How to reserve the elusive Be Our Guest Restaurant

UPDATE 2021

Having trouble getting a table at the Beauty and the Beast Castle?  This post is for you!   If you are able to book dining 180 days in advance of your trip, that is the preferable way to reserve a table at Be our Guest.  But this magical tip is for those who missed that window, and are unable to get a reservation.

Drum roll…………

SEARCH FOR A PARTY OF 1

For a step by step guide on how to reserve it this way, read below.

In planning our first Disney World trip, we could not find a time for our party of 8.  I would check the My Disney Experience app frequently for cancellations,  but it was very tough to find any date or variable of people available.   Even parties of 2 were very difficult to find.  Since most guests book this restaurant 180 days in advance, it fills up very quickly.  To see why this restaurant is in such high demand,  read the Disney Tourist review.   Just touring the enchanting castle is an experience you don’t want to miss, and you can only see it by booking a dining reservation.

I was getting really discouraged until one day I discovered a trick…..

Searching for a party of 1  would show openings almost any day I checked! 

The reason parties of one are allowed is because Be Our Guest does cafeteria style ordering and seating for breakfast and lunch.  *Note that this magical tip will not work for dinner since they do table service seating at that time.  I went ahead and booked the party of 1 for 11:45am lunch.  Throughout the month my sister and I kept looking for reservations around that same time and booked them as they popped up.  Some were at 11:50, 12:00, 11:40, and sometimes 11:45am would become available.   After a few weeks, we had snagged 8 reservations that were all within about 15 minutes of each other.   In order to book these multiple times, I had to open up a Disney account for each of my family members.  It would not let me book any additional times with my existing reservation, but if you find ones that are the exact time, you should be able to modify your reservation to add them in.   A few times parties of 2 would become available that I could modify an existing party of 1 to.  

 Here is how the seating works: 

You get to pick where you want to sit with your family, just like a quick service restaurant.  When you arrive to the restaurant, your reservation number is what gets you inside the castle, and the ordering line.   After walking through the castle entry, you approach a touchscreen kiosk to order your food and then pay (you also have the option to pre order your food up to 30 days in advance on the website or app).   Next you are given a rose to place on your table, and this will lead the waiter to your location. After leaving the touchscreen kiosk we walked around and toured the 3 dining rooms, and chose which area we wanted to eat in (we picked the dark and scary West Wing!).   Then we seated ourselves together at the tables of our choice, and the food was brought to us.

It does take some extra effort in opening multiple Disney accounts for each family member, but it was actually an easy way to book a large group at Be Our Guest.   We would have never been able to dine there if I hadn’t discovered the party of 1 option.   When we checked in to the restaurant, there were many people trying to sign up for standby reservations, but they were all told that Be our Guest was not allowing standby reservations.  It might have been because it was Thanksgiving break, but I was very grateful we hadn’t tried that route. 

  It might take a few weeks to get all the spots you need using this tip, but check often and don’t give up!   Disney does not release all of the dining slots 180 days in advance, so it’s important to check often, and especially 30 days in advance.   I have also scored last minute dining reservations the day before or day of by refreshing my app often for cancellations.  

GUIDE

Here is the step by step process using the Disney website for booking Be Our Guest:

*Step 1:  Create a Disney account for each family member you will need reservations for.  They will need to have their own e-mail.   Log in to your first person on the list.

*Step 2:  Open the Be Our Guest Restaurant page

*Step 3:  Select your date, party size of 1, and approximate time you need 

*Step 4:   Click on the time slot you want, and book it.  New times pop up daily, sometimes within minutes.  You will need to put a credit card on file for the reservation.  

*Step 5:  Take a screen shot on your smartphone of your reservation information and account it is linked to.  You will need this at check in.  I also printed each of my reservations and kept them in a folder.   Since each person will have their own reservation number, you will want to keep this information organized or it will get messy!   

Repeat these steps with your next Disney account.   As long as you get a time approximately within 15 minutes of your initial reservation time, you can book it, and the restaurant should let you check in together (at least they did for our group of 8).    They offer reservations in 5 minute intervals so there is a high chance you will find more spots open up really close to your time .  

Another tip is to check both the Be Our Guest restaurant reservation page on Disney’s main website, and the My Disney Experience app.   I would sometimes get more results on the main site, but I always checked both.  As you can see below in these snapshots, I was offered 2 lunch times on the main website, but on the app I was only offered 1:45pm.   Here were my results in using the app for lunch:

I was offered two different times by using the main website:

and this one is also from the main website: 

If you are wondering whether to book breakfast or lunch,  the lunch menu is our favorite!    But if you want to meet the Beast, he only appears at dinner time.  Dinner reservations book up 180 days in advance, and are extremely difficult to find after that.  

 Hope this tip adds some magic to your trip!