How much time do I need for table service meals?

[newserenity]

I am curious first of all if it is really necessary to be at ADRs 15-20 minutes early and why?

Also, how much time can I expect standard table service meals to take start to finish?

What about Character meals, do they generally take a lot longer? We have adrs for Tusker House, Akershus,Crystal Palace, and Cinderella's Royal Table scheduled.

I am driving myself crazy with planning all these meals and figuring out the adrs. I almost had a panic attack when the online reservations site was down for maintenance last night. So, any help is very much appreciated!

 

[lilandvisma]

I can only give you my opinion...

Yes, I would be there at least 15 minutes early. Character meals don't necessarily take longer than regular sit down meals from my experience. I think tusker house was our fastest meal to tell you the truth Usually about an hour and then for signature meals maybe 2 hours.

 

[figment_jii]

I would allot between 90 minutes and two hours for a sit down meal. Our fastest was about 90 minutes and the longest took over two hours. Buffets tended to be a bit faster than service meals.

We tended to try and arrive about 15 minutes before our ADR time. I think it has to do with how the system is set up, so that if you arrive slightly ahead of the ADR, you're more likely to be seated at the ADR time. We did cut several close and they never said that we were too late or denied us our ADR.