Exciting Changes Come to Disney’s Dining Reservation System

Disney has made changes today to its dining reservations system. Often when disney messes with its tech, the result is… frustrating. These changes, however, offer users a refreshing upgrade. One change, in particular, was much needed and honestly, we are surprised it has taken  them this long to make the switch.

Credit: Jill Bivins

Previously, when you searched for a dining reservation, you would see a selection of randomly generated times rather than all available openings. This meant that if you did not want the time that Disney threw out at you, you had to manually search. It was difficult. It was unnecessarily complicated. It was everything we have come to expect from Disney tech. Now, however, when you search for a restaurant, you will see every available reservation opening for that day. This has streamlined the reservation process and made it easier to snag those difficult-to-obtain Table Service restaurants. Below are examples of the old way (left) and the new system (right). Rather than 3 randomly selected times, you can now view all of the time slots with ease. 

Credit: Disney, Scott Gustin

While it might seem like a small change on the surface, it is one that will have a big impact going forward. I can’t tell you how many Advanced Dining Reservations I’ve lost out on personally because I was searching for a specific time, and it got snatched out from under me. This change was a long time coming and, overall one that will improve the guest experience.  

Gone (hopefully) are the days of choosing 1pm and getting no result – but then searching "Lunch" and getting 12:55pm.

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) August 2, 2023

This is just one of many changes that Disney is making To their dining reservation system at both the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. The changes will roll out slowly over the next few days. You’ll see slightly different interfaces  than you’re used to but overall visually not much will change. These changes also will not impact when dining reservations can be made. It  looks like the 180 day Advanced Dining reservations window for Walt Disney World is a thing of the past. They will remain at 60 days for the foreseeable future. We would imagine that if it was going to change it would be changing with this update. As always stay tuned right here in Disney Dining. If this changes we will be sure to let you know.