Dinner Reservations at DLR & what happens when not everyone shows up

[Mike_M]

Hi All, it's been a while since I've posted on here. Good to be back.

I am taking care of the fine tuning this week for our trip in June and had a question about making reservations for meals.

It's our DD's 5th birthday trip and we will have extended family joining us for part of it. I am getting ready to make our in-park reservations for meals but some of my family can't make solid commitments about dates so I was wondering if there are any issues with making reservations for a certain count of people and then ending up with fewer people showing up. I'm not so much worried that we'll be charged something as I am with wasting seats in case someone can't make it.

(Essentially, I'm planning for 8 people total for dinner at BB and then 9 at Minnie and Friends for breakfast the next day. Two people (My parents) can't give definite commitments until a couple weeks before the trip and even then, they aren't keen on planning their DL experience and may decide to opt-out of reservations last minute)

I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill here so if anyone has been in this situation and has suggestions on the best way to plan (or if it's not a big deal to just make the reservations and who shows shows and who dosen't dosen't) I am all ears.

 

[Ariel224]

I would go ahead & make the reservation to include your parents. As soon as you know if they are making the trip, you can call & revise the reservation if needed. Always easier to subtract people than to add on.

As far as a last minute cancellation goes, what I'm about to say is my best guess based on what I've read in the past, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. The OP may want to just clarify with Disney Dining when calling for the ressie.... My understanding is that "reservations" at DLR are really a priority seating assignment, meaning that when you show up, you are given priority (over someone who just walked in without the reservation) to have the next available table for a party of your size. They wouldn't necessarily have an empty table waiting with your name on it. So you would be accommodated at that point for 6 instead of 8. I could, however, see issues arising if you checked in for a party of 6 & then your parents decided to show up 20 minutes later.

I wouldn't stress over it. Just make your ressie & then let Dis Dining know as soon as you can what the final plan is. In the meantime, if your parents are "in" on this trip, you can stress to them that the restaurants may be very busy, and you need to know whether or not they are "in" for the meals.

 

[AmericanItGirl]

I had a reservation for a large group for lunch the last time I went and the day of, the number kept fluctuating. I told the hostess when checking in that not everyone may show up (and the end estimation was just a few people higher than what actually showed up) and it was no problem. So my advice is go for the higher number, and if your parents don't show up, it won't be a big deal to only have two people less.

 

[jimreuter]

If you show up at Blue Bayou with fewer people than you originally reserved for, just let the host at the podium know. They'll mark your card with the lower number and it will usually facilitate your seating, since the larger the party, the harder it is to arrange tables.

On the other hand, if you have more than you reserved for, it may delay seating. Anything up to 4 is no problem, going from 4 to 5 (or 5 to 6, or 6 to 7, etc.) may cause some delay in seating, since most of the tables seat 4. Or it may just mean a little less room (e.g., putting 6 people on a table normally seating 5).

It will differ at other restaurants as their table configurations are different.

 

[Mike_M]

Thanks for the good info all.

 

[TSRE]

I would go ahead & make the reservation to include your parents. As soon as you know if they are making the trip, you can call & revise the reservation if needed. Always easier to subtract people than to add on.

This is exactly what the Disney Dining person told me to do when I called a few weeks ago with the same situation. It really isn't a big deal to show up with a few less, or change the reservation to a few less once you know.