Odd question about ADR's...

[WDWBarb]

I called and made my ADR's last weekend (will be there in 2 weeks and was able to get every reservation that I wanted!!). Anyway, I saw on the Disney dining site that ADR's are recommended for The Kona Cafe (we are staying at the Poly). I asked the reservationist if ressie's were really necessary there because I believed we would want to eat there often and mostly unplanned.

She said that if we didn't have ADR's the CM's at the cafe would ask us to place a call to them even if we just walked up to see if we could get a table at that time. Is this true?

I haven't planned every meal (we are doing the land/sea package and couldn't get the meal plan) and I wanted a little bit of flexibility. Am I just out of luck with my plan?

 

[tiggercrew]

I have not heard that before. Maybe she was suggesting this because there have been many reports of people being turned away without ADR's...maybe it just makes the CM's job easier.

If you know for sure that you will want to eat there, you could always go ahead and secure an ADR because you can always cancel if your plans change. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

 

[Tam1067]

When we stayed at the Poly in July, we were able to be seated without ADRs at Kona for both lunch and breakfast. The CMs did not "call" anyone, though they do (I think) look at the reservation screen on the computer at the front. We had ADRs for dinner, though, and made them again for our upcoming trip. I expect we'll end up just going for breakfast and/or lunch depending on our mood. Lunch is not that busy, and breakfast gets busy but is not right at opening, which is when we generally eat anyway.

 

[BrerMama]

I've heard of people getting turned away as walk-ups, calling Dining and asking for an ADR, getting one within 15 minutes of the current time for the same restaurant. So it might be easier to just call instead of walking up -- then you're not a walk-up, but you have an ADR even though it's newly made.

 

[WDWBarb]

Seems the lesson here may be to program the Disney Dining reservation # into my cell phone and we should be ok! Makes sense!!

 

[mrzrich]

I've heard of people getting turned away as walk-ups, calling Dining and asking for an ADR, getting one within 15 minutes of the current time for the same restaurant. So it might be easier to just call instead of walking up -- then you're not a walk-up, but you have an ADR even though it's newly made.

I've heard this too. Restaurants saying no walk ups and then calling the ressie line and getting them for 10 minutes later!

 

[maelstrom]

I've never had a problem walking up and getting a table at Kona Cafe.