Getting Advanced Dining Reservations as early as possible has long been a pro-move at Walt Disney World. Knowing the earliest time you can make an ADR at Disney World can mean the difference between getting a table for dinner at Be Our Guest and grabbing a burger at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (no offense, Sonny Eclipse). For most of Disney World’s restaurants, you definitely want to get a dining reservation ahead of time, as same-day reservations can be hard to come by. For the most in-demand Disney World restaurants like Space 220 and Ohana, getting reservations as early as possible is a requirement.
If you haven’t been to Disney World in awhile, how early you can make a reservation has changed. So in this part of the Guide 2 Disney World Dining Reservations, we are going over everything you need to know about making dining reservations as early as possible at Disney World.
Update February 15, 2023 – We’ve updated this guide to have the most up-to-date information. Disney recently changed the ability to make same day dining cancellations. We also updated the dining reservation tips section in this article to reflect this change.
How many days ahead of time do Disney World dining reservations open up?
The window for Advanced Dining Reservations at Disney World is 60 days ahead of time. As a rule of thumb, you should try to start planning your Disney World trip at least two months ahead of time in order to be able to get all the dining reservations you want for your vacation.
What time can you make dining reservations at Disney World?
Set your alarm early! While the reservation phone line opens at 7:00 am ET, you can start making reservations using the Disney World app or website starting at 6:00 am ET 60 days ahead of time. This is just one reason why we recommend using the app to make dining reservations.
ADR Tip: We usually make sure we are online and logged in by 5:45 am ET because sometimes the system will release dining reservations early. According to a Disney World Cast Member:
“Dining reservations open at 6 am online. You can start looking at 5:45 am as there may be a time when they load them earlier. But, normally 6am is the time.”
This also lets us make sure that the app or website is loading correctly and that we can troubleshoot any issues before the reservations open up.
Can Disney World Resort Guests make reservations early?
Disney World Resort Guests actually have a bit of a leg up when it comes to dining reservations. Resort guests can make dining reservations for their entire vacation starting from 60 days before the first day of their trip. This is an amazing Disney World Resort perk for two reasons:
- You get earlier access for the latter days of your trip. If you’re staying 5 nights, you can actually make a reservation for the final day of your trip 64 days ahead of time. You’ll have an easier time finding hard to get reservations on these days, so we recommend making your dining reservations starting from the end of your trip and working backwards.
- You only have to get up early one day. Let’s face it, 6:00 am ET is extremely early. If you have a Disney World hotel reservation, you can book the dining for all of your trip in one sitting. Of course, you can always make modifications later, but the fewer number of times you need to set your alarm for before 6:00 am, the better.
If you have a valid hotel reservation, but Disney World’s website and app won’t let you make dining reservations for your whole vacation, check out our article here on Disney World Dining Reservation Problems and Fixes for Hotel Guests.
Can you make dining reservations 180 days out?
Disney World used to let you make dining reservations 180 days ahead of time. This policy changed after the COVID closure in 2020. Now the window for Advanced Dining Reservations is 60 days ahead of time, which is much more reasonable than almost half a year.
How can I make an Advanced Dining Reservation?
You can use the My Disney Experience app or DisneyWorld.com to make ADRs. You can also call 407-WDW-DINE to call the phone line to speak to a Cast Member and make a reservation. We recommend using the app or website to be able to make your reservation as early as possible for your highest priority restaurants.
If you’re working with a travel agent like our friends at Vacationeer to plan your Disney World vacation, they can also help you book your dining reservations. If you reach out, one of their friendly Disney World experts will promptly respond, and they can tell you all about how they can help you plan these details and more for no extra cost to you.
Tips for making Advanced Dining Reservations at Disney World
- Plan out each day of your vacation, especially if you don’t have a park hopper pass. For the in-park restaurants, you will need valid theme park admission as well as a park reservation. Knowing which park you’re going to each day will help you know which restaurants you’ll want to make reservations for.
- Remember that park hopping begins at 2 pm each day. So for any reservations before 2 pm, you will need a park reservation to be able to get into the park and dine.
- Be sure to have your My Disney Experience account set up and link a credit card before you try to make your dining reservations. Each reservation that you make will require to use a credit card to secure your reservation.
- There is a no-show fee! You will be charged $10 per person for any dining reservations that you don’t use. Be sure to cancel ahead of time in order to avoid this charge. While Disney’s official policy still states there is a 24 hour policy, guests can now cancel their Disney World dining reservations up to 2 hours ahead of time using the Disney World app.
- For restaurants like Space 220, Le Cellier, Cinderella’s Royal Table, or Be Our Guest, you will need to try to get a reservation at 6:00 am ET 60 days ahead of time. These reservations can sell out in minutes 60 days ahead of time.
- Didn’t get the reservation you wanted? You might not be out of luck. Check out our guide on what to do if you don’t have a reservation at Disney World. This has tips to help you snag a last minute reservation or find alternatives if the restaurant you want is out of reservations.
Be sure to check out other entries in our Guide 2 Disney World Dining Reservations.
- How Early Can You Make Disney World Dining Reservations
- How to Make and Cancel Disney World Dining Reservations – A Step by Step Guide
- What to Do When You Don’t Have a Reservation at Disney World
- The Hardest Dining Reservations to Get at Disney World
- The Easiest Dining Reservations Worth Getting at Disney World
- Disney World Dining Reservation Errors, Problems, and Fixes for Hotel Guests
We want to hear from you!
Have any more questions about dining reservations at Disney World? Let me know in the comments below!
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Thank you for the great information! How do you make all your reservations at once? The dining calendar only allows you to click 60 days ahead. What am I missing? We do have a Disney hotel. Thank you!
Hey Steph! Thank you for your question, hopefully I can provide some assistance.
First of all, the extra reservation privileges is available at Disney-owned resorts, including Shades of Green. It is not available at Swan/Dolphin or other Good Neighbor Hotels owned by third parties. If your resort reservation is at a Disney-owned hotel, you should be able to make up to 10 days of dining reservations starting 60 days out from the first day of your trip.
If you’re booking online, you must be logged into the Disney World/ My Disney Experience account that your Disney resort booking is linked to. So make sure that your resort reservation is linked or that you’re logged into the correct account. Also, if you’re having issues booking on the app, try the website, or vice versa. Unfortunately, Disney’s online tech can have mysterious glitches.
If you’re logged in to the correct account and still are having issues, I would recommend calling 407-WDW-DINE, and be sure to have your Disney World Resort reservation number handy. They should be able to help you make all of your reservations.
I hope this helps! Best of luck!
Below information is incorrect. Cancel time is still 24hrs. “Guests can now cancel their Disney World dining reservations up to 2 hours ahead of time using the Disney World app.”
Hi Tiffany! Disney World just recently updated the MyDisneyExperience app to allow for same day dining reservation cancellations, up to 2 hours ahead of time (excluding prepaid experiences). See our update on dining reservation cancellations here. This was first reported by Scott Gustin on Twitter.
However, you are correct that they have not updated their official dining cancellation policy to reflect this new ability. So while the policy says 24 hours, guests can now cancel reservations same day using the app without incurring the no show fee.
I’ve been up trying to get reservations at 5:45 am ET and nothing was actually available at that time. I had to wait until 6. Did I do something incorrectly?
Hi Stefanie!
You didn’t do anything incorrectly! Disney World dining reservations open at 6:00 am ET. We had some conflicting information about the correct time and erred on the side of earlier, so my apologies about that. But we just confirmed with Disney that 6 am is the correct time. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I just updated the article.
However, we have received the advice from cast members that sometimes reservations can open up before 6 am (this isn’t the norm, but can potentially happen), so getting online at 5:45 isn’t a bad idea. That also will give you a chance to make sure your devices are working correctly.
Hope you have a wonderful day!