How early can you check-in with ADR?

[illiram]

I was only able to get a 7:50pm ADR for Chef Mickey's for our upcoming trip. How early would they actually let us show up and get a table? Has anyone been let in early (or super early) for your ADR at Chef Mickey's or anywhere else?

Thanks!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

You can show up early and check, but there's no guarantee they will be able to seat you early. It depends on how busy they are. If they can, they will try to seat you, but they could just as well tell you there won't be a table available until your ADR time, or even after. I wouldn't count on showing up super early and being able to get seated.

 

[ncc1701]

DH & I showed up 20 minutes or so early.At CP, WPC and R & C we got seated right away. However at Chefs we had to wait until 5 minutes before our reservation even tho it was half empty. A lot depends on how busy they are. I wouldn't go before 7:20 or so in your case.You can always check once you get to WDW in case something earlier opens up

 

[mousefan1972]

And if a restaurant is really, really busy, they won't even let you check in until 15 minutes before your ADR. We were in line at Crystal Palace, waiting to check in, and the person in front of us told us that this was her second time waiting in the line, as she had tried to check in 30 minutes before her ADR and the CM said she was "too early" and wouldn't check her in....

 

[Nadjalu]

I always check in early for our adrs, anywhere between 15 mins and an hour. At all of these we were seated within 10 mins of checking in.
Including Le Cellier and we were an hour and a half early that night! They said it would be quite a while but were seating us 4 mins later!

At Chef Mickey's in Dec, we arrived 1/2 hour early and was seated immediately.

 

[illiram]

Thank you for the replies! This is very helpful.