Walt Disney World has a seriously impressive lineup of table service restaurants, from family-friendly locations like the Plaza Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom to more high-end fine dining experiences like Takumi Tei over at EPCOT. However, getting into these restaurants has been a bit of a pain point for guests over the years, as Disney’s dining reservation system has long been criticized for being cumbersome and hard to navigate for even the most experienced guests.
Earlier this year Walt Disney World made a big improvement to its dining reservation system by releasing an update to the My Disney Experience app that allowed guests to more easily see all available reservations during a meal period (i.e., breakfast, lunch or dinner) without narrowing the search any further by specific time windows. This move has been very well-received by guests, and now it looks like even more updates are coming in the near future, according to new rumors posted by WDWMagic.
A notification system will be implemented that will let guests know when tables are available at specific restaurants
It can be frustrating when you want a reservation at your favorite table service restaurant and no matter how much you refresh the page, there’s nothing available. Under the old Walt Disney World reservation system, guests would have to constantly check back on each individual restaurant’s reservations page, day by day, hoping that a last-minute cancelation would free up a table.
However, Disney may soon be rolling out an update that will allow guests to set alerts for when availability opens up at restaurants during specific pre-set windows so that they can scoop up a last-minute reservation without having to keep their eyes glued to their phone screens during their vacation.
Guests may also soon be able to search a date range for reservations
When searching for dining reservations, guests have previously been limited to searching specifically by one date at a time, which can be cumbersome when planning a week-long vacation. However, with the new rumored update coming soon to My Disney Experience guests will be able to see a range of dates available, so that if they have a “must-do” restaurant, they can see all of the dates and times where it might fit into their vacation and make the choice that works best for them.
This should definitely help those looking to score hard-to-get reservations at locations like Cinderella’s Royal Table or Crystal Palace, as they can see all availability at once during their full vacation, instead of selecting every single date individually, refreshing, and hoping for the best.
Disney has not yet confirmed these rumored dining changes, but this report does seem to be in line with Walt Disney World’s commitment to improving the experience of making reservations for diners at the resort. As these changes have not been officially confirmed we also don’t know when they might roll out, but the report says that these updates could be coming in just a few weeks, either before the end of the year or in early 2024.
