Top 5 Tips If You Don’t Have Disney Dining Reservations

Dining is a major part of the Disney experience, with so many amazing options to choose from out of the best Disney World restaurants and the best Disneyland restaurants. However, this means that for the most popular dining experiences, reservations often book up quickly in advance.

If your trip is coming up and you don’t have dining reservations booked for the dates of your visit, there are a few tricks you can try to secure a reservation, which we will share below!

1) Consider trying some of the easiest-to-book restaurants that have quality food. While the most popular locations book up far in advance, certain spots tend to have lots of availability for booking last-minute reservations.

At Disney World, you’ll find great themed options that have more open availability and great food, like Biergarten at EPCOT and Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen at Magic Kingdom. See our list of our favorite easy-to-book Disney World restaurants that are our go-to picks for this scenario. At Disneyland, one of our favorite restaurants in the entire resort, GCH Craftsman Bar at the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, also happens to be a location that has lots of reservation availability. Check out our list of the best, easiest-to-book Disneyland restaurants.

2) Set up dining alerts for popular restaurants. This is one of the most effective ways to book a last-minute spot by getting notified of any cancellations as they happen. Using these services, you select your preferred date and time range for your desired restaurant, and the system will search for any cancellations and notify you via text and email so you can grab the open spot. There are both free and paid options available for dining alerts. Dining notifications are the best way to secure reservations if you have your heart set on dining at one of the most popular restaurants!

3) When searching for reservations, split up your party and keep searching for spots on the day of when you arrive. If you’re a party of two, try searching for a table for three to see if this opens up more availability. Or if you’re a bigger group, you can see if there is more availability if you split into two smaller reservations, and from there, you can see if the restaurant is able to seat you together as a group (though be prepared that there’s no guarantee that this can happen).

Make sure to keep checking for spots when you arrive! There will likely be more reservations that pop up on the day of your trip due to Disney’s $10/person cancellation penalty for failing to cancel before 2 hours before the reservation (for most restaurants).

4) Try some of the best quick-service restaurants. There are some great options across the Disneyland Resort and Disney World Resort that don’t require any advance planning! These are counter-service style restaurants where you pick up your food in a “grab-and-go" format. From Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe at Disneyland Park to the San Fransokyo Square restaurants in Disney California Adventure, there are plenty of convenient locations with high-quality food that are often our go-to options when we don’t have dining reservations. See our list of the best Disneyland quick-service restaurants.

In addition to some of the best Disney World quick-service restaurants in the parks, we also recommend checking out some of the other quick and convenient options across the Disney World Resort, like these great resort restaurants outside of Magic Kingdom and standout quick-service restaurants in Disney Springs.

5) In the future, make sure you are aware of the most popular restaurants and secure these reservations right when the booking window opens. For example, Disneyland restaurants like Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, Oga’s Cantina, and the River Belle Terrace premium Fantasmic! dining package are very popular and tend to book up the fastest. Make sure you’re aware of the restaurants in the highest demand so that you’re not caught off guard, and set a reminder at the 60-day window from the day you’d like to reserve dining so that you’re among the first to grab a spot.

You can see our full articles about the best way to secure Disneyland dining reservations and how to get last-minute dining reservations at Disney World for more tips.

At Mickey Visit, we share the most important tips for planning your trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Universal, and beyond. Each week, we’ll share some of our top tips here on Laughing Place.