Party of 6-Is it that hard to find character dining?

[mossimo81702]

I just booked our stay last week for DW and this is our first ever family trip down there. We are staying 11-18 to 11-23. I did not realize how far in advance people make reservations for character dining and how difficult it is to find it especially for us. Now my question is this, is it hard to find character dining for a party of 6? I've been having a hard time finding that especially for Be Our Guest, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Chef Mickey.

Is it better to search for reservations for 3 and 3? I don't really want to break us up but it just seems hard to find.

Any suggestions for first time parents bringing their kids to DW for the first time???

 

[jtg2]

BOG and CRT are difficult even at 180 days in advance.

Consider all character dining options and search obsessively.

 

[mommy4]

We are a family of 6 too and it has been very hard! Even on the 180 days before I still didn't get one that I was really hunting. Keep looking and you may get lucky!

 

[NMontma]

Definitely keep searching the cancellation threads here for November obsessively and subscribe so you get email updates when a new post is made. Those are probably 3 of the most difficult reservations to get even early out and yes, larger parties are more difficult. I am a party of 6 and just booked my 10/25-11/5 vacation in July. It's required lots of obsessive looking, but I've managed to get all of those reservations. It's definitely doable! Good luck!

 

[cindy81]

I think you are also going during Fall break for a lot of schools so I'm thinking Disney is pretty busy that week. Those are also really in demand ADR's. I have had luck finding cancellations for BOG, CP and CRT for 5 for our trip in October but I check the website non stop. I had the best luck just over 60 days out with most of mine. Instead of 3 and 3 I would recommend 2 and 4 since partys seem to come up more. Also Breakfast, lunch and dinner and also search specific times. For example when I search breakfast I usually get things around 8:10 and later but when I search 8am I get res for 7:30-9:10. I've also seen different times come up when I do the same for lunch. Searching lunch usually brings up things 11:50-2 and searching 11:30 brings up 11:15-11:50 so change your parameters regularly. Also, if you see a res that's not optimal get it anyway and keep looking to see if you can find something better. In my months of searching I have only seen CRT come up for dinner and I have only seen one BOG come up. CP if you like pooh characters comes up sometimes. If you want to see Cinderella and her step family you can go to 1900 Park Fare for dinner too and I have seen several of those. Good luck and keep searching!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

At this short notice, during free dining, yes, it will be difficult. Never mind that you want the 3 most popular reservations (remember BOG isn't character dining but it's still the most difficult reservation to get at any time) and these were probably booked up months ago with guests who have free dining. You may have to consider less popular options and off-peak mealtimes.

 

[MrsM]

We're also a family of 6 and it can be tough. Like everyone else has said, just keep checking to see if anything opens up! If you can be a little flexible, I'd keep checking even after you arrive - with the 24 hour cancellation requirement we've noticed more availability opening up a day or two prior to the date we're looking for.

 

[dpswift]

We're also a family of 6 and it can be tough. Like everyone else has said, just keep checking to see if anything opens up! If you can be a little flexible, I'd keep checking even after you arrive - with the 24 hour cancellation requirement we've noticed more availability opening up a day or two prior to the date we're looking for.

Very true however I found that a good number came up 2 weeks before our trip during the WEEKEND many families start weeding down their selections then. Also watch the cancelation board. That is how I was able to get Wishes dessert party 5 days out.

For this trip every so often I would check for ADRs. The last few weeks I searched several times a day and managed to get better times for ADRs.

Towards the end I saw ADRs for almost every restaurant including BOG and CRT Good luck.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I 2nd the last chance bookings ... just looked for you and for TOMORROW you could easyily get 6 peeps in at any meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) at several places! EVEN CP at 8:15 a.m. and that's PRE-PARK hours!

Don't despair!

 

[mossimo81702]

So would you just recommend that I wait until it gets closer to our arrival date to start looking or should I still continue to search and search and search until then? I've been doing this for a week and found some things but nothing with character dining during that time, kinda like Hollywood & Vine but I guess there's no character dining for dinner?

 

[dreams4disney]

We are a family of 6 and so far I have found in the last week an Ohana for breakfast, a CP for breakfast and a Chef Mickeys for dinner. I have also seen several CP for dinners. BOG has even been available. All the breakfasts are between 8am and 8:30am and the dinner we have for CM is at 5:25pm.

I have also seen Le Cellier for 6 for dinner at around 5:30.

Our trip is only a few weeks away. Don't give up there are things out there.

 

[hazelsmrf]

I would suggest you continue to search and search until then. And if you see something, book it and think later, I saw a Cinderella's Royal Table for 6 at 9am and I hesitated and that was gone really fast. Make sure all your info is already in the MDE app and book any 6 people meals you can find that meet your criteria, you can always cancel them later if you realize that it doesn't work with your plans. I have found 2 Ohana breakfasts, 1 Akershus lunch and 1 Hollywood & Vine breakfast, those were our must haves, so I will be releasing the extra Ohana breakfast as soon as I figure out which day works best for us.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

You may also want to consider other restaurants that are not character dining but have a theme. We love the Coral Reef at EPCOT. Watching the fish while eating is pretty cool. You can ask when you check in for a table with a good view. There is a pending Coral Reef cancellation on the Nov thread for 5 people (which is usually a six top) on the 21st for lunch and dinner.

San Angel in Mexico is also pretty cool - ride, volcano as is SciFi Drive Inn at DHS.

HTH