how early can you show up

[pixxi]

How early can you show up for a dining reservation? We have BOG for dinner at 9:50pm, it's the only thing we could get at 6 months for his birthday. Can we try to show up 20-30min early?

 

[MindyMouse76]

Try looking for two reservations maybe for smaller parties if your still a ways out of arrival. We are going that at lunch time. I just had to use two different accounts for it. We are only a party of 3 though. I would think 20 minutes early is good.

 

[wilkeliza]

You could try to show up early but be prepared to be turned away and told to come back closer to your reservation time.

 

[wilkeliza]

Try looking for two reservations maybe for smaller parties if your still a ways out of arrival. We are going that at lunch time. I just had to use two different accounts for it. We are only a party of 3 though. I would think 20 minutes early is good.

That doesn't work for dinner. Dinner is table service so if you get 2 separate reservations there is no guarentee both tables will be next to each other.

 

[pattyw]

BOG was a place that wouldn't even check us in until 10 minutes prior to our reservation time

 

[Hopefully]

You can show up whenever you want but getting checked in and then seated early is not likely. Keep checking for an earlier ADR. Folks cancel all the time.

 

[Cinderella94]

You can show up whenever you want to but be prepared to be told to come back if they aren't ready for you.

 

[DeniseJH]

On our last trip - about three weeks ago - we were told (at Be Our Guest) that they didn't want us showing up any more than 15 minutes before our reservation. Some cast members probably give a little more leeway than others.

 

[eastendlights]

We have never been allowed to check in earlier than 10 or fifteen minutes before. We have had dinner there at least eight times and they have always run behind although that late you have a better chance of being seated on time.

 

[supersnoop]

That doesn't work for dinner. Dinner is table service so if you get 2 separate reservations there is no guarentee both tables will be next to each other.

Capacity at Dinner is limited by the ability of the kitchen to keep up. There will be lots of empty tables, and it shouldn't be a problem to get seated together. So, you're right, there's no guarantee, but at BOG Dinner, it's the best chance you could have on property.

 

[wilkeliza]

Capacity at Dinner is limited by the ability of the kitchen to keep up. There will be lots of empty tables, and it shouldn't be a problem to get seated together.

That is 't a guarentee though and setting up thay expectation for a child's birthday dinner could but CMs in a situation that isn't fair to them if there actually aren't tables available. It isn't just the kitchen's ability to keep up but the number of servers as well. A server who is only expecting a table of 2 can end up over stretched if they put a table of 8 in that area.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We haven't done dinner at BOG, but for lunch, they wouldn't let us check in until right at our time. I tried to check in about 20 minutes early and were told to come back.

 

[Amelia :)]

I would recommend showing up 20 mins early anyway. We were stuck in a very long slow moving queue before we even reached the podium to check in.

 

[disneyvoice]

BoG is a bit odd to me. We have gone many, many times for both breakfast and dinner and every single time when I have checked in maybe 15 minutes early they tell me I can't check in until 5 minutes before our ADR time. The strange part is that there have been several times for breakfast before the park opened where we were literally standing there with maybe 3 other small groups who were also waiting to check in 5 minutes early. Try to visualize this - the CMs are standing there with their clip board looking thingies and there are 4 groups standing in a semi-circle staring at the CMs who, in turn, are just staring at us - there are no other guests. So everyone is just standing there, looking at their phones waiting to check in. Then when it's 5 minutes before the same ADR time that everyone has all 4 groups move up to 2 CMs at the same time and check in, only to then walk down the bridge and wait again. During dinner there is typically a much larger crowd of people standing around waiting for their 5 minute magic check in time, then it never fails we wait for at LEAST 15 minutes on the bridge.

Mind you, I'm not complaining. If that's the policy at BoG so be it, but it always seems strange to me. I'm sure there is some logic behind it and they have found it's the best way to do it.

In spite of this, I am always paranoid about getting to an ADR late so I still make my family get there too early and wait!

 

[ChimCher-ee]

I found dinner very stressful, for reasons PPs mentioned: it is crowded even getting to the check in point, making it harder to judge how to get there no more than 15 minutes ahead (and the CMs didn't seem happy about seeing me at exactly that window, either), and then we gave a phone # to wait for a text to go forward, and then waited on the bridge.

Regarding your desire for an earlier dinner, though. What I have done with other ADRs is, go into the system every few days (or whenever I feel like it) and try to change the reservation. I use my current reservation time and see what comes up close to it. Even if it's just a 10 minute difference, I take it. Then, another few days go by, the mood strikes, and I repeat. I edge my way closer to a time that I really want, and often end up with it on the dot!

 

[ariane37]

We've eaten dinner at BOG more than 5x and have never been able to check in more than 15 (maybe 10?) minutes before our reservation. Actually after the 1st 2 times we just stopped trying to check in earlier lol, I'm pretty sure that's their standard policy. However as pp's have said try as often as you can searching for earlier available times. I know it often seems pointless but people DO cancel, lots of times closer to the actual date, and we've found dinner reservations anywhere from 30 days out to day of.

 

[nursejackie]

I'd stalk the reservations on Disney's website or the cancellation thread on Disboards to get an earlier one nearer the time. It's amazing how many BOG's cancellations there are on Disboards. We also found this true on the Disney website too as people finalise their plans close to the date.