Parties of 10 - Tell me about your experience booking large parties

[RamieGee]

We are a family of 5, traveling with another family of 5. I have not booked for 10 people before. We have quite a few hard to get ADRs on our list (which I have been successful getting when we were a party of 4).

How likely will it be for us to get a reservation for 10?

On our ADR morning I was thinking of looking first for 10, and if that doesn't work, book 5 & 5 for similar times (and hoping maybe we can get seated together).

Am I wasting my time trying to book for 10? Should I just assume I'll have to book 5 & 5 and go right to that?

Playing around on MDE, 10 looks tough.

 

[nursemelis374]

Had no issues booking for our party of 11 last summer. Did all the ones I could online and then called to do 5 and 6 for the rest. Each restaurant we checked in a bit early and they were always able to seat us together. I think the only places we had to book in two groups were Garden Grill and Via Napoli, we were able to all sit together at both.

Good luck!

 

[holden]

I've booked for parties of 12 before (traveling with extended family). We ate at:

Olivia's
Via Napoli
Yak & Yeti
Coral Reef
Hoop Dee Do

I purposely chose places that I thought would be easy to get. I had no problems with reservations at any of them.

 

[jventur3]

Whenever we travel with our whole extended family - there are 14 of us. Sometimes, we can book all 14. Sometimes, I have to play the combination game 8 and 6, 7 and 7, etc. One time, at Yak and Yeti, I had to make 6 -4 -4. I always do this completely online. However, in every case so far, when we checked in, they always were able to get the entire party together - every restaurant - without fail.

 

[RamieGee]

Thanks all! Fingers crossed - this is our list, so we'll see:

Yachtsman (Dinner)
Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast @ Tratoria al Forno (Breakfast)
Rose & Crown (Dinner)
Disney Junior Play n Dine/Fantasmic Package @ Hollywood & Vine (Breakfast)
Sci Fi Dine-In (Dinner)
Cinderalla's Royal Table (Lunch)
O'Hana (Dinner)
Tusker House (Lunch)
Hoop De Doo Review (Dinner)
Hollywood Brown Derby (Lunch)
Be Our Guest (Dinner)
Crystal Palace (Breakfast)

 

[justhat]

We have 6-16 people (depending on the meal) for our trip in October and for most of the 10 people meals, we had to book 6 and 4.

 

[RamieGee]

Do you all think 6 & 4 is easier to get than 5 & 5?
We’re 2 families of 5 but once and a while we could maybe have the 6 kids sit at one table and 4 adults at another? The kids will be 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, & 4. We’re ok with them occasionally sitting on their own (but I’d want to be with my 3 for the character meals), but not sure Disney would allow kids to sit at a table without parents. (The teens are good/responsible with the 4 year old).

 

[Snowysmom]

We did ADRs for 6 and 5 online for times 5 minutes apart. Then we called and had a note put on both bookings to please be seated near each other.

 

[nkereina]

Yachtsman (Dinner)
Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast @ Tratoria al Forno (Breakfast)
Rose & Crown (Dinner)
Disney Junior Play n Dine/Fantasmic Package @ Hollywood & Vine (Breakfast)
Sci Fi Dine-In (Dinner)
Cinderalla's Royal Table (Lunch)
O'Hana (Dinner)
Tusker House (Lunch)
Hoop De Doo Review (Dinner)
Hollywood Brown Derby (Lunch)
Be Our Guest (Dinner)
Crystal Palace (Breakfast)

Of your list, we also ate at Sci Fi, Tusker House, Trattoria al Fornia breakfast, and BOG lunch and had no issues booking these as a party of 9. Ohana dinner and CRT would be the toughest typically, so I would try to book those first when your ADR window opens.

Also keep in mind at Sci Fi that the seating is wonky. Its part of the appeal of the place, but we were sat 2-3-2 in one car, and then 2 in a car across from the last row of our first car. It was hard for the other 2 to converse. With 10 people, you'd probably be sat in 2-2-2 in one car, and then 2-2 in a car adjacent to or across from the first car.

 

[Boopuff]

We did party of 10. Back when you could call wdwdine, we got 1900 park fare, Hoop de Doo, Ohana, Liberty Tree (now this was a few years back...)

 

[whitney37354]

On our last trip, I booked H&V F! dining package for ten with no problem.

 

[daisy2013]

I’ve booked up to 16 at one time. I have found that it’s easier to book the first seating (around 4:30 for dinner). We check in earlyish to make sure there is no issue. We are usually seated on time and together. Once or twice they split us which was not great but ok. One time tables next to each other another time further apart. The only issue was in the second one we had two different waiters and my dad wanted to pay for our drinks (its his thing) but we got it worked out.

 

[Luv2Run]

I have a large group of us going to WDW next year (as few as 16, as many as 21), and have been using WDW Prep School's breakdown as a guide for how many people per ADR I can book. As previous posters have mentioned, not every restaurant at WDW can accommodate the same size parties per ADR, so be sure to check and set your expectations accordingly. It's a few years old, so not every restaurant at WDW is listed, but it's a good starting point, and it includes a lot of the main restaurants that we want to dine at while on our trip. Hope this helps!

 

[tamu91]

When we had a party of 10 or larger, the issue we had was whether our entire party could be close to each other or waiting forever, even with reservations, for those few large tables to open up. If you're willing to break up your party and proximity isn't an issue, you should be ok.

 

[JHockey14]

Are there currently any restrictions on party size limits at Disney springs with the covid regulations?