Last-Minute Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World

Most people know that if you want to get dinner reservations at your favorite Disney restaurant you need to make them 180 days in advance, or do you? Out of curiosity, I decided to try an experiment and see which table service restaurants I could get reservations for, and which ones were completely booked.  Seems easy enough, however, I was making them for the following day.  I was fairly confident that I would be able to get some of the less popular restaurants, but the results were surprising.

I decided to start with a restaurant that I assumed would be a sure thing.  I used the Walt Disney World website and made my request for 4 guests at The Diamond Horseshoe located at Magic Kingdom.  Sure enough, there was availability around 7 pm.  It was a little later than I was expecting, but not bad for less than 24-hour notice.

Next, I tried Liberty Tree Tavern and Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen.  They both had multiple times available at dinner time. Crystal Palace, Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, and The Plaza Restaurant all had times that were closer to 8 pm.  I wasn’t even going to try Cinderella’s Royal Table or Be Our Guest, but I had so much success with all the other ones, I decided to give it a go.  Surprisingly, there was availability for Cinderella’s Royal Table around 5 pm, but of course Be Our Guest was booked.

I moved on to other parks and again the results were surprising.  I could get reservations at multiple times at every table service restaurant in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.  I could also get reservations at every single table service in Epcot, however, San Angel Inn Restaurante and Teppan Edo were both for after 8 pm, all the other restaurants were closer to dinner time.

At that point, I decided to move on to the deluxe resort restaurants, and sure enough, I could get reservations at every-single-one with table service, including Disney’s Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show.  Some of the more popular restaurants like Chef Mickey’s, California Grill, and Boma-Flavors of Africa, only had availability around 8 pm.  Victoria & Albert’s was available but not the Chef’s Table.

If we had wanted to eat at ‘Ohanas, we could but we would be limited to 4 pm or 9:40 pm.  Still, if I was on a last minute vacation and really wanted to eat there, I could work with that.  The one restaurant that surprised me the most was Beaches and Cream Soda Shop which only had one dining reservation open and it was at 9:10 pm.

With all the success I had, I decided to give Be Our Guest one last try.  I realized that it was a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party on the night I had selected, so I tried the following night to see and sure enough, there was a table and it was at a reasonable dinner hour.

So what does this all mean?  Should you still make reservations as far in advance as your plans allow?  Absolutely! If you know which restaurants you want to go to 180 days out, make those reservations.  However, if you are planning a last minute trip don’t assume you’re stuck with quick service only, especially if you’re going during a quiet time like now.