Although it’s been a blast seeing our friends out in the Character Cavalcades or hop on our favorite rides again, we have been thrilled to be back at all the restaurants again!
While we’ve been enjoying revisiting the Hollywood Brown Derby, and the best chicken tenders at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin,’ there have been some changes at the Disney restaurants.
While the dining locations in the parks and resorts have been following detailed health and safety regulations, guests with Advance Dining Reservations may be seeing some changes soon! Since Disney World will be further reducing their limited park hours on September 8th, availability for dining will be shortened along with them.
Magic Kingdom will now be operating from 9AM to 6PM, while EPCOT will be open from 11AM to 7PM. On the other hand, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be welcoming guests from 10AM to 7PM, along with Disney’s Animal Kingdom open from 9AM to 5PM.
Although guests will still be able to explore everything open in the parks, Advance Dining Reservations may be affected for some guests. If reservations were made during the parks previous hours (but the parks won’t be open during that time anymore), guests may not be able to dine there.
Let’s say you booked a reservation at Tiffins for 5:30PM with the previous 6 PM closure in Animal Kingdom. The reservation wouldn’t be usable anymore, BUT Disney is doing what they can to reach out to affected guests individually. If Cast Members can’t reach a guest in time, they will provide an auto-cancellation date soon hopefully.
However, you can go online to modify your reservation instead so you’re still able to use it. If a guest returns to a park without being aware of the changes, Disney has also stated that they will take care of the reservation themselves (but that could mean your dining plans are canceled).
While Disney continues updating its opening procedures, we’ll let you know everything you need to know about dining in the parks and resorts!
Find out more details about the shortened park hours here!
What is your favorite restaurant to visit in Disney World? Let us know in the comments below!
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My family is traveling to WDW for the first time in October 2020. We will be taking our two boys, ages 10 and 8. Because this will be a once in a lifetime trip for us I’m justifying whether it is worth going in October or reschedule to 2021. We received the notification of the updated fall hours and had our dining reservation cancelled. I don’t have a WDW experience pre-covid to compare it to. Do the updates in hours, reduction in dining options and other experiences make our trip not worth it at this time? Any advice is greatly appreciated!