Booking a Disney Hotel · Our Step-by-Step Guide

1. Check when you can book

Hotel-only bookings open four months before the check-in date, using the same day of the month, at 09:00 Thailand time (ICT, GMT+7) / 11:00 Japan time (JST, GMT+9). For example, a stay on 16 February 2025 opened for booking on 16 October 2024. The next check-in date becomes available the following day.

If that day doesn't exist in the month four months earlier, bookings open on the first day of the following month. For a 31 October check-in, for example, June has no 31st, so booking opens on 1 July at 09:00 ICT / 11:00 JST.

2. Timing the waiting room

Choose your hotel, dates and guests on the Disney website ↗

Opening the website didn't always take me straight to hotel bookings. I usually reached a blue Waiting page first, showing an estimated time of website access. In these examples, I was aiming to get in around 08:49–08:54 ICT (10:49–10:54 JST).

I chose that range because, in my 2024 tests, I seemed to have around ten minutes on the booking page. Arriving too early could mean being sent back to the queue before 09:00 ICT / 11:00 JST. Arriving too late could mean missing the opening time instead. These were my observations at the time; the waiting room may work differently on your booking day.

Those were the times I used to start trying. Once I was in the queue, I checked whether the estimated access time was close to the range I wanted. The wait varied from day to day. Check the time zone shown by your own device and waiting page rather than assuming it matches the Thai clock in my examples.

3. If the timing was off, I tried again

Closing and reopening the browser didn't always give me a fresh start, because it could remember the same queue session. I tried these three ways to start again in 2024.

When I had a few devices available, I'd try my phone, iPad and laptop one at a time. Once the timing looked right, I'd use the device I was most comfortable booking on.

I often used private browsing, or Incognito mode. If the timing didn't work, I closed the private window and tried a new private session.

I also tried different browsers, such as Chrome and Safari. They keep separate sessions even on the same device, so that gave me another way to try the queue.

4. Once through the queue, get the search ready

Once I was past the Waiting page, I selected the hotel, the number of adults and children, the number of rooms, and the number of nights.

If booking is already open for your stay date, you can select it from the calendar as usual. Before 09:00 ICT / 11:00 JST, you may not be able to choose the next date being released. In my video, at 08:55 ICT (10:55 JST), I could select 15 February 2025, but 16 February was still greyed out.

When I tested this, I had to click Search at 09:00 ICT / 11:00 JST to update the calendar, then click again to find rooms. So I started setting the date in the URL beforehand to save those extra clicks when booking opened.

In the address bar, I looked for useDate=. The eight digits after it are the year, month and day. For example, useDate=20250216 means 16 February 2025.

I changed just those eight digits to my check-in date and pressed Enter. It was fine if a message said there was no information yet. I was only getting the date ready; rooms still wouldn't be available until the usual opening time.

At 09:00 ICT / 11:00 JST, I clicked Search to look for rooms using the date and guest details I'd prepared, then selected the room category I wanted. While waiting, I kept a clock open in another tab and used a stable internet connection.

Watch the original examples

If you'd like to see when I clicked each button, the first video shows the preparation and the second shows me booking. Both videos are narrated in Thai, and the clocks shown use Thailand time (ICT, GMT+7).

See the original illustrated Facebook post (Thai) ↗

Our earlier MiraCosta booking notes, 27 December 2023 ↗