How earkly can you show up for an ADR?

[ps17]

Obviously, you can show up as early as you want, but how early can you "usefully" show up at an ADR? (so you dine as closely to your scheduled time instead of running too late).

Consider this: We have 8:15 ADRs at Teppan Edo right now: a busy time. If we show up say on time, they typically seat late and we'll be sure to miss Illuminations at 9:30. Would it help to show up at 7:45? 8:00? What we don't want is to wait an hour because we arrived too early....

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I've shown up as much as 45 minutes/1 hour early (accidentally) for my ADRs, and had to wait a while...but still got in a little early for my scheduled ADR. I think it'd be helpful to show up 20 minutes early.

 

[Pakey]

We have never had much luck getting seated early by showing up early. In fact, we've had several places where we have showed up more than 15 min early tell us that we have to come back at the 15min mark to check in; they wouldn't even note that we had arrived.

Good luck.

 

[OKW Lover]

Realistically, it will depend heavily on how busy the place is that night. If they have room, you'll be taken early. If not, you'll wind up waiting until (at least) your ADR time. You probably won't know until you try it.

 

[jwfla422]

Ditto...that's exactly true! It really depends on how busy that restaurant is. We've showed up at CM's 20 minutes early before and sat and waited more than 20 minutes. Whether we would have waited that same amount of time if we checked in at our ADR time, we'd really never know.

Last weekend we had an 8:30 ADR at the Garden Grill in Epcot. We got there at 8:15 and it was empty so we were sat right away. Wish I would have checked even earlier because I could definitely tell they were "closing" up for the night. The characters quickely came by and at 8:45 our server came by and asked if there was anything else we needed because the kitchen was closing. And by 9:00 I swear we were the only one's in there, there was no one to be found. By 9:15 we had to get up and walk around to the front to find a hostess to find our server. That just wasn't right. And it was almost "errie" to be there with no one else around! And why do they make ADR's that late if they know the kitchen closes 15 minutes after your ADR...that's just not right considering we pay the same amount as someone who sits at 6:00??

So we've had both scenerios. If you're in a park or somewhere you can do "other" stuff while waiting (like Teppanedo) go ahead and check in earlier. The worst they can say is to come back at your ADR time. It is a new restaurant now so there is a lot of interest so it might be kinda busy and depending on what time of the year (or week) will depend on the availability of seating.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We've always shown up early for our ADRs. When we were in Epcot in June, we had a 8:00 p.m. ADR for LeCellier. About 6:45 p.m., we were all the way over in China when it started to drizzle. So, we decided to start making our way around World Showcase to Canada. We got to Canada at 7:10 and immediately checked in with the Hostess. She told us we would have to wait until 8:00 to be seated. We were fine with that because, by that time, it was really raining and we were glad to be out of the elements. We had just sat down when the hostess called our party's name and we were seated.

We also had a 8:10 p.m. ADR at the Coral Reef and we checked in at least 45 minutes early because we were nearby. We waited about 10 minutes....just long enough to start really looking at a menu (which they supplied when we checked in).

We weren't so lucky with our Crystal Palace ADR. We checked in about 20 minutes early and weren't seated until 15 minutes after our dinner ADR.

I agree with the prevous posters....I think it just depends on the time of year and how popular the restaurant is. It's basically a hit and miss.

 

[GoodFairies]

With the Japan restaurant it's a little different. They try to seat a whole table around the same time so that all the food is ordered and cooked together. So whether you would be able to be accomodated earlier depends on that situation.

 

[trspohr]

We just returned from our Christmas Disney trip. We showed up early on 3 different occassions. Once at Coral Reef, our ADR was for 3:50 (Candlelight Package), and we showed up at 3:30 and were seated immediately. Next, we showed up at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at 6:00, with our ADR being 7:00. We were seated at 6:16. Last we showed up at the 1900 Park Fare for dinner, at 4:30 for a 5:05 ADR and we had to wait until our 5:05 ressie, but we were seated on time. We didn't have any issue being seated past our ADR. Good luck to you!

 

[phisigprincess]

I think it all depends on the time of year you visit. We were on the DDP the second week of December last year, which is a historically low crowd period. I would say 99% of the time if we arrived early we would be seated early. I'm betting that when we visit this August the same won't be true.

 

[Mermaid_Ariel]

When we showed up for our Le Cellier reservation, they wouldn't register us until 15min before our ADR time. They told us to go watch that movie in the back of Le Cellier but we just waited. We were hungry!!

 

[Mischief_Managed]

In my experience, I have never been seated earlier than my ADR, regardless of how early I arrived - and I always only have a reservation for two (no large party or family). But good luck!

 

[septbaby]

We arrived 30-60 mins earl for our Coral Reef lunch on the Friday before Labor day (1:30 or so for a 2pm ADR, wasn't wearing a watch on vacation and cell phone was nicely buried!). We had time to wash our hands and our buzzer went off. We had a great lunch; we were early because we were starving. We ate everything they put in front of us, double dipping on the sourdough bread!

Can't recall any other early shows during our trip. We were significantly wait at Hollywood and Vine, had to wait but were still served.

 

[LarryJ]

I've shown up as much as 45 minutes/1 hour early (accidentally) for my ADRs, and had to wait a while...but still got in a little early for my scheduled ADR. I think it'd be helpful to show up 20 minutes early.

We're currently at WDW and have shown up for two ADRs (SciFi and Fulton's) each approx 30 min before our ADR which was for a late lunch (3:40 at SciFi and 3:10 at Fulton's). Were seated at SciFi within 10 min and about 3 min at Fulton's).

BTW SciFi was packed and walk-ups were being turned away. Fulton's was only about 1/2 full.

Larry

 

[vellamint]

Obviously, you can show up as early as you want, but how early can you "usefully" show up at an ADR? (so you dine as closely to your scheduled time instead of running too late).

Consider this: We have 8:15 ADRs at Teppan Edo right now: a busy time. If we show up say on time, they typically seat late and we'll be sure to miss Illuminations at 9:30. Would it help to show up at 7:45? 8:00? What we don't want is to wait an hour because we arrived too early....

Im sorry....I dont know if this was is an actual ADR you have booked or just an example.....but I have never seen Illuminations done at 9:30?! Just want to point this out to you so you dont miss it if it is at the usual 9:00 time.