Travel Tip Tuesday

Today's post will hopefully answer a few easy questions for you about how to make your dining reservations for sit down restaurants at Disney World. However, I have to lay a little ground work before I give the "Tip".

If you have ever gone to Disney and failed to get a table on a whim at a sit down restaurant at the prime dinner hour I am here to explain to you why that is. It is simple, those people who are happily enjoying a tasty meal with your coveted characters are having a blissful and relaxing meal due to some hard planning....six months before that meal. Yes, I said 180 days. Really? You thought you could just go to the parks (whichever you wanted to that day) and enjoy things as they came to you? Well, yes and no. I know of a few lucky people who have done just that. They rolled out of bed whenever, had a late breakfast while they decided what to do that day, then headed to a park. Then they rode whatever ride they came to and ate wherever they wanted. Now, I must say I have heard that from maybe one or two people. However, it is definitely the exception.

What I usually here is more like this: We got up at 10:00 and got to the parks about 11:00 after a leisurely breakfast. Then we tried to ride our favorite rides, but only got two in before we were ready to eat again because the lines were so long! So, we took a break for a late lunch. After looking at the maps and asking around we decided to try to eat with Pooh (or at Liberty Tree, or at Chef Mickey's....the list goes on and on). So, we got the kids all on board with our lunch plans, and walked to the restaurant. Once we arrived, we were told that they didn't have any openings at all, or that it would be a two hour wait. Really? So, we left and had a lunch at a counter service meal. After lunch, we hit the long lines again and got two more rides in before dinner time. We tried again at a sit down, and finally realized that this was the reason people encouraged us to plan our trip months in advance. So, once again we ate a counter service meal and then got a few more rides in before close. Then they came home and told everyone how horrible the crowds were and that the food at Disney World is overpriced and not worth the money. They then wonder how I can be so addicted to Disney! They thought it was too stressful and not fun.

Well, I am a planner, so preparing for our trips is heaven to me. I love looking at the crowd calendars, park hours, and restaurant menus six months in advance and figuring out where we want to eat on vacation. Now, I admit, it sounds kind of silly to try to figure out what I want for dinner in 180 days, when most days I don't know what I am cooking that night. However, I know how important it is for my upcoming trip to do the planning in advance and make my reservations at exactly the 180 day mark. So, I get up at the crack of dawn and log in to my account on disneyworld.com to make all of my dining reservations. When I am done, I know that the hard part is over, and I have the next six months to anticipate those yummy meals that I booked.

So, today's "tip" is to plan, plan, plan and book, book, book. I don't care how silly it sounds now, it will be worth it in the end. You can book your sit down meals 180 days prior to your trip. So, with today being April 3, you can book any meal you want for September 30, 2012. If you are not staying on property, you will have to call every day to make that one meal until you have booked every meal of your trip. However, if you are staying at a Disney resort, you can reserve all of your meals for up to 10 days of your trip based on your first check in day. If you are checking in to Disney on September 30, you will be able to book 10 days of your meals TODAY! So, all you Wilson County people who are going over Fall Break....book now!!!!

There are two ways to book your meals. You can call Disney directly at 407-WDW-DINE and the friendly staff will help you plan your meals. They will tell you the times that are available, then if you are interested in one of the times, they will reserve it and give you a confirmation number. Then they will move on to the next reservation and do all of them for you. The call center is open from 7:00 am to I believe 10:00 pm. These times are Eastern time! I know the opening time is 7:00, but I can't remember the close time. With us being an hour behind, I always forget the time :). So, that means for our area, we have to be online calling at 6:00 am CST if we want to eat at Cinderella's Royal Table or Chef Mickey's as those are two of the hardest ones to get.

If you don't want to call, you can book your meals by yourself on the web. Go to disneyworld.com and click the link across the top that says "Where to Eat". Then click the link that says "Make Dining Reservations". Once that comes up, if you are staying on property, click the link that says "I want to use my dining plan to book reservations". That will take you to a page that allows you to put in your resort confirmation number so that you can make multiple reservations past your first day. Then put in your restaurant name, click a desired time, click the number of people in your party, and click the button that says "search for a table". The computer will then display a few options for meals (hopefully). It will search two hours before your desired time, and two hours after to list several options for your meals that it feels most closely matches your criteria. Choose a listed time, then click make reservation. It will then take you to a new screen and ask for a few details from you, then give you a confirmation number (which will be emailed to you as well). Once you complete this reservation, start over and book another one. I strongly suggest playing around with this process a few days before your big day. This way, when you are doing it half asleep you will know what to do. While you can book reservations online any time of day, the new day starts at 6:00 AM Eastern time. So, if you want to book the first possible day, that means logging on and being ready at 6:00 in the morning (which sadly means 5:00 for us CST people)!

My big day was yesterday so I was up at 4:45 am to make my dinner reservations. So, I am still behind on sleep, but I know I will reap the benefits of that effort in six months! In the next day or two I will post about what meals I selected, and a few of my tips for trying to decide which restaurants are best for your family. Sorry for the long post! I still have so many more in my head based on the past few trips if things will ever slow down enough to post them! Happy Planning!