If I reserve a table for 8, but...

[kclark9830]

Hi everyone. If I make an ADR for 8, but day of only 4 or 5 of us decide to go to that particular reservation, is that OK? For example, my family of 4 and my sister's family of 4 are going to WDW together. We're making all of our ADR's for 8 people. But when the trip actually arrives, if my fam decides to go to one park, and my sister's decides to go to another, so that only half of us make the ADR, are we charged something for all 8?

And if it's OK for this to happen with no charge, are there exceptions (such as character meals). I am not necessarily planning on this happening, but I want to know ahead of time so that we are prepared. Thank you! (I hope I've worded this correctly! LOL)

 

[MinnieMSue]

As long as some people show up they won’t charge you. It will be fine.

 

[CraigInPA]

You won't be charged for the missing people, but you should tell the person at the podium the number who will be dining with you, so that they can free up the larger table size.

 

[kclark9830]

Thank you both.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Hi everyone. If I make an ADR for 8, but day of only 4 or 5 of us decide to go to that particular reservation, is that OK? For example, my family of 4 and my sister's family of 4 are going to WDW together. We're making all of our ADR's for 8 people. But when the trip actually arrives, if my fam decides to go to one park, and my sister's decides to go to another, so that only half of us make the ADR, are we charged something for all 8?

And if it's OK for this to happen with no charge, are there exceptions (such as character meals). I am not necessarily planning on this happening, but I want to know ahead of time so that we are prepared. Thank you! (I hope I've worded this correctly! LOL)

only places that this could be a problem would be the prepaid meals where you have already paid for meal. this would include dinner shows and the MK Castle for sure could be others

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

You won't be charged - but if you do know in advance you can call and reduce the amount of people the days before.

 

[TheRealDrDisney]

You won't be charged - but if you do know in advance you can call and reduce the amount of people the days before.

This is news to me, thanks for posting!

It used to be when you changed party sizes, they just made you rebook. It was ridiculous and led to people keeping larger reservations than needed rather than lose the table altogether.

 

[AngiTN]

This is news to me, thanks for posting!

It used to be when you changed party sizes, they just made you rebook. It was ridiculous and led to people keeping larger reservations than needed rather than lose the table altogether.

Most of the time, you can make the change online for yourself. Only a few ADR can't be modified
If you see the Change Reservation link on your ADR, just go in and change the party size. The existing ADR time will come up, along with any others that happen to be available.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You can't alter a reservation if there is no availability for the new party size. That usually doesn't affect decreasing the number of persons in the party, just increasing it.

 

[Moliphino]

You can't alter a reservation if there is no availability for the new party size. That usually doesn't affect decreasing the number of persons in the party, just increasing it.

Yup, I've been unable to decrease from 7 to 4 for at least one reservation on MDE last trip, but had no issues at check-in. I had three ADRs for 7 last trip (when I made them I wasn't sure if my sister and her family were coming or not)-
Biergarten - I completely forgot this was for 7 until I checked in at the restaurant. They changed it to 4 there, no problems.
La Hacienda - I couldn't modify it in MDE, so just let them know at check-in. No problems.
BOG - I was able to reduce the ADR from 7 to 4 in MDE.

 

[AngiTN]

Yup, I've been unable to decrease from 7 to 4 for at least one reservation on MDE last trip, but had no issues at check-in. I had three ADRs for 7 last trip (when I made them I wasn't sure if my sister and her family were coming or not)-
Biergarten - I completely forgot this was for 7 until I checked in at the restaurant. They changed it to 4 there, no problems.
La Hacienda - I couldn't modify it in MDE, so just let them know at check-in. No problems.
BOG - I was able to reduce the ADR from 7 to 4 in MDE.

Weird.
I've got a lot of ADR for 7 for our trip coming up this weekend (made them to get cakes for DGD, need ADR for ordering) and need to change them to 4 now.
They are all sold out locations, meaning if I go to look for a new ADR there are none.
However, I can alter every one of them from 7 to 4 without issue using the Change reservation feature (I just can't make a new ADR for 4)
Of course I can't increase the ADR, only decrease.