Today I am lucky enough to have one of my favorite contributors Sydney Burkhardt tell us a little about the Walt Disney World Order Ahead and Advanced Dining Reservations system.
At Walt Disney World there are a ton of different types of dining! There are swimming pool bars, room service, lounges, counter service, fast casual restaurants, food trucks, unique and themed dining, fine and signature dining, dining events, character dining! That is a lot of options! Where do you start?! This blog post is going to help you learn the answer to that question.
In 2021, mobile ordering is going to be a great option, this is where you can pre-order and do not have to wait in line to order. Step one to mobile order is a smart device! Step two is to download the My Disney Experience app
Now that you are in My Disney Experience the first thing to do is select the restaurant that you would like to choose from. Then you are going to want and choose “order food”, pick your arrival time and the best part decide what to eat! A great feature on this app is the ability to customize your order, for example if you want sauce on the side. This is something I genuinely enjoy because I am a picky eater! The last step is to pay for the meal! Disney gift cards and Disney reward redemption cards are accepted when ordering on the app as well as a credit card. Once the time is right to pick the meal up confirm that you are in the area of the restaurant and wait for them to send you to the correct counter for pick up and enjoy! Mobile ordering has locations in all four parks, and Disney Springs. One of my favorite quick service restaurants that is now included is Capt. Cooks at the Polynesian Village Resort. My favorite is the Pulled Pork Nachos!
What is an Advanced Dining Reservation at Walt Disney World? For visitors staying on Disney Property they can make a reservation at a Disney owned restaurant starting 180 days in advance of their arrival and for their entire vacation stay up to 10 days. This is huge because it lets you book all those reservations at one time! Visitor’s can order online through the My Disney Experience App or by calling (407)WDW-DINE. In my opinion some of those tough reservations to get include restaurants like Be Our Guest Dinner, Victoria and Alberts, and California Grill! My tip for the tough ones is making them towards the end of your trip so that it gives you more time in the Reservation System. Another tip for California Grill is keeping the receipt from your meal so that your party can come back and watch fireworks (when they make their return to Magic Kingdom) from the observation deck!
