One More Time.....
Dining reservations just got a new twist. As of July 18th, when guests staying at Disney-owned and -operated resorts (the Swan, Dolphin and Shades of Green are not included) reach their 90-day booking window for the beginning of their trip, they may now make reservations for ten days' worth of Advance Dining Reservations. The dining agent will confirm your hotel reservation before making the dining reservations. Those not staying at Disney resorts will need to continue making reservations on a rolling 90-day basis. This policy also extends to other experiences reserved through WDW Dining, 407-WDW-DINE (407-939-3463), such as the Pirate Cruise and Wonderland Tea Party at the Grand Floridian.
Apparently, the new policy will not be opening all reservations for a given restaurant for early booking, however. A sliding percentage of seats will be made available for early booking, with fewer seats opening up for the more popular restaurants. This means that very few seats will be opened up for the Princess character meals at Cinderella's Royal Table and Restaurant Akershus. However, it will give resort guests an additional chance to snag a reservation, first at their 90-day-plus-ten window, then again when the rest of the reservations open up at 90 days out.
While the tough-to-get seats will remain difficult, what the policy does is allow resort guests to make all of their reservations with one call (with the possible exception of high-demand seats), lowering the number of required long-distance calls. While not quite back to the old days of "only resort guests can make advance reservations," Disney has given guests one more incentive to stay on-property.
If you cancel your room reservation, all of your dine reservations will also be automatically cancelled. As the auto-cancel feature is new, it is still advised that if you booked a Dine reservation that required a credit card deposit or credit card guarantee to verify that they get cancelled if you cancel your room reservation. If a modification results in a change of your reservation number, again have the agent verify all of your dining to ensure your room reservation is updated. In time, this step will no longer be needed.
If you booked with a
travel agent, your travel agent will need to call in your dinning reservations to take advantage of this new enhancement. If you booked with a wholesaler, (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) they will provide you with a special number to call.
Any Guest will still be able to book their own dine reservations at 90 days or less prior to the date they wish to dine, based on availability, same as now.
How it works:
*Guest should take advantage of the Dine Finder function at
www.Disneyworld.com to aid in deciding their itinerary before they call.
*Guest calls 1-407-WDW-DINE at 90 days prior to their resort arrival.
*When prompted by the auto attendant, the Guest will need to enter their room reservation number AND home phone number. If your room reservation starts with an R simply enter in just the 7 digit number following the R and advice your Dine agent.
*The Disney Dine Agent will validate your room reservation in the system and note your reservation number on your dine reservations.
* The Disney Agent will proactively encourage the Guest to book not only for their arrival date, but also for the length of their stay, up to 10 days, allowing the guest to book their full vacation in one call instead of needing to call back daily.
Note: This is not changing the booking window. Disney will still continue to promote dining reservations 90 days in advance. Resort Guest cannot call 91+ days in advance to book for their arrival date.
