Grace Period for Reservation

[ChasingLeslie]

I would recommend repeated checking for another ADR that is 15-20 minutes later than your current reservation.

Between exiting, walking to the restaurant, and waiting to check in, you will be a lot later than you think.

 

[PEC]

I think you will be OK however I did run into a situations my last trip that caused me some concerns about the entire Reservation system. A couple of times I showed up about 20 minutes before my reservation and was politely told that I couldn't check in until 15 minutes prior (fair enough). Then on another day I was at the restaurant on time but part of my group was caught in notoriously slow Disney Transportation and was frankly told that if I was a minute late I would be put on the wait list (fortunately my group made it with 3 minutes to spare). SO what they have done is narrowed the entire check-in down to exactly 15 minutes with no accommodations either way. A little early sorry wait. A little late sorry out of luck. HEck I almost missed my reservation at Chrystal Palace because I got stuck on TTA for 20-25 minutes. Oh and forget calling restaurant. Not happening.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Another thing to consider with the timing is that even if Indy ends at 6:30, it takes longer than five minutes to get out of the theater, unless you sit at the very back and are one of the first ones out, and walk over to the restaurant. So you'll probably be at least ten or fifteen minutes late. I would skip the show or try to get a slightly later ADR.

 

[kwdw]

The trick for success for this scenario is being in the back of the theater. The Indy CM's sometimes (but not always) - get almost militant about how the theater is loaded - and sometimes you get yelled at if you try to fill a back row before they want you to. Or they may yell at you to move closer together so you can be sardines - and then you can get stuck in the middle of row with folks not looking to exit quickly on either side of you.

And why is it that they practically yell at you for trying to check in early??? I get that there may only be so much waiting space - but I've been treated like I violated some major rule and been made to feel dumb like I'm the idiot for even asking. How am I as the customer to know it's such an issue for that particular restaurant on that day??? I've been seated early at Disney nearly as many times as I've been seated late.

 

[Nancyg56]

I think you will be OK however I did run into a situations my last trip that caused me some concerns about the entire Reservation system. A couple of times I showed up about 20 minutes before my reservation and was politely told that I couldn't check in until 15 minutes prior (fair enough). Then on another day I was at the restaurant on time but part of my group was caught in notoriously slow Disney Transportation and was frankly told that if I was a minute late I would be put on the wait list (fortunately my group made it with 3 minutes to spare). SO what they have done is narrowed the entire check-in down to exactly 15 minutes with no accommodations either way. A little early sorry wait. A little late sorry out of luck. HEck I almost missed my reservation at Chrystal Palace because I got stuck on TTA for 20-25 minutes. Oh and forget calling restaurant. Not happening.

That's the thing, you just don't know what will happen on any given day at any given restaurant. Odds are goo all will be well, but as you saw, no one knows.

 

[PaintsWindColors]

I think that because you have been lucky...and you were lucky... you should not assume the OP will be as well. I have not been as lucky. We were not canceled, but we were not seated "ontime" either. And this was after much discussion between the hostess and someone else. The CM's do what they can to accommodate their guests, but it would not be doing the OP a service to tell her that she is 100% home free. She is not.

I'm pretty sure the OP knows she's not 'home free' or else she wouldn't be putting up this post in the first place. Sounds like she's looking for advice on what the rest of us would do, not asking for a 100% guaranteed answer on what will happen. If I were in her shoes, I would still do the Indy show and feel confident that my table would still be waiting even if I was 5 minutes late and that's based on my past experience with other reservations. The great thing about this world is that we all have different answers to contribute, as long as we can do it nicely!