How to Get Disney Dining Reservations

Step 1: find out when your window opens

Each resort releases dining reservations a set number of days ahead of the date you want to eat. The number is not the same everywhere, and using the wrong one is the most common way to miss a booking entirely.

• Walt Disney World — reservations generally open about 60 days ahead of the date.
• Disneyland — reservations generally open about 60 days ahead of the date.
• Aulani Resort — reservations generally open about 30 days ahead of the date.
• Disneyland Paris — reservations generally open about 62 days ahead of the date.
• Tokyo Disney — reservations generally open about 30 days ahead of the date.
• Hong Kong Disneyland — reservations generally open about 42 days ahead of the date.

Count forward from the day you want to eat, not from the day you arrive, unless you are staying at a Walt Disney World resort hotel — that stay gets its own rule, which the booking window guide explains in full.

Step 2: be ready before the window opens

Reservations are released at a set time each morning in the resort’s own time zone. Disney publishes that time on its own booking site, and it is worth confirming there rather than trusting a number in a blog post — including this one. What you can do in advance is remove every avoidable delay:

• Sign in to your Disney account beforehand, on the device you plan to book from.
• Know the exact date, party size and time you want before the page loads.
• Have a second and third choice ready. The window closes on the first-choice restaurant long before it closes on the rest of your list.

For the names at the top of our availability data, the gap between “the window opened” and “there is nothing left” is measured in seconds. Missing it is normal, not a mistake.

Step 3: what to do when everything is already booked

A sold-out restaurant is not a closed door. Reservations keep coming back all the way to the date itself, for two reasons: Disney adds inventory to dates it has already released, and other guests cancel or move their plans. Many table-service bookings carry a cancellation fee once they are dropped too close to the date, which gives guests a reason to release a booking they no longer want rather than sit on it — check the terms shown on your own booking for the current rule.

Those openings are real, and they are also invisible: they surface at no particular hour and are usually taken again within minutes. That is the entire problem this site exists to solve.

Watch instead of refreshing

Checking Disney’s site by hand means you find an opening only if you happen to look during the few minutes it exists. A MouseWatcher alert checks continuously and sends you a text or email with a booking link the moment a matching table appears, around the clock, until your date passes. How it works walks through the whole process.

Give yourself more than one date

Every extra target date is another independent chance for a cancellation to land on one of them, and it is the single biggest thing within your control. A three-night trip with one acceptable dinner date is a much harder problem than the same trip with three.

Be flexible on party size and mealtime

Tables are released and returned in specific sizes, and a party of five is not simply harder than a party of two — it is looking at a different pool of tables. The same is true of mealtimes: breakfast and lunch at a signature restaurant are routinely easier than dinner at the same restaurant on the same day.

Keep looking after you book

Booking something acceptable does not end the search. If you would rather have the 7:30pm than the 4:45pm you settled for, keep an alert running for the one you wanted — the booking you already hold is your floor, not your ceiling.

Where to look next

• Every restaurant and activity we watch — browse by resort and location, and set an alert from any of them.
• Pricing — single alerts and monthly subscriptions.
• Frequently asked questions — how fast notifications arrive, what happens if nothing opens up, and how booking works.

Keep reading

• The Disney Dining Booking Window
  Walt Disney World and Disneyland release dining reservations 60 days ahead — but not every Disney resort does. Every window we watch, and how to count it.
• How to Book Hard-to-Get Disney Reservations
  Character meals, signature restaurants and small-capacity experiences sell out in seconds. Why they book out, and the tactics that actually work.