UPDATED 8-16-20
Many guests, including us, have been back in Disney World to dine at our favorite restaurants again (how we’ve missed Homecomin‘s Cheddar Drop Biscuits).
And dining locations around the parks and resorts have been following strict health and safety regulations with Mobile Dining Check-in, distanced seating, limited menus, and more. Still, some guests have had affected Advance Dining Reservations now that Disney World’s park hours have been shortened beginning September 8th. We’ve got the scoop on how Disney will handle this.
As the parks continue their initial re-opening, Disney has stated that they would be making changes when they were necessary. One way we’ve seen this happen is through Disney announcing they’d be further reducing park hours starting in September.
On September 8th, Magic Kingdom will have its hours reduced to 9AM to 6PM, EPCOT will be open from 11AM to 7PM, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 10AM to 7PM, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9AM to 5PM.
Since the parks are operating with even more limited hours next month, certain guests’ dining reservations could be affected during this time. If guests had booked reservations during a time that the parks WERE open, but now have a reservation when the park won’t be open, they could be left with essentially a non-usable reservation. If a guest booked, for example, a 6:30PM dinner reservation in Magic Kingdom back when it was set to close at 7PM and the park NOW closes at 6PM…what will happen?
According to a Disney Cast Member we spoke with, they will be reaching out individually to guests whose dining reservations are affected by these changes. However, Disney will possibly provide an auto-cancellation date for dining reservations, if Cast Members are unable to reach guests in time. At this time, they were unsure if or when that would happen.
UPDATE 8-16-20 After hearing from several readers noting that Disney is still offering after-hours dining reservations, we reached back out to Disney World via their website chat feature. Disney is now saying that some locations will stay open past park closing time to accommodate dining reservations.
If you happen to have a dining reservation that’s affected by the new park hours, Disney recommends that guests go online to modify them. However, if guests aren’t aware of the changes, Disney should take care of any affected reservations without action from the guest. But that could mean you’re out a reservation and will need to make alternate plans.
The best thing to do right now is to contact Disney to see if your reservation will still be honored.
As Disney starts to reach out to guests, we’ll keep you updated about other changes that will be coming to the parks with the new limited hours in Disney World!
Click here to learn more about Disney World’s new reduced hours!
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What is your favorite restaurant to visit in Disney World? Let us know in the comments below!
Bill B says
This is going to put a lot of pressure on restaurants at the resorts and DS. If those reduce their hours as well, guests will have to go out of the bubble to dine or call for delivery.
Blake says
Modifications to what? Many places are booked up due to drastically limited capacity. If you booked a rezzie during a now invalid time, frankly you are
SOL and Disney isn’t going to do anything to help you, because there just is not room for you anymore. I tried to move my Sanaa reservation to another day during my TWELVE DAY STAY in September, and there is not a single dinner time availability to be found at all.
Bad form, Disney. Bad form. You continue to do everything in your power to screw up your operations and indicate to guests that you do not want them there., while still charging full price for fewer and fewer offerings, and now, more reduced hours to boot.
Michelle says
It’s just another thing the Disney Company is forcing customers to accept. We have had to accept Corona Virus restrictions, no luggage pick up at the airport, no airport check in at the resort, no magic hours, no special events, no parades, no fireworks, no real character experiences, no fast pass, no buffets, no park hopping, memory maker with your family wearing masks, and shortened park hours. What are they going to do next? We have the answer with this article: canceling your dining reservations that you obtained at 7am on your 60 days out from check in. Is this because of Disney’s financial losses in the billions?
Brad says
I hope that our reservations that are booked for 30-45 minutes before close will still fly. I’m gonna be REALLY upset if we lose more reservations because of this crap. Disney vacations are supposed to be fun and it is beginning to be more like work cause of all the added stress.
Darci L says
I did what you suggested and moved a reservation we had at 6:55 pm, when the park changed its closing hours to 7 pm. Thank you for the suggestion. It worked, but was wondering if you could look into what is up with their entire reservation/vacation planning web site? It seems that every time I go into my account, something is down, or can’t be shown, or you can’t link a person (we have 6 adults on a 4 day getaway toward the end of Sept), or add their name to the reservation. One would think that Disney would, at this time of limited capacity, spend some time updating the computer side of their house….. Perhaps you could do a story on that, as well as (like Michelle said on 8/8) why they keep taking from the customer (hours, rides, reservations, fast passes, character experiences, restaurants, stores) but never giving back in return? It’s fun to talk about food, but how can you enjoy the food when the rest of the time you feel like Disney is just tightening the screws?
christine says
A lot of things in this article say maybe, could, possibly but nothing is confirmed. I have reservations for September so I’ll be calling Disney as suggested. I love DFB but honestly sometimes the speculation just kills me.
Erin says
No one is being forced to accept anything. No one has to go to Disney World (except cast members who need to keep their jobs). Why would you want to go on vacation in the middle of a pandemic, particularly if all of the precautions are so miserable to you? Just reschedule for a year or two from now when things will have hopefully settled down a bit and you may be able to have the magical vacation you are longing for.
Steven S. in NJ says
As soon as I saw this announcement, I was proactive and cancelled my EPCOT dinner ADR for Coral Reef right away. We wound up making a new dinner reservation for a seafood restaurant that actually serves seafood on I-drive instead!!!
Chris Morton says
Was on hold with Disney Dining for 45 minutes yesterday. She was very nice and confirmed with Guest Services AND Guest Services CM’s manager that, ALL reservations would be honored post-time change. I had a 7:20 Le Cellier reservation on 9/22. Got email this afternoon that Disney has automatically cancelled the reservation. Immediately tried to make a change when I saw this article yesterday and NOTHING available.
Hopefully someone will cancel as Le Cellier was one of the things we all really wanted to do. Nothing great at all is available in the ENTIRE complex on 9/23 for dinner!!!
I “KNOW” no one is forcing us to go to WDW now, but you would THINK Management at Disney would use a LITTLE common sense about these things.
Not sure what we are eating that night. LOL
DFB Sarah says
Chris, there’s always funnel cake? 😉 I kid. Good luck with Le Cellier! Hopefully your persistence will pay off with an ADR.
S.Luke says
Chris le cellist is available for lunch that day just do a late lunch instead, we are doing that one of our days