Wait times for tables?

MammaMoe48 · Feb 13, 2016

Hi, I am hearing a lot of different things about wait times. I know that it probably depends on which restaurant you go to, what time the reservation is for and what time of year you go but in general if you have an ADR is there still a long wait to get seated? I was going to book Mama Melrose's and pretty much everything I'm hearing is that you have to wait a long time for your table. We will be going down mid-August so how bad will it be?

powellrj · Feb 13, 2016

It really depends on how fast they turn over the tables. Many times people stay much longer than expected which will affect your wait time.

OKW Lover · Feb 13, 2016

You have the best chance of a short wait if you book an ADR for the early times.

MammaMoe48 · Feb 13, 2016

OKW Lover said:
You have the best chance of a short wait if you book an ADR for the early times.

How early is early? We usually eat around 6:30 at home and that's what I planned to do down there - I don't want to have dinner at 4. This is my first trip so I am still trying to figure out how to time everything but I figured get to the park when it opens, head back to the hotel around 4 or so to wash up and change then head out to the restaurant around 6 for 6:30 reservations. We are at the BWV and almost all of our meals will be there, the Beach Club, DHS or at EPCOT so it's all walking distance. I know to expect a bit of a wait but anything more than 15-20 minutes is ridiculous IMO.

I am starting to regret planning this trip, the more I read on here the more it seems like it's just too crowded and too expensive. Add to that what I'm hearing about the decline in quality, Disney is sounding less and less like "The most magical place on earth" and more like a money grabbing, slow walk to the cattle cars. I've done three Disney cruises and they have always been great, from the room to the food to the onboard entertainment - I had hoped that WDW would be as good. Is it really as bad as I'm hearing?

OKW Lover · Feb 13, 2016

MammaMoe48 said:
How early is early? We usually eat around 6:30 at home and that's what I planned to do down there

Early is when the restaurant opens for dinner. In most cases about 5:00 pm. By 6:30 the waits will be longer, but probably still livable.

Clare Voince · Feb 13, 2016

OKW Lover said:
You have the best chance of a short wait if you book an ADR for the early times.

I once had to wait about 15 minutes for a table for breakfast at Boma when literally only two other tables in the restaurant were occupied. It was my first time at AKL, and I was too busy taking photos to complain, but after I was seated, I thought about it and was a little shocked. So, you can still even wait in an empty restaurant.

OKW Lover · Feb 13, 2016

Clare Voince said:
I once had to wait about 15 minutes for a table for breakfast at Boma when literally only two other tables in the restaurant were occupied. It was my first time at AKL, and I was too busy taking photos to complain, but after I was seated, I thought about it and was a little shocked. So, you can still even wait in an empty restaurant.

Yeah, that does happen. I think its because they need to stagger the times for the wait staff and the kitchen. Can you imagine if they sat an entire restaurant full at once and all the orders needed to be taken/cooked at the same time?

MammaMoe48 · Feb 13, 2016

OKW Lover said:
Early is when the restaurant opens for dinner. In most cases about 5:00 pm. By 6:30 the waits will be longer, but probably still livable.

If "livable" means no more than 20 minutes (30 minutes max), then that's find with me. I just don't want to have to wait 45 minutes to an hour.

Dis703 · Feb 13, 2016

I've had excessive waits a few times, but most of the time I've been seated within 15 minutes of my ADR if not right away. A few times I did have 45+ minute waits and it stinks when it happens. It usually seems to be when it's excessively hot out (people want to linger in the AC), or raining. Mother's Day I also experienced a bit of a wait but not quite as bad. The only place it happened to me more than once was Hollywood and Vine.

caliope · Feb 13, 2016

If you normally eat at 6:30 at home, why not make ADRs for 5:45 or 6:00? The reality is, even if you're seated immediately, you won't have your food right away unless it's a buffet. That would have you actually eating relatively close up your typical time. And, it puts you closer to opening time which might reduce the chance of them being behind and seating you late.

For what it's worth, we've also encountered waits at high end restaurants in Boston and NYC, sometimes up to 30-40 minutes past the reservation time. It's definitely frustrating, so I understand your concern, but it's not unique to just Disney. It could happen anywhere.

MammaMoe48 · Feb 13, 2016

caliope said:
If you normally eat at 6:30 at home, why not make ADRs for 5:45 or 6:00? The reality is, even if you're seated immediately, you won't have your food right away unless it's a buffet. That would have you actually eating relatively close up your typical time. And, it puts you closer to opening time which might reduce the chance of them being behind and seating you late.

For what it's worth, we've also encountered waits at high end restaurants in Boston and NYC, sometimes up to 30-40 minutes past the reservation time. It's definitely frustrating, so I understand your concern, but it's not unique to just Disney. It could happen anywhere.

My concern is that if we have a 5:45 or 6:00 res, we might not make it back to our room, wash and change then get to the restaurant in time. It's not a big deal though, if we have to leave the parks earlier, we can. . We are DVC member so, we expect to be going back over and over so we don't have to cram everything in on this visit. We've already planned to avoid the parks completely on the weekend. We're driving to Tampa Saturday to catch a Rays game.

katt789 · Feb 14, 2016

As someone who used to work in food & bev, and it depends on a lot of factors, mainly WHEN your adr is. If it's outside the prime dinner time, you should be okay, esp for lunch. It's less crowded, and if your adr is earlier there's less people to clear out before they get to your adr. Show up only FIVE MINUTES before your adr to check in, a lot of places will send you away if you're earlier as they cannot check you in earlier if they're busy. They'd rather have you off enjoying yourself than standing around a lobby waiting & waiting.

We waited quite a while at Mama Melrose and had a super awkward experience and the podium staff left a bad taste in our mouth, we asked if we could check in early, they didn't really reply, and just checked us in, and THEN told me it'd be 20-30mins after my reservation time, even though at this point it was still 15-20 before my adr. I then "un" checked in and we left to come back later.

_auroraborealis_ · Feb 14, 2016

Keep in mind an ADR isn't really a "reserved table" so much as a statement that you will get the next available table for a party of your party size at or after the time of booking. How many bookings they take are based on an average table turn time.

No table turn is average, just like no household has 1.6 children.

MichiganScott · Feb 14, 2016

I assume I'll have to wait 15-30 minutes from any ADR time and plan from there. If you have a party > 4, that could also push things out, as most tables are designed to accommodate 4.

And no, it's not as bad as you're hearing. Do research and a little bit of planning, and most importantly, don't freak out when plans go awry, because they will. It's all good

DisneyWishes14 · Feb 14, 2016

In all my years going to WDW and having ADR's, I've never waited more than 10 minutes for a table except at . . . Mama Melrose. That was about 30 - 40 minutes. It is definitely not good enough to do that ever again. If there is another restaurant in DHS that interests you, I would book elsewhere.

loves to dive · Feb 14, 2016

I think the longest we've waited was 15 min and that was a Prime Time. Now once we've been seated, that's a different matter. We had a meal last 2 hours at Sanna simply because we had the worst waitress in the history of waitstaff. We had to wait to order our drinks, wait to order our meal, wait to order our dessert, wait for our check, wait to pay our check. We watched tables turn over twice. I've grown up in the restaurant industry, my grandmother owned the only restaurant in town when we were growing up so even as kids we worked there. I have two brother's who are chefs, one who is a line cook and one who runs a resort right now but ran restaurants when he was starting out. #1 rule is never make a customer wait to order and never make them wait to pay. You can make them wait forever for their meal but not those two. Since the food was just so - so, it made the waits for every course worse. Had I not been using TIW miss thing would not have gotten a tip at all.

Nancyg56 · Feb 14, 2016

MammaMoe48 said:
How early is early? We usually eat around 6:30 at home and that's what I planned to do down there - I don't want to have dinner at 4. This is my first trip so I am still trying to figure out how to time everything but I figured get to the park when it opens, head back to the hotel around 4 or so to wash up and change then head out to the restaurant around 6 for 6:30 reservations. We are at the BWV and almost all of our meals will be there, the Beach Club, DHS or at EPCOT so it's all walking distance. I know to expect a bit of a wait but anything more than 15-20 minutes is ridiculous IMO.

I am starting to regret planning this trip, the more I read on here the more it seems like it's just too crowded and too expensive. Add to that what I'm hearing about the decline in quality, Disney is sounding less and less like "The most magical place on earth" and more like a money grabbing, slow walk to the cattle cars. I've done three Disney cruises and they have always been great, from the room to the food to the onboard entertainment - I had hoped that WDW would be as good. Is it really as bad as I'm hearing?

I am afraid that you may be disappointed on your trip. THis is the second thread I have read that you regret planning this trip, and based on your dining expectations, I am afraid you are setting yourself up for frustration. YOu do not want to adjust your ADR's to accomodate your dining time at home because you may not have time to get to the resort and then to dinner. You do not want to wait more than 15 to 20 minutes to be seated but have planned meals at the Prime Time dining hour.

WDW is not a DCL cruise. It is probably going to be crowded. I don't know of too many down periods any more. Dining ADR's are not reservations. They are places in line. ANd DIsney is expensive. No getting around that.
It is likely you will wait longer than 20 minutes to be seated at least some of the meals. I always figure we will have a 30 minute wait and am glad when we get seated faster. Mama Melrose has a reputation of running behind, but my family has never experienced that.

I think that you need to set your expectations so that you understand what you are getting into so you are not frustrated.

ZoZo · Feb 14, 2016

MammaMoe48 said:
I am starting to regret planning this trip, the more I read on here the more it seems like it's just too crowded and too expensive. Add to that what I'm hearing about the decline in quality, Disney is sounding less and less like "The most magical place on earth" and more like a money grabbing, slow walk to the cattle cars. I've done three Disney cruises and they have always been great, from the room to the food to the onboard entertainment - I had hoped that WDW would be as good. Is it really as bad as I'm hearing?

Try not to get discouraged reading the posts here. On chat boards, you're probably likely to see lots of negative posts because it's sometimes human nature to be more likely to report on a bad experience rather than a good one. Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. You might have a few "bumps" in your trip, but I bet you have a marvelous time. I've had 10+ Disney trips in the last 15 years, and I can report that they were all wonderful - even the trip where we were smack in the middle of Hurricane Wilma! I guess I'm sort of a "go with the flow" kind of person, but I've found that I only get frustrated if I expect things to go exactly as I'd planned.

Regarding wait times, expect that you might have short waits at some restaurants, and occasionally a longer wait than that. If you know that going in, t will help to manage your frustrations. It's not an exact science -- Disney has to feed thousands of people per day, and nothing will go perfectly - some diners may linger over their meals and the restaurant won't be able to turn over their tables as quickly as they want, and other things might happen.

I hope you have a great trip!

Hopefully · Feb 14, 2016

MammaMoe48 said:
Hi, I am hearing a lot of different things about wait times. I know that it probably depends on which restaurant you go to, what time the reservation is for and what time of year you go but in general if you have an ADR is there still a long wait to get seated? I was going to book Mama Melrose's and pretty much everything I'm hearing is that you have to wait a long time for your table. We will be going down mid-August so how bad will it be?

I have to agree with Nancyg56. This is the second thread today - Resorts Forum & now Restaurant Forum- where you have expressed the same negative outlook and expressed regret at planning this trip. Even the "cattle car" analogy in both threads. I believe you are going to be disappointed.
ADR's are not actual"reservations" like in the real world. It places you in line for the next available table for a party of your size. If you have a 6:30 ADR they are NOT holding a table for you at 6:30. I once waited in line to check in for 45 minutes & then it was another 30 minutes to be seated. That was my worst experience but we usually wait some.
I also think you are drastically under estimating the time it will take you to walk to a restaurant ADR at both DHS & Epcot from the BWV. You need to walk to the park entrance, go through bag check/security and walk to the restaurant itself. I would budget at least 60-75 minutes to your ADR.
I think you need to do some soul searching, and determine if this is how you want to vacation. WDW vacations right now are not for everyone
Good Luck

DisneyHardin · Feb 14, 2016

We have been to Disney the last 6 years with at least 5 ADR's per trip and have never waited more than about 30 minutes for a table when we checked in on time. We have waited a little longer when we checked in early hoping to be seated early. They have a pretty good algorithm for knowing how many tables to book per time block, but you just never know when a family is going to sit there for 2 hours when that size party usually turns over the table in 1 hour. The weather also plays a part - when it is very hot or rainy, people tend to linger longer at their meals before heading back out into the park.

Wait times for tables?

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