Missing your ADR

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

Have you ever arrived late for your ADR & not been seated?

We have not had this happen but we look forward to our TS's & are usually early. Just curious about others experiences.

 

[chabs]

The only time that this ever happened to us was at the HDDR. We were on time for the show, but not however many minutes early they tell you to check in and they already sold our tickets. They absolutely would not bend on this and ended up giving us tickets for the next show.

 

[marivaid]

Yep, it happened to us at 'Ohana.
We were late to begin with, and waited in line for something like half an hour. They told us we could wait for an available table but it could be over two hours - we left.

 

[jvattes]

I tried to make a change to an ADR we had at Tony's Town Sq on our recent visit but they were "booked solid". However the cast member I was speaking to told me that "If you have an ADR, they have to honor it no matter when you arrive." I reiterated that we would not be arriving 30 mins late but HOURS later. She restated the above, adding "You may have to wait a few minutes, but they will honor your reservation."


Struck me as bizarre -- like the Seinfeld episode I thought -- the important part is not just making the reservation but KEEPING it. If everyone did this then what would the point of the ADR be?

We opted to just cancel our reservation and make other plans that night instead; we just didn't feel right showing up 2 hours after our reservation time and getting seated ahead of people who were on time for theirs.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I tried to make a change to an ADR we had at Tony's Town Sq on our recent visit but they were "booked solid". However the cast member I was speaking to told me that "If you have an ADR, they have to honor it no matter when you arrive." I reiterated that we would not be arriving 30 mins late but HOURS later. She restated the above, adding "You may have to wait a few minutes, but they will honor your reservation."

You were right to cancel and make other plans for that night. The restaurant does not have to honor an ADR if you arrive more than 15 minutes late. Many will, but there will be some that don't. And I especially wouldn't count on it if you were going to be hours late.

On our last trip, we arrived an hour late for an ADR at 1900 Park Fare. We were late due to a combination of DD having a major meltdown after waking up from a nap (nap was supposed to prevent that from happening ) and transportation snafus. We were supposed to be celebrating DD's birthday that night and I had ordered one of the white chocolate castle cakes for her. I told the CM at the podium that I was very sorry we were late, explained the reasons, told him I understood if we couldn't be seated, and if we couldn't be seated I'd like to still pick up the cake I had paid for. He told me we could be seated but it would be an hour wait. I responded that I'd like to just pick up the cake then since I was worried about DD handling that long of a wait. He told me he'd check on the cake. When he came back, he told me he could seat us right away. That was completely unexpected and a major dose of pixie dust for us. I wouldn't plan on that ever happening again.

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

Anybody else have any stories to share about missing an ADR?

 

[aubriee]

Not us, but twice I've seen the people in front of us turned away for being late. Once at Chef Mickey's the family said they were 'only 45 minutes late' and once at Le Cellier where the family was arguing that they were 'only 30 minutes late'. In both instances the dad's were really mad and argumentative, but in both instances the CMs didn't budge, saying everyone is told to be at the restaurants 15 minutes prior to their ADR times, that their ADRs had been given away, and that they were fully booked and not taking walk ups.

What was funny at Le Cellier is that we had arrived about 20 minutes prior to our ADR and was still seated about 45 minutes past our ADR time. Yeah, we waited outside for over an hour. The restaurant was running really behind. If the Le Cellier family had shown up on time, they still would have been seated well after their ADR time. lol

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

once at Le Cellier where the family was arguing that they were 'only 30 minutes late'. In both instances the dad's were really mad and argumentative, but in both instances the CMs didn't budge, saying everyone is told to be at the restaurants 15 minutes prior to their ADR times, that their ADRs had been given away, and that they were fully booked and not taking walk ups.

What was funny at Le Cellier is that we had arrived about 20 minutes prior to our ADR and was still seated about 45 minutes past our ADR time. Yeah, we waited outside for over an hour. The restaurant was running really behind. If the Le Cellier family had shown up on time, they still would have been seated well after their ADR time. lol

That doesn't even make sense I mean that they were 30 minutes late, the restaurant is running 45 minutes late & they wouldn't budge & work them in? Yes they should have been on time but the restaurant wasn't afterall. Maybe because it was LeCellier &/or CM's and those ADR's are harder to get?

 

[Pakey]

We were a party of 8, 20 minutes late to Boma on our arrival night and we were told we were denied.

 

[MYD714]

We got caught on the wrong side of a parade at MK on the way to our Crystal Palace ADR. We were really late, but they sat us right away. They said it happens all the time. Although, I think it helped that we were eating really late and not at a peak time--and I called them from one of the gift shops to let them know our situation.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Happened to us at LTT. The 2 ds were engrossed in the christmas parade taping in front of the castle and wouldnt budge. I think it was Beyonce?. Well when we arrived at LTT (late), they told us they c ouldnt seat us since it as the end of lunch and they were full etc.

The cm did offer us dinner, but we declined as the cost was much greater and the ds were out of the character stage.

 

[JerseyJanice]

As long as we have had any form of ADR, we've been seated. Not promptly, but we have never been turned away when we had an ADR. We've been seated hours and even days away from the ADR I believed we had, and we've been seated with entirely different numbers of guests.

Disney restaurants have always been very accommodating to us. Far more so than you might expect if you read the Dis.

The only times we have been turned away is when we had no ADRs at all for that restaurant during our trip.

 

[maxiesmom]

We were about an half an hour late for breakfast at the Kona Cafe, and the CM said they were just about to give our table away. I told her our taxi hadn't show up, and she said that the monorail had been having problems all morning too and that many people were showing up late. So I guess we have the monorail problems to thank that they held our table for as long as they did.