Disneyland contains an array of restaurant options. Whether you just want a snack, a light meal, or a full sit down, Disneyland has no shortage of options. When looking to do a sit down restaurant, it’s best to make reservations as not all restaurants will have walk up or waist list availability the day of. Follow these steps to make your Disneyland dining reservation through the Disneyland App.
You can make reservations starting 60 days before your trip. If you are looking to have reservations at a popular restaurant you will need to do it the morning of the 60 day mark if you want a chance of getting reservations.
If you are like me, your trip is usually planned months in advance. However, this time my trip was planned barely a month in advance. As such, the 60 day mark had already passed, and many restaurants no longer had available reservations. As such, when making my Disneyland dining reservations via the mobile app, I was looking to see what was available on a particular day rather than a specific restaurant. If you are looking to make reservations at a particular restaurant, you will need to scroll through the list of the available restaurants till you find the one you are looking for.
Making Disneyland Dining Reservations through the Disneyland App:
- The first step is pretty obvious here, but open your app and make sure you are logged into your Disney account. At the bottom center of the app there is a + button. Click it.
- Select the ‘Check Dining Availability’ option at the top
- Enter the size of your party that you will be making dining reservations for, the date you want to dine at Disneyland, and time of day. For the time of day your options are typically breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and then 30-60 minute increments throughout the day. I recommend selecting breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner as that will give you a greater chance of finding a reservation without having to search again.
- The app will populate all restaurants that have reservations available. If you are looking to make a dining reservation in a specific Disneyland park or Downtown Disney, select the filter button at the bottom right; you may need to scroll down first in order for the filter button to show up. Then select the park you wish to make reservations at. For me, we were looking for a dinner reservation in the Downtown Disney District, so that is what I filtered on.
- Due to making reservations less than 30 days before the trip, and wanting a dinner reservation, we had limited options to choose from. We would have had more options if we had chosen a lunch time reservation as dinner is typically a more popular time. If you have more than the two options we had, you will need to scroll down to see all of your options.
- When you click on a restaurant you can view the menu to see what the restaurant offers and if it is in your price range. Once you have determined that this is the Disneyland restaurant you want to make your dining reservations at, select one of the available time slots to make your reservation.
- Next you will need to enter your contact information. Since you are logged into your Disney account it should auto-fill, but ensure the information is correct. You will also need to enter credit card information if you do not have a credit card linked to your Disneyland app. The credit card will not be charged unless you are a no show to your reservation or cancel less than a day before.
- If you have someone in your party who has dietary restrictions or you need to add an accessibility request, you can add those by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and selecting the ‘Special Dietary or Accessibility Request’. There you will be able to select from a list of allergies or enter your accessibility request.
- You will need to read and agree to Disneyland’s Guest Policies, then you can book your dining reservation. At that point it will take you to a confirmation page and send a confirmation of your reservation to the email entered in as part of your contact information.
- You can now see your reservation in your future plans along with your hotel and park reservations.
Items to Note
It is important to note that you MUST have park reservations if your reservation is in one of the Parks. The reservation needs to be at the park the restaurant is in or have a park hopper ticket. Just because you have a dining reservation does not mean you can get into the park that day. So ensure you have your park reservations squared away before making dining reservations at Disneyland.
Another item to note is that the closer to the date you are or the busier the times of year you go, getting reservations could be difficult. If you cannot find a reservation at the restaurant you want to go to, check back periodically in the days leading up to your trip. You may be able to find a reservation slot that someone else has canceled. If you are unable to find a reservation, the day of, you can request to join the walk-up list. You can do this through the app or go to the restaurant and see if they are allowing walk-ups.
For more trip tips and Disney information, check out the other posts on my blog!
