Mouse Travel Tips

In Episode 17 of Mouse Travel Tips we talked about dining at Le Cellier restaurant in the Canada pavilion at Epcot, and especially about how hard it is to get reservation.  We suggested making your Advanced Dining Reservation (ADR) about 180 days out.  If you are new to the concept of Advance Dining Reservations you are probably thinking, “What is an ADR and how does it work?”  Disney will allow you to make ADR’s 180 days out from the day you want your reservation.  If you are staying on property you can make reservations 180 plus 10 days from the day you check in to your resort.  That makes it so you don’t have to call everyday to add another ADR for the next day of your trip (another perk to staying on property).

If you are like me you are thinking “Man – 6 months out to know where you want to eat.  I don’t know what I want to eat for dinner tonight!”  Also “How do I know where to eat when I don’t know what park I will be in?”  You will have to start making plans and think about what parks you want to go on what days, but that is another conversation.  Once you figure out what the parks and days, they you can look at the restaurants in the park.  As we have mentioned before there are some great websites that offers a list of the restaurants and their menu’s.  That should give you an idea of where you want to eat.

Well let’s say you have your list of where you want to eat.  Where do you go from there?  On the 180^th day you would start to make your reservations.  You have two options now.   First you can call (409) WDW-Dine (939-3463) and speak with a cast member to make your ADR.  The second option is that you can make your ADR’s online at the Walt Disney World website: www.waltdisneyworld.com, then go to the dining section.  There are pro’s and con’s to each reservation method.  The earliest you can make you make a call to WDW is 7 a.m. Eastern, while on the website you may be able to log on earlier to make the reservation.  If you speak with a cast member they can help you if you have problems and they can tell what is open, or make suggestions for alternate dining venues.  The website does offer you alternatives if your desired restaurant is not available but the suggestion is only for the requested date and time.  If you book through the website then you don’t have to wait on hold.  It also comes down to which method makes you more comfortable when making your dining reservation.

Now you may be asking if you really want to get up early to make those coveted ADR’s.  Well if you want to get that reservation for Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast or that hard to get Le Cellier reservation it is a good idea to make it as soon as possible, especially if you are going during a busy time.  I remember talking to our pediatrician one day when she was up at 6am Central to make her ADRS for Cinderella’s Royal Table – the things we do for the love of our children!

Here are some other tips that have worked for us when we make our ADR’s.  First is to be flexible and sometimes we have to be very flexible.  We may not get the time we want, but the restaurant may be open at other times that day or on other days during our trip.  So if we really want to eat at that restaurant, we can change around our itinerary and the order we visit the parks.  If you are on the phone with a cast member, and your selected time isn’t available, be sure to ask them to help see if there is an opening during your trip.  It may not be your preferred time, but it could work.   Second, be persistent in checking to see if there is a opening.  People make ADR’s all the time and cancel.  They figure as they get close to the trip they may not want to eat there after all since they did make the reservation 180 days out.  Plans change – so keep checking online or by calling the dining reservations number.  Also, if you are at the park you can even walk up and check.   You never know when you might get lucky – we were able to walk up to a character meal at Disney’s Hollywood Studios just by asking – after all, the worst they can do is say “no availability – sorry!”  So it never hurts to ask when you are at the parks.  My third tip is to have back up plans for restaurants in case you are not able to get into your preferred dining spot.  There are many different restaurants available and they are all pretty good and offer a good dining experience.  Who knows – you may just find a new one that you really enjoy!

I once visited Walt Disney World with a group of 12 people (our big family trip) and my family members chose not to make any dinning reservations for table service meals.  They opted to just do counter service restaurants.  Well, one day they decided they wanted to do a character meal.  Now – this was in June (peak season) and we had a very large group that wanted to eat at a character meal.  I called WDW-Dine the night before and just asked what was available.  It turned out that the O’Hana Breakfast Character meal had an opening and so we enjoyed breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, and Lilo by just being flexible – and by having a little bit of luck.

Just remember if you don’t get the ADR that you want it does not mean your trip is ruined and that will never be as fun as it could have been.  It just gives you an opportunity try to something new or visit another favorite place.