ANY ADR wait horror stories??

[scoobygrl79]

Okay, it has been like pulling teeth to convince my husband to agree to enjoy sit down meals while visiting WDW. I suppose he thinks we are all suppose to dress up in our camo and hit the park as if we were on the show Survivor or something.. but after sweat and tears (thankfully it didnt reach the level of blood yet ), i convinced him to approve. He still is pouty and relunctant and is always nagging about how we are taking SOOOOO much away from the park....but I'm happy I got my way, for now. One thing continues to haunt me....how bad might I expect waiting to be seated for my ADR's ? Boy, will I get IT if not only do we take out the time it will take to sit and get served/eat...BUT also have to wait over an hour for our tables...!! I swear I will never ever hear the end of it. Now I understand that disney ADRs are not like traditional ones where a table is actually set aside for you, but its actually just a time that you are put ahead in cue for the next opening...right? Anyway, I was hoping if any of you Disney ADR veterans can share with me your time averages or even maybe some possible horror stories I might face. I think I'm scared now..... thanks for your time in reading this

 

[SYDCOLEMOM]

We have always had minimal wait times at all of our ADRS. Averaging probably 10 to 15 minutes wait time. We usually travel during September so Im assuming that might have something to do with the short wait times. Good Luck !

 

[PictureJumpr]

Totally depends on what time of year your trip will be.
And whether you are dining at wildly popular places or not.

The worst ones I've had in recent years:
~Hollywood & Vine @ DHS - both of the last two trips, at least an hour. Don't even think about it anymore, not worth the wait for sure.
~Ohana - not surprising in the least, given the popularity of this one. In the off-season, it's really not that bad (30 minutes at most) but if it's a busy weekend, it's been an hour or more at times.
~Akershus - again, with the popularity of this one, added on top of the fact that it's a character meal, not surprising. They just don't have anywhere to wait, really - other than sitting on the flowerbed walls or standing nearby. Worst wait here was an hour and ten minutes about a year ago.

All in all, considering the sheer volume these restaurants do in a day, wait times are not that bad. For character meals, it can be a little worse than others just because people 'sit on' their tables to wait for the characters to come around even after they are finished eating. If you are able to avoid peak mealtimes (12-1:30 for lunch, or 5:30-7:30 for dinner are peaks) then you can cut your own wait ahead of time by booking off-peak ADRs.

 

[ancestry]

We did 21 TS restaurants last year on the DxDP. For everyone we had ADRs and never waiting more than 10 minutes during the busy end of June season. Actually there was one (Askerhaus) that we waited longer for but that was because we arrived very early (about 30 minutes). We were seated by our actual reservation time.

 

[PalmettoPrincess]

Usually the wait times are minimal... 15-20 mins at the most. But last trip, we waited FOREVER for Sci-Fi... I'd say an hr and a half at least PAST our ADR time. I always try to show up at least 30 min before my ADR time... sometimes they won't let you check in that early, sometimes they will.

 

[AsherBear]

The worst ADR wait our family had was at Kona last September. We waited over 2 hours after our reservation time. For some reason, that night walk-ups had the same or less wait time than those with ADR's. When you factor in the one hour travel time each way and the time spent waiting for our food/eating, that one meal took our family over five hours to complete.

 

[cindirella&herprince]

My DH and I had no problem with our ADR's last September. The longest we waited the whole time for an ADR was 10 minutes. The longest we waited at all was for an unexpected dinner trip to Kona and we only waited 40 minutes. Thanks goodness for Lapu Lapu's at the Ohana bar! We even showed up on a Sunday night for dinner at San Angel Inn an hour before our ADR and we were seated immediately.

 

[MSLRAC]

We did 21 TS restaurants last year on the DxDP. For everyone we had ADRs and never waiting more than 10 minutes during the busy end of June season. Actually there was one (Askerhaus) that we waited longer for but that was because we arrived very early (about 30 minutes). We were seated by our actual reservation time.

We also did 21 TS meals on the DxDP but we were there in February and we too did not wait more than 10 minutes and in many cases, we did not wait at all. But there was one, Cape May Clambake.

Oh my word was that a nightmare! We waited an hour after our ADR time and we were not the only ones. The entire lobby of the Beach Club was full of people waiting long past their times to be seated. When asked, the hostesses just kept saying we are in the middle of a turn over and you will be seated shortly. The nearest we could tell, a turn over meant that the entire restaurant was allowed to clear out, be bussed and reset because it was empty when everyone's pagers started going off and people started being seated.

 

[crisi]

Most of the time under 20 minutes. The bad ones we've had: Ohana character breakfast (sat so late the characters left before the eggs hit the table) and a Boma trip where we waited longer than 30 minutes.

 

[frannn]

Our wait times were 10-15 min, with the exception of Coral Reef, Ohana (breakfast and dinner), Yak & Yeti, and Tusker House (breakfast). Those last few had a little extra wait time, with Tusker House being the worst.

 

[Pumbaa_]

can't believe some of the wait times. OMG! Sorry, there is nothing at Disney I would wait an hour. So sorry some had that experience

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Been to about 40 restaurants total with ADRs, never waited more than 10 minutes or so. But we go during non-busy times of year if that makes a difference -- don't know if it does or not.

 

[scoobygrl79]

Uh oh....just a tad nervous I guess I can enjoy it for the time being and just deal with the whining later...thanks for all the responses. About the times, I did try to schedule against the grain (IE late breakfast times as opposed to "pre-rope drop" times, after 830pm dinners, etc) but im sure that means nothing in Disney country

 

[n2mm]

Wow, I've never waited more than 5 minutes. We were just there the first week of March and the last week of January already this year and no waits whatsoever for anything. I barely get to sit down and we're being called. However, we are a party of 2 so not really waiting for a big table. I guess that might make a difference.

 

[Forever Fairy]

Most times, I've only had to wait 10 - 15 minutes. The longest was for Le Cellier and that was for about 30 minutes.

Depending on the time of year, maybe you could present it as an opportunity to relax and refresh so you can enjoy the parks even longer that day?

 

[tami82]

I suggest making your reservations for an early dinner time 4:30 to 5:30. That is what we did and only once out of the 7 nights we waited maybe 10 extra minutes at 1900 Park Fare but that was to get our picture taken before the meal.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I think when you go can have a big impact on your wait times. I heard some horror stories from the free dining period last year, particularly in the first week of it in August. That worries me because we are going the third week of August this year. Of course, we still don't know if free dining will be offered this year, but just in case, I tried to schedule early ADRs. 8:05 breakfasts when 8:05 is the earliest slot. 5:00 dinners at places that open for dinner at 5:00. That should help us get seated on time.

I was there in mid-September during free dining in 2008. Most ADRs we were seated on-time or with just a 10 minute wait. The longest waits were LTT which was a 1/2 hour for a 6:30 dinner and CRT which was a 1/2 hour wait for an 8:30 breakfast. I feel like the CRT wait was partially my fault because we were about 5 minutes late arriving for the ADR. It seemed like they were seating people in large groups and waiting for an entire section of the restaurant to be done and cleared before reseating that section.

 

[shyjade]

I really hate wasting time waiting for ADR's but love eating at several TS restaurants so I have a "system" that works very well for us: we always make our ressies for the earliest seating possible.

We are at the parks before rope drop and aren't big breakfast eaters early in the morning so we're plenty hungry in time for our ressies at 11:30am (if it's a lunch ADR). Likewise, if our TS meal is for dinner, we eat a CS meal early enough (11am) so that we're hungry and ready for our TS meal at 4:30pm. This way, we beat the crowds, don't spend much on snacks, and don't eat a huge meal late at night. We are "early to rise, early to bed" people, so this works really good for us.


The only long wait I had was at Sci-Fi (lunch) during free dining and we waited 45 minutes, and then nearly an hour for COLD food. Will never eat there again!!

 

[keishashadow]

the worst for us was CMickey's for 7 pm dinner, almost 1-1/2 hr wait, although it was during President's day weekend. Most charactar meals seem to run slow (probably because the kids can't tear themselves away). CP is another one that is easily 30 to 45 minutes when we visit.

jmho, depends on how busy the season is you visit and whether you select the standard times for meals.

 

[princessallegra]

We've never waited more than 10 minutes for an ADR. Maybe once when it was Alfredo's we waited for 15 minutes, but that was because I said we would wait for an outside table.