Online Advance Dining Reservation System Now Available

Earlier today, Disney launched its long-awaited online Advance Dining Reservations system at the disneyworld.com Web site. With a trip scheduled in a couple weeks, I took advantage of the opportunity to use the new system to make dining reservations.

Reservations are made through a Restaurants section on the Walt Disney World Web site. This section hasn’t yet been included in the existing “Book” section where park tickets, room only reservations and vacation packages can be ordered. Instead, the system can be reached by navigating to Discover » Dining.

Once at the Restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort page, you can filter restaurants based on a number of different options: location (theme parks & water parks; resorts), other locations (Downtown Disney, BoardWalk and Wide World of Sports), cuisine and dining experience. After selecting a restaurant that accepts Advance Dining Reservations, you click “Book a Reservation” and are sent to a page where a day (or range of up to five days), time and number of adults and/or children are entered. After filling in these fields and clicking “Check Availability,” you are sent to a results screen.

On the results screen, you’ll see a list of times close to the one you requested, as well as other options that might be of interest (you’ll also be given a list of alternates if the desired restaurant is not available). If you find a restaurant and time you like, select the corresponding radio button, enter the Captcha words in the Security Check and click “Add to Cart” (the Security Check is required as it prevents bulk automation of reservations).

At this point, the reservation has been added to your shopping cart where it will be held for up to two hours as long as you’re actively using the site; otherwise, the reservation will expire after 20 minutes of inactivity. From this page, you can continue searching for reservations or opt to check out, where you will be asked for your name and a phone number at which you can be reached while on vacation.

Overall, I thought the system was excellent and was able to make the following reservations:

• Lunch at Trail’s End Restaurant at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
• Lunch at Rose & Crown Pub & Dining Room at Epcot
• Lunch at The Plaza Restaurant at Magic Kingdom

I did experience one problem with the system, though. I was looking for a fourth reservation but was unable to find one that interested me. When I tried to get to my cart to check out, I was unable to find a way to do so (I expected to find a link or button for the shopping cart on each page like you see at Amazon.com and similar Web sites). The only way I found to access my cart was to add another reservation which brought me to my shopping cart, where I was able to remove the reservation and begin the check out process.

If you’re going to Walt Disney World anytime soon, I highly recommend the new reservation system. The only thing I’m not certain of is if the system is available 24 hours a day. If it is, I’m curious if I’ll be able to make a reservation for a restaurant at midnight while others wait to call (407) WDW-DINE at 7:00 a.m. Hopefully Disney will publish an official press release sometime soon to answer this and any other questions people have.

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Related posts:

1. Quick Service, Standard Disney Dining Plan Prices to Increase in 2010
2. An Analysis of Disney’s Quick Service Dining Plan
3. Beaches & Cream Soda Shop Adds Breakfast Menu

Posted in: Restaurants
Tagged as: Advance Dining Reservations, Downtown Disney, Epcot, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World