Stuff You Probably Have Heard Of…

Character Dining

It’s… A timed sit-down meal - usually, but not always, a buffet - where assorted characters stop by your table to interact with you. Cast Members accompany the characters to make sure things go smoothly - they’ll also take a picture if you hand them your phone or camera. In addition to a photo moment, people often collect character autographs, but generally it’s about having a fun little moment with a beloved character come to life. We recently saw a woman whip out a sketchbook full of hand-drawings she’d done of the Fab Five and present it to Mickey Mouse. Of course he couldn’t keep it - Cast Members cannot accept gifts (also, where would Mickey even put a sketchbook, the man mouse has no pockets!) - but he mimed a lot of appreciative Ooohs and Aaahs and gave her a big hug.

I find Character Dining a little more comfortable when it’s an anthropomorphic animal in a suit rather than a human person, mostly because it’s more my vibe to hug a GIANT STUFFED ANIMAL than a 20-something young woman I don’t know - even if I’m fully invested in the improv of it all.

Anyway, with Character Dining you get one go-round. Every character will visit your table once and then they’ll “take a break” - often preceeded by much fanfare and a lap around the room waving goodbye. After that, you get some time to finish you meal before it’s time for the next round of diners to have their fun little moment with Minnie.

ADR (Advance Dining Reservation)

Disney Resorts love windows - advance ones, that is! And there’s no greater window than that of the 60-day ADR! Dining reservations open at 6AM EST*** but you should always be ready early! If you roll up at 6 for one of the really popular spots, you may find the entire day is already booked up.

For guests staying at hotels the window actually lasts for the entire hotel stay, which means you get a little advantage by being able to book earlier than everyone else on subsequent days: day 2 of your stay, you’re actually booking 61 days early, day 3 is 62 days early and so on… You may think: why is this A Thing? And I’ll tell you: Mostly it isn’t, but if you’re trying to score a difficult-to-get reservation, you need a strategy!

Walt Disney World and Disneyland updated their U/X in the last few months to make it much easier to browse and see what’s available, which has made the whole thing much nicer, but if you’re trying to get into CRT or Space 220 those reservations get snapped up very quickly. The key is to get there early - well before 6 - with multiple screens up and your party size already selected. Keep refreshing each screen every 20 seconds or so until the calendar date becomes clickable and CLICK IT! Have a pre-determined timeframe of a couple of hours in mind so you can act fast when the window opens. Also: REHEARSE! Seriously. Trial runs! Anyone can book a table 60 days out, so use that to your advantage by practicing making the reservations. Just don’t go too far into the process because you don’t want to block someone else who’s legitimately trying to get that rez! Get really good at quickly refreshing the calendar, selecting the date when it opens up, and visually processing the way the page looks so you can go right to the time bubble you want without wasting time trying to grok the way the page is laid out. Again - this is only for the really popular spots! For everything else, it’s a very pleasant, low key browsing experience. If this sounds at all daunting, it can be if you’ve got your heart set on a very specific date & time at the most popular restaurant and your party is more than 2 people. Working with a Disney Travel Agent might be the way to go.

As a side note, ADRs at Disneyland Paris and the Asian parks work differently: once you make a hotel reservation you make your dining reservations right then and there. Spots are limited, though! That’s really important to know for guests who are used to the way it’s done in the US parks. I almost missed out on a breakfast reservation at Fantasy Springs because of this. I got a reservation, but it was way too close to when we had to leave for the airport! Luckily, I was able to talk to the concierge in person when we checked in and change to an earlier time. If we’d been a party of more than 2, that might not have been possible.