Been turned away from ADR with extra person?????

[disneykaws]

Has anyone ever been turned away from their ADR because an extra person or 2 was joining the group unplanned?

Once or twice this coming visit we may have an extra 2 diners when we go to our dinners that were reserved for 6 people. We will not know until the last minute. I was advised, when I called the dining number, to not fiddle with what I had because I might lose the more difficult-to-get ones that we already have for this August.

 

[tink20]

I don't know, but I had the same problem you have. What I just did yesterday was make an extra ADR for table of 2 and hope the tables are close,(this way if I don't need the extra seats I can cancel and not mess up my original ADR) if not; at least my group will all be in the restaurant at same time and can be together when we are finished.

 

[Kristineamb]

We are a party of 5. Really wanted an ADR @Le Cellier for a late lunch or an early dinner but nothing was available through Disney Dining. Was able to secure an ADR for 4 @2pm (beggars can't be choosers) from another Diser! What do you think they'll do????

 

[Belle4mygrl]

Coral Reef Thanksgiving week 2007. Our friends had reservations and could not "add" us on at the last minute. The male friend walked up and said his last name and the hostess repeated name and reservations for party of 9. Friend said, "no, we now have 14 and we want the seats up by the aquarium." AND HE GOT IT! My luck it wouldn't have worked to add an extra 5 people on or near the glass.

 

[Pakey]

Whispering Canyon Cafe and Sci Fi, both in Dec 2006 with 2 extra people. We were told at podium they could only honor number on original reservation as they were fully booked. Sci Fi would not even give a standby time and WCC's standby time was way too long to wait. So DH and I opted out at WCC and rest of party dined there and at Sci Fi, one of our sons and his wife opted out while rest of us kept original reservation.

 

[lornak]

I have been able to add guests to our original reservation at Le Cellier, Tepan Edo, Crystal Palace, Coral Reef and Prime Time. I've even been able to add people to CRT....I was shocked when it happend. We had a reservation for 6 and had 10 people. We had decided that we would have one adult take 5 kids to the breakfast. We asked at the podium if the other adults could just go upstairs and take pictures. They said no problem and when we got upstairs they said we could absolutely join the group and they rearranged the tables and got us all in. It was great.

Anyway, this was all in Sept 07 during free dining. I don't know if what we experienced is normal but I have had success everytime I have showed up with "extra" diners. Good luck!

 

[Disney Fans]

We had friends last fall that didn't want to make ADR because they really thought it wouldn't ever be a problem and we tried to warn them and then asked if they could join us after they saw that it was hard to get into things and we asked at CP and they said no they could not but if we wanted to sit with our friends we would have to wait a possible 2 or so hours so we said no to that and our friends understood.
But I know if they have an opening for some reason they would then make room for your extra guest but most of the time during busy or sold out type ADR days it would be very unlikely.

 

[pinkerbell]

We are a party of 5. Really wanted an ADR @Le Cellier for a late lunch or an early dinner but nothing was available through Disney Dining. Was able to secure an ADR for 4 @2pm (beggars can't be choosers) from another Diser! What do you think they'll do????

We were not able to add one (from 4 to 5) to our LeCellier Ressie last yr.

Each person makes a big difference. I changed (170 days out) a chef mickey's from 3 people to 4 and was able to get 5:00 as opposed to a 7:00 time. DH thinks they want tables as full as possible so are less willing to seat a smaller number at a larger table during prime dinner time.
.. makes sense
DH has a relative who will not commit to ressies, so we have had to drop her out of the vacation planning.

 

[Lehuaann]

We are a party of 5. Really wanted an ADR @Le Cellier for a late lunch or an early dinner but nothing was available through Disney Dining. Was able to secure an ADR for 4 @2pm (beggars can't be choosers) from another Diser! What do you think they'll do????

I was able to do this last year during free dining. I wanted a Le Cellier dinner ressie BADLY for a party of 5 but nothing was available...however, the CM advised me to take an available ADR for 4, keep my fingers crossed, and show up for our ressie. We showed up at the podium and told them we had one extra person. They never questioned and took us right away. We had a lovely dinner!

 

[Clotho]

I just wouldn't count on it. Disney will do everything they can to say "Yes" to you, and will try. But you can't be sure, and it would sure be a bummer to count on it, show up, and they really are so overbooked they can't accomodate you. then what are you left with?

 

[PrincessAli]

Last September during Free Dining--we were able to add three people to our ADR's for two at 'Le Cellier' and again at 'Chefs de France' . We were asked to wait a few minutes longer for a table, but it was within a half hour of our original ressies.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

We couldn't secure a table for five, so took a table for four and showed up with the five. We accepted the table for four and simply sat five people at it. It wasn't a huge problem and no one was crowded.

Oh, that was at Cape May Buffet.

 

[PatsMom]

DD added a friend to our August trip changing us from a party of 3 to a party of 4. We called to re-book our meals and the CM told DH not to mess with the ADR's - going from 3 to 4 was not a problem. I suspect it might be a bigger problem going from 2 to 3 or from 4 to 5 just because tables in restaurants tend to be set up for even numbers. So a party of 3 is usually taking up a table for 4.

 

[RMulieri]

It is up to the discretion of the podium Cm's.I know most people have been allowed, but i have heard of a few people not being allowed to bring extra people in.I think this would be more of a problem during free dining, or at really popular restuarants during peak times.I could see them allowing one extra person thu, but 5? I would be a tad annoyed if my adr was late for that.

 

[LilyPadd]

I would say its going to be at the restaurant's assignors discretion. If its a busy restaurant at a busy time they might not be able to add people to the party.

I'd definitely say that in the case of going from a four to an eight. Certainly where I work that would cause a very big problem. And we'd probably say we could only take the four unless they wanted to wait til an eight became available which could be up to an hour later.

 

[Kristineamb]

We are a party of 5. Really wanted an ADR @Le Cellier for a late lunch or an early dinner but nothing was available through Disney Dining. Was able to secure an ADR for 4 @2pm (beggars can't be choosers) from another Diser! What do you think they'll do????

BTW this is for September (during free dining) @2pm

 

[MomtoAlexnWilliam]

I wouldn't chance it. It sounds like the answer could be yes or no depending on the CM and how busy the restaurant was.

Plus, as someone who made ADRs for the correct number of people who will be dining with me, I would be peeved if my own dinner was pushed back because someone had more in their party than they told the CM when making their own ADR. I have a 3 and 5 year old and we try to plan accordingly to limit the wait time for them. This is also done as a courtesy for our fellow diners. We want our kids to be as fresh (hmmm, polite) as possible.

I think the best thing to do is to try to get your other parties to confirm now if they will be joining you or not and then call and get ressies for the correct number of people in your group. Good luck!

 

[aubriee]

At Le Cellier September '06 we were told when we checked in that they were running 45 min-1 hour behind. While we were waiting, we saw multiple walkups turned away. We also saw a family of three try to add another couple to their ADR. They were refused and said only the number for the original reservation could be seated. Funny thing is, the family of three took the reservation and the other couple walked away. Last Sept ('07) we saw a family checking in ahead of us at Crystal Palace turned away because they were trying to get grandma and grandpa added to their table. They all walked off, with crying kiddos.

 

[Kristineamb]

We are a party of 5. Really wanted an ADR @Le Cellier for a late lunch or an early dinner but nothing was available through Disney Dining. Was able to secure an ADR for 4 @2pm (beggars can't be choosers) from another Diser! What do you think they'll do????

Heres the situation: Got two ADRs from fellow Disboarders. One was for Le Cellier the other for Donald's Safari Breakfast @Tusker House. Both were for a party of 4 and there were 5 in our group. As expected the ADR @Tusker House was not a problem...they didn't even flinch when I told them @the podium there were 5 instead of 4.
Le Cellier was an entirely different situation...I was very anxious about this one because although I had the Disboarder's name and confirmation# when I tried to contact her several times (via pm and email) before our trip I got no response. When we got to the podium @Le Cellier and I gave them the confirmation# I had been given they said the ADR had been canceled! Luckily we had made friends with a Dream Team member who escorted us to Le Cellier and she pulled a few strings and we were seated (all 5 of us!) within 5 minutes! (*To read more about our experiences with The Dream Team see the link to The Disney Divas thread in my signature...TR starts on page 18!) Actually saw the Disboarder who gave me the Le Cellier ADR in passing twice during our visit but didn't speak to her because I didn't want to spoil the magic by asking what happened especially since it all worked out in the end

 

[nbodyhome]

Going from 1 to 2, or 3 to 4, etc. is no big deal and there is no reason to try to even fix those. A table for 3 is also going to be a table for 4.