Candlelight Processional Dining Packages Reservations Now Available for Booking, But Selling Out Fast
Today is supposed to be the Advance Dining Reservation ‘drop day’ for Candlelight Processional Dining Packages, but vacation planners have been treated (or tricked?) into another day of WDW ADR difficulties on both the website and My Disney Experience app. Here’s everything we know.
The last time we reported on something like this, it was a system crash for the original launch day of Beak & Barrel Advance Dining Reservations. Rumors were flying during and after that–about unprecedented demand, bot farms overloading the system, etc.
I’m not sure what was actually true, but it wasn’t the biggest shock to anyone battle-hardened by a Disney Drop Day. We’ve experienced similar issues with the launch of other reservations in the past, ranging from the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party to GEO-82 to the reopening of reservations for the parks.
8 am UPDATE:Â It appears that Candlelight Processional Dining Packages are finally loaded into the system and Advance Dining Reservations are now available:
It’s now possible to see availability and go through the booking flow for actual Candlelight Processional Dining Packages (as opposed to just the restaurants themselves–see below).
Availability is incredibly limited, but it’s not clear to us whether that’s because ADRs are still loading into the system or demand is sky-high. We have found some dates with absolutely nothing, and others with only a scattering of options across showtimes, and this is true whether searching for parties of 2 or 4.
Past precedent suggests it could be either high demand or throttled availability. We already know that demand is high, both because it always is and because the system was slowed to a crawl for ~90 minutes due to everyone trying to make ADRs at the same time.
One thing to note is that several readers reported being able to make Candlelight Processional Dining Packages as early as 5:15 am (so 45 minutes before ADRs were supposed to open) by going directly to the restaurant page. Depending on how many people succeeded via this method over the course of the last ~2 hours, it would explain why availability is already so limited.
Nevertheless, we’ll keep checking back to see whether more ADRs appear. Last year, there was still availability in the hours and even days after reservations launched; in previous years, all ADRs were gone much faster. It’s both a matter how demand and how much inventory is allocated to the Candlelight Processional Dining Packages.
As is often the case, Walt Disney World also might opt to throttle availability now and release more reservations later. Likewise, in the mad dash to get something, anything booked, planners might scoop up more ADRs than they need, and cancel later. One or both of these possibilities are likely, so it’s recommended that you keep checking for availability if you’ve been shut out, or didn’t get your ideal restaurant, ADR time, or showtime.
Finally, although Walt Disney World has not stated as much, Candlelight Processional Dining Packages are subject to the 60+10 rule for on-site guests, which means that on ADR drop day, on-site guests will be able to book for the next 10 days of Candlelight Processional and off-site guests won’t.
Candlelight Processional Dining Packages will continue to be released on a rolling basis each day after ADRs first go live on October 14, 2026. Keep in mind that this is still subject to the 60+10 rule for on-site guests, so if you’re staying off-site, you very well might get shut out even at the 60 day mark for those later dates during the peak weeks of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Everyone will be able to book 60 days in advance all at once on October 14th, though. This means that everyone is competing for Black Friday through December 13, 2026 all at once, with no on-site advantage. If you’re staying on-site in the ~10 days after December 13th and you don’t care which celebrity narrator you see, we’d recommend booking later in your trip on October 14, 2026 for the best availability. It’ll get less competitive the further out you look. (Of course, that only helps with a longer trip.)
What follows is our original story, preserved for posterity…
In this case, it doesn’t appear to be any of that. It seems likely due to sky-high demand crashing the system. Sometimes, Walt Disney World’s dining reservation system fails to even load on the website (instead displaying a blank screen and no error message).
Other times, a character from Monsters, Inc. (whose name I’ve forgotten) appears with the following message:
These outages happen from time to time with Disney IT. Any longtime Walt Disney World fan probably has their own horror story with system outages. These woes are much less common than they used to be a few years ago, as Disney IT seems to have upgraded from the ‘ole Gateway 2000 they use to run the Go.com servers.
Nevertheless, problems still occur from time to time. In addition to the Beak & Barrel launch, Walt Disney World had issues with the Parisian Breakfast Buffet at Chefs de France and had to delay the ADR drop day for that by a day. So perhaps the company upgraded from Gateway 2000 to regular ole Gateways, circa 2001.
The good news is that, as of a little after 7:30 am, the system appears to be slowly coming online. Here’s a look at results, seemingly showing Candlelight Processional Dining Packages:
The bad news is that, while the restaurants that offer Candlelight Processional Dining Packages are available to book, the packages themselves are not. These are two distinct reservations–you cannot simply book an ADR for a restaurant that offers a Candlelight Processional Dining Package.
Your reservation needs to actually indicate that it’s for the Candlelight Processional Dining Package. Perhaps that will happen next, and by the time I hit publish, this post will already be obsolete.
Regardless, I feel like this is something worth calling attention to, because this exact same scenario has played out before. Many fans were able to book reservations for the restaurants in question, but not Candlelight Processional Dining Packages. That’s not ‘good enough.’ You need to book an actual Candlelight Processional Dining Package ADR. You could’ve been the restaurant reservation itself yesterday!
This is a developing story. We’ll update accordingly when Candlelight Processional Dining Packages are actually available. Here’s hoping that’s very soon, as we’re getting close to the point when Walt Disney World might pull the plug and opt for a delayed ADR launch date. (They really should’ve done this one at night, just like the Diamond Horseshoe Lounge!)
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Your Thoughts
Did you experience problems trying to make Advance Dining Reservations this morning? Successfully score Candlelight Processional Dining Package ADRs already?!? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
Wow, I am so disappointed. I checked the CP page at 5:55am, then 6, then maybe a couple dozen times before dozing off, now 8:55 and literally everything is sold out other than the two TBA days.
I was able to book a reservation at 5:48 this morning for beer garden with no problems
Thanks for everyone for reporting your results!
Most of you did much better than me, as I kept alternating between a blank page and that monster when searching for any ADRs. Although admittedly, I was half-awake (at best) when starting this process at 2:35 am and went back to sleep for a bit once 3:05 am rolled around and I was still getting nothing but glitches.
It’s been a looooong morning! Did finally get a reservation on our preferred date but had to book for 3 instead of 2. Any suggestions on how to modify the reservation? Thanks!
I see that it’s booking “normally “ now although most are sold out and zero availability ever was out there for 2. I happened to see on the app at 5:37 am ET that some of the restaurants in the regular dining list (not under cp) said dining packages available. Curious…I clicked spice road table. There was a box there to choose cp then it had me choose show time and dinner time. Only available was 4 pm for the 6:30 show so I did it. I now see on a few other dates that other options ran to 4:15 which either means they weren’t loaded or others saw that even earlier than 5:37 am
I feel this is truly unfortunate as the link on the cp page was continuing to show check back after oct 14 well after many ppl figured this out. Maybe they will drop more adrs? Just hoping they give us a table even though we’re 2 ppl. I guess if I have to pay annextra $65 or so I will but it seems wrong
I had an alarm set for 5:40 this morning. I just happened to wake up at 5:15 and figured I’d check and sure enough, the ADR’s were open. I got Gary Sinise for the day, restaurant and time I was hoping for but I feel bad for people that got on at 6:00 and missed out. They really should stick to the advertised time.
Matt was it under the cp page or the restaurant page with a box to choose cp when you get there? I agree I feel bad that Disney didn’t stick to a) their posted time and b)the place the reservations should appear but instead said check back when hordes of ppl were already booking
Liz, it was under the candlelight page.
I was able to grab a reservation for Gary Sinise after 1.5 hours, but only by changing party size from 2 to 3. With party size 2 it still said “check back on October 14!”.
I was able to get Le Cellier lunch at 3 pm with a 6:30 show – 6 am on the dot this morning.
Unfortunately my travel buddy wants a different time (good luck with that as it shows no availability at all now!)
You CAN book the dining package but you have to do it differently than everyone was expecting. There is no link on the Candlelight Processional Dining page. You have to go directly to the restaurant you want, pick a time, and then it gives you the option to book the dining package IF it is available. I had to try multiple restaurants, times, and ultimately book for 3 instead of 2 – but I finally got a package booked. Very frustrating!
YES!!! After an hour I finally figured this out and was able to book a package. Glad you were able to get a package
Edit to add that I just checked back and there is now FINALLY a reserve dining button on the Candlelight Dining package page. But very limited availability left. Glad I finally figured out how to do it the other way!
I tried the other way and failed, maybe a bad combination of restaurant choice and party size. I was eventually successful through the main CP link.
We were only able to snag La Hacienda de San Angel for 3:15PM, and it was by booking the restaurant as a regular ADR. The dining package appeared as an option. It wasn’t working the other way. Showed as sold out by 7:45AM for 12/10.