Making Reservation with children under 3 yrs old

[BobH]

I apologize if this has been answered before. When making advance dining reservations for 10 individuals at a hard to get restaurant, should you count a 9 month old and a 2 year old. I don't care about whether there is a cost for their meals. I am traveling with my kids and grand kids in a group of 10 total and I believe it will be far easier to get reservations at 180 days out for two groups of 4 (if I do not count the 2 kids under age 3), rather than looking for a reservation with 2 groups of 5. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
An exhausted grandfather trying to plan a good trip.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I apologize if this has been answered before. When making advance dining reservations for 10 individuals at a hard to get restaurant, should you count a 9 month old and a 2 year old. I don't care about whether there is a cost for their meals. I am traveling with my kids and grand kids in a group of 10 total and I believe it will be far easier to get reservations at 180 days out for two groups of 4 (if I do not count the 2 kids under age 3), rather than looking for a reservation with 2 groups of 5. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
An exhausted grandfather trying to plan a good trip.

You must include all people attending, regardless of age.

 

[purple figment]

Everyone, regardless of age or whether they are eating or not, needs to be included in the reservations. If you make your reservations for 8 then there is the possibility that only 8 will be seated and two in your group will have to go elsewhere. We have seen extra people turned away.

Also, if you split your group and make two smaller party size reservations, you may not be seated together. If you book two reservations for parties of 4 and 6 you will be assigned a 4 top and a 6 top. When you check in you can ask to be seated together, but it is only a request. There are not many large tables to seat 10 in a restaurant so if they are already booked, your group might be seated at two tables near one another or on opposite sides of the room.

 

[Nancyg56]

Be aware that there is always a chance your group will be divided once you arrive. It happens.

 

[wilkeliza]

Everyone regardless of age counts. There is no guarentee if you show up with 2 extra kiddos thay you will be accomidated. Doesn't matter if they aren't eating or will sit on laps etc. If it is a human it needs to be counted.

 

[WishesQueen]

I apologize if this has been answered before. When making advance dining reservations for 10 individuals at a hard to get restaurant, should you count a 9 month old and a 2 year old. I don't care about whether there is a cost for their meals. I am traveling with my kids and grand kids in a group of 10 total and I believe it will be far easier to get reservations at 180 days out for two groups of 4 (if I do not count the 2 kids under age 3), rather than looking for a reservation with 2 groups of 5. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
An exhausted grandfather trying to plan a good trip.

What a great grandfather! You have to include everyone in your reservation no matter what. With that being said, I figured I would add my two cents. I made plans for 16 last year, before my 180 day marker I call Disney Dining and figured out what restaurants even allowed that larger of request on-line for 1 table. I didn't know that not all restaurants go that high on the website, so Disney dining went through all my plans with me and told me what to expect and which reservations I needed two tables for. Maybe you know this already, but I figured it couldn't hurt to share.

I also planned on restaurants that I knew would be really great with a large party. I only had 1 reservation that they couldn't put the 2 tables near each other and that was BOG and we did not sit close to each other at all, it was terrible. (FYI we booked GFCafe (2 tables), Yachtsman (2), BOG (2), Via Napoli (1), Sci-Fi (2 cars), O'hana (1), The Wave (1), Mama Melrose (1)

I hope this helps, I wish I could remember what restaurants didn't offer a larger booking on-line, but I am sure Disney Dining will help. Just be prepared for your 180 day 7 am plan.

Good luck, you guys are going to make beautiful memories!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Just be prepared for your 180 day 7 am plan

He can (and should) do his ADRs online at 6AM, not 7AM...
That golden hour could make a big difference!
Good luck to you Sir!

 

[WishesQueen]

He can (and should) do his ADRs online at 6AM, not 7AM...
That golden hour could make a big difference!
Good luck to you Sir!

Thanks for correcting me!!

 

[BobH]

Thanks for all your great advice. I am also guessing, Wishes Queen, that you made multiple reservations for tables of 4 or 6 online rather than larger groups. I did a trial run today and found it impossible to get tables with greater than 8 at most restaurants.

Also 6am? thanks for the heads up I thought it was 7am.

 

[WishesQueen]

Thanks for all your great advice. I am also guessing, Wishes Queen, that you made multiple reservations for tables of 4 or 6 online rather than larger groups. I did a trial run today and found it impossible to get tables with greater than 8 at most restaurants.

Also 6am? thanks for the heads up I thought it was 7am.

Good Morning, no I tried to make only two reservations at most with hopes to be put together or near each other. Call Disney Dining and let them help you with finding out the max for each restaurant. They also let me know what they saw for availability when I called the day before, that helped so much too. Good luck, come back and let us know how it went.

 

[BobH]

I will post again after I finalize ADRs in ten days, however I did call yesterday to inquire about group sizes at various restaurants (so I don't waste time trying to get impossible reservations) and got no useful help from the cast member. When I inquired about Narcoosees the CM told me "I don't think you will have any problem with a group of ten." When I told him I had been online and it appeared that Narcoosees online reservations would not process anything above a group of 8 he had no answer & said I'd have to call dining because some restaurants do limit you to "about" 9 guests per reservation. I said the reservations will be gone on Thanksgiving if I wait to call. He had no answer for that either. Guess I will have to keep trying till I get someone more knowledgeable.

 

[WishesQueen]

I see what you mean, I tried to book Narcoosee's for a random day in September to see what it would say and I couldn't get it go passed 6-7 people depending on the date I used. What I do is mark that down so when your doing your ADR's you automatically book for 4 and 5 or any other combination of numbers that work, just in case they can't combine your family that day.

Ideally if you can have two computers or a computer and phone that morning that would be best, so you can grab the reservations you need doubles of at almost the same time. But your right don't wait to call and try again I had a few people that were real helpful at the time and in the meantime if you want I can check a few for you since I can get in because I can book ADR's right now up into November 11th.

 

[BobH]

Thanks again for being so helpful. I am planning on using multiple computers with my son (and maybe even my son-in-law too) to hopefully achieve the reservations we need. I have also tried booking out til Nov 11 for all our restaurant choices to get an idea on how to handle them. I used to enjoy the pre-planning, but the hoops one has to jump through these days to get a seat in a restaurant or get a child on a favorite ride is really something.

 

[WishesQueen]

My pleasure, I've received so much help here its the least I can do to pay it forward.

I know how you feel, I love the planning it makes feel excited being more involved prior to the actual trip. But its almost impossible to make changes easily after the 180 mark. You should be fine 180 days out. Sounds like you have it all figured and you guys are ready to go, that's the best way to be for success.

Good luck, your going to have a fantastic trip!

 

[Nancyg56]

I see what you mean, I tried to book Narcoosee's for a random day in September to see what it would say and I couldn't get it go passed 6-7 people depending on the date I used. What I do is mark that down so when your doing your ADR's you automatically book for 4 and 5 or any other combination of numbers that work, just in case they can't combine your family that day.

Ideally if you can have two computers or a computer and phone that morning that would be best, so you can grab the reservations you need doubles of at almost the same time. But your right don't wait to call and try again I had a few people that were real helpful at the time and in the meantime if you want I can check a few for you since I can get in because I can book ADR's right now up into November 11th.

Narcoossees will not book over online, so I booked to ADR's to accommodate my family of 9. We were seated together, although we were not promised to be. I have found that this one, if booked early is not one of the most difficult to attain.

 

[BobH]

I could not make reservations for Narcoosees for my group of 6 adults, 2 children and 2 infants. The reservation notice kept coming up that I had to call in.When I called the main reservations an hour later (after waiting 20 min) the nice CM gave me the direct number to Narcoosees because she could not make a reservation for me. That number rang through quickly and gave me a recording that said reservations for up to 12 people max could be made by leaving your phone number & reservation request on voicemail and they would call you back. It also stated that reservations for large group had to be at 5pm only. It also stated that they would not take reservations for over 7 people on Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. It took me hours of effort to find out my request was fruitless, and in the meantime other alternate reservations were being filled up. I hope this helps someone else. the only thing that saved me was that I did make an alternate reservation ahead of making all these calls. Disney does not provide enough information online regarding their restaurants so an informed choice can be made. I did attempt reservation at 180 days for a day 5 days into my trip. I did not have the luxury of splitting up my group without splitting up children from parents, or perhaps seating grandparents at different tables. Too tricky for me.

 

[Nancyg56]

I could not make reservations for Narcoosees for my group of 6 adults, 2 children and 2 infants. The reservation notice kept coming up that I had to call in.When I called the main reservations an hour later (after waiting 20 min) the nice CM gave me the direct number to Narcoosees because she could not make a reservation for me. That number rang through quickly and gave me a recording that said reservations for up to 12 people max could be made by leaving your phone number & reservation request on voicemail and they would call you back. It also stated that reservations for large group had to be at 5pm only. It also stated that they would not take reservations for over 7 people on Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. It took me hours of effort to find out my request was fruitless, and in the meantime other alternate reservations were being filled up. I hope this helps someone else. the only thing that saved me was that I did make an alternate reservation ahead of making all these calls. Disney does not provide enough information online regarding their restaurants so an informed choice can be made. I did attempt reservation at 180 days for a day 5 days into my trip. I did not have the luxury of splitting up my group without splitting up children from parents, or perhaps seating grandparents at different tables. Too tricky for me.

Here is the thing that is often overlooked when anyone makes an ADR for a large group. There is always a chance your party will be split when you check in anyway. It happens. It happened to us a few times. So why not make two ADR's for your group and ask if you can be seated together when you check in? WE often do this and it has always worked for us.

I know we all want to be seated together, but I would not forgo the chance to make two separate ADR's and have the restaurant we want because given the I wanted to be positive we would be seated together, especially since there is no guarantee that will be the case.

 

[WishesQueen]

I could not make reservations for Narcoosees for my group of 6 adults, 2 children and 2 infants. The reservation notice kept coming up that I had to call in.When I called the main reservations an hour later (after waiting 20 min) the nice CM gave me the direct number to Narcoosees because she could not make a reservation for me. That number rang through quickly and gave me a recording that said reservations for up to 12 people max could be made by leaving your phone number & reservation request on voicemail and they would call you back. It also stated that reservations for large group had to be at 5pm only. It also stated that they would not take reservations for over 7 people on Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. It took me hours of effort to find out my request was fruitless, and in the meantime other alternate reservations were being filled up. I hope this helps someone else. the only thing that saved me was that I did make an alternate reservation ahead of making all these calls. Disney does not provide enough information online regarding their restaurants so an informed choice can be made. I did attempt reservation at 180 days for a day 5 days into my trip. I did not have the luxury of splitting up my group without splitting up children from parents, or perhaps seating grandparents at different tables. Too tricky for me.

I am so sorry that you had such and unsuccessful difficult time with your reservation. I hope that the other reservations worked out for you. I am sure that you are going to have an amazing family vacation even without this reservation. It truly is terrible how difficult it is to get information and the actual reservations. Have a great trip!

 

[purple figment]

As Nancyg56 wrote, any large group, whether it's on one reservation or two or more, might be split into two or more tables depending on the restaurant, if you're going during a holiday or high attendance time, how busy it is at the time of your reservation and what tables become available at any given time. You might be seated near one another or on opposite sides of the room. If you absolutely must sit together be prepared for a longer wait or have a plan B in mind if the restaurant absolutely cannot accommodate you.

To have the best chance of being seated together make the reservation when the restaurant is opening for the meal service or towards the end of the meal service. Both times will have more available tables that castmembers can work with. Also as much as possible make one reservation so the restaurant will know you are a large group and will be better able to anticipate your needs because there are only a few large tables in many restaurants.

I could not make reservations for Narcoosees for my group of 6 adults, 2 children and 2 infants.

Narcoossee's has a smaller seating capacity compared to many DW restaurants and on other threads you mentioned you will be going during Thanksgiving week. Unfortunately the combination makes it more difficult to get large group reservations/tables. I hope you are successful and are able to be seated together.