It will now be possible to make reservations for select Walt Disney World Restaurants on the online restaurant reservation service OpenTable.
Right now 10 Walt Disney World Restaurants are participating with OpenTable including:
- Artist Point – Wilderness Lodge
- Big River Grille – Boardwalk Inn Resort
- Boatwright’s – Port Orleans Resort Riverside
- Flying Fish – Boardwalk Inn Resort
- Grand Floridian Cafe – Grand Floridian Resort
- Jiko – Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Kona Cafe – Polynesian Resort
- Olivia’s Cafe – Old Key West Resort
- Sanaa – Animal Kingdom Lodge
- The Wave – Contemporary Resort
OpenTable isn’t necessarily brand new to Walt Disney World Restaurants as select Disney Springs restaurants have already been allowing guests to book reservations through them for a while, but these are the first WDW restaurants either at the resorts or parks to use the service. Also the Wind & Waves Grill at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort uses OpenTable.
What does this change mean for Walt Disney World guests booking through Disney directly? Nothing basically. This shouldn’t have much of an impact at all for guests being able to get reservations because the booking window for OpenTable is just over a month, whereas booking through Disney still gives you a 180-day window.
This won’t help you to get any of those hard-to-get tables like at Be Our Guest, however one advantage to using OpenTable is that users don’t have to pay a penalty if guests cancel a reservation within the 24 hr period Disney gives you, neither does it ask users to give credit card info.
Overall this has a minimal effect on guests, but does give you an option so you don’t have to worry about cancelation fees. It looks like Disney has chosen some of the least popular restaurants to put on OpenTable, probably trying to drum up more business for those places. We’ll have to wait and see if this is just a trial they eventually open up to more restaurants.
Your Thoughts:
I want to know what you think about being able to book Walt Disney Restaurants on OpenTable. Do you like this change? Would you like to see it possible on all restaurants? Let us know in the comments section below!
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My name is Ziggy and I love Disney, everything Disney! I grew up on Disney and it has and continues to be a huge part of my life. I started young when my parents took me to Disney World when I was 18 months old. Little did they know that would be the first of an uncountable number of trips we would take. I have so many amazing memories going to Disney with my family and friends and it has been interwoven into my DNA.