How do WDW restaurants decide to seat families who have ADR's?

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I have always wondered how does a WDW restaurant decide to set a family when they have ADR's? I mean if a family of 3 arrives at Chef Mickey's for a 7:15 PM ADR & they are the 1st to check in at that time slot. Are they seated 1st when a table for 3 is available, or do they do the seating by how many people are in the party & do not go by time they have checked in?

 

[Tess'smom]

I always wondered how ADR seating was done too. In October we arrived at our designated time and were told that we would have to wait for 15 minutes to a half an hour because some guests at the CR were upset that they could not get ressies. The CM's stated they were instructed to fit the CR guests in first. At H&V we were told they would hold our ressies for 5 minutes if we were late. At Crystal Palace we were told they would hold them for an hour if we were late. I'm confused.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I always wondered how ADR seating was done too. In October we arrived at our designated time and were told that we would have to wait for 15 minutes to a half an hour because some guests at the CR were upset that they could not get ressies. The CM's stated they were instructed to fit the CR guests in first. At H&V we were told they would hold our ressies for 5 minutes if we were late. At Crystal Palace we were told they would hold them for an hour if we were late. I'm confused.

Which restaurant at the Contemporary was your ADR for? Also I am surprised they were trying to fit the Contemporary guests in 1st, because I had always thought that does not get you in any faster if your a guest at the Resort where the restaurant happens to be at. A few years ago my family & I were at Boma for New Years Eve & a family comes in for their ADR & are told they have to wait. The father says they are guests at the AKL. The CM at the podium says that does not matter, because everyone else with ADR's also has to wait.

 

[Tess'smom]

Which restaurant at the Contemporary was your ADR for? Also I am surprised they were trying to fit the Contemporary guests in 1st, because I had always thought that does not get you in any faster if your a guest at the Resort where the restaurant happens to be at. A few years ago my family & I were at Boma for New Years Eve & a family comes in for their ADR & are told they have to wait. The father says they are guests at the AKL. The CM at the podium says that does not matter, because everyone else with ADR's also has to wait.

We had ressies for Chef Mickeys on a Monday morning. So that's not something that normally happens I guess?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

We had ressies for Chef Mickeys on a Monday morning. So that's not something that normally happens I guess?

No that should not have happened at all.

 

[bicker]

That rarely happens, I'm sure, but it is probably something along the lines of special accommodations made in case of some problem. There was a thread over in the Transportation forum recently about a situation a passenger had, where due to a mechanical issue they missed a connection, so the airline evidently bumped them to the top of the stand-by list on another flight, pushing them ahead of other guests who were already checked-in stand-by for that flight. Same sort of thing (though perhaps more of an issue, since at a restaurant you're waiting an extra few minutes, while with an airline flights you're waiting an extra few hours!)

 

[kaytieeldr]

Once checked in at the podium, Guests with reservations (formerly ADRs, prior to that PSs, originally and currently reservations with different meanings) are seated at the next available table for their size party at or after the reservation time, and ahead of Guests with the same size party but without reservations whom the restaurant is also trying to accommodate.


I agree, the situation encountered by Tess'sMom was unusual. Ordinarily, at Disney, being a Guest of a given hotel doesn't give diners an advantage in being seated.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

We were told at CP that the ADR time gets taken over the Check-in time .If someone is late for a 5:00pm adr and I check-in at 5:15 for my 5:30 ADR.that person could check-in as late as 5:45 and still get seated ahead of me.

I also think each CM running the computer has the control of who and when the seatings take place and thats why there is such a difference in what is done at any given time.No different then a room assigner at the resorts.

These things like the CM could be going on all the time .They just were told thats what happened.

 

[teacher31]

I don't know how they do it. I do know that last year we checked in an hour early for Boma and told them we were just going to look around. We did not expect to be seated early. We were in the elevator going up when our buzzer started going off. We were actually disappointed that we didn't have the time before to wander around! When we left, which was right around the time we were to be seated, it was much more crowded. I was shocked. Worked out well in the end, but this adds to my confusion over seating priorities.

 

[mrg013]

From what I've seen, at most restaurants it seems to be done by computer. Within that system, though, I don't know how it decides who is next.

When we were at LTT, for example, I could see that there was a little thing that printed out slips with a name and table number. The hostess would then pick them up and announce those people to be seated. It was the same at Le Cellier. The CMs weren't really even looking at the computer except to check people in. When people asked where they were on the list, the CMs didn't have a definitive answer. They would say "soon" or "it looks like a little while". Since it wasn't under their control, they don't know for sure.

I've seen CMs wandering around the restaurants with a little computer thing, marking down which tables were open. It seems to be moving to a completely computerized process, which i guess is good. It leaves less room for error.

 

[LCtonra]

We only ever had one problem when checking in with ADR's....usually you get the next available table after everyone else who has already checked in with ADR's before your scheduled time. We have never waited more then 15-20 min. Which is to be expected, except for at 1900 parkfare in the GF. What happened to us there was disgusting. On vacation in oct of 2005 we went there for dinner with cinderella with my dd who was 4 at the time. We did book during a very busy hour and expected a wait. While we waited on line to check in at the podium a man with a suit was talking to all the guests and asking if they were staying on disney property and if so could he see our room keys. It was the 2nd night of our vaca and we although we were going to be staying at akl concierge we decided to do ASMOvies for 3 nights for my DD to enjoy (she loved it). Well when he looked at our room keys and they said ASM he was like ok just checkin at the podium , but when he looked at other ppls that were staying at deluxe resorts he was pulling them right up to the door. We waited for over 90 min. By 60 min I was so upset I wanted to cry. People without ADRS from the GF were walking up and being escorted to the door. All the while this man was handing out his business cards. I have never been treated like such a 2nd class citizen. We would have left, but I knew it was my daughters dream to see Cinderella. It all them more made up for it when we finally were seated. It turned my stomach and I don't know if I will ever even want to stay at the resort. But like I said earlier this was the only problem we have ever had with all of the years of going to disney.

 

[jtlover]

We only ever had one problem when checking in with ADR's....usually you get the next available table after everyone else who has already checked in with ADR's before your scheduled time. We have never waited more then 15-20 min. Which is to be expected, except for at 1900 parkfare in the GF. What happened to us there was disgusting. On vacation in oct of 2005 we went there for dinner with cinderella with my dd who was 4 at the time. We did book during a very busy hour and expected a wait. While we waited on line to check in at the podium a man with a suit was talking to all the guests and asking if they were staying on disney property and if so could he see our room keys. It was the 2nd night of our vaca and we although we were going to be staying at akl concierge we decided to do ASMOvies for 3 nights for my DD to enjoy (she loved it). Well when he looked at our room keys and they said ASM he was like ok just checkin at the podium , but when he looked at other ppls that were staying at deluxe resorts he was pulling them right up to the door. We waited for over 90 min. By 60 min I was so upset I wanted to cry. People without ADRS from the GF were walking up and being escorted to the door. All the while this man was handing out his business cards. I have never been treated like such a 2nd class citizen. We would have left, but I knew it was my daughters dream to see Cinderella. It all them more made up for it when we finally were seated. It turned my stomach and I don't know if I will ever even want to stay at the resort. But like I said earlier this was the only problem we have ever had with all of the years of going to disney.

That is disgusting - I have stayed at GF and I was worried I would be treated badly but wasnt - no one should be treated any different!

 

[disnut8]

I have always wondered how does a WDW restaurant decide to set a family when they have ADR's? I mean if a family of 3 arrives at Chef Mickey's for a 7:15 PM ADR & they are the 1st to check in at that time slot. Are they seated 1st when a table for 3 is available, or do they do the seating by how many people are in the party & do not go by time they have checked in?

That's the way it's supposed to happen. In all my dining experiences at Disney World, there have only been two instances when we had to wait for a really long time and both of those were understandable.

At Sci Fi, we checked in at 4:30 (members of my party were SO early) for our 5:00 seating. We were seated exactly at 5:00. The reasoning there (I think) was because they had changed from their lunch menu to their dinner menu. Our seating was for dinner. It didn't matter because Steve Tyler of Aerosmith and his then wife, son, and another member of Aerosmith were enjoying their own meal. Closest I've ever gotten to a celebrity.

At 50s Prime Time, we checked in over an hour early for our 3:00 seating. We were told there were three parties of two ahead of us and would have to wait until they were taken care of. We were seated at 2:40.

This thread has me reliving the classic Seinfeld episode.

 

[mandy200587]

We've only had one problem with an ADR and it was at Epcot. Our last day there the monorail was acting up, then our tickets got denied because of a screw up with the reservations so we had a 8 something reservation by the time we got to the princess breakfast and didn't get seated till almost ten. We had been trying to get into this one for two years. The CM at the guest services said we would have no trouble getting in but we waited around for two hours getting pushed aside for something we had no control over. That's been really the only problem we've ever had.

 

[phyllis1966]

We only ever had one problem when checking in with ADR's....usually you get the next available table after everyone else who has already checked in with ADR's before your scheduled time. We have never waited more then 15-20 min. Which is to be expected, except for at 1900 parkfare in the GF. What happened to us there was disgusting. On vacation in oct of 2005 we went there for dinner with cinderella with my dd who was 4 at the time. We did book during a very busy hour and expected a wait. While we waited on line to check in at the podium a man with a suit was talking to all the guests and asking if they were staying on disney property and if so could he see our room keys. It was the 2nd night of our vaca and we although we were going to be staying at akl concierge we decided to do ASMOvies for 3 nights for my DD to enjoy (she loved it). Well when he looked at our room keys and they said ASM he was like ok just checkin at the podium , but when he looked at other ppls that were staying at deluxe resorts he was pulling them right up to the door. We waited for over 90 min. By 60 min I was so upset I wanted to cry. People without ADRS from the GF were walking up and being escorted to the door. All the while this man was handing out his business cards. I have never been treated like such a 2nd class citizen. We would have left, but I knew it was my daughters dream to see Cinderella. It all them more made up for it when we finally were seated. It turned my stomach and I don't know if I will ever even want to stay at the resort. But like I said earlier this was the only problem we have ever had with all of the years of going to disney.

I'm not doubting your terrible experience, but I've never seen the resort name on my room card in all my trips to WDW - I'm looking at my most recent one right now. I don't know why he needed to see anyone's room card anyway, and DH (not me, I'm a chicken!) would have made himself heard long before an hour had passed. I think it would be a shame, though, to let 1 bad experience stop you from going back if your DD liked it.

 

[bicker]

I'm not doubting your terrible experience, but I've never seen the resort name on my room card in all my trips to WDW

The first four digits of the card number indicate the resort.

 

[Becky2005]

We were told at CP that the ADR time gets taken over the Check-in time .If someone is late for a 5:00pm adr and I check-in at 5:15 for my 5:30 ADR.that person could check-in as late as 5:45 and still get seated ahead of me.

I also think each CM running the computer has the control of who and when the seatings take place and thats why there is such a difference in what is done at any given time.No different then a room assigner at the resorts.

These things like the CM could be going on all the time .They just were told thats what happened.

I think this might be true! I was completely convinced we basically screwed up our ADR (or actually PS back when we went! ) for our first dinner. We were *very* late -- PS at 6:00 pm and we didn't get there until about 6:45 (or so?), we had a detour we had to take and all sorts of issues. So, when we got there, I told them I understood if we couldn't get in because we were late (and a family of 6 no less! ). They told us we would have to wait but they got us in probably within 15 minutes of showing up. I was completely amazed. I don't know if that is just how it worked out or if being on the Premium plan had anything to do with it. I don't recall them being slammed but they were pretty consistantly busy.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Thanks for all the responses & I have to say LCtonra, that is such a horrible story. Did you even complain to guest services or some soart of manager at the Grand Floridian?

 

[MSSANDRA]

Mistakes can happen too. We have been fogoten twice. Once at Ohana's and once at San Angel Inn. Both times we checked with the host about 15 minutes after we should have been seated and after an apology we were seated quite quickly.