Dining reservations for large party

[ultimatefans]

We are a party of 16 (celebrating parents 50th anniversary) traveling in mid-July and staying off-site. We're spending 1 day at HS and 1 day at MK. I see that reservations have been really difficult to get lately even for on-site guests and small parties. Assuming that miraculously there is availability, can I even book for a party of 16? I know it can't be done online and I have to call which I've done for parties of 10 but never for 16. My plan is to check online at 6am and see if I can get 2 separate reservations for a party of 8. Then I'll call as well after the phone lines open. I've used TP res finder in the past with great luck so I'm familiar with that trick. Normally I'd have very strong opinions about where we eat but this time I'll just be happy if we can eat together somewhere. My family of 4 are the only Disney junkies, it will be a first or second trip for everyone else. Any advice?? Also any QS recommendations that might accommodate a large party better? My last trip was right before the pandemic so I'm not familiar with the way things work currently and how seating is done.

 

[fancymouse]

One thing I would consider is calling some of the non-Disney restaurants directly. Most of these are at Disney Springs, but you’ll be able to speak to the actual restaurant. With that many people they may even consider you an “event” and have different options. Swan and Dolphin has some good non-Disney dining as well.

 

[PUSMMA]

I don't know for sure, but I have heard that they aren't seating parties bigger then 6 with current Covid protocols in place. So, I think you'll have to split your party up into more than 2 groups. I agree with Fancymouse by calling non-Disney restaurants or using OpenTable for Disney springs restaurants if you're not trying to only eat in the parks. Good luck!

 

[ultimatefans]

Thank you both! Good to know they might not be seating more than 6 at a table. Unfortunately Disney Springs isn't an option as we're looking for meals in the parks. Swan and Dolphin might work on our HS day though, that's not too much of a trek. I appreciate the input!

 

[jetgirl86]

Make sure you have two separate MDE accounts if you're trying for two overlapping reservations. I had to do that for our party of 10 and it wouldn't let me book both through my account. Instead, the only option it gave me was to swap the new reservation out for the old one. Good luck!

 

[CarolynFH]

Thank you both! Good to know they might not be seating more than 6 at a table. Unfortunately Disney Springs isn't an option as we're looking for meals in the parks. Swan and Dolphin might work on our HS day though, that's not too much of a trek. I appreciate the input!

We had a party of 9 the week before Christmas and were booked as two parties but seated together at the same table everywhere except ScI-Fi. Be sure to have everyone there a few minutes early, and check in with the CM, not online, so you can tell them you’re together and ask to be seated as close together as possible. Homecomin’ was the only place I was able to book online for 9; I had to call for the rest.

 

[Vicki6664]

Make sure you have two separate MDE accounts if you're trying for two overlapping reservations. I had to do that for our party of 10 and it wouldn't let me book both through my account. Instead, the only option it gave me was to swap the new reservation out for the old one. Good luck!

How confusing was it to have 2 accounts we need to book for a party of 11 next week?

 

[fancymouse]

How confusing was it to have 2 accounts we need to book for a party of 11 next week?

It’s not really that bad. Especially if anyone else in your family has MDE. Just use their account. If you are staying at a resort you’ll want the account to represent someone in your party anyway so they also get access to the 60+10 reservations. If you are offsite it doesn’t really matter, but you can make an official account for someone in your party and share plans etc. Just don’t add the guests when you are booking a reservation. I would leave the guests blank until your reservations are done and if you want you can go back and add individuals later.

 

[jetgirl86]

It’s not really that bad. Especially if anyone else in your family has MDE. Just use their account. If you are staying at a resort you’ll want the account to represent someone in your party anyway so they also get access to the 60+10 reservations. If you are offsite it doesn’t really matter, but you can make an official account for someone in your party and share plans etc. Just don’t add the guests when you are booking a reservation. I would leave the guests blank until your reservations are done and if you want you can go back and add individuals later.

Yep. This. We have three separate families going, so I just made an MDE account for one "head" person in each family. Then on ADR day I signed into my account in one browser and another account in another browser. Just make sure hotel reservations are hooked up to both accounts if you get access to the 60+10 reservations so that the booking window opens for both at the same time.

 

[yaywatermelons]

Early tomorrow am is my turn to try this for my family - we have a party of 15 for mid June. If there are table limits of 6, will we need 3 accounts?

Thanks for any help - BOG is my one ask on this trip with a big group and I'm hoping that 68 days out is enough!

 

[fancymouse]

Early tomorrow am is my turn to try this for my family - we have a party of 15 for mid June. If there are table limits of 6, will we need 3 accounts?

Thanks for any help - BOG is my one ask on this trip with a big group and I'm hoping that 68 days out is enough!

I don’t know if the limit of 6 is true, but I would be prepared with 3 accounts anyway because even under normal circumstances, parties of 8 or 10 will be hard to come by. The smaller your “parties” are the more likely you are to find options. Just make absolutely sure all accounts are also showing the resort reservations so they’ll get the 60+10 access.

 

[yaywatermelons]

Just to update: Success for my window early this am! BOG and more! Thanks fancymouse.

Most places we wanted could do 8 or 8 within 10 minutes of each other and we just hope to combine day of with the help of friendly CM (and if we can't oh well we'll switch the groups up each day.)

The only tricky one was Garden Grill - we needed three groups of 5 and a third account to sign in and Epcot was our earliest park day.

For the OP: The other thing I uncovered was that if you see a table of 8 at any time during your window snag it! Then go back and "modify the reservation" to get a better time. We did this to move a couple of reservations closer to each other. (For example, we had a 3:40 and a 7:55 for Oga's Cantina and using modify could switch it to 7:50 and 7:55.)