Do I HAVE to arrive early for ALL my ADR's?

[ArielSparrow]

On My Disney Experience, the "arrive at" time listed by my reservations are the times I made them for. For CRT and Dining with an Imagineer I'm definitely showing up early.

I have an ADR at Boma for 7:30p to try to give ourselves ample time to leave AK (it closes at 5p that day) and arrive at AKL. I want to explore a bit and look out at the savanah beforehand. Will I have time to do all this at still get to the podium at 7:15p? We're going on Thursday 9/12.

We have two ADR's on one day and my ideal would have been to pack one meal and purchase the other. However, we are doing Dining with an Imagineer (lunch appealed more to me than dinner) and I couldn't resist trying out Sci-Fi as well. We may just be getting milkshakes, maybe a full meal, we'll see how we feel at the time. This is my main question. I made it for 8:30p, which is also when the park closes. Since is our last stop of the day, we are in no rush and I wanted to know if it's a big deal to show up at 8:25p or even 8:30p in case we are still trying to squeeze in more rides.

 

[Cafeen]

On My Disney Experience, the "arrive at" time listed by my reservations are the times I made them for. For CRT and Dining with an Imagineer I'm definitely showing up early.

I have an ADR at Boma for 7:30p to try to give ourselves ample time to leave AK (it closes at 5p that day) and arrive at AKL. I want to explore a bit and look out at the savanah beforehand. Will I have time to do all this at still get to the podium at 7:15p? We're going on Thursday 9/12.

We have two ADR's on one day and my ideal would have been to pack one meal and purchase the other. However, we are doing Dining with an Imagineer (lunch appealed more to me than dinner) and I couldn't resist trying out Sci-Fi as well. We may just be getting milkshakes, maybe a full meal, we'll see how we feel at the time. This is my main question. I made it for 8:30p, which is also when the park closes. Since is our last stop of the day, we are in no rush and I wanted to know if it's a big deal to show up at 8:25p or even 8:30p in case we are still trying to squeeze in more rides.

For Boma, you should have plenty of time. It's only about a 5 minute bus ride from AK to AKL. Adding in some wait time and you should have at least 1.5, if not 2 hours between getting there and checking in early.

For Sci-Fi, this is a little trickier, especially since it's right at park closing. I think you'd be ok 5-10 minutes early, but you'll certainly not want to be late. Keep in mind that there's likely to be a wait after you check-in anyway, so that may help you a little bit as well .

 

[ArielSparrow]

For Boma, you should have plenty of time. It's only about a 5 minute bus ride from AK to AKL. Adding in some wait time and you should have at least 1.5, if not 2 hours between getting there and checking in early.

For Sci-Fi, this is a little trickier, especially since it's right at park closing. I think you'd be ok 5-10 minutes early, but you'll certainly not want to be late. Keep in mind that there's likely to be a wait after you check-in anyway, so that may help you a little bit as well .

Thanks! We will have a car. Are we able to leave it at AK or should we drive to AKL ourselves instead of taking the bus?

 

[purple figment]

It's best to drive your car to AKL. Buses only run regularly for about an hour after the park closes so by the time you're done with dinner it will be a long and time consuming trip to get back to AK.

You don't HAVE to arrive early, but it's often recommended that you check in about 10 minutes early. For Sci Fi I would plan on getting there a few minutes early because your reservation is at park closing and they will go by their clock to determine when it's 8:30. If you arrive at Sci Fi after 8:30 they may not accept any more check ins even if there are still people waiting to be seated.
While you may want to squeeze one more ride in, sometimes rides take longer than expected.

 

[closetmickey]

I am confused by this as well, since the app clearly says "Arrive at" and then it lists the ADR time. I can't find anywhere where it states to arrive 15 minutes early. Didn't that used to be in writing? Now might they actually prefer us there on-time, instead of early??