passing the time while waiting for an ADR

[surfergirl602]

We had a reservation for the Rose and Crown, and while we waited, my husband, my two oldest girls (9, 7) and some other kids played football (soccer) with the staff of the Pub in the street. They had a ball!! (pun totally intended)

This got me thinking. What do you do to pass the time while you are waited to be seated? I know last trip we had some pretty long wait times. At Crystal Palace we waited over an hour and a half, and its the reason we won't be eating there ever again. Plus, the food really wasn't that great.
There was a show going on on the castle stage, and by standing next to the railing, the kids were able to see the show, and use our camera zoom to see up close and take some good pictures.

Do you do anything to pass the time and make the wait just a bit easier for your family?

 

[Nadjalu]

We get seated. LOL,
Seriously we haven't ever waited more than 5 mins for our ADRs.
Usually we show up 15min to 1/2 hour before and are always seated right away.
Glad to hear your family had fun while waiting.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

I've never heard of waiting more than 5 minutes for an ADR. That's what an ADR is for.

 

[shocker]

Because you may be allowing too much transportation time and arrive too early for an ADR you may find yourself waiting. This has happened to us twice at GF and they have a lobby full of overstuffed furniture and a kids seating area with cartoons (all the resorts have some version of this). They also have a pianist or band playing at various times during the day, they have lots of shopping venues, and you can take a great nap in that lobby

 

[surfergirl602]

Our last trip the first week of september, we had to wait at several locations to be seated, and we did show up early for our reservation times.

 

[GovieMom]

I've never heard of waiting more than 5 minutes for an ADR. That's what an ADR is for.

Are you serious? Have you ever had an ADR at Le Cellier or Crystal Palace (during normal dinner hours)? Wow.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Are you serious! Have you ever had an ADR at Le Cellier or Crystal Palace (during normal dinner hours)? Wow.

Yes, never had an issue at either restaurant.

 

[Cinderella1122]

We get seated. LOL,
Seriously we haven't ever waited more than 5 mins for our ADRs.
Usually we show up 15min to 1/2 hour before and are always seated right away.
Glad to hear your family had fun while waiting.

Ditto. Never waited more than 5 minutes at anywhere. Including Le Cellier and CP. The only time I ever waited more than 5 minutes was when we showed up the recommended 20 minutes early for our CRT ADR and they wouldn't let us check in until our ADR time, but we were still seated right at our ADR time.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I've never heard of waiting more than 5 minutes for an ADR. That's what an ADR is for.

I have eaten at about 30 different places on Disney property over the past 6 years and I could probably count on one hand the number of times we have been seated within 5 minutes.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

I have eaten at about 30 different places on Disney property over the past 6 years and I could probably count on one hand the number of times we have been seated within 5 minutes.

Bad luck for you, I guess.

 

[Nadjalu]

Are you serious? Have you ever had an ADR at Le Cellier or Crystal Palace (during normal dinner hours)? Wow.

Yes infact Crystal Palace is my favorite, we are always seated within 5 mins.

and for our Le Cellier ressie, we showed up 1/2 hour early was told it would be at least an hour wait, said ok and the server came 3 mins later to seat us.
I guess we are blessed to have things go this way for us.

 

[Pugmalion1]

Drink.

 

[Missytara]

Drink.

Ditto! I always love to show up about a half hour early and sit at the bar and have a drink.

We had a blast last year at Yak and Yeti with the bartender. They even offered to seat us when we arrived, but we said, nope, we want to sit at the bar and enjoy a little down time.

 

[csmom]

Waited 45 minutes past our ADR time at Boma last June. Talked with all the others waiting too. Didn't wait more than 5 minutes past our ADR time at any other restaurant that week.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Bad luck for you, I guess.

I guess so...at least you can now say you have heard of one person who has waited more than 5 minutes for an ADR.

 

[carps09]

We pin trade while we wait. Usually there are people in line with us who are interested in pin trading, and sometimes we'll get a very interested host or hostess at the restaurant who will come out and talk to us about it.

 

[pozey]

This got me thinking. What do you do to pass the time while you are waited to be seated? I know last trip we had some pretty long wait times. At Crystal Palace we waited over an hour and a half, and its the reason we won't be eating there ever again.

An HOUR AND A HALF?!?!? Are you serious??

There's no way I would have waited anywhere near that long! I would have been at the podium asking the hostess what the hold up was after 15 minutes. If I was still waiting after 30 minutes...I would have said "If we aren't seated in 5 minutes, cancel our reservation" and would have gone to a counter service somewhere.

Maybe I've been lucky...but I've never had to wait longer than 15 minutes. Anywhere. We usually show up 15 minutes early. In fact, we showed up 15 minutes LATE once at Yachtsman Steakhouse and was still seated within 10 minutes.


Edit to add: To answer the OP's original question...we usually just sit and talk about what we've done that day...or what we are planning on doing. Just talking about our trip.

 

[jeepgirl30]

I'm shocked to hear people saying never more than 5 min.

DD and I went in Sept and had no ride wait times but had insane waits for our ADRs. Ohana and CP were the WORST but i remember having waits everywhere. CRT was the best, we somehow got ushered in and taken to the front of the line.

I am not going back to CP again. We waited over an hour there and the food was so so at best. The character interaction was horrible. We hit a shift change and had to wait for the characters to re circle.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

I'm shocked to hear people saying never more than 5 min.

DD and I went in Sept and had no ride wait times but had insane waits for our ADRs. Ohana and CP were the WORST but i remember having waits everywhere. CRT was the best, we somehow got ushered in and taken to the front of the line.

I am not going back to CP again. We waited over an hour there and the food was so so at best. The character interaction was horrible. We hit a shift change and had to wait for the characters to re circle.

I have an 8:05 AM res at CP. You could try that.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I'm always solo, so waiting for anything gets boring after awhile. I'll start conversations with others who are waiting, and I'll meet some very interesting people sometimes. I also use it as a time to catch up with my texts.