Disney Would Never Advise This Trick For Getting a Dining Reservation

From the bread pudding at ‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort to the character dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table, there is so much delicious food to look forward to on your next visit to Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort.

In Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, as well as at Disney Springs, Disney offers an array of treats for families on their magical Disney vacations.

But with crowds increasing and capacity limits loosening, many Disney Guests are struggling to get those coveted reservations at the most popular restaurants on property.

Here, we provide our best advice for getting that sought-after dining reservation, advice that always helped us secure our first choice.

Making a dining reservation in advance on the My Disney Experience app is always your best chance at snagging a table at places like Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom, Space 220 at EPCOT, and the unique Boma – Flavors of Africa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

But with increased capacities lately boosting crowds in the theme parks, reservations have been harder to come by in the period 60 days prior to a trip.

Guests are seeing longer wait times for walk-ins, and failed attempts waking up early for those coveted reservations.

Any sit-down dining location on Walt Disney World property has an Advanced Dining Reservation option on the My Disney Experience app, and for those trying to cancel their reservation, it can prove costly doing it at the last-minute.

This last-minute cancellation process, however, can work to your advantage.

Now, of course, go ahead and try and reserve your dining reservations in advance. If you manage to get lucky enough to get that reservation for your favorite restaurant, then great!

But if you are still holding out for your dream dining location, we recommend waiting until a couple of days before your trip to check for reservations.

Many people will book multiple reservations for the same day only to cancel just 24 hours prior to dining. 24 hours prior to reservation time is the cancellation policy to avoid any costly fees, and usually this is $10 per person.

So, the day before your desired reservation date, go into the My Disney Experience app and search for dining reservations. Keep refreshing, as you will certainly see multiple reservations pop up!

We’ve managed to snap up some last-minute reservations to the Space 220 Lounge, Hollywood Brown Derby, Be Our Guest, and Chef Mickey’s at Walt Disney World this way.

There is a secret way around having to pay the cancelation fee that we’ve covered before, which means you won’t have to pay the $10.00 per person cancelation fee.

When looking at your dining reservation on your My Disney Experience app that you want to cancel, click the “Modify” button. Then, select any other date and time available in the future. Once you swap to a new date, you can go ahead and cancel, as you are no longer in the 24-hour period.

These modified reservations will still pop up as available options when attempting to make that day-before dining reservation.

So, next time you’re after a Disney theme park or Resort dining reservation, remember to play the “refresh” game on the My Disney Experience app and you’ll more than likely get that last-minute table!