Advance Dining Reservations Now Open in Part
Walt Disney World opened Advance Dining Reservations (in part) today, with select resort restaurants debuting when the hotels reopen beginning next week. We called bright and early at 7 am, and wanted to share our results here, along with some tips so you can avoid the same experience we had waiting on hold. (And by “we” I mean “Sarah times two.”)
You might recall that previously, Walt Disney World cancelled all reservations, including Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs). Going forward, Disney will shift from a 180-day booking window to a 60-day booking window for dining and experience bookings going forward to allow guests to make their plans closer to their visits.
While ADRs for theme parks have not yet reopened, guests with Walt Disney World resort hotel reservations for arrivals June 22 through July 10, 2020 can now make dining reservations for select resort restaurants and Disney Springs dining locations. Of course, this comes with a catch…
You cannot make these reservations via Disneyworld.com or the My Disney Experience app–and you can only book the limited selection of restaurants on the Dining ‘Know Before You Go’ Info page. (The second list–not the Mobile Check-In locations.)
Instead, it’s like a throwback to a decade ago, when you had to call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) 824-1391 to check availability and make reservations. Alternatively, if you’re a Disney Vacation Club Member, you call Member Services at (800) 800-9800.
Our expectation is that this phone-only system will be short-lived, and is likely an interim solution will Walt Disney World continues preparing its online systems for the Advance Theme Park Reservation system, plus the shorter ADR booking window. We hope dining reservations for July 11, 2020 and forward will be bookable via the app or website.
In the meantime, here’s our experience for anyone else with an upcoming hotel or DVC resort reservation who wants to book dining before Walt Disney World’s theme parks reopen…
Naturally, Walt Disney World’s reservation call center phone lines were jammed right at 7 am on the dot.
This always happens on release or ‘drop date’ but it’s compounded right now by the reality that these call centers are short-staffed due to Walt Disney World’s ongoing furloughs.
Sarah was initially quoted a 2-hour wait, and called with both of our phones in case the call got dropped or one inexplicably got through significantly earlier than the other.
This might sound like overkill, but these are time and battle-tested strategies based on “our” past misadventures in calling Walt Disney World reservation centers.
Now, you might be thinking that I should’ve pulled my weight and made the call on my phone. That’s arguably a fair point.
My counterpoint would be that there’s literally nowhere on earth I want to eat badly enough to wait on the phone that long. I wouldn’t sit on hold for 15 minutes to book reservations at Sukiyabashi Jiro, let alone 2+ hours for the Wave… of American Flavors.
Plus, I was tasked with the equally unenviable assignment of watching Good Morning America to see Disney Parks Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pamela Hymel share an update on health and safety measures.
Spoiler: there was no new information presented, just this Incredibles informative health safety campaign…which doesn’t even feature the characters wearing face masks. (Side note: is it just me, or does Good Morning America feel a lot like QVC. Why so many ‘product deal’ segments?!)
In any case, Sarah’s call to the reservation center was dropped at around 8:30 am (vindicating that concern and the necessity of calling on multiple devices).
She eventually got through at 9:30 am. It was, quite literally, a 2 hour 30 minute wait time.
Everything we wanted had plenty of availability for every single time slot, and we booked what I presume to be the most popular restaurants right now. (Of course, now our reservations won’t link in My Disney Experience, so hopefully we actually have them!)
The moral of the story there is not that demand is super high, but that staffing is super low. It’s also possible that a lot of people who are not eligible to book ADRs are calling, or people are clogging up the phone lines with other questions unrelated to today’s booking options.
Accordingly, if you have any degree of flexibility for your upcoming Walt Disney World trip, we’d strongly encourage you to wait until later this afternoon or even a few days from now.
Given the eligibility criteria for booking, it’s unlikely that most Advance Dining Reservations are going to “sell out” quickly.
If you do opt to call, be sure to have your hotel reservation confirmation number, your address, and email address associated with My Disney Experience.
Additionally, we highly recommend writing down your dining confirmation number, as you may not receive email confirmation and it might not appear in My Disney Experience.
Our other tidbit of advice–and this was gleaned from social media, not our firsthand experience–is to call the Disney Vacation Club’s Member Services but only if you’re a DVC member.
We didn’t try this as Member Services opened two hours later, but some reports indicated people were getting through the DVC line in under 20 minutes.
Ultimately, none of this should come as any surprise. If you’re a seasoned veteran of Free Dining drop day or any time when something new is released or changes, you’re probably familiar with the long waits on hold. Perhaps naively, we were hoping for better results today since so few guests are eligible to book reservations.
With lots of changes and tweaks to the website and My Disney Experience app over the course of the last few days, we’re expecting an announcement about the Advance Theme Park Reservation System very soon (probably before the end of the week). We would once again strongly encourage you to make sure all of your ducks are in a row with linked tickets, accounts, and My Disney Experience generally. If this morning was a preview of what’s to come, there are going to be some loooong waits on hold for anyone who needs help troubleshooting problems once that park entry reservation system goes live. Either way, we’ll keep you posted.
If you have questions about the closure, including policy changes and what we know thus far, please consult our Walt Disney World Reopening FAQ & Info, which should answer most inquiries. See our other WDW Closure & Reopening Updates for the latest news. If you’re planning a Walt Disney World trip, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Did you call this morning to make Advance Dining Reservations? Did you call the general Walt Disney World reservation line, or DVC Member Services? How long did you wait on hold? Were you able to reserve all of the restaurants you wanted? Anything not available? Do you have plans to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or have you cancelled? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
It seems like the reservations line is clogged up by … itself.
I called yesterday at 10:50p East Coast time and got right through. I had a short screening call by a resorts agent to confirm I actually had a reservation during the validity dates. Then was transferred to someone who was not current on the policies or restaurants open. I asked nicely for the same thing four times (for the first reservation) and was treated like I was trying to trick her lol. “Restaurants can’t be booked yet, there is nothing I can try,” “You can only book restaurants at the resort you’re staying at, maybe, I think,” “Only dinner service is open, that’s why you can’t book breakfast probably.”
Would have hung up and called back but by this point it was after closing time.
I Persisted. In 19 minutes we got that first booking set! She spent several minutes telling me how difficult her job was that they have to enter the resort reservation number manually into each booking. And in just 46 short minutes I had my five bookings that matched what I called to ask about.
I called DVC Member Services right at 9 am and was shocked that I immediately got right though and was able to book everything I wanted. I wasn’t asking for a lot but I definitely wanted to try Topolino’s and Kona and the process was super simple!
That is correct. I had to call Member Services today about an upcoming stay and got in in less than 20 minutes the first time and around 10 minutes the second time. I’m glad to hear you got your dining reservations you wanted. Thanks for the advise. I’ll look back at this when I am able to book dining.
Who would want to go into the new epicenter of the covid virus why not wait to take Disney World vacations
We called at 7a.m as DVC didn’t open til 9. We used 3 phones, but the first one i dialed got through in 55min. (All others in the household were asleep so should be thankful they won’t be eating the pizza window at the Boardwalk for 4 days straight). All reservations we wanted we got at the times we requested, and all linked to MDE almost instantly.
The wait times when calling Disney have been much too long for years. They could certainly afford to hire more staff and I feel its unconscionable for them to treat their guests this way – they certainly wouldn’t treat us this way in person! I wish they (and most other large corporations) could understand that not everything can be handled online.
(Not referring to the current situation – but in a general way)
I called right at 7 from 2 phones. At 9 I hung up on one and dialed DVC member services instead. As soon as that was answered with the bot asking questions my call to the reservation center was finally picked up. So I hung up the DVC and proceeded with original. I was able to book 3 meals at GFC and one at Kona for the first part of a split stay. The cast member waited until I confirmed I could see them in MDE before moving on to the second reservation number. For that one I just booked a few meals at Olivias. I will say I was looking for 2:30 on 7/7 and the latest showing was 1:50. Just happy to know I will not be wandering around those 5 days trying to figure out where to eat! Had already booked the DS places we wanted.
Update to earlier comment.
Finally after almost 3 hours and 46 minutes I got a human and we successfully booked the first restaurant Beaches and Cream for lunch then when we started the second restaurant Trattoria we were cut off. The phone read call failed.
I’m hoping that she will call back. They have all my info and they must know that people finally getting through have been on hold a loooong time.
Meantime I’m trying another phone number in hopes of someone hearing my tale of woe can get me through quickly.
It is now 12:01pm
We waited for 2.5 hours as well. Only problem was…unfortunately because we are not checking out on or before July 11, we were not allowed to make any reservations. We are July 7-14, so we are both before and after park opening. Guess we will try again. Glad to hear its not filling up crazy fast.
All 3 reservations I made on the phone today for resort restaurants ARE showing in MDE.
Wow, it’s a shame much of this is completely bypassing MDE. I would think that reservations booked on the phone would at least “appear” in MDE, even if just read-only for now. My family lives and dies by MDE… notwithstanding their never-ending technical problems. When it works, it’s fantastic for keeping every detail organized.
Well I’m on hold as I write.
I called at 8 am was on hold 22 minutes listening to Disney music from the Parks. I have several double cd’s featuring Park music so I’m right at home listening.
Then the call failed?
Called back right away, was on 46 minutes before the call “failed”?.
I called a third time and was on over an hour plus maybe 16 minutes when I heard a voice. I’m partially deaf but I heard a man say his name and ask how can I help you? Naturally you’re always a little shocked after waiting so long and I repeated what I though I heard his name was asking did you say your name was…. He said how can I help you? I replied by starting to tell him my story… and the next thing I heard was the music again.
He has not returned. That was 22 minutes ago as I write.
I have the phone on speaker phone so maybe he can’t hear me when I’m using that feature, It’s my wife’s i phone and I’ve never used speaker phone before not even on my own phone.
Tell you what, I wouldn’t be hanging on without the speaker phone. Love the music and getting work done in the meantime.
I’ve now been on 36 minutes.
Will let you know if I ever get through. I have an appointment in 3 and 1/2 hours so I may have to hang up then.
38 minutes …Ahh Disney.
To be fair, the Incredibles are wearing face masks… just ones that are particularly ineffective at preventing droplet-transmitted disease. 🙂
Thanks to Sarah for waiting on hold to provide the update.
I appreciate what Disney is doing. And it will be a good ‘experiment’ to see how well this all works in this pandemic age.
For me…I’ll wait until things settle down. And I think Disney will be a leader in how to navigate these crowded spaces safely.
There is simply too much angst and contortions to do to make a Disney vacation viable…or even enjoyable.
I am hoping that by June 24 (the 60 day out mark for our August trip) we will be able to make dining reservations on line again. Key word is hope. Also hoping we may be learn whether the temporarily unavailable club level services might return. That will also affect potential dining reservations
what reservations did you get?
Tom, where did you book reservations? Just curious 🙂
We booked at Kona cafe, beaches and cream, topolino (breakfast- 2nd time absolutely loved the steak breakfast offering we had back in Jan.) and chef art smith–
Wondering if there is a great dinner we should try? Suggestions?
Check out the new Topolino breakfast menu. The steak has been removed.
I’m wondering if the lines were busy with questions about the new date on annual passes. (Ours showed up this morning..from the middle of September to the middle of January!) What are your thoughts on this ADR continuing into 2021? We bumped our big trip to next May…and honestly, I hope they do! I liked setting up dining plans a couple months out, when park hours were closer to being right than having to set them up half a year away!
@Cindy, I wonder that, too. Some are going to be like me: silver, previously set to expire on May 11 so I recouped 49 of 63 lost days assuming blackouts stop around Aug 6, 2021 with a new expiry of Sept 5, 2021.
We have rented vacation club points for the first week of September. When it’s our time to do ADRs, will I still be able to do it? We aren’t vacation club members, so I wouldn’t be able to call Member Services, but would I still be able to call the Reservation Center?
How can you make dining reservations if park reservations aren’t open?? You don’t know if you can even get into the park that day, right?
You can’t make dining reservations past July 10th right now and the parks don’t open until the 11th
Select Resort and Disney Springs are the only restaurants open now. Restaurants in parks don’t open until the parks do.
Ah of course. Thanks! Hard to keep all the dates and news straight.