ADRs - Does Disney leave room for walk ups??

[mules0308]

I agree with everyone...it depends on the time of year and the popularity of the restaurant. We were just at WDW during the first week of March and we had a 5-minute wait as walk-ups to Cape May for an early dinner, ~5:30 (party of five adults and two children). The interesting thing about that is that we tried to make an ADR for Cape May that same afternoon and we were told they were totally booked up. We took the chance that they would take a walk-up, and we had barely any wait. I think it helped that we ate early.

On another day, we called to make an ADR for Kona Cafe dinner around 4:30pm, and we were able to get a ressie for 5:30 that same day. We like to eat early for the kids' sake! In all of our trips to Disney, we had never tried Kona...we loved it - not very crowded at all and the food was terrific!

We had all our other ADRs made in advance of the trip.

 

[twoeeyy]

Last Oct. we saw people at Sci Fi told that there were no available tables for 5 days , but on the other hand at MNSSHP a family walked up to CP and got seated only moments after us ( we made ADR's 180 days in advance ) so, I guess they happened to be in the right place at the right time and got a table due to a cancellation.

 

[maraki527]

There is a greater chance to walk up at lunch than dinner.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

I haven't seen anybody mention this yet--it also depends upon the size of your party. DH and I (party of two! ) have had great luck walking up and getting seats. A larger party will have less luck.

We even walked up to Rose and Crown at 4:30 PM on Christmas Eve 2005 and were seated, which was unbelievable (we had ADRs at the Yachtsmens Steakhouse for 6 or 6:30 but were too hungry to wait). But we felt very, very sorry for the vast majority of people trying to walk-up during the Christmas season, because the parks and restaurants were packed.

Your friends should go ahead and make ADRs and then just cancel them if they decide to eat elsewhere.

 

[Uncleromulus]

We've seen pure "walk-ups" turned away from Flying Fish, California Grill, and Yachtsman, among others. No room for the rest of that evening. And this was relatively early in the evening...
IF they do or don't actually hold seats for walk ups I can't say--but I do recommend ADR's for dinner!!!!
We have never made ADR's for breakfast at WDW...and other than Boma, never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table.

 

[bdcp]

We've seen pure "walk-ups" turned away from Flying Fish, California Grill, and Yachtsman, among others. No room for the rest of that evening. And this was relatively early in the evening...
IF they do or don't actually hold seats for walk ups I can't say--but I do recommend ADR's for dinner!!!!
We have never made ADR's for breakfast at WDW...and other than Boma, never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table.

For breakfast at Kona, we discovered after getting there for our ADR that we didn't need it. I think our ADR was at 7:30 or 8 and there were only 5 or so tables occupied for the first 15 minutes. By the time we left, it was more crowded, but we were close enough to the hostess stand to hear that most people did not have ADR's. I know a few people don't eat breakfast at all, some wait til they're at a park or eat much later than 8. I also think most people, unless they're going to a character meal tend to eat breakfast at their own resort unless they're waiting to grab something quick in the parks.

 

[PoohsGang]

We never make ADR's cause we like to fly by the seat of our pants. What we do is have our big meal at lunch, we have never had a problem getting in to most of the restaurants. It's different for dinner though, we stick to counte service or we go to Cape Mays at the Beach Club around 8:0 pm and we seem to always get in, other wise we just grab something at CS or at the market place.

 

[cruise cruise cruise]

I agree with all the others that it does depend on the time of year and simple luck. If there is a restaunt you really want, make ADRs.

However, here is my story....
last July DH and I went and I had no idea that ADRs were booked out 180 days, I just thought while at the parks we needed to plan in the morning for the evening.
So our one day in MK we walked up to CRT and tried to make dinner reservations, they said they were booked but we could try back durring the dinner time. We then tried LTT and were able to make dinner reservations with no problem (we were given quite a few time choices). So at dinner time we walked back to CRT and asked if they could squeeze us in and sure enought we got in!! We had the CM at CRT phone and cancell our LTT ressies.

We also walked into Planet Hollywood while in DDT, this was an early 5:00ish dinner. Not sure if the earliness made a difference.

So, it can be done. But as I get smarter by reading this board, I would not recomend counting on getting a table at any restraunt that takes ressies with out one