passing the time while waiting for an ADR

[roomthreeseventeen]

Also, I'm not planning on spending too much iPhone time in the parks, unless waiting on a very long line, so I'll likely be checking e-mail if I'm waiting for an ADR.

 

[HunnyJar]

The worst wait we've ever had was in 2007 while waiting for our reservations at 'Ohana. We waiting an hour and a half PAST our ADR time. We always get there at least fifteen-twenty minutes early, too. Luckily, we had no kids in tow but it was horrible just standing there waiting. My husband tried to find out what the hold up was several times, but apparently they were just "really busy".. *sigh* Honestly, we were so annoyed we didn't do anything but talk to each other while we waited. We did have a good dinner once we actually got in.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

The worst wait we've ever had was in 2007 while waiting for our reservations at 'Ohana. We waiting an hour and a half PAST our ADR time. We always get there at least fifteen-twenty minutes early, too. Luckily, we had no kids in tow but it was horrible just standing there waiting. My husband tried to find out what the hold up was several times, but apparently they were just "really busy".. *sigh* Honestly, we were so annoyed we didn't do anything but talk to each other while we waited. We did have a good dinner once we actually got in.

Not to be rude, but why, exactly did you wait so long. I'd have talked to a manager after the first half hour, and if I didn't get a table right then, would have demanded a new ADR, and gone somewhere else.

 

[HunnyJar]

Not to be rude, but why, exactly did you wait so long. I'd have talked to a manager after the first half hour, and if I didn't get a table right then, would have demanded a new ADR, and gone somewhere else.

This was supposed to be our anniversary dinner so we didn't want to leave and try to figure out what was available after the fact. My husband did ask for a manager and was told that the restaurant was "unusually busy" that evening. At that point we were both annoyed and just wanted to get in rather than try to go from restaurant to restaurant (during free dining time) to see if we could get in somewhere on a night that was supposed to be special for us.

Looking back, yeah.. it was stupid to wait but seriously when you are really looking forward to something sometimes you just wait. We were happy with our meal once we were served so even with that horrible wait we will be back. Will we go during "free dining" again.. Probably not.

 

[surfergirl602]

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.

yes, I am COMPLETELY serious on that wait. trust me, we complained to management, we went to the podium on several occasions, and all they could tell us was that our time (5:15) was our check in time, not our seating time. It was total bull and they were very rude. The ONLY reason we stayed was because my two year old was in love with Eeyore at the time, she knew she was there to see him, and I knew she would really enjoy meeting him. As it turned out, he took a break just before our table, and we had to wait around for him to come back just so she could see him after we had finished eating. It was terrible, and we'll never go back.

 

[surfergirl602]

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.

The same thing happened to us, as well. We had to wait around to meet the characters that always seemed to leave just before they got to our table. We were finished eating way before we met all the characters. THE worst character meal we've ever done.