5 Tips for Getting Disneyland Dining Reservations
5 Tips for Getting Disneyland Dining Reservations
Disneyland has some drool worthy dining experiences that you do not want to miss out on. If you’ve never been to the park before, it can be a little intimidating trying to figure the ins and outs to getting the reservation system down. And you HAVE to be on top of your game to get them. But never fear, these 5 simple tips will help make those dining dreams a reality. But before we talk reservations, make sure you check out this post on each of the Table Service restaurants that accept reservations.
Tip #1 : Research
It’s research time! Visit the Disneyland website or down the Disneyland app and check out all the amazing restaurants that offering dining reservations. Take note of what sounds yummy! Don’t have time for that? Read this post with a breakdown of everything in one place and/or this post which is my go-to 3 favorite places to send first timers.
Tip #2 : Make a Plan
Now that research is over. It’s time to finalize a solid plan. And you actually should have this done well before your trip (like at least 70 days before your arrival). Once you have a list of the exact places you want to experience, decide which day of your visit you want to eat there and a general time frame. Write this all down so you don’t forget it. I promise you will second guess yourself later if you don’t write it down.
Tip #3 : Disneyland App Ready
Make sure you have the Disneyland app installed and you have an account already set up. I would even suggest having Face ID enabled to make the logging in process that much faster. Make sure you do these two things under the “My Profile” section of the app. First - click on “Payment Method” and make sure to have a Credit or Debit card set up. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Second - Click “Account Settings” and add your phone number (there are two separate fields for this on this page).
Tip #4 : Practice Makes Perfect
This may sound silly, but using the Disneyland app, practice making Dining Reservations before the 65-70 days before your trip. You can walk through the entire process without actually booking anything. But even if you do accidentally make a dining reservation by mistake, you can easily cancel it under the “Future Plans” section of the app. Practicing this may sound like a ridiculous extra step, but it’s important you easily and quickly know how to do this. Don’t let your first time ever walking through the reservation process be on the day your actual reservations need to be made.
Tip #5 : Set Your Alarm
Disneyland releases dining reservations 60 days in advance. I’ve heard in the past that they have released new reservation times at midnight 60 days out, but my most recent trip, the reservations went live at 6:00am on the dot. So that means, 60 days before your arrival you need to have a 5:55am alarm set on your phone. When it goes off, review your plan one more time, open up the Disneyland app and click that little gray circle with the plus sign in the middle. Select “Check Dining Availability”, input your party size, and scroll the calendar over to your trip date. Select your first upcoming date (it should be selectable at midnight) and hit the refresh button right at 6:00am. Restaurants with open availability will immediately pop. Since you have a plan, and you’ve practiced, you should be easily to scroll to where your restaurant of choice is listed (and you’ll know what icon to look for too since you’ve practiced) and quickly snag the time you want. If the exact time isn’t available, but one is within the hour of what you originally wanted, snag it immediately without thinking about it. Remember, you can always cancel later if need be.
If you follow these tips exactly, you should have no problem getting the dining reservations of your dreams! Did you follow these tips? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear where you booked and how the tips helped.
