Large Group Reservations?

[paugom]

Hi all,

I'm helping my extended family plan a trip for the last week of April. We have 19 people (10 adults, 9 kids from 12 to 1). Is it possible to get a reservation anywhere for a group this size? Am I better off just trying to book multiple tables for each family (4 families + 1 set of grands) and just hope we can all book around the same time? The large group will be in the parks for 3 days (two families are taking a day at Universal). We all have park hoppers so we can move around for the evening. What are some of our best options for either the full party or multiple groups at once? Thanks for all your help!

-PJ

 

[mouschievous]

We recently did a meal for 24 of us (19 adults, 5 kids ages 2-13). When I asked Disney, they told me a group that large falls into the "event" category and sent me off to their event coordinator - who quoted me a $5000 minimum So we took our large group meal to Disney Springs, where Paddlefish treated us very well.

Now, that is a different situation because we were doing a hosted meal, but Paddlefish was awesome. We had a private room for 3 hours, a set menu for the salad and desserts, and everyone got to choose one of 3 entrees that my husband and I set. They did separate meals for the kids, and gave them fun stuff to play with at the table.

During our big family trip, my uncle also planned 2 meals for his family (kids and grands), and they're a group of 13. He called Disney and made those reservations over the phone in order to get one reservation for their large group. Their large group meals were at Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom) and Brown Derby (Hollywood Studios).

 

[meremac]

Most restaurants won't take more than 8 people. A few take a 10-12, some take even less. You're likely going to have to split up into two or three tables, which it sounds like you know. Some suggestions for restaurants that are likely to be able to get multiple big groups in at around the same time: Chef Mickey's, Teppan Edo, Biergarten, 'Ohana, Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace. I know there are more, but these are some off the top of my head. Of course, this assumes that you're making your reservations as soon as your window opens.

 

[cman]

I am also going in April and have a group of 20 but I'm just starting to plan ADRs.

In 2018 we did a Christmas week trip for 28 people and had pretty good success with ADRs. I did a few reservations online but most of them required me to call the restaurant directly and talk with the manager. That complicated things but in the end I was able to get almost all the places and times I wanted.

None of the restaurants would guarantee that we'd get tables together but in most cases that accommodated us nicely.

I hope the process hasn't changed..... I'm about o find out.

 

[Julie Amber]

I book for groups all the time.... 3 in the last year of groups this size. You'll just need to call and talk to dining reservations to get those reservations done. Most restaurants can accommodate this, but just not through the online system. We haven't had a problem with it ever

 

[_19disnA]

Even if you can make a reservation for a group that large, will everyone want to eat at the same place? Some may prefer different items and hard to please everyone at one restaurant. There is also the practical aspect of not being able to talk with someone in your party at the far end of the table with a group that large.

 

[cman]

Hi all,

I'm helping my extended family plan a trip for the last week of April. We have 19 people (10 adults, 9 kids from 12 to 1). Is it possible to get a reservation anywhere for a group this size? Am I better off just trying to book multiple tables for each family (4 families + 1 set of grands) and just hope we can all book around the same time? The large group will be in the parks for 3 days (two families are taking a day at Universal). We all have park hoppers so we can move around for the evening. What are some of our best options for either the full party or multiple groups at once? Thanks for all your help!

-PJ

I called Disney Dinning and talked to someone that gave me some good advice.

Things have changed since our trip in 2018 and they no longer have you call some of the restaurants directly. That's somewhat disappointing as last trip I made those calls ahead of time and got to know the person I was going to call when ADRs opened. In some cases they took my reservation info and just booked it for me the day ADRs opened without needing a call from me.

This time the advice I got was to start online at 6am and get a reservation for as big a party that a particular restaurant would take. Get as many you can in the 6-7am hour. Hopefully you can get at least one at each place.

Then at 7 call back and start adding more. Each of the additional will need another adult name.

Do the normal things like booking harder to get places at the end of your trip. I also did some random checking to see how big a party a restaurant will take. For example, Cape May will take up to 12, Ale & Compass will take 8 but BoG seems to be 4. These numbers may be temporarily affected by Covid restrictions.

I asked two different Disney reps to get their opinions of the difficulty in getting reservations for the places I want. I had the color code them - Green, Yellow, and Red.

With all the above information I now have a script to follow.

With that, along with what Julie Amber said above, I'm felling confident this will work.

Lastly,, if you have another adult that has there own MDE account they can join the fun at 6am. My brother is going to join me at 6am 60 days out and we'll tag team to try to get what we need.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Hopfather28]

I'm worrying about something similar. My family is vacationing with another family and we will be doing a number of meals together. There will be 8 total and I have been stalking the website every morning to see what would be available 60 days out. We are looking for Ohana, Skipper's Canteen, Tepan Edo, Tiffins, and Trattoria al Forno (for breakfast). Even with no care about what time the only one consistently available has been Trattoria al Forno. I know I'll have access to the entirety of my vacation at 60 days but I'm not feeling good about scoring ANY of these. Which sucks because when we go as a family we always can get our reservations.

 

[senoragilbert]

I book for groups all the time.... 3 in the last year of groups this size. You'll just need to call and talk to dining reservations to get those reservations done. Most restaurants can accommodate this, but just not through the online system. We haven't had a problem with it ever

When you say "talk to dining reservations" is this the WDW DINE number or the one you get if you put in a huge group number (the one that ends in 1391)? Thanks!

 

[CarolynFH]

When you say "talk to dining reservations" is this the WDW DINE number or the one you get if you put in a huge group number (the one that ends in 1391)? Thanks!

I’d call the one ending in 1391, if you got it by trying to book online for a large party. That’s the number I got when trying to book Mama Melrose, and I wish I had called it immediately instead of after I messed up trying to do by myself! I called at exactly 7:00 AM and wasn’t on hold very long.

 

[Jmljasmine]

Most restaurants won't take more than 8 people. A few take a 10-12, some take even less. You're likely going to have to split up into two or three tables, which it sounds like you know. Some suggestions for restaurants that are likely to be able to get multiple big groups in at around the same time: Chef Mickey's, Teppan Edo, Biergarten, 'Ohana, Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace. I know there are more, but these are some off the top of my head. Of course, this assumes that you're making your reservations as soon as your window opens.

Can I ask if they make an exception if the whole party is one nuclear family. While not dinning out a lot at a place like Disney, if a family has 7 kids, are they forced to split up? Just wondering, even though we only have 4 now, we haven't ruled out adoption in the future and are already at that 8 cap if we bring my parents to have some time with grandkids.

 

[CarolynFH]

Can I ask if they make an exception if the whole party is one nuclear family. While not dinning out a lot at a place like Disney, if a family has 7 kids, are they forced to split up? Just wondering, even though we only have 4 now, we haven't ruled out adoption in the future and are already at that 8 cap if we bring my parents to have some time with grandkids.

It depends on the physical capability of the restaurant to put tables together. Biergarten has tables that seat up to 12. The cars in Sci-Fi, OTOH, seat no more than 6 due to how they’re built (they may have tables that seat 8 - I’m not sure). We had tables for 9 at Beaches & Cream, Biergarten, Liberty Tree Tavern, Homecomin’ and Mama Melrose. So it’s not a hard and fast rule, it just depends.

Many times people choose to split their parties in order to book their ADRs online starting at 6 AM Eastern rather than waiting until 7 AM to call. And in fact our party of 9 was actually booked in parties of 6+3, 5+4, 7+2 and even 8+1, but we checked in early with the CM, told them we were together and asked to be seated as close together as possible, and we were seated together. I will say that after messing up my attempts to book online, I called, so it’s possible the CM put some sort of note in the system to alert the restaurants, but I’m not sure of that. It is one reason that I encourage people needing to book parties of 8 or larger to call, though.

 

[meremac]

Can I ask if they make an exception if the whole party is one nuclear family. While not dinning out a lot at a place like Disney, if a family has 7 kids, are they forced to split up? Just wondering, even though we only have 4 now, we haven't ruled out adoption in the future and are already at that 8 cap if we bring my parents to have some time with grandkids.

If the restaurant can physically accommodate that, then probably. But you won't be able to book that online. You'd have to call at 7am, and availability will be tight by then for some locations. If you'd really rather have everyone at the same table instead of splitting up into two, then it might be worth a shot!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

when booking online, the system has no way of knowing whether or not the booking party is a nuclear family, so no, there isn't an exception. A party that large would still need to call or try to merge separate reservations.

 

[ckelly14]

I'm travelling in April and booked tables for 10 at Boma, Jiko and Teppan Edo. I only found 8:20 for Skippers Canteen so we made a booking for 4 and 6 people.

There were quite a few that took 10, more than I expected...