UPDATE: Please note that as of February 25, 2015, FastPass+ is no longer available, as Be Our Guest Restaurant began to accept Advanced Dining Reservations for lunch. For further information, please click here.
This morning, we began hearing rumors of another twist in the having-lunch-at-Be Our Guest Restaurant-Saga.
According to our friends at AllEars, Disney is now only permitting guests who have a FastPass+ reservation to dine at Be Our Guest Restaurant during lunch service.
Effectively, this means that, at least for now, you no longer have the option to stand in line and wait for a table during the lunch service at Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland.
While this may be welcome news for resort guests, it remains up in the air at press time what impact this will have on day guests, annual passholders, and others who are not staying at a Disney resort or who cannot get a FastPass+.
This is a developing story, so we’ll be sure to keep you informed as details emerge! For now, it looks like you’ll need to take advantage of a Be Our Guest FastPass+ Reservation Invitation, should one come your way.
Be Our Guest FastPass+ Reservation Invitation
It remains to be seen if this is another step in the FastPass+ experiment, or if it is just Disney’s method of dealing with the lunch crowds that continue to swarm Be Our Guest nearly two years after the restaurant’s opening.
And with some reports trickling out that the system in place isn’t accepting FastPass+ reservations beyond the month of October, we are wondering if this is simply a transitional measure for something yet to come.
We Are Always Up for Lunch at Be Our Guest! — Braised Pork Coq Au Vin Style
Stay tuned to Disney Food Blog as we continue to help you decide how best to go about enjoying lunch in Beast’s Castle!
How do you feel about Be Our Guest Restaurant restricting lunch service to those with a FastPass+ Reservation? Join the conversation below in comments!
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Misty & Deanna, I would not give up hope. One of the following seems likely IMO (but what do I know??!): Sometime on or before Nov 1, they will either open up availability on the beourguestlunch website again ( https://beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/) to start letting guests staying on property to get a Nov Fastpass booking, OR, they switch BOG to become part of the regular FP+ system (which would allow anyone, including those not staying on property, to schedule a BOG lunch as a regular FP+ (note that in the latter case, you would have to switch one of your existing 3 already made FP+, to BOG lunch, for every member of your party). If they do the latter, those FP+ will probably get snatched up pretty quickly, especially the early Nov ones (by people like us who are going to be there in early Nov). Currently (from what I read), they are also allowing anyone without a FP to wait in line from 10-10:30am, and 2-2:30pm, to try and get into BOG (ie, no walkups/wait line betweeen 10:30am and 2pm) — but apparently those lines can get pretty long very quickly, even in that short amount of time. Don’t know what they will do on Nov 1 (or whenever they make their new BOG policy decision — which could be at any time). I would keep trying the beourguestlunch web site every day just in case they open up availability again. Also, if they do switch BOG lunch to the regular FP+ system, I would decide now which of your existing FP+ you would sacrifice in order to switch to BOG, if that is even something you would be willing to do.
I’m very frustrated by this whole situation. We originally booked a trip for Oct 14th thrug Oct 20th. We later changed our trip to Oct 27th to Nov 5th to align with free dining as soon as it was released. However, the beourguest fast pass site still shows us as being on site from the 14th to the 20th. I’ve called multiple times, emailed, and live chatted to try to get this fixed to the correct dates but Disney says they cannot make any changes because the system is still in testing. They tried to set my mind at ease by saying that I can always show up early and get in line early to make sure I can still have lunch at BoG.
Now I’m reading that standby isn’t even an option! So not only can I not make a fast pass for the time frame that we’re actually there, now I can’t even go wait in the standby line? I feel like I’m being screwed out of a privilege that every other resort guest has by not even being able to TRY to make a fast pass for BoG. Fast Pass+ is terrible. Bring back paper fast passes. Get rid of fast pass for restaurants.
Can I just say it makes it harder to make touring plans or other lunch decisions. I have reservations at be our guest for dinner and really just want a quick service lunch. So I am hanging on to dinner reservations someone else who has planned ahead could use. I don’t care what the rules are, however they choose to do it. I just wish they would be better at informing us ahead of time if they expect us to make all these decisions ahead of time. I will probably find someplace else to take my family next year until they figure this all out. They need more rides and more restaurants for the amount of people they have. Even the slow times are “average crowds” now.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been checking the site every day and this morning I was able to make get a FP+ for lunch on 11/2/14. For all of my fellow November travelers, go back & try again.
I was also able to make a Fast Pass reservation this morning for lunch on 11/4/14. Don’t give up hope!
I am happy to report that the Be Our Guest Lunch FastPass+ website appears to be working now for dates after October 31! We are going from November 5 to November 10, and I was able to book FastPass+ reservations on the Be Our Guest site today for both reservations/parties we are traveling with! It appears there are only a few reservations left for FastPass+ time windows so get them while you can!
Me too! Have been checking every day on the beourguestlunch website, and I was just able to make the special FP+ reservation this morning for lunch on 11/4/14. Hurray! It will be my first time to see/experience the Be Our Guest restaurant!
(I believe it is working the same as before — ie, you will need to be staying on property and have your Disney resort reservation registered to use the beourguestlunch website. Don’t know how far in advance they opened up the availability window — if it’s the same as before, it’s only about 24 days in advance of your date of arrival at your resort — meaning that for today, availability should be open for arrival dates on or before Nov 7 or so. Again, I do NOT know how it is set up now — so just keep trying!)
When we were there on Sept 29th, they were giving return time tickets for people who didn’t have fastpass + reservations, but not allowing anyone to wait in line. Mostly because, half of the electronic panels weren’t operational, causing the line for Fastpass + people to be about 30 minutes, even though we were arriving within our arrival time. There was just no way for standby people to get in while that mess was going on.
It will let me do Monday Nov 10. I am waiting for Wednesday or Friday. Today is November 14, 2014. So that is still 27 days. Maybe they just had a glitch. Still availability for Sunday 8 and Monday 9 and those days are rated as average/above average crowds so my guess is that I will be ok for the other days. Thanks for posting. I wasn’t going to give up but it was getting frustrating. Like I said I will follow which ever policy they have. I just like to be informed and if it wasn’t for sights like these it would be impossible to know what is going on.
Maybe this should give Disney a hint that the dining options at Magic Kingdom leave something to be desired, and they need to add a few more table service restaurants to disperse the crowds. There are SO many great, creative concepts they could come up with!
Sounds like some are getting the FP+. We will not be going until December so I should jest keep checking everyday starting November? We have never dined at BOG due to lines and we have been waiting for the newness to die down some but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I tried 6 months out to get Dinner but have never had any luck with that. Hopefully this trip it will be in the cards for us.
Well not in the cards for us, I just checked and December showed up for me but no FP available the entire week we will be there. Maybe next year. Starting to feel that way about Anna and Elsa meet and greets also. Can’t get a FP even 60 days out!
Wait until 27 days before your vacation. They will also send you an email. I am going Nov 8 and ours became available this last weekend. They were a day late but they had some issue in the the park that day with the system from what I understand.
I am arriving Nov 15 and still did not received an invitation. I tried putting in my room/pkg confirmation number on the website beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/ and it does not work. Does anyone know where to find the correct number?
Today on December 17th at 6:00 AM I made our BOG fastpass lunch reservation for December14th which is our Disney arrival date. I have not received an email invitation but it is 27 days before arrival. About two months ago I called Disney to request the 12 digit reservation number and used it to set up an account for the BOG fastpass lunch site. Last night at 28 days out, there were no available dates, but today at 27 days before arrival there was availability.
27 days is the magical number for the BOG fast-pass lunch! When we were 27 days out from our day at Magic Kingdom I tried to get it and viola! Just keep that number in mind. I booked on November 16th for our December 13th arrival date. I looked again today and there are still spots available… so be persistent! :o)
This option is horrid. As an annual pass holder who often comes over just for the day, we are now ” banned” from Be Our Guest. There are very few perks for pass holders, and many restrictions. After 10 years and thousands of dollars, we are finally ready to call it a day at Disney
Hopefully someone can help me. I am at 27 days out today, but I can’t get past the login screen on the BOG FP website. All it says when I key in the info is “guest already registered”. Anyone else have this issue? I was told by another board it would magically let me in at 27 days, but no such luck. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! 🙂
My daughter and I are annual passholders and when we went in December, we were able to get in the Be Our Guest restaurant. We got there at 2:30 (which is right before they close to set up for dinner) and were let right in. My friends are going in March and were told they would get fast passes since they were staying at the resorts. I understand that resort guests should have a few perks since they pay so much, but as a passholder, I don’t get to take advantage of the dining plans which I’m okay with. However, I do think they should provide some opportunity to be able to at least access ALL the restaurants that are on property.