By the co-author of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020, the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series ever.

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Booking Be Our Guest, Continued



By Dave Shute

Yesterday’s post about how to increase your odds of getting a Be Our Guest reservation got tons of comments and responses, both on this site and on the many Facebook pages that shared it (and thanks to all those who shared and/or liked the post and/or commented!!).

The Ballroom at Be Our Guest Restaurant at the Magic KingdomRather than respond to each comment, let me group the key points into one place here, in no particular order.  (The links are to example comments on the point.)

  • Some people do have no trouble getting a booking for 180 days out. (I saw this in particular in comments on the various Facebook shares)
  • Many people do have success with the recommended strategy
  • People do cancel their reservations, so rechecking closer to your dates—even the day before—can really pay off!
  • It’s simply not true that Disney World holds back some reservations to guarantee 180 day availability—although it does sometime have technical difficulties that have a similar effect!!
  • Walking up to the (counter service) lunch is an option—aim to arrive 1.15p or a little later

Thanks again to DisneyDiningAgent whose original comment kicked all this off!

Any key points I missed?

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12 comments

1 Jennifer M { 07.10.13 at 6:12 pm }

Hi Dave, so I’m trying to get some things sorted out for our trip in March, 2014. I’ve been reading about the Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner, and I would like to maybe try fitting it in. Is it worth going to instead of Cindy’s Table? Or should I do some juggling and see if I can get it into my itinerary with Cindy’s Table?

2 Dave { 07.11.13 at 8:44 am }

Jennifer, if you have daughters between 4 and 8, I’d go with Cindy. If they have grown out of the princess age–or if they are boys :)–I’d do BOG.

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3 Jennifer M { 07.11.13 at 10:58 am }

Ok, thanks Dave. I have a daughter who will be 8 (almost 9 at time of travel) and is just on the edge of the princesses, and I have a boy who will be 6 at time of travel and could be interested in almost anything. So, maybe skipping Cindy’s and doing BOG and possibly Askershus would be a better idea.

4 Dave { 07.12.13 at 8:34 am }

Sounds good, Jennifer!

5 Sara M { 11.23.13 at 7:29 pm }

Finally went to Disney world for our first trip! It was amazing! I followed a lot of your recommendations so thank you for the tips! I was wondering if you have a review of BOG? We got reservations 180 days out and they were for 4:40. We weren’t sure what we were going to get to eat but knew we wanted to got there for the ambiance and see the Beast! However, when we were sat at our table I explained we may only order appetizers, soups and desert for myself and my husband and the children would be eating off the kids menu. Our server was really nice, however she said the restaurant frowns upon people not ordering full dinners but that she would let it slide this time. We still spent $75 out of pocket and left a 20% tip. When we left there I told my husband I had to ask “Dave at your first visit” if this was normal? Our server seemed annoyed we weren’t ordering full course meals and even went as far as to say that some people will just order a cupcake so that they can be in the dining room and usually in the front where we are greeted they will usually tell people that they can’t do that. I just felt a little thrown off about it as it was our first trip to Disney EVER in life and when I booked it never said any minimum requirements. I felt as if I would have ordered cupcakes and coffee that I would have been thrown out of there! Any thoughts?

6 Dave { 11.24.13 at 9:45 am }

Sara, I’ve only been at BOG for lunch (I hardly ever plan more than 60 days out cause I go so often, so haven’t gotten into BOG for dinner yet.) I’ve not heard of this specific issue. I get why Disney would want it so–maximizes revenue per available table hour–but it does strike me as really tacky for them to push you to order more…

And I’m so glad the site helped!!!

7 Sara M { 11.24.13 at 2:11 pm }

Thanks Dave and speaking of going so often, is it normal that I have only been home 2 days and want to go again?? 😉 😉

8 Dave { 11.24.13 at 3:39 pm }

Sara, it is very normal!! 🙂

9 Jane { 09.17.14 at 2:35 pm }

Hi Dave, after about 2.5 months of looking for cancellations, I finally got two reservations within 20 minutes of each other at BOG. I know it isn’t that unusual for people to do this at Disney at hard to get restaurants, but I will feel weird going up there saying that we have separate res but are together. Should I expect them to be okay about it? We would love to sit together of course but if we end up in different places it isn’t a big deal. I have very little experience with any sort of hard to get into restaurants. Thanks!

10 Dave { 09.18.14 at 6:37 am }

Jane, no worries–just think of this as two reservations, with different people on each, that just happen to be near-timed.

11 Randy { 05.14.15 at 4:57 pm }

I was one of those who gave up a great 7:00 BOG reservation just a few months before we had originally planned to visit. The dates of our trip changed and it was VERY difficult to click the ‘Cancel Reservation’ link for BOG 🙂 When I did I went to the reservations to see it sitting there. There it was all by its lonesome self. I then refreshed again a couple minutes later and it was gone. It was at least fun knowing someone was dancing around happy somewhere at that moment.

12 Dave { 05.16.15 at 11:23 am }

Randy how sad!! 🙂

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