How long after reservation time do you complain?

[Disneypro1]

I think then secret is being late. We almost always get to our ADRs 15-45 min late. Oddly. We hardly ever wait. It’s like. “Ok you are here. It will be just a min.” I have heard as long as you show up. There is no penalty of the 10.00. Or whatever it is. We have never been more than 45 min late. And have never been charged any fees. Regardless of how late.

 

[CynBeth]

We have been very lucky we have had little to no wait. We do eat lunches around 11:30 or 12 and dinners around 4:30-5 so that could be it. One time a place told us they were running behind and it was not as long as they thought. I hope I did not just jinx anything.

 

[MarkinNM]

DUP, please delete

 

[Bellex917]

Last week we waited 30 minutes at CP. I did ask after 25 if we were "close"... I didn't complain, but I was hungry and we needed to get my DD down for a nap so I was losing patience. Other than that we got in to all the restaurants on time or early... we even showed up to some 45 min- 2 hours early just to see if they could fit us in and they could.... granted we were going for off times (4-5pm) but still.

 

[Farro]

I think then secret is being late. We almost always get to our ADRs 15-45 min late. Oddly. We hardly ever wait. It’s like. “Ok you are here. It will be just a min.” I have heard as long as you show up. There is no penalty of the 10.00. Or whatever it is. We have never been more than 45 min late. And have never been charged any fees. Regardless of how late.

I think we should all travel with you. Everything seems to always go your way!

I wouldn't say we complain, but at 30 minutes I'll be asking how far down on the list we are and at that point just may leave if too long.

 

[eva]

Eva, we are DVC and never thought about this. How do we know if they had offered free dining during the trip we booked? Like I know that we are going June 30-July 8 this year but since I don't look into promotions, knowing I can't book them, should I just pay more attention in the future? I just skip over any media that says free dining but I never thought to make sure my dates weren't a part of it.

I just search on free dining dates and hope they are out before I make reservations. But I now know to avoid all of August and September. They usually have free dining those months. But this year free dining is offered July 5-September 30. Hopefully you have your ADR’s for the last part of your trip. TS restaurants really fill up during free dining because people that normally don’t eat at a lot of TS, do during free dining. So time slots fill up pretty fast and waits at check in tend to be longer.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

I

We've had a number of long waits...45-60 minutes in a number of cases. HOWEVER, in all but one of these cases, we were also told at check in how far behind they were. So, it was no surprise that we were still sitting around so long. Even with the one where we waited a little past 60 minutes, I didn't complain...just checked on where things were. The only time where I got more bothered was when one TS spot kept telling us "another 10 minutes" before telling us our party of 6 was a large party and we should expect waits well past ADR time if we're bigger than a group of 4.

I can second that. Last time we did table service with a party of 7, they always told us our wait would be longer. We frequently waited beyond 30 minutes.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

In 40+ onsite WDW stays, I've never waited longer than 20 minutes for an ADR. The one and only time we went to Mama Melrose, the wait was approaching 20 minutes so I simply went to the podium and asked how much longer it would be. It seems that restaurant gets backed up often, so we simply don't go there any more. The only other time there would have been a long wait was when we once checked in at FF and they alerted us immediately that they were running late. I asked if it was ok if we went elsewhere and they said yes and we weren't charged the $10 fee. Other than those two experiences, we've never waited more than 5 - 10 minutes to be seated for an ADR.

 

[Rach3975]

We've been to Disney twice and had 5 ADRs each time. Our luck must be bad, because we've had a lot of waits! I can't remember specific times from our first trip, but in November we waited more than 30 minutes at 50's Prime Time Cafe and Tony's and about 20 minutes at Tusker House. In all 3 cases they told us they were running behind as soon as we checked in, but 50's and Tony's both ended up being longer waits than they predicted. What makes it worse is that we follow the advice to show up 10-15 minutes before our scheduled time; I don't start counting the wait until the scheduled time. If they've told us they're running X minutes late, I stop by the podium to inquire around 5 minutes after X time. If I remember correctly, we finally did complain at Tony's. We were getting to the point that we knew we'd have trouble making our next FP even though we should have had plenty of time between the 2. We were afraid to leave and go someplace else since we figured we'd just be exchanging one wait for another.

 

[eva]

In 40+ onsite WDW stays, I've never waited longer than 20 minutes for an ADR. The one and only time we went to Mama Melrose, the wait was approaching 20 minutes so I simply went to the podium and asked how much longer it would be. It seems that restaurant gets backed up often, so we simply don't go there any more. The only other time there would have been a long wait was when we once checked in at FF and they alerted us immediately that they were running late. I asked if it was ok if we went elsewhere and they said yes and we weren't charged the $10 fee. Other than those two experiences, we've never waited more than 5 - 10 minutes to be seated for an ADR.

Wow, 40+ trips with no waits over 20 minutes! Either you only eat TS a few times each trip or you have extreme luck. We are DVC members have gone numerous times since 1995. Too many to really count. We eat TS once a day. And we have had a lot of waits over 20 minutes. Actually I would say 15 to 20 minutes is kind of the norm for us. Waits do tend to increase as your party size does. But most of our trips have been just DH and me. To me it seems that the waits have increased over the years. Maybe we just choose the wrong restaurants.

 

[Disneypro1]

I think we should all travel with you. Everything seems to always go your way!

I wouldn't say we complain, but at 30 minutes I'll be asking how far down on the list we are and at that point just may leave if too long.

Hey, anytime. but you got to keep up with the kids...commandos they are. I just dont worry about much. We only book so many ADR's cancel most and when we do arrive..late or not..its never been an issue.
We go in early May, so its not crowded...i know that makes a huge difference.
I never understood some of the issues folks have..not just that we dont have them..but There isn't much i find to complain about. I mean, if ones life is good enough to be able to goto WDW or DLR do we really have much to complain about?

 

[eco-muse]

I'd say 20 - 30 minutes, but it's only been an issue once. (Olivia's, Thanksgiving dinner... We waited almost two hours until we were finally seated, despite there being a number of empty tables and only two of us to seat...and people whose reservation times were after ours got seated before us.)

 

[Nancyg56]

I never complain - I just get an update and remind them that I’m there...

This is all I do.

I give it 10 mins tops, then go and ask what is the deal, you are 1000% right, 6mths out and they should be able to sit one at or real close to the ADR and I understand it is a "request", if I can hold up my end of the time and get there on time, they they need to hold up the time requested, if not then there will be a problem........

Wow.

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

Normally I haven’t had to wait long, and I don’t really mind waiting 15 minutes in general.

I did have an issue on my last trip with GF cafe. 70 minutes. I honestly wouldn’t have stayed that long -I never wait more than 20-30 minutes - but when I kept checking they kept telling me it would only be 10 more minutes... suuuure. I only picked it because I knew I’d be there checking out the Christmas decorations and wanted something easy before I headed over to Hollywood Studios. Bad idea. I didn’t actually even get to eat, I left at 70 minutes because if I didn’t I knew I’d end up missing my slinky dog FP. Of course when I told her to just cancel it the CM told me they were just setting up my table... I said they were supposed to be setting it up in ten minutes, over an hour ago. It also didn’t help that I saw several people arrive after me get seated before me. I was more than a bit grumpy at that point. And hungry. And in a hurry. So I’m pretty sure the hostess knew I wasn’t pleased.

I didn’t actually complain though. I know I could have, I drafted a grumpy email in my head. But I’m me, and very Canadian, so instead I grabbed something quick at HS on the run and let it be. I won’t be returning to GF cafe anytime soon though.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I think party size, time of day, and the particular restaurant all play into how much "luck" you may have. I have noticed that at Momma Melrosa's the last 3 times there, we have had a 20+ minute wait. We will usually go there for the Fantasmic Dining package (like many others) and I think that it plays into the earlier dining times getting swamped. When we did not do it with the package, seating was quicker. At places like Ohana that always get backed up, we tend to try and go earlier for dinner vs later. By the end of the night, they can easily be close to an hour late on all ADR's so we try to beat that and go early. It also gives us time to grab a drink from the bar and sit and wait, as they do have a very pleasant area to wait in. We have been lucky in our dozen trips. No real long waits (all have been less than 30 mins, with most only 5-10) but we are a standard "Party of 4" and try to be strategic when we make our ADR's.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

If you have a reservation and you check in on time. How long after your reservation time do you wait before you complain about being seated late?

Only time we ever had to continually go back to the hostess stand was at 1900 Park Fair for dinner. We had a 8:20pm ADR and we are seated after 9pm. I will say, at around 8:45pm we made our first check in to see what was going on. At around 9pm, the manager came out to apologize. I get it, it's a buffet with characters so people linger but it was not pleasant. They offered us the horrendous water in the pitcher while we waited. We are not complainers so we sat and made the best of our wait but we did overhear a man ask for FP+ and some meal comps and he was denied. Made me LOL, I always feel when people ask for specific items to be reimbursed when they are inconvenienced, they are serial complainers and always looking for freebies. Overall in the grand scheme of our trip, it wasn't a big deal but while we were hungry, it was.

 

[GillianP1301]

I've never had to wait so long that a complaint was warranted. I do ask for updates, mostly to remind them that I'm still there. I gauge when I start asking on how many other people are waiting for their table and if I start to notice people coming in after me seated before me, things like that. I would say that for about 75% of my ADRs, we are seating under 10 mins. We've done approximately 120 or so TS meals over our last 7 trips in 7 years (didn't do TS prior to that). The next 20% of so is closer to 20 minutes and the very odd time, I would say less than 5% it approaches 1/2 an hour, which to be is unacceptable. The longest I've waited is 25 minutes at Sci-Fi (twice) and about 30 minutes at Chef Mickey's once. I usually ask for an update around the 10 minute mark (past my ADR time, even if I check in early). Then 10 minutes after that and the one time I got to the next 10 minutes was the Chef Mickey meal and I was starting to get a bit grumpy about it by then. I stayed as polite as possible, but a little less friendly. In hindsight, I was hangry.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I'm in the "10 minutes then complain" crowd, though my complaining is something along the lines of "our reservation was at X time, can you tell me how much longer the wait will be?" We are usually seated about right on time, but we tend to eat dinner relatively early (around 5:30-6:00) so maybe that helps. And if the restaurants tells me they are running behind then its all good. Frankly, that's the key in just about anything--good communication.

 

[LindsayHD]

I just search on free dining dates and hope they are out before I make reservations. But I now know to avoid all of August and September. They usually have free dining those months. But this year free dining is offered July 5-September 30. Hopefully you have your ADR’s for the last part of your trip. TS restaurants really fill up during free dining because people that normally don’t eat at a lot of TS, do during free dining. So time slots fill up pretty fast and waits at check in tend to be longer.

Thank you. I am not so much worried about this trip as it is a leisurely, slow paced one. Just thinking for the future. Thanks for your advice.

 

[cluvsdisney]

In general, we never really had to wait too long...maybe 15 minutes was the longest and even that was rare. We had long waits twice but the only time I really complained was at the Captain's grill for breakfast. We waited about 45 minutes past our ADR time and for the last 25 minutes of it, the hostess kept pointing to a table that needed to be cleaned off. Meanwhile, we could see the restaurant was pretty empty. We should have had our first clue when another party asked for a manager because of the long wait...but that was when we were checking in and I guess we were hopeful.