Better to have partial no-show or last minute ADR change?

[Angeliki19]

Hi! I am on the fence about making one of our ADR's. Normally, I would not plan to eat at a table service after all day at the park because my kids are young and we are usually more comfortable relaxing back at our villa. However, my parents are joining us on this trip and really want to take us to Jiko... I have never been and not sure I can resist!

Basically I would like to make the ADR for all of us and hope we make it. But if my kids are too tired/cranky, etc, we probably would just let my parents go by themselves. I have seen that we will not be charged a no-show fee as long as SOMEBODY shows up. But I feel kind of bad saying we would be 6 people and only 2 people show up. It would tie up a larger table that maybe someone else wanted.

What would be the best way to go about this? Would I be able to change the reservation to 2 people, or will that technically be "cancelling" our 6 person reservation and therefore we would get charged?

 

[Ruth B]

You will not be charged the cancellation fee but not sure if you can call, change the table size and still keep the ADR.
Sure someone will know...

 

[cwis]

I wouldn't bother calling or asking for a change. ADRs are not reservations for tables, but merely reservations for queuing at a restaurant. That's why you don't get charged if your party size changes.

The system is designed to handle such modifications (no-shows are charged because it would get harder to fill all tables if 10% of the guests would randomly change their plans).

 

[ajh88]

Hi! I am on the fence about making one of our ADR's. Normally, I would not plan to eat at a table service after all day at the park because my kids are young and we are usually more comfortable relaxing back at our villa. However, my parents are joining us on this trip and really want to take us to Jiko... I have never been and not sure I can resist!

Basically I would like to make the ADR for all of us and hope we make it. But if my kids are too tired/cranky, etc, we probably would just let my parents go by themselves. I have seen that we will not be charged a no-show fee as long as SOMEBODY shows up. But I feel kind of bad saying we would be 6 people and only 2 people show up. It would tie up a larger table that maybe someone else wanted.

What would be the best way to go about this? Would I be able to change the reservation to 2 people, or will that technically be "cancelling" our 6 person reservation and therefore we would get charged?

In my experience, and ymmv, when I wanted to change the party size on a reservation, they treated it as a new reservation - cancelling the old one and making a new one, not just modifying the existing reservation. Now, in my case, we were adding a person, so perhaps that is why they did it that way. As for charging you, I can't imagine they would, but I also wasn't modifying mine within the cancellation window (I made a booking error). I don't think I would sweat it if you don't go if at least part of your party is planning to go no matter what.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Last time we went to Disney World we had ADRs at Akershus after the Candlelight Processional. We were not hungry but we showed up for our reservation. I told the hostess that I would honor the reservation because we didn't want to no show but she was happy to cancel me because she said the fee was to keep people from not showing up at all and keep them from filling the table but they had people waiting for tables so they were more than willing to cancel. Even if no one feels like going, at least have 1 person show up to honor the reservation. At one time, people made lots of reservations then simply didn't show up for the ones they didn't want which kept others from being able to book or walk in and tables sat empty or if they gave no shows a grace before filling the table then they were behind. Cancelling is a courtesy to both the restaurants and he patrons. ETA: unfortunately sometimes they have to resort to fees to get people to do the right thing. Not directed at anyone on this thread just an overall observation after seeing frustrated people trying to get walk in tables and watching empty tables because of no shows.