Any changes to 60 day dining reservation period coming ?

[Boardwalk Tigger]

Any word out that they may go back to the 180 day dining reservation period in future? The 60 day time frame is too close to arrival time for me.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm not sure they'll ever change back to the 180, but you never know. Even 60 days is too far out for some guests.....

 

[maltdizzy]

There doesn't seem to being any real demand or effort to change it. I kinda doubt they will. It gives Disney more flexibility to set staffing and otherthings within a more predictable window. The 180-day window used to be to get people to commit and book before Disney calculated room inventory for discounts, maybe if things slow down at WDW again, they'll consider it.

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

I like the ability to plan ahead. It’s also easier to grab the harder to get dining reservations at an earlier date. Even if was at 120 days would be easier to plan.

I remember the days when you didn’t have to book everything ahead and could walk in to a restaurant but those days are long gone.

 

[mistysue]

I think they are trying to casually swap people back to walk up situations- on both trips last year it was obvious they are under booking so they can offer same day surprises. It was awkward because we couldn't book breakfast at our resort but they were telling us to try walking up because they were nearly empty, but because we couldn't book ahead we ate in the room expecting not to have an option. Who wants to skip eating in the room "just in case" they can eat inside, then have to trek back to the room when the wait is an hour?

As fun as it sounds, it goes against everything Disney expereince has taught all of us. If we don't have a lunch booked we know we can't count on eating in-park because we've had too many experiences when QS couldn't handle our allergens. So for us, while it sounds nice it would also create an air of anxiety around every single meal because without booking something, we take the chance that we get to lunch time and spend up to 3-4 HOURS finding food. (been there, done that)

So for now, I apparently get to spend 2 months before the trip constantly re-checking the site to see if someone who hoarded reservations will release something useful to us so we aren't eating at our 5th choice 2 hours off our normal meal times.

 

[sponica]

From what I've heard, only 40-50% of the back of house staff have returned systemwide, so I don't think I see them moving things from 60 days out until staffing is a little more robust.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I remember the days when you didn’t have to book everything ahead and could walk in to a restaurant but those days are long gone.

The days of walking into a restaurant at WDW goes way back in time - that hasn't been the case for decades! I do remember doing rope drop at EPCOT to get into those state-of-the-art video reservation systems to make day-of reservations in the World Showcase restaurants!! But just walking up now, especially during very busy times like they've had since reopening, probably wouldn't work well.

That being said, we did actually discover some of the restaurants that weren't booked during our Jan and March trips, showed a day-of walk-up list option on the app - you could grab a spot at some places. We did that one evening in Morocco - a pleasant surprise. So even though it's rare and tough to do, you might still find it sometimes.

 

[maryj11]

Out of curiosity I just checked July 3 to see what was available . July 3 opened today. To my surprise there were a lot of reservations still available. Even Sci Fi which I had such a hard time getting last trip. No Ohana though.
Maybe they are opening more reservations up?

 

[CarolynFH]

Out of curiosity I just checked July 3 to see what was available . July 3 opened today. To my surprise there were a lot of reservations still available. Even Sci Fi which I had such a hard time getting last trip. No Ohana though.
Maybe they are opening more reservations up?

I hope so! I know they've been recruiting kitchen staff pretty heavily - maybe that's being successful, so they can serve more guests at a time.

 

[maryj11]

I hope so! I know they've been recruiting kitchen staff pretty heavily - maybe that's being successful, so they can serve more guests at a time.

I hope so too! Last trip I had a terrible time trying to get the reservations we wanted.