Problems with Table of 8 and ADR's During Recent Stay

[muntzfab4]

We were at WDW from 4/7-4/15 and stayed at the BC. I made ADR's for every night of our stay. For 3 of the nights we met my DS and her family for dinner so we were a total of 8. What a nightmare, even with ADR's!

Mon. 4/10 - Wolfgang Puck-
Had an ADR for 7pm. Arrived by 6:50 and were told about a 15min. wait. After waiting about an hour, when we complained, we were seated immediately outside. It was quite nippy, so we asked to be seated inside and were told we would have to wait another 20 minutes or so. The manager came over and told us nothing was available for 8 people. Why then do they accept ADR's for 8 if they cannot accomodate a group of 8? The manager tried to make ammends by bringing out a variety of appetizers, but since we were on the DP, it did not matter. I must say our waiter, Jeremy, went out of his way to make it up to us! He was wonderful! When we tipped him extra, he said but the tip is included. How sweet!

Weds. 4/12 - Spoodles-
This time we arrived at 6:30 for a 7pm ADR. Same problem. Waited an hour for our table. When we entered the restaurant, there were many empty tables and lots of people still waiting outside for tables of various sizes.

Fri. 4/14- Yachtsman Steakhouse-
This was the worst! Arrived at 6:20 for a 7:10 ADR. Did not get seated until 8:10! Eveytime we checked at the front desk we were told another 10 minutes. No apologies for our inconvenience!

I realize this was a busy week and we saw people without ADR's being turned away. But, when you enter the restaurant and you see many (about 6-7) empty tables it makes you wonder what was going on? We never received a reasonable explanation and felt that the staff was just not honest with us. If they told us it would be a long wait for a table of 8, we would have accepted that and waited.

I must say when we ate just as a family of 4 on the other nights, we did not have a problem. The most we waited was 15 minutes.

Did anyone else in a large group experience this?

 

[DisOrBust]

ugh! We are also a party of 8 for next Thanksgiving and I just cringe! YSH has had afew complaints latley over seating...I have scratched them off!

 

[bicker]

felt that the staff was just not honest with us

Hmmm.... I wonder what reason there would be for that.

I have scratched them off

Before doing that, I would be sure that you're not jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

 

[bertalander]

Oh no.. this is something I most definatly did NOT want to read. We are having large family groups (8-10 in the party) each and every table service this Fall.

Blah.

I'm so sorry you had a difficult time. I can only imagine the FUN that'll be with four children ranging from 2-9 years.

Woo hoo!

NOT.

 

[GC&S]

We were a party of 11 in March. When we made our ADR's, they asked if we minded 2 tables as close together as possible and we said no. A few dinners (like Concourse) we had only five because the rest didn't want to go. When we told the hostess we were a reduced number, she said, "oh good, I dont know where I would have put 11 people". Well then why did they let us make an ADR? I thought that was interesting. At SciFi they put us in two cars and asked if we wanted to wait for two together (wait would be longer). We said ok but really didn't have to wait very long (maybe 20 min). But in general as a large group, we never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes from our ADR time.

Sorry your group had such a rough time!

 

[Thmacs1]

I am so sorry for your unpleasent experience. We also just returned from a trip last week and had a party of 6. We never waited more than 5 minutes past our ADR time. When I booked our ADR's I was told for nearly every one that we would have to be split into 2 tables. That never happened. At Spoodles, LeCeiller, and Ohana's our tables were set for 8. I was very pleased by our small wait times and the ease in accomidating our group. We generally had very good service and never saw any empty tables. We usually dined between 7-8pm. I hope the rest of your trip was wonderful and that this was a glitch in an otherwise fabulous vacation!!

 

[LovingLife]

We were at The Coral Reef on April 8th. 615pm ADR's for 7 people. We arrived at 545pm and they said 10 minutes. We sat outside for 40 minutes, went back in and asked, they said 10 minutes....then it became rather ugly. My BIL went in and wanted an explanation as to why if we had ADR's we were waiting over an hour (mind you we had a 9 and 11 yo with us who were troopers)...and it was my birthday vacation (50th!)..... the front desk staff could care less.....and acted like they were doing us a favor....sighing the whole time. We were finally seated at 2 tables.....and then my BIL asked for a Manager. There was no wait staff to be found to even order drinks!!! The amazing thing is there were several empty tables.....

Nothing special was given to us (we were also on the DP) and although we enjoyed our meal it just is such a shame for making ADR's and they treat you badly. And there was not alot of people waiting either!!!!! Not a great first night for our family......

I hope everyone going has better luck!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. We did have an excellent time at Kona and CG, which I wrote about. I just hate to post negative for those leaving for vacation, but wanted to be honest!!!!!

 

[DisneyTeacher]

I'm so sorry you you didn't have a better experience. We had 8 people in our group last summer and had pretty good luck, we were seated very quickly and always together.

 

[princess mom of 4]

Did any of you guys with larger groups (8 or more) use the Grand Gatherings or Magical Gatherings (same thing?) to plan your trip? We may have a group of 10 going this fall, and I wonder if MG makes those issues easier?

 

[Belle5]

In the past we have been told that our party might be seated at two tables and that never happened. This trip we were split up more than half the time. We had some pretty long waits, as well.

 

[joanchris]

We were there in October and had 3 days where there were 7 of us, including one wheelchair user. We were told when making ADRs that we may need to be split up (ie 2 cars at Sci Fi--we wanted the cars and carried DD out of her wheelchair to sit in the car), but we never were split, and our longest wait was at Sci Fi, but only about 30 mins there. All our other waits were about 10 min or less.
So sorry for your bad experience

 

[Melrosgirl]

UGH!

We were a group of 8 last October during "free dining" period. I had ADR's for each night luckily and I don't recall ever once having to wait a long time for a table. (Half our party was on free dining and half was not.)

 

[n2mm]

That is too bad that this happened. It must be a sign that the DDP is getting more and more popular. However, we were in WDW during the free dining last September for 10 days and we had a party of 9 and never had to wait more than 5 minutes--ever. Ate at LeCellier, twice and Kona's, twice, CRT/dinner, twice, CCSH, PT, Plaza, TrailsEnd, and more. We were only split once and that was at CRT/dinner -- but had tables side by side. We pretty much walked in on every occassion. I think the empty tables is a sign of a shortage of waite staff. It's not easy hiring people on what Disney wants to pay people--they're always having hiring seminars.

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

Our party also consists of 8 people. I hope we don't have excessive wait times like the OP did. When we made ADRs they told us that some places may have to split us up 4 and 4, but they'd seat us as close as possible. I'll report back here after our upcoming trip on our experiences.

 

[kpk89]

we had a group of 11 (including 5 kids ages 2-12) and had no problems with long waits. We were usually 5-10 min early for our ADR and were seated almost immediately. When I made the ressie we were told when there would be 2 separate tables.

Probably the trouble OP experienced was due to 1. shortage of staff (hence empty tables -- can't seat people at a table that has no waiter available to serve it) and/or 2. inexperienced host. They should be able to notice on their ADR list for the shift that they have a large party coming, and seat other parties accordingly so that there's a large enough table available at the right time.

 

[Sydrox]

We had a party of 11 this past Christmas. I was told while making reservations that we would be seated at seperate tables and 1 nite 3 seperate tables and there is a service charge added to parties of 8 or more.. My question how can there be a service charge when there are different servers at the different tables. Our tables had different servers...

At the California Grill we were literally seated across the room from each other. My grandparents were pretty upset as they had their entire family w/ them.and we were all seated that far apart. So I batted my eyelashes at our server and explained our problem since there was an empty table close by. They actually obliged and were very helpful and accomadating to our group.

Christmas Eve we had resies at the Chefs de France, after a long drawn out wait (1 + Hr) and tons of people were seated who checked in after us we were seated at a huge table together. We were shocked as that was the place we were told would have 3 seperate tables.

I know we really lucked out on this one! But I still don't understand the 'service charge' that gets tacked on and you most likely don't even get to sit together and you have different servers????

 

[Cinderumbrella]

We will also be a party of 8 for a few meals on our early Dec. trip. I had never even thought about this until this AM when I made out HDDR ressie's and now reading this thread!! They told us at HDDR we would be put at 2 tables of 4 (but next to each other). We are planning on 3 other meals together as a party of 8 and now I am nervous!!

 

[bicker]

I wouldn't be "nervous" -- rather I would take these experiences to heart and instead be prepared. There is no question that the larger the party, the more difficult the restaurant -- any restaurant, anywhere -- has fitting that party in. It is a two-dimentional queuing theory problem. When we have a large party, I OFTEN WILL break our party up into smaller parties and make separate, normal-sized party reservations, for roughly the same time. If we can, when we arrive, get seated together, great, but I make it clear that the restaurant is to treat us as separate, smaller parties if they're busy. If it is very important that we're all together for a specific meal, I make specific arrangements for that: Either Biergarten or Teppanyaki (which are all tables of eight) or we make reservations for a private party. Alternatively, I plan around having to wait an extended period of time for a table.

 

[missypie]

OP, I hear ya. I don't think that the folks taking the reservations actually have a list of available tables in front of them. I made our ADRs quite early but at a couple of places, I was told that to get a table of 5 for a certain time we'd have to split up...so I took a different time to get a table for 5. At about half of the restaurants, we were seated at tables for 4.

 

[webray]

Sorry to hear your experience.

We have had the same thing at Spoodles at dinner time. When we have all the kids there are 8 of us. They want us to wait 45 minutes when almost every table in the place is empty, unbelievable. Hire enough help already!