Showing up early/late for ADR's

HeidiLowe

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
366
Hi!

This will be our first trip, January 22nd - 31st. I have all of my ADR's planned out but with two preschoolers and transportation from one place to another, I'm worried about being either really early or really late.

Now I know that it is not a "resrevation" in the normal sense, but is it better to book an ADR a little later and show up earlier, or the other way around? I would think it would be better to be early as I hate being late to anything (especially dinner!!) and of course we will try as much as possiblet to be on time.

What have been your experiences? If you show up 30 minutes early (which is probably what will happen in our case) do you usually get seated? Or if you're a half hour late, do you have to wait much longer to get a table?

TIA!!
 
I've heard that they will accept you up to 15 min. late. I haven't tried going to an ADR late.

As for showing up early, I usually only arrive 15 min early. I don't want to have to wait extra long to see if they might be able to seat us early.
 
Same here - we have never had luck with being early, except for maybe 5-10 minutes (we went somewhere 30 or 40 minutes early once and they told us to come back at our ADR time). We usually end up getting our table right around our ADR time anyway. As for late, I understand the same - after 15 minutes, you lose your reservation and basically go to the end of the line or are treated just like someone without a reservation.

So they're not reservations in the sense that they're holding a table open for you, but you are expected to get to them generally on time (in fact, they usually tell you to show up 10-15 minutes ahead of time).
 
Our last trip (May 31-June 5), we arrived about 1/2 early to almost every one. All but CRT and Sci-Fi sat us within 10 minutes.
 

Thanks! So if we have an ADR for say 6pm, it's probably better to assume it's for 5:45 so we're early. I'm just so scared that something is going to come up with the kid-o's that will make us late. I would rather be early and wait than be late and lose it.
 
We have had very good luck with being seated early. The only place I can remember having to wait at was the Crystal Palace, which really isn't suprising.

I'm not sure how long Disney will hold your table for if you are late. We were late for our ADR at the Kona Cafe (stupid taxi didn't show up!) and they told us they were just about to give our table away when we finally got there 30 minutes late.
 
Supposedly they will hold your ADR for only 15 minutes. After that time it is considered a no show. If you arrive after that time they may try to seat you or they may tell you that they are fully booked and your reservation was given away. I know at Le Cellier, Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana, and Mama Melrose I have seen late arrivals turned away. I don't know how late they were though. I just remember the people arguing that they were late because of Disney transportation.
 
We were also early for almost every ADR last December - by as much as 40 minutes. We never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a table. I seem to remember that when we went in May last year we were told to allow 60 minutes if using Disney transportation. They had changed that advise to 90 minutes by December. I think that is why we were early for so many. Naturally, some travel will be quicker than others depending on where point A & point B are located relative to each other.
 
We were late for Biergarten last week, because the teens missed the bus they needed. They didn't want to seat us without them but they knew we were there. We just let them know when the other two made it and got in without a problem.
 
In August 2008, we had dinner reservations for Chef Mickeys and got caught in a huge downpour before we could get to the monorail. The monorail stopped running for a while and we were over an hour late. Lots of others had the same problem They sat our party of 8 within 15 minutes (on a very crowded night).
 
the time frame of your vacation is one of the slowest times of year at Disney--we've been there over some of those days the last two years --you are after MLK Jr weekend and long before Pres. Day weekend. Also after the major holidays & before the winter&spring school breaks. We found the restaurants, except for two, to be EMPTY...most would have no trouble seating you with or without a reservation. The exceptions of course were Chef Mickey's and Le Cellier...those were full.
 














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