Ahead of round two of trying to open Beak and Barrel dining reservations, Walt Disney World has made a major change to how dining reservations are made in the My Disney Experience app. In short, the reservations are no longer made in the app. Just like Disney Park Pass reservations, the My Disney Experience app now sends guests to a web browser when trying to search for and make dining reservations within the app. Here’s the latest.
UPDATE: Dining reservation searching and booking has returned to the My Disney Experience app.
Our original article continues below for posterity.
Dining Reservation Search Removed from My Disney Experience App
As you may remember, Walt Disney World made a major update to the dining reservation search system back in June. This update was rolled out to both the Walt Disney World website and My Disney Experience mobile app. The update allowed for much more granular searching, along with expanding search capabilities. The user interface was also updated to put more controls at the fingertips of guests searching for the perfect dining reservation.
When using the My Disney Experience app this morning, we noticed that the search capabilities have been completely removed from the app. When guests click on “Check Dining Availability” or “Reserve Dining”, they are sent to a web browser instead.
It’s unclear why the dining reservation search capabilities were removed, but we have a theory.
Back on August 14th, Walt Disney World attempted to open reservations for the new Beak and Barrel Pirates of the Caribbean-themed bar at Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, technical issues prevented Disney from ever opening those reservations. On Sunday, Walt Disney World announced that it would try opening Beak and Barrel reservations again, this time setting a booking opening for today, August 20th at 7pm.
Now, as Disney fans prepare for the reservation redo this evening, Walt Disney World has removed reservation search capabilities from the My Disney Experience app. My guess is that it has to do with the upcoming Beak and Barrel reservation drop this evening.
If I had to take a wild guess, Walt Disney World likely wants to have complete control over the reservation process tonight, which means directing everyone to its website. From there, Disney can implement either visible or invisible gates to ensure that demand is managed. It’s possible that we could see a virtual waiting room implemented similar to how demand is managed when new discounts and deals are released.
Walt Disney World did not return a request for comment about the change to the My Disney Experience app, but we’ll keep you updated should we learn more.
For now, plan on using a web browser if you’re trying to make any Walt Disney World dining reservations. Other functionality, such as Mobile Order, remains available in the My Disney Experience app as of publish time.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
Funny, read your article, went o to thr My Disney app and had no issue finding a reservation and making one at a restaurant. Maybe it was your connection
Tried again to make a reservation last night at 7pm ET. It didn’t work. Said nothing available.
No issues for me today either.
working fine on mydisney app for me as well.