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 dissapointment 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 July 21, 2023 – We’ve updated this guide to have the most up-to-date information, as well as adding a video version of this article from our YouTube Channel. 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.
However, Disney World Resort Guests can start making their reservations even earlier thanks to the 60+10 rule.
I’ll explain how this works further down.
What time can you make dining reservations at Disney World?
You can start making reservations at 6:00 am ET, which is Disney World’s official opening time for reservations.
But here’s why you should set your alarm for even earlier!
We recommend that you are online and logged in by 5:45 am ET. While 6:00 am is Disney’s official stated time, sometimes the system will release dining reservations even earlier. So it can help to start looking just a bit earlier.
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.
Disney World Dining Reservations Decoded – Video
If you want all the must-know info on Disney World Dining Reservations — including how early they become available — check out this video from Guide2WDW’s YouTube Channel.
Can Disney World Resort Guests make reservations early? The 60+10 Rule
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, for up to 10 days. 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 65 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.
Why is it called the 60+10 Rule? Because 60 days ahead of their check-in day, resort guests can make their reservations for up to the first 10 days of their vacation.
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?
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.
Should I use the app, website, or phone?
If you can, you should definitely use the My Disney Experience app or Disney World’s website to make your reservations. As I mentioned above, Disney World opens reservations at 6:00 am. But Disney World’s reservation phone line doesn’t open until 7:00 am Eastern, and you most likely will encounter a wait.
The website has one big advantage over the app: tabs. You can open up multiple browser tabs for all the restaurants you want to make reservations for prior to the reservations opening up. So if you’re a power user and want the best shot at getting ADR’s for Space 220, Be Our Guest, and Ohana for your next vacation, may the browser tabs bet with 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.
- If you are a resort guest and using the 60+10 Rule, make your reservations starting on the last day of your trip and work backwards. You’ll be able to make reservations for the days towards the end of your vacation the most days in advance. You’ll have the best chance of getting the hard to get ADRs this way.
- 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. Guests can now cancel their Disney World dining reservations up to 2 hours ahead of time using the Disney World app.
- These reservations can sell out super quick! 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.
- 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 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 Mobile Walk-Up Waitlist at Disney World – Perfect for Last Minute Tables
- 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!
Let me know in the comments below: Have any more questions about how early dining reservations open at Disney World?
More from Guide2WDW
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!