Long Virtual Queues Signal Massive Demand For Disneyland - Inside the Magic

How long would you wait for a dining reservation at Disneyland? Some fans waited hours to make dining reservations for Disneyland Resort’s upcoming A Touch of Disney event.

Related: A Touch of Disney Tickets Sold Out Completely

A Touch of Disney is the upcoming specially ticketed event being held at Disney California Adventure Park. This exciting new event will feature plenty of food and shopping to keep Guests entertained — plus Disney characters like Mickey Mouse will make an appearance!

As you know, Disneyland has been closed for just about a year, and only Downtown Disney and Buena Vista Street at DCA have welcomed Guests back for modified shopping and outdoor/to-go dining experiences. Due to recent changes in the reopening structure of the state of California — called a “Blueprint refresh” by California Governor Gavin Newsom — the theme parks of the Disneyland Resort will be able to reopen this Spring (April) and we are waiting for more information from Disney on when a reopening date for the resort will be announced. Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently shared an update. 

Right now, though, thousands of fans have purchased tickets to A Touch of Disney, and as such, they are able to make dining reservations to both table-service dining locations that will be reopening as part of the event: Lamplight Lounge on Pixar Pier and Carthay Circle Lounge – Alfresco Dining on Buena Vista Street.

Unfortunately for fans, much like the long and confusing wait times for the online purchase of A Touch of Disney event tickets, dining reservations are proving to be a half-day event!

On the Disneyland website, the page that reservations should be available on is currently stating to Guests that they are in a waiting room for dining reservations, The following information is displayed, reminding Guests not to press the back button or refresh the page, as well as that only those who have purchased tickets to A Touch of Disney (which is sold out now) should be making reservations for one of the table-service restaurants.

Thank You for Your Patience!
Due to high demand, this is taking longer than expected. You are now in the waiting room for Dine Reservations.
Please do not refresh or select the “back” button.

Dining reservations can now be made at Carthay Circle Lounge – Alfresco Dining and Lamplight Lounge as a part of the A Touch of Disney experience (subject to availability).

Note: dining reservations do not provide admission to A Touch of Disney and a separate ticket purchase is required.

In our experience, the wait in the virtual queue has been hours as we attempted to see how long before Guests are able to successfully make a dining reservation to one of the two restaurants offered during A Touch of Disney.

It is no wonder that the wait times are high for dining reservations as demand for everything Disneyland is high after its year-long closure, and only two restaurants (Lamplight Lounge and Carthay Circle) are offering limited seating — Creating a perfect storm for long virtual lines.

Just before 11 a.m. PST, however, some Guests began posting that they had successfully made reservations:

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And now, we can see that the reservations are officially live, and Guests like us are able to try their hand at getting a reservation for the restaurant of their choice. Keep in mind, though, that the demand is high, and you may not see availability for the date that your A Touch of Disney ticket is for. Note that same-day, walk-up reservations will be available at the event on a first-come, first-served basis:

Mobile walk-up – While dining reservations are highly recommended, you can also add yourself to the mobile walk-up list (subject to availability) for Lamplight Lounge and Carthay Circle Lounge – Alfresco Dining using the Disneyland mobile app. If you don’t find walk-up list availability right away, you can check estimated wait times and look for reservations that may be available later in the day.

It’s clear that there is a huge demand for the Disneyland Resort given the 10-hour wait for A Touch of Disney tickets and the current virtual queue situation for dining reservations. We can only expect the demand for theme park tickets for Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park to be even higher.

Would you wait hours for a dining reservation at the Disneyland Resort theme parks? Let us know in the comments below.

This article has been updated since it was originally published.