How late before they cance your ressie?

[mommycrawford]

I was once running late for dinner because Disney transportation was off that day (I allowed over an hour,) and called reservations to let them know, but thwy said over 15 mins was TOO late....

I read a post here saying they honor your ressie up to 2 hours late

What is the "official" answer on this?

TIA!

 

[vicki_c]

I've always heard 15 minutes, however it really depends on the restaurant and how busy they are I'm sure. If 1/2 the tables are empty, they're probably not going to turn you away.

Keep in mind that ADRs are not a reservation like at a regular restaurant where they might be holding an open table for you. It's more like call-ahead seating, you get the next table that opens up for your party size after you check in at the restaurant. So basically, if you are late, you are at the back of the line behind all the other parties of your size that checked in before you.

At some point, if they are booked solid, they will just tell you that they won't take your name at all, just like a walk-up guest.

I have never seen any post here that I ever recall that said they held a reservation for 2 hours.

 

[maxiesmom]

I don't think 2 hours is right at all. I know we were late to the Kona Cafe last year when our taxi didn't show up. We were about 30-40 minutes late, and the CM told me they were just about to cancel us. And they only held it that long as the monorail was having problems, so a lot of people were arriving late that day.

The best advice is don't be late.

 

[Nadjalu]

The 2 hours thing is MISinformation.

It is definitely only 15 mins. And then they don't have to hold it for you. If you are not on time and checked in before your adr they can cancel you period. They do not have to wait 15 mins.

We have experienced this at Ohana. Part of our party was caught in traffic on WDW property and might be late. The manager informed us that if she wasn't there by adr time we would be canceled and couldn't go on the waitlist, as there was no waitlist that night.

She showed up with 2 mins to spare and even then we had a hard time being seated because the hostess had already canceled us.

 

[JerseyJanice]

My experience has been that we've never been refused no matter when we've shown up. There's a bunch of rule-sticklers on the boards who will try to convince you that if you're late, you won't get a table. But our reality has been that as long as we had an ADR anytime on any given day (or that week), we've been seated eventually.

 

[maxiesmom]

My experience has been that we've never been refused no matter when we've shown up. There's a bunch of rule-sticklers on the boards who will try to convince you that if you're late, you won't get a table. But our reality has been that as long as we had an ADR anytime on any given day (or that week), we've been seated eventually.

We can all only post about what our own experiences are. In my one experience in being late to an ADR, I was told by the CM that they were about to cancel my ADR. In your case, it sounds like that didn't happen. But you do no one any service by implying your experience was somehow the right one and the rest of us are making up stories.

There is no saying which thing might happen to the OP. However, from my own experience it seems like you may end up without an ADR if you are more than a little late for it.

 

[LilyWDW]

My experience has been that we've never been refused no matter when we've shown up. There's a bunch of rule-sticklers on the boards who will try to convince you that if you're late, you won't get a table. But our reality has been that as long as we had an ADR anytime on any given day (or that week), we've been seated eventually.

That's great...

But that is NOT what always happens. We have had posters here who have witnessed, or had it happen to themselves, where the restaurant has canceled the reservation. Your experience is no more / no less correct then any others, but it is better to give worse case to people so they are prepared.

Truth is... they CAN cancel the reservation if you are late if they so see fit.

 

[Pakey]

It happened to us.

Boma, Saturday night, 7:30 ADR, 20 minutes late because my son's girlfriend just couldn't leave the villa with her hair looking the way it did.

Boma would not budge. We were put on standby and told we could wait, they couldn't give us any indication of how long it would be to be seated. We waited over 2 hours in the Victoria Falls bar and were seated at 10:00 pm when the place was almost completely empty.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I have had them cancel us for being late. Last summer we arrived late to Tokyo Dining because a family member was late getting herself ready, then it was pouring rain so rather than walk in the rain all the way back to World Showcase we waited for a boat. Got there to TD and was told they had cancelled us (we were about 20 minutes late). The place was packed because lots of people had clearly walked in to get out of the rain. So I had to put our name on as a walk up, but they did get us seated pretty quickly, maybe 15 minutes.

Another time we were about a half hour late to San Angel due to a bus problem and we were also cancelled but the manager took pity on us and let us get seated. But we had to wait about 30 minutes. Funny thing, the exact same thing happened to us a few months later at San Angel (bussing delay) and that time they didn't cancel us.

You never know. Be on time to avoid the mystery!

 

[aubriee]

We saw a man throw a hissy fit last year at Le Cellier. He just kept yelling that they were only 30 minutes late and demanded they be seated. A manager was called, but would not budge. Their ADR had been canceled and they were not taking any walk ups. I guess he thought that if he yelled loud enough and caused a big enough scene that he'd get his way, but it didn't work. The restaurant was already running about 45 minutes-1 hour behind and they weren't budging.

 

[Bonnie151]

We were 50 minutes late last week for a dinner at Teppan Edo and they held our reservation. I'm so grateful they did! We got caught in the rain and were absolutely drenched so we decided to go back to the WL to change and assess our options. We arrived back at the hotel at 6:15 (our dining reservation was 6:30) and I spoke to the concierge while DH took the kids back to the room to change. She phoned Teppan Edo who said that they couldn't guarantee that they would hold the reservation and that we'd have to wait when we got there. We decided to take the chance and if it didn't work we'd just have a CS somewhere in WS.

I threw on a change of clothes & we caught the next bus and were racing up to Teppan Edo at 7:20. They just said, "oh yes, you phoned ahead" and seated us almost immediately. We then had to wait quite a while for our chef but that was fine by us!

If you're going to be late, phone ahead and make back up plans in case they can't hold your table.