Back in the day, you could skip making Disney World reservations for character restaurants and table-service restaurants, especially if it's off-season.
Even without a reservation, you could just walk in and have your name placed on their list.
When the restaurants are really busy, you may be asked to wait - but you will get seated eventually.
Well, those days are long gone! As more families flock to Disney World for the ultimate vacation, most restaurants are never empty and do not have walk-up availability for the same day.
As a matter of fact, it got so tough for guests to get the seats they want at character restaurants that Disney eventually allowed guests to place their reservations ahead of time - so much ahead of time! Now, I've learned from experience that there are things you can do to ensure your reservation goes through.
1.
The fastest way for you to place Disney World reservations is through Disney's online booking system.
It's fairly new and as a result, few people bother with it.
Don't use the phone unless you really have to - the hold times, particularly in the morning - because it's when people try to make time-critical bookings.
2.
If you're reserving seats by phone, call on weekday evenings after 8:00 Eastern Time.
Disney's reservations department answers calls until 10:00 EST.
3.
Disney's phone reservations system puts forth so many demographic questions for you to answer before you can actually get a hold of a real person to talk to.
Here's how to bypass all that.
When the voice on the other end asks if you're in Orlando and need to reserve for the next 7 days, press 1 or answer yes.
This lets you get a person to talk to you more quickly and shaves off two minutes from your calling time.
Disney World reservations at the most popular restaurants are really tough to make but if you know what to do and how to do it, you can get seated no matter where you want to dine and when.