Large party reservations

LindsayW

Member
Original Poster
I’m booking reservations for our entire party. There are 17 of us total. Is my best bet to do multiple reservations for roughly the same time (like 5,6,&6) and call to ask them to seat us near each other? Does anyone have a good system for this?
 

Diesel Dan

Active Member
A couple of years ago we had a group of 23 on a trip. We had a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. I think we had 12 for 12:10 pm and 11 for 12:30pm. We all showed up together and they let us in as one big group. That was when it was Quick Service for lunch. Don't know how it would go for the sit down dinner. Good luck to you!
 

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
I believe they like to seat large parties at the beginning and end of a meal time also - so if dinner time is 4:30pm-9pm at a Table Service location, they would prefer to seat you as close to 4:30 or as close to 8:15-8:30 as possible.

If WDW-DINE doesn't have a group dining number/group, they may be able to give you a number for the restaurant itself that you can call, but that can be tough at times too.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
If anyone has had recent success getting a phone number for group dining or booking for a group of 10 over the phone, please post your experience. Anyone who remains even remotely sane after calling WDW-DINE has my utmost respect.
 

erstwo

Well-Known Member
If anyone has had recent success getting a phone number for group dining or booking for a group of 10 over the phone, please post your experience. Anyone who remains even remotely sane after calling WDW-DINE has my utmost respect.
Sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience.
Last year I had a party of 11 over the 4th of July weekend. Not only that, but we HAD to eat at exactly 5:30 each day (my father in law is older and likes his daily schedule!)
I did have to wait over 2 hours (can’t remember exactly how long) to get an agent on the phone, but once I got to an agent they were so helpful!
I was able to book us at Raglan Road, Il Mulino, and Blue Zoo - all for 5:30 exactly.
I can’t remember when I called, but it was definitely after the 60 day mark.
I thought it was a small miracle we got all of those given our restrictions (exact time, large group, and hoping for restaurants near the Yacht Club) and I was so thankful for his help.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
Sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience.
Last year I had a party of 11 over the 4th of July weekend. Not only that, but we HAD to eat at exactly 5:30 each day (my father in law is older and likes his daily schedule!)
I did have to wait over 2 hours (can’t remember exactly how long) to get an agent on the phone, but once I got to an agent they were so helpful!
I was able to book us at Raglan Road, Il Mulino, and Blue Zoo - all for 5:30 exactly.
I can’t remember when I called, but it was definitely after the 60 day mark.
I thought it was a small miracle we got all of those given our restrictions (exact time, large group, and hoping for restaurants near the Yacht Club) and I was so thankful for his help.
That’s great to hear, although Raglan Road has reservations either by phone or OpenTable so we would never call Disney dining for them. Also, Raglan doesn’t release many reservations to Disney. The other 2 you mentioned are also pretty easy to get although you would probably have to call the restaurant for 11. I don’t know if you can call them directly - I know they are in non-Disney owned hotels.

I was referring to getting the more popular restaurants like Topolino’s for the character breakfast, California Grill, Tusker House, San Angel - restaurants of that nature. If you’re waiting two hours to get through, those will probably be gone.

We asked about combining reservations that we already had and they couldn’t do it. Couldn’t help with noting a birthday celebration or ordering a cake either. We were able to do everything we wanted but calling was useless.
 
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Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
These dining party sizes for some folks would require a private room at most restaurants outside Disney and Disney is no different. Remember if you break the group up into 2 or 3 groups and all have a reservation at 7pm, that doesn't mean there will be 3 tables available at the same time. In fact I doubt there will be, as others have said book for the earliest dining hour or try to book one large table.
 

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