By Dopey Diva

I have been to Disney World 4 times in the past 4 years. Out of those 4 times we used the Disney Dining Plan for 3 of them. The first time was my honeymoon and we only booked a couple months before our trip. When we went to make our dining reservations, just about everything we wanted was already booked. The second time we booked 4 months in advance and still had problems getting the meals we wanted. The 3rd time we had the same problem. I would get on every day for weeks hoping someone had cancelled and we could get meals where we wanted.

 There are 3 ways to make dining reservations. One is to have your travel agent do all the work for you, which would probably be the easiest way to go, but I like to do it myself to make sure the times available work for our daily plans. The second way is to call 407-WDW-DINE. The third way is to do online reservations. This is the way I chose to do mine. Sometimes, however, the Disney website has issues and you may have to call or just keep trying.

 The first day was great, I got exactly what I wanted. The second day the website was down, so after trying and trying I finally called, and it turned out their whole system was down. I was bummed I couldn’t get a dinner for ‘Ohana, so I chose another restaurant. Luckily it turned out ‘Ohana had been  having an issue of their own so later that night I actually was able to book it.The next day was fine, got what I wanted. Then I tried to get a Be Our Guest reservation. I was up at 5:45 am, they begin reserving online at 6 am ET. I tried at 5:59, wouldn’t let me, tried at 6 am and there were NO reservation times available. This was very disappointing, but we decided we will just do a quick service lunch one day during our trip. The rest of the week worked out and I was able to get a reservation for all of the other restaurants at a time that worked around our daily schedule. Now I know first hand that making your dining reservations 180 days in advance is a MUST!!