No dining availability in Disneyland

[FionaP]

We are traveling to DL in August. I tried making ADRs 60 days out, literally to the second. No availability for any dinners (except for the Wine Country Trattoria). We are staying club level at the Grand Californian, but unlike when we have stayed club level at WDW we have not been given any assistance (eg concierge email or phone number to help with itinerary planning). I signed up with Mousewatchers (have been successful at WDW in the past) but have had 0 notifications. Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[GBRforWDW]

We are traveling to DL in August. I tried making ADRs 60 days out, literally to the second. No availability for any dinners (except for the Wine Country Trattoria). We are staying club level at the Grand Californian, but unlike when we have stayed club level at WDW we have not been given any assistance (eg concierge email or phone number to help with itinerary planning). I signed up with Mousewatchers (have been successful at WDW in the past) but have had 0 notifications. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi, yes, Disneyland has not been releasing Dining Reservations in a timely manner since reopening. Here's another thread where it's being discussed frequently:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...ining-i-mean-for-the-love-of-churros.3838905/
Basically, it seems like they are randomly dropped somewhere between 45 and 60 days out in most cases. Unfortunately, it means a lot of checking, but don't worry, we're all in the same boat !

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Yes I'm in the same boat as you, staying August 27-31 CL at GCH and there's actually NOTHING that Disney posted this morning for reservations. Looks like Blue Bayou reservations stopped at August 14th and hasn't been updated in 2 weeks.

 

[Steven G]

even before COVID, Disneyland wasn't great at updating reservations as timely as disneyworld. Perhaps not as bad as this is, especially because how limited reservations seem to be (presumably due to social distancing, etc.)

 

[kelmac284]

Man this is really depressing. My 60 day window is next week for our Sept trip but based on what I am hearing we won't get anything. I so miss the days of DL being the easy one for dinning. I get that things are nuts right now and I really hope it goes back to the way it was. That is the one thing about World that I hate is having to know 6 months in advance where and when I want to eat. But with Disneyland you could usually get ressies up to a week before or even sometimes day before or even day of if it wasn't a busy time. Guess those days are long gone. UGH

 

[foodiddiedoo]

I think it's not that there aren't any reservations available it's that Disney isn't releasing them at 6AM EST on the 60 day mark.

 

[amyg1975]

I think it's not that there aren't any reservations available it's that Disney isn't releasing them at 6AM EST on the 60 day mark.

This is true. I booked Cafe Orleans at the 60-day mark, but then Lamplight I booked a week later. DTD did not come available for August 1st until a few days ago.

 

[dreynolds1982]

Yup DL is definitely not releasing everything at once. I booked Oga's and Cafe Orleans at my 60-day mark, but Blue Bayou and Napa Rose both seem to be stuck not showing any operating hours, availability, etc. past Aug. 13. Not sure why that is (maybe anticipating some capacity changes or just staggering the release of the more popular sites to keep them from getting all booked up instantly?). Also DTD spots aren't listed 60-days out. Not sure if these are 45-days or no rhyme or reason.

What I'm doing is just checking every morning when I get up for work and seeing if anything has changed. Also checking this site every day for updates. Not ideal but not many other options right now unfortunately.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Man this is really depressing. My 60 day window is next week for our Sept trip but based on what I am hearing we won't get anything. I so miss the days of DL being the easy one for dinning. I get that things are nuts right now and I really hope it goes back to the way it was. That is the one thing about World that I hate is having to know 6 months in advance where and when I want to eat. But with Disneyland you could usually get ressies up to a week before or even sometimes day before or even day of if it wasn't a busy time. Guess those days are long gone. UGH

I don’t think those days are long gone. I think the current sparcity of reservations has been for two major reasons. The first is that fewer restaurants have been open, table spacing has limited seating, and kitchen staff have been working with skeleton crews. This situation is changing weekly as DLR opens up more and more restaurants (most are back now, though not all), table spacing is going back to normal (though this is taking time and I believe that BB, for instance, still has only 11 tables), and social distancing is no longer a CalOSHA requirement and more restaurant staff have returned are are being hired. The second reason has to do with the reports on scarcity of food at DLR. With mobile orders taking so long and reports of no availability for sit-down service, more guests have been making sit-down reservations. I know my family usually only plans one sit down reservation a day, but given the current situation I have made 2 reservations for each day since I don’t want to rely on mobile orders. Good news is that in the past couple of days people are even reporting being able to get into sit-down restaurants the day of their visit (space permitting).

 

[DizMe]

I'm sorry to hear this and I hope you get your reservations. You indirectly answered a question I had, though, which was whether or not you can get any assistance on dining reservations from the hotel if you're staying on site. Apparently not, at least at this time.

 

[BayouQueen]

We're going in August, too, and so far we will be having dinner two nights in a row at Wine Country Trattoria. Not ideal! lol

No real advice except to keep checking and be flexible. I'm trying not to fixate on any one restaurant choice. I'm still hoping some DTD places open up. BUT...for us, staying club level at GCH is a real luxury. If I find I can't carve out a pleasant trip, we will postpone the trip until later. That may not be an option if you have flights involved, though.

 

[FionaP]

I think it's not that there aren't any reservations available it's that Disney isn't releasing them at 6AM EST on the 60 day mark.

Informed by a DL cast member that dining reservations open at 7am (10 am EST) on the 60 day mark.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Informed by a DL cast member that dining reservations open at 7am (10 am EST) on the 60 day mark.

That isn't always the case (hence the issues with release). It's now 1PM EST and no reservations for 8/28 have been released at all.

 

[GBRforWDW]

That isn't always the case (hence the issues with release). It's now 1PM EST and no reservations for 8/28 have been released at all.

Yep and even when some become available, they won't have all restaurants available.

 

[wishing4PA]

Informed by a DL cast member that dining reservations open at 7am (10 am EST) on the 60 day mark.

A few weeks ago the 3 a.m. (Pacific time) timing worked. But it seems all random now.
And last time I looked (late last night or this morning), the DTD restaurants still weren't loaded any further than they've been for the past week or so.
It's all a mystery to me.

 

[Disney0010]

We just booked yesterday for the second week of July. Nothing available in the parks as expected but surprisingly we were able to get places like Brennan’s and GCH Craftsman for lunch along with UVA and Naples for dinner. We enjoy getting out of the park to get a break plus there are cocktails..

 

[RRAR2007]

Same here, I’ve been checking every morning because we are going August 26-31 for my daughter’s birthday and we haven’t been able to get reservations. Im just going to keep checking every morning and see if anything opens.
Maybe this is their way to get folks to reserve the less popular restaurants first?

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Sorry to hear--I hope you can get your reservations. But, if you don't, at least there are some very good counter service restaurants out there. I'm eagerly watching what's going on for our September trip (it'll be my parents' birthdays), but I'm not holding my breath based on what I've seen.

 

[katerina_jones89]

I have a trip 08/29/-09/02 and I got up this morning at 3am pst just in case, nothing, and nothing at the moment either. Seems like there is nothing available for 08/28 yet either!

 

[dreynolds1982]

Informed by a DL cast member that dining reservations open at 7am (10 am EST) on the 60 day mark.

Hmmm that wasn't the case for me. I got up at 5:59 ET at the 60 day mark to book our first park day of Aug. 25. Nothing was available. Right at 6 a.m., Ogas, Craftsman, Cafe Orleans, and Trattoria all popped up. The latter three are still readily available to this day, but Ogas were all gone by 8 or 9 a.m. ET. So if I had waited till 10 a.m. ET I wouldn't have been able to get one.

Now I will say, that DTD, BB, Napa Rose, etc. all seem to be popping up (or not popping up) at completely random intervals, not at the 60 day mark, so who knows on those.