more!
Can you easily make changes to existing reservations? Yes, usually! Over the past month or so, I have been trying to change our reservations a little, just changing times to fit my itinerary a little better. There was one reservation that I really wanted an hour earlier than the current reservation, so I just kept checking and hoping that an earlier one opens up.  Then I decided to change that reservation from 2 people to 4 – just to see & viola! a table opened up at the very perfect time! So I grabbed it. There was another that I wanted just a tad earlier, tried the same trick and it worked again! So keep that in mind 🙂 I dont think Disney would allow you to add people to your reservation when you arrive, but I am sure they would seat you if you had fewer than you reserved. I only did this for 2 of the many reservations I have, so I dont think it will impact Disney at all.
Turns out that there is a reason for the lack of reservations available for groups of 2 – there are limited 2 top tables. Most are 4 and larger. Disney wants to fill those tables with 4 people to maximize profits (as would any corporation) so those tables are not reservable for groups of 2. It appears that the majority of tables/reservations available are for 4 people – so increase your odds of getting those tough to get reservations by asking for a table of 4. If its a pre-paid meal, you would not want to do this – they will not let you cancel the extra ‘guests’.
Dont give up if you can’t get the reservation you want. There are some strategies available. One great one is to sign up for Touringplans.com and do a dining search. They will continually look for reservations and will text you when they find one that fits the search criteria that you entered. They found one for us, but I was too slow to get it. Also, when using My Disney Experience to look for dining – dont use the ‘breakfast, lunch or dinner’ choices when searching – select exact times. I dont know why it works, but when I was looking for a late night at Beaches & Cream – selected dinner and nothing was available, then put in 10pm and one popped up. I used this strategy for Skipper Canteen too. So it works – give it a try!
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