Very disappointed in wait times - typical?

[texasgirl73]

I think when you book a reservation and it says you may be seated at separate tables that you may be looking at a long wait but if you are able to book without that notation you will have less of a problem. I always pass up the reservations that note that we might be split up because I'm afraid that it means that they don't show to have a table big enough for us at that time. I have passed up a lot of good reservations because of this.

 

[disnut8]

We were just there from May 15-22 and we never waited more than 5 minutes, but we are only a party of 2. I think it had more to do with your party size... did they end up seating you together or split? Waiting for a table that could seat 9 could have been the issue.

You didn't say if you party was seated together. We had a party of ten before and had to wait for the two tables next to each other to clear out. Disney had done an excellent job of timing our arrival with both tables leaving. However, the one table had four people at it that were done with their meal but decided to order another round of drinks before leaving. Disney didn't really have any choice. They either had to wait for two more tables to be vacated at the same time and then seating us or wait until the slow poke table was done. We were informed of all this when we checked in. Disney could not (and I certainly wouldn't have expected them to) tell the slow poke party to hurry up. So size of your party more than likely had something to do with it. When it's just my husband and me, we are normally shown in almost immediately. And it's just not at Disney restaurants. We once went to a Red Lobster with a lobby filled to the brim with people. Since we were only two, we were led right to a table with absolutely no wait. There were tons of tables for two. When I was with my son and our entire family a few weeks ago for his college graduation, we were a party of twelve most of the time. I don't think I have to tell you how long we waited at some places.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I think the party size is what hurt you.
We generally have no wait or maybe 5 minutes with ADRs. (Usually a party of 2. But sometimes 4.)

 

[seadd67]

Ya I have to agree with most of the posts here, we never had to wait longer then 5 or 10 min max. I have belive It was the number In your party,. If you are going around peak dinning times with that amount of people its going to take longer.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We spent 10 days in Disney last August with at least one adr for a TS meal per day. We were seated about 45 minutes past our adr at 1900 Park Faire, about 40 minutes past our adr time at the Crystal Palace, and TWO HOURS late at Sci Fi. We were 15 - 20 minutes early for every meal and a party of 4.

I did complain at guest services regarding the Sci Fi lateness and was given a set of FP's for all of the rides in DHS including Toy Story so they at least tried to make up for the lost time standing around waiting. I had told them we wouldn't have been quite as annoyed if we had been told at check in that it would be that long and to leave to enjoy the park and then return. It was INSANE at Sci Fi, the crowd waiting was huge and we will probably never return there. It was fun to do once, but that was probably enough for a lifetime.

For all the other adrs we were seated within 15 minutes of our adr time.

 

[DVC-Don]

We had a long wait at Boma. Party of 4. ADR - 6:30, checked in - 6:15, seated - 7:30.

 

[Arkansan]

We are a party of 5 and waited for almost every ADR from 5/7 to 5/17/10. The longest waits were at 1900 Park Faire (dinner) and at the Plaza (dinner). We checked in early at 1900, hoping to get seated early and the hostess said we couldn't check in until 15 min. prior to our ADR so we shopped the GF and looked around and then checked in. When I asked if we could be seated early the (now different) hostess said that if I would have checked in earlier they could have, but not now. I told her that I DID check in early, but she explained the ADR system only allows them to check people in within the hour of their ADR, not before. I wish the first woman would have said to come back in about 10 min. NOT almost an hour. As it was, when I checked in the 2nd time, they told me they were running 1/2 hr. to 45 min. behind so we waited AGAIN. It wasn't our favorite dinner and we probably won't be back for a long while.

The Plaza, I think, was just a mistake. We were called almost immediately after checking in, but when we handed the pager to the host, he looked really confused. I think they mixed up the pagers and gave us one for a much smaller party so, obviously, there wasn't room for 5 of us. We never even got into the restaurant. They realized their mistake and we then had to wait and wait and wait. I know the place is small and they only have one or two tables for larger groups. As a party of 5 we needed one of those tables and we couldn't be seated until they were free. It wasn't as long as 1900, but it was probably about 30 min. at least. Oh well...two glitches in over a week isn't that bad. It just seems like forever when you're hungry and like absolutely forever when your kids are!

 

[ashkash]

Oh I do think it was in part because of our large party size. However, at Ohana, we were told that it would be a 5 minute wait when we checked in, after confirming that we were a party of 9. 50 minutes later, we were seated.

Our ressie at Sci-Fi was early (or so I thought). 4:40 for dinner should have been one of the earlier dinner times, yet it resulted in one of the longest waits.

We never asked them to split us up, but it seems like it would be good customer service for them to offer it if they know they're running that far behind. I wasn't asked about it a single time (other than being advised of the possibility when I made the ADR's), but I gladly would have accepted being split up if the resulting wait time would have been more reasonable.

It's a lesson learned, for sure. Next time, we'll try to have our party split into smaller groups, although that may be hard when my own little family becomes a party of 6!

 

[Kelrykengab]

We were there the first week of May with a party of 6 and did some of the same places as you and our longest wait was 20 minutes (at 50's). Mostly waits were 2-5 mins.

 

[phyllis1966]

Wow! That's awful. I have never been to WDW, and we are only going for the first time in Sept. However, a Disney vertan I know told me to expect long waits for my ADR's. She said the ADR is just a "priority" seating, and not really a reservation. Her advice was to show up to the restaurant about an hour early!

We're WDW veterans and I agree with the others who've posted that arriving an hour early is extreme. Do yourself a favor and don't go that early - you'll go crazy waiting. 15-20 minutes is plenty early.

OP, I would have been upset, too, if we waited that long for all those meals - crazy!

 

[leahjade]

For those who have been, how are the wait times during free dining? Now I'm a little nervous!

 

[GC&S]

For those who have been, how are the wait times during free dining? Now I'm a little nervous!

The only place we had to wait a long time was Ohana. Both times we waited over an hour (last time was 1 hr 20 min). And we were a party of 3. The restaurant was half filled. The manager told us they were seating big parties first. And as we looked around (this was for bkfast) the only people who waited for an hour were parties of 2-3 people. We won't be returning. Otherwise we rarely had to wait more than 15 minutes during free dining. Even at the castle they called our name before we even met Cinderella.

 

[goofy4prez]

The only places I've ever had a long wait (party of 3) was at Boma (30 mins) and Le'Cellier (45 mins) past my ADR time. Everywhere else it's been within 15 minutes of our ADR.

 

[jaurban]

If we had to wait 45 minutes past the time my DH would be insisting that we leave... don't think we have waited that long, and we have been parties of 3 in early Dec, 4 in mid Oct and 6 in late August. Will be 7 this August. Hope for reasonable waits as 4 of the 7 are kids and 1 is my DH.

 

[aubriee]

For those who have been, how are the wait times during free dining? Now I'm a little nervous!

We've gone every year since they started free dining and it varies. We always show up at least 20 minutes prior to our ADR time. We've had to wait 45-65 minutes past our ADRs times at Mama Melrose, Crystal Palace, Le Cellier, Chef Mickey's, Yatchsman, and 'Ohana. However, we've also gotten in early at Crystal Palace, Mama Melrose, and Chef Mickey's. I guess it just depends on how busy the restaurant is that night and how slow people are eating.

 

[Mamu]

Sometimes wait time can be long, even though you have ADR. I think they figure on a people staying about an 45 minutes to an hour at their table. If that person stay longer your table will not be ready.

Especially at character meals. I've been seated right away and then I've had to wait one time for almost an hour at CRT.

 

[teslaaunt]

Ok, this concerns me greatly. We are a party of 8 and going Thanksgiving week. (1) if they are not reservations then why do they call them that? Why not just say "priority seating confirmation #"? (2)I dont understand getting there an hour early for a reservation. I will say that my reservations are not early dinners, 7ish, and I will now be telling them at checkin that we have no problems with seperate tables. Gosh...I really dont want to change all my ressies at this point....I wonder what I should do?

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

That does seem like long wait times. I haven't experienced waits across the board like that before but certain restaurants I always seem to have a long wait. The one that comes to mind for me is CP. We always seem to be on the porch waiting for at least 30 minutes past our ADR.

 

[MissionMouse]

We had ADR's for all of our table-service meals. Party of 9 (4 adults, 5 kids), with the understanding that we could be split into 2 tables. We were at WDW last week. Wait times:

Sci-Fi: 4:40 dinner, checked in at 4:30, seated at 5:30
Garden Grill: 5:50 dinner, checked in at 5:45, seated at 6:15
1900 Park Fare: 7:25 dinner, checked in at 7:10, seated at 8:00
Ohana: 9:10 breakfast, checked in at 9:10, seated at 10:00

The only one with little wait time was an 8:15 breakfast at Tusker House.

Is this really typical? We were extremely disappointed & couldn't understand the point of reservations if we ended up waiting as long as walk-ups. We haven't had problems to this extent with past trips. I expect to wait 10-15 minutes, but 30+ just seems unreasonable. Is this the new Disney way?

We were at Disney over the last week+ and did not experience any long waits at any of the table service restaurants. We were actually seated early at some of them, so I am leaning toward thinking party size does matter. It was rather busy time with Memorial Day weekend too and we did see large parties needing to wait until a number of tables cleared in an area to seat large parties of guest.

 

[sndral]

We are usually a party of 4 and we have always had long waits @ Coral Reef. Usually long waits @ Ohanas and Bomas. Last dec. we waited over an hour for Kona Cafe - we watched them 'squeeze in' a walk up party of 12 @ different tables ahead of us as we checked in (we overheard the conversation.) We got to watch them finish their dinner as we waited an hour beyond our ADR time. Needless to say we won't be back @ Kona for a long time.