The Ultimate Disney World Restaurant Strategy (4 Steps)

Due to limited capacity, snagging a reservation at your favorite Disney World restaurant has become easier, but still far from easy.

Which is why we’re going to share our Disney World restaurant strategy with you.

From the Be Our Guest restaurant, Docking Bay 7, or the Yak and Yeti. There are always a handful of eateries that are difficult to secure – even if you wake up in the middle of the night 180 days prior to your vacation, log onto your computer and wait for the clock to turn to 7a eastern!

50’s Prime Time Cafe is a Fan Favorite

There is one web site that is making it easier than ever to grab that coveted reservation – MouseDining – and the Disney Park Nerds are huge fans! Using the site is about as easy as it comes…and it’s our favorite price FREE! Follow these four easy steps to get all of the Disney World restaurant reservations you are after.

1. Search for your favorite Disney World restaurant

This is one of the first things you will see on their site. Simply enter the name of a restaurant like “Be Our Guest” and click GO.

2. Choose the date, number of guests and timeframe that fits your schedule

You can cancel an alert any time, though they cannot be edited.

If you do not act in time to secure a reservation or decide a specific time does not work, these “used” alerts will be in your account and will no longer notify you. If you wish to be notified of future reservations for the same location, date and time, simply click “Renew Alert”

Once you create an alert, it will sit there watching and waiting for a reservation to come available. You? You can go about your life. That’s right! Set it and forget it and let MouseDining do the work for you.

3. Wait for an alert – then ACT! Grab that Disney World restaurant reservation!

When you get the text and/or email alert, simply click the link and follow the steps on the Disney World restaurant site to secure your reservation. An interesting quirk of using MouseDining is that when you follow the link, you can secure a new reservation without cancelling existing reservations that are too close. This is convenient as you can “shoot first and ask questions later” by making the reservation before the time slot is taken and then strategically review your options and cancel the reservation(s) you do not intend to use.

Nerd request: If you are not going to use a reservation, cancel it as early as possible so MouseDining can make someone else’s day and notify them of a time/date that they are hoping will make their Disney World vacation perfect.

4. Dine at your favorite Disney World restaurant!

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant

That’s right. Show up. Enjoy the ambiance. Order. Eat. Leave Happy.

Using MouseDining, the Disney Park Nerds have almost always been able to secure the Disney World restaurant reservations we desire. The text notifications are particularly easy because it’s just a couple of clicks and the reservation is locked down. We don’t know what voodoo those dining reservation wizards use, but we are so glad they do!

Oh…one more thing!

The free account allows for six restaurant alerts to be set at any time. You can cancel an alert to make room for another at any time.

Should you upgrade to a MouseDining Pro account, it will cost anywhere between $5 and $20/month, depending on the number of active alerts. Paying annually will save you between 25% and 42%.

No matter which version you choose, rest assured this is an enhancement to any Walt Disney World vacation plan (and a delicious one at that!).