Priority Seating Comments

[drkim]

I just wanted to share a few comments about priority seating, to help people out that may have questions about it.

Priority seating is similar to reservations, but a little different. You still make priority seating arrangements for a particular time, but that does not mean that you will be guaranteed to be seated at that time. It means that once you arrive, and all other priority seating guests that had times before you have been seated, you will be seated at the next available table. For all the times we went, we got in within 10-15 minutes of our arranged time, and sometimes even before. Only once we had to wait about 20-30 minutes.

We just went last week, and found that we could easily make priority seating arrangements the night before or the day that we wanted to get in. There were only a few times where we had to go a little later than we would have liked, but we always got a spot.

Priority seating guests will ALWAYS be seated before any walkins, regardless of how long they have been waiting according to Disney, and this is what I observed during my stay. So if you choose not to make priority seating arrangements for a restauraunt, be aware, that you may be turned down flat in some cases, or may have to wait a long long time to be seated. I saw this happen multiple times. I also observed quite a few walk in people getting extremely irate and rude to both the staff and people who had priority seating arrangments - which I though was inappropriate, but some people didn't understand how it worked. So the best way to avoid any problems is to make the seating arrangements. It doesn't cost anything if you don't show up, so you've got nothing to lose.

The two places I went to where I say you MUST have priority seating arrangements if you want to get in are Boma (in Animal Kingdom Lodge - both breakfast and supper) and Le Cellier (in Epcot Canadian pavillion). These places were both very very busy, and I saw many people turned away. I can only imagine how much more important it would be in the busy season.

I hope this information helps someone out there!

 

[abaldacci]

thank you, nice of you to share, and welcome to the dis.

 

[KayTX]

Very valuable information!! Thanks for explaining it so well. And to the DIS!

 

[Ilovestitch]

I agree that you can make a PS even for that day- it still better than just walking up to a restaurant.

On our trip in May, my bf and I decided to take a nap around 7pm and then go out late and get dinner at Pleasure Island.

Well we slept through the alarm and woke up at 8am the next day! We were STARVING! So I called disney dining and said I wanted a PS for b-fast at Boma. The lady asked when and I said NOW She gave me an 8:30 ps and we walked downstairs and were seated right away! Other people who walked up were sitting there with their beepers.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

It seems that more and more people are being turned away if they don't have ADR's. While this wasn't the case with the resorts previously, we have noticed a huge increase of turn aways recently. Makes it bad if you want to do something on the spur of the moment.

 

[keriannhoward]

It seems that more and more people are being turned away if they don't have ADR's. While this wasn't the case with the resorts previously, we have noticed a huge increase of turn aways recently. Makes it bad if you want to do something on the spur of the moment.

You can still do something spur of the moment, like "IloveStitch" pointed out, if you just call while you're even walking up to the restaurant, you can get an ADR. Probably not one for an immediate seating time, but you can still get one. We always wait until we get to Epcot to decide where to eat, then make our ADR right then. I love having ADRs and wouldn't even want to try a TS restaurant without one.

 

[Syrreal]

You can also just pass by any guest relations and they will make the ADR for you.

 

[TiggerGuy67]

It can be frustrating to see all of these wonderful restaraunts and not have any of them with available seating. But don't give up. Expect magic but prepare for Plan B.

My favorite example was when we were looking to eat in DTD at around 8pm and there was a line of over 20 people who were just leaving their names at Rainforest. We walked to the front of the line just to ask how long the wait was to see if it was worth waiting 15 minutes to leave our name. The gentleman asked how many of us there were. We said 8. He said follow me. I could barely hear the curses being hurled from those in line because all I could see and hear was Pixie Dust.