Very disappointed in wait times - typical?

[Beckypooh1972]

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?

Walk ups wouldn't have stood a chance getting into Ohana, 1900 Park Fare for breakfast, or Sci Fi. These are places and times that book up far in advance. Still, I would have been disappointed too if I'd had to wait that long with an ADR. The only places we've ever had to wait more than 30 mins. were Crystal Palace and Le Cellier. At Crystal Palace, during free dining, we met a lady who was griping because she'd been waiting 2 hours since 5 pm for an 8 pm ADR. She was hoping to show up and get seated early but Disney wouldn't/couldn't accommodate her. She still had another hour to go when we were seated after waiting about a half hour for our ADR. During our entire trip we overheard several families that had really late ADR's trying to get in early (at more normal dining times) but "no dice". I felt sorry for those that had young children and were going to have to wait until 9pm to eat! Make those ADR's early is my advice!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Wow, now I am worried about our upcoming trip next month. For most of our ADRs we are just a party of 4, but for a few ADRs we are a party of 10. They are Chef Mickey's dinner (5PM ADR), CRT dinner (5:15 pm ADR), Akershus lunch (12:10 pm ADR) and 1900 Park Fare breakfast (9:25 am ADR). We were planning to arrive 20 minutes early to each one, now I am wondering how long we will have to wait.

 

[KatMark]

We have under most circumstances not waited more than 5 to 10 minutes for our ADR's (and that includes LeCellier, Sci-Fi, Biergarten, Crystal Palace, etc.). Ironically, the exceptions to this were the three restaurants that we will not return to --not only for horrible service, but horrible food (they were Whispering Canyon, Boatwright's and Hollywood & Vine--and H&V was twice we made that mistake).

 

[mac521]

Wow. We were a party of 10 and had no problems:

5/26 Crystal Palace 6:00
5/27 Biergarten 5:35
5/28 Chef Mickey's 5:50
5/29 Tusker house Breakfast 9:15
5/29 Crystal Palace 6:10
5/30 Prime Time 5:35

We checked in about 20 min early for each reservation and were seated before our reserved time at every meal. Must have been lucky. Everything was great and we all felt like we could go a week without eating after the vacation.

 

[TillyMarigold]

There were 2 of us last year for Free Dining and had 20 minute waits at both Akershus and Mama Melrose, but everyone else seated us immediately or almost immediately. We mostly ate at the resorts and at odd times (late breakfasts or early or late dinners).

 

[Mamu]

I have found that it does make a difference when your there. During Peak Season, Holiday Weekends and during FD the wait time seems to be longer. During the F & W Festival wait times at Epcot can be long.

It does depend what time of year your going, what events are going on that time of year and at what park. A park thats having a special weekend event will be crowded so wait times can sometimes be longer.

 

[kamik86]

Now I'm wondering how ours will be we have a party of 9 for several meals in October. It is just after free dining ends so there may still be some people on it if they checked in on the second (or even worse if they extend free dining to all our dates).

It is the first time at Disney for 6 of the guests (and the first time in in over 15 years for one more) so I don't want the times to be too long and have it hurt their experience.

My DH and I were there last year for free dining but only a party of 2, then we only waited a long time at one place (mama melrose) but that wasn't there fault we checked in late becuase we thought we had to use our TSM fast pass at the given time which was just before the ADR. We would have had time to walk quickly over but the ride messed up and missed a screen so they let us ride again, and we weren't giving up that oppurtuinity!! Thus we ended up 20 min. late. They took about 30 min to get us in that time but since we thought we missed it all together we didn't mind.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

The only time we have had waits like that was during free dining. The worst was 1 1/2 hours at Coral Reef but they seated us right next to the fish tank to make up for it! Unfortunately, we missed Wishes that night.

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

Last year we were there during the first week of FD. We ate at LeCellier, Coral Reef, Chef Mickey, Crystal Palace, Cape May and Boma. The only place that we had to wait past our ADR time for was CP. That place just seems to get mobbed. Everything else was right on time.

 

[chitown_disneylovers]

To the OP I am so sorry that you waited so long for your reservations. That is completely unacceptable.

Also, don't listen to all those posters who said "well it was your party size". That is NO EXCUSE. Yes, a 15-20 minute wait while they push tables together etc that is fine. But not the long waits you experienced. These restaurants need to accommodate large parties and it is no one's fault except their own for not being prepared. The restaurants KNEW you were coming and KNEW how many people they were going to have to seat.

I mean really, if you go out to eat with more than 5 people in your party and you wait for an hour to be seated are you really thinking to yourself "well we are a big group"

 

[christinec68]

To the OP I am so sorry that you waited so long for your reservations. That is completely unacceptable.

Also, don't listen to all those posters who said "well it was your party size". That is NO EXCUSE. Yes, a 15-20 minute wait while they push tables together etc that is fine. But not the long waits you experienced. These restaurants need to accommodate large parties and it is no one's fault except their own for not being prepared. The restaurants KNEW you were coming and KNEW how many people they were going to have to seat.

I mean really, if you go out to eat with more than 5 people in your party and you wait for an hour to be seated are you really thinking to yourself "well we are a big group"

I agree! Disney should be able to accommodate large groups in a reasonable time frame. The guests play by the rules - make the ADR up to 6 months in advance, check in early and then sit around waiting for 30+ minutes? That's not right and they should be able to plan this better. There are restaurants all over the place that can handle this efficiently, Disney has no excuse.

OP, I am sorry you had so many long waits. I would be extremely disappointed and frustrated also.

 

[Simba22]

We have had trouble with Ohana before...I would say that it's because of the characters, that maybe people were hanging around longer than expected to meet the characters but I didn't have any trouble with our ressies at Crystal Palace so I can't say for sure that that's the problem. All I know is that with the exception of this past October, we usually wait 30-45 minutes from the time we check in to the time they actually seat us.

That being said, Ohana is the ONLY restaurant we've had this problem with. It could be related to your party size, but it's not like they don't know in advance how many people you'll be bringing with you. They should be able to prepare better but since I don't work in the restaurant industry I can't say for sure what happened. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

 

[maxiesmom]

I agree! Disney should be able to accommodate large groups in a reasonable time frame. The guests play by the rules - make the ADR up to 6 months in advance, check in early and then sit around waiting for 30+ minutes? That's not right and they should be able to plan this better. There are restaurants all over the place that can handle this efficiently, Disney has no excuse.

OP, I am sorry you had so many long waits. I would be extremely disappointed and frustrated also.

If Disney had a typical reservation system, I would agree with you. They don't. All your ADR gets you is the next table that will accomodate your party size. If you have a larger party there are fewer tables that can hold you. Plus if you get behind another large party that decides to linger for a while, that can make your wait time even longer. Disney ADRs do not guarantee you a specific time slot. Just a general one.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Sometimes with the popular restaurants like Chef Mickey's, Ohana and Boma, it might be common to usually wait past your scheduled ADR time, because they allow so many ADR's each day and they get backed up.

 

[Maleficent27]

I have to disagree with everyone thinking it's the OP's party size, because we waited quite a long time at several places as only a party of 2 last year! We waited 50 minutes past Le Cellier, an hour and 10 minutes at Tony's, and 30 minutes at Kona. I was ok with the waits because it was pretty clear they were swamped, and walk-ups were being turned away left and right.

But having to wait while tables sit empty? That's asinine.

We were extremely disappointed & couldn't understand the point of reservations if we ended up waiting as long as walk-ups.

The way I always thought of ADR's was just a guarantee that you will get a table, but not necessarily right at that time...whereas many TS places fill up to the point that getting in as a walk-up is an insane wait or altogether impossible. In 2007, we waited 3 HOURS for the Rainforest Cafe at DTD as walk-ups. So I am fine to have my ADR and wait as long as I'd wait for an Olive Garden or Outback at home, rather than not eat there at all or waste half the night waiting.

(1) if they are not reservations then why do they call them that? Why not just say "priority seating confirmation #"?

I don't know either. They used to call them Priority Seating back in the day (back before I started going to Disney and found this board). I don't know why they switched, as they don't really work any differently with the ADR name.

 

[missminniemouse]

The worst offender we've had is LeCellier. The last 2 times we've gone there we waited over 45 minutes past our ADR time. With 2 relatively small children this was very unacceptable. Thankfully my kids like other restaurants better than LeCellier. There are other wonderful choices in EPCOT, so now we just skip it.

Otherwise we've always been seated in a timely manner. We've been going to WDW for 20 years with 1 to 2 trips each year, so we have a lot of experience with Disney Dining. I think the most we ever wait is perhaps 15-20 minutes past our ADR time.

 

[Quin]

You know, we're all getting pretty familiar with the Fastpass system. Really, ADRs are pretty much like Fastpasses for restaurants. Maybe they ought to just use the same phrasing for both. ADR 'sounds' more like a normal reservation that people are used to in their non-Disney lives.

 

[christinec68]

If Disney had a typical reservation system, I would agree with you. They don't. All your ADR gets you is the next table that will accomodate your party size. If you have a larger party there are fewer tables that can hold you. Plus if you get behind another large party that decides to linger for a while, that can make your wait time even longer. Disney ADRs do not guarantee you a specific time slot. Just a general one.

I understand how ADRs works - I think that's the problem. There's no reason they can not have a typical reservation system except they are choosing not to.

 

[annacali]

We were a party of 7 last week and had no waiting for any ADR's. I was worried and arrived 20 minutes early for most of them, and we were seated within 5 minutes (not even enough time to run to the restroom!) for all of them.

5/29 5:05 1900 Park Fare Dinner
5/31 08:10 Akershus Breakfast
6/1 09:20 Boma Breakfast
6/2 5:55 Crystal Palace Dinner
6/4 4:25 Coral Reef Dinner

And yesterday, walked into Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch around 12:00 and were seated in under 5 minutes.

No complaints on the service---it was wonderful all around! The restaurants always seemed full, but everything always seemed to be running very smoothly.

 

[Tink2312]

On our last trip our longest waits were at ohana and le cellier - about 30 minutes each and we're a party of three! I think it also depends on whether you reservation is at a time before the peak lunch/ dinner time or during/ after that time - we've always had less of a wait going for early lunch/ dinners than later ones.