Walk up dining experiences

[CarolynFH]

I’ll try to help! Open your MDE app. On the bottom there are 5 icons: a house, a pin drop, a plus sign with a circle around it, a magnifying glass, and 3 horizontal lines. Click on the pin drop and that will take you to a map. Click “filter” at the top left and select which park or DS that you want to search. Then in the center at the top it defaults to wait times with a drop down icon beside it. Click that then choose “dining”. On the upper right it says “show list”. Click on that. There will then be a list of all dining establishments at that park. If there is no walk up wait list availability, it will say so in red. If it they do have availability, click on that restaurant and then click on the “join walk up list” icon. Hopefully that helps!
edited to add: you do not sound like an idiot ☺

An even easier way is to go into the app and go into Reserve Dining; select your party number; click on "Now" and it will show what has availability and what has walk-up waitlist availability.

Thank you both! This information will be very helpful on our upcoming visit!

 

[HiStitch626]

So how does this work if I want dinner reservations? Do I join the waitlist as soon as it opens? I'm confused how this works if the waitlist is full by 11 a.m.

I think it partly depends on the hours of the restaurant and partly depends on how many ADRs they already have for the day. If a restaurant has defined dinner times, potential walk-up times will show when the restaurant opens for dinner. For instance, I looked at two places today at 4pm Three Bridges and Sanaa. Neither are open then and at that time both said "walk-up list is currently unavailable due to high demand". At 4:30, when they open, Three Bridges had walk-up available and Sanaa had walk-up available at 5, when they opened. Sanaa filled their list as I typed this, so within 10 minutes. I would guess for that restaurant the only walk-ups that would be accommodated would be those who came right at 5pm.

At 4pm, when both PrimeTime and Sci-Fi "opened" for dinner neither had availability. They may have had too many ADRs offer it or they may have still had walk-ups from their lunch hours that end at 3:55.

 

[princess lovers mom]

An even easier way is to go into the app and go into Reserve Dining; select your party number; click on "Now" and it will show what has availability and what has walk-up waitlist availability.

thank you!!!

 

[Luvmyfam3]

Thank you everyone for this information! I had no idea!!

 

[GDubDIS]

Related question to this - is it posisble to get on a walk-up list through the app in Disney Springs? It seems to me like no. If it's not available in the app, does anyone know if Disney Springs restaurants typically save some seats for walk-ups or if they 100% book with reservations? I figured they might operate more like normal restuarants in leaving space for walk-ups whereas I know that's less common with restaurants within the parks.

Thanks!!

 

[luckydriver]

just found this thread. i'm a newbie. right now it says 25 min wait for cinderellas royal table which my gf told me is very good. so good advice

 

[TeresaWen]

The wait list for restaurants that offer this feature is dynamic. Availability changes throughout the day. A restaurant’s walk up list may be “at capacity” one minute and open the next.

I use it frequently for nomad lounge. I have snagged a table at Tony’s & Skippers in the MK. Both times with waits of around around 45 minutes.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Related question to this - is it posisble to get on a walk-up list through the app in Disney Springs? It seems to me like no. If it's not available in the app, does anyone know if Disney Springs restaurants typically save some seats for walk-ups or if they 100% book with reservations? I figured they might operate more like normal restuarants in leaving space for walk-ups whereas I know that's less common with restaurants within the parks.

Thanks!!

I don't know of any DS restaurant that participates in the Disney waitlist but we have walked up to nearly all DS restaurants and been seated either immediately or within a reasonable amount of time. They all hold space for walk-ups + book many of their reservations through Open Table.

 

[GDubDIS]

I don't know of any DS restaurant that participates in the Disney waitlist but we have walked up to nearly all DS restaurants and been seated either immediately or within a reasonable amount of time. They all hold space for walk-ups + book many of their reservations through Open Table.

This is so helpful thank you!! We are not people who like to book dining times way far in advance and our first night we were hoping to meander around Springs 8pm+ or so, so this is good news. Thanks!

 

[JJ2017]

What happens once you join the waitlist in the app? Do you get an alert that it's time to head to the restaurant?

 

[HiStitch626]

Yes, you get a notification in the app.