Wait Time With ADR's

[jnshakun]

Hi. I'm trying to figure out what time will be best to make ADR's for dinner. If you show up at a restaurant on time for your ADR, how long, on average, do you typically have to wait before you are seated?

My kids tend to eat on the early side--by 5:30. The places I'm considering include Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree, Le Cellier, 'Ohana, Whispering Canyon Cafe and Coral Reef. We're going in May.

Any input you can give would be appreciated! I just don't want to book a time with the assumption we'll get right in and then end up with a long wait for a table with two grumpy little ones.

Thanks.

 

[tkitty]

Right now with the free DDP, things seem to be running right on time. We got back last night and had good luck with our ADR times. Always got in within 5-10 min of our scheduled times. WCC, we were in about 15 min early. Tried to walk up early for many ADRs, but they are so booked right now, you get in pretty close to on time.
I sure found alot of people at WDW, this past week, on the DDP, but didn't know they were supposed to make ADRs! Yipes.
I didn't see them taking any walk-ups at any of the table serve places, although they would tell people to try back after 7:30-8:00.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Though the restaurants on your list are usually busy ones, the early dinner time is good.
Over our many years of WDW dining, I'd say that the overwhelming # of times we've been seated on time, or even a bit early. The only really long waits we've had turned out to be on Saturday nights when we had ADR's at 8:00

 

[Hopefully]

IN our experience we were usually seated either right away or within 10 or 15 minutes of our ADR. I think the earlier you go the more likely you are to be seated right away. We like to eat later, 7:30 - 8:00, and things have had a chance to get backed up a bit.
I think around 5:30 you should be fine.

 

[Terk-1]

We've waited no more than about 20 minutes at CP with an ADR. When I've dined solo, the wait time was about 5-15 minutes depending on the restaurant and the time of year visited. I'm usually early for my ADR's anyway, so it's not a big deal to wait a little bit.

 

[ggdvc]

We've usually been seated pretty quickly - usually within 5-10 minutes of the ADR time. The one exception was this past February - we didn't get seated until about 40 minutes after our ADR time. It wasn't just us either...when we checked in, they warned us that they were running incredibly behind schedule. They were turning away all walk-ups that night too.

 

[Pirate Dad]

I sure found alot of people at WDW, this past week, on the DDP, but didn't know they were supposed to make ADRs! Yipes.
I didn't see them taking any walk-ups at any of the table serve places, although they would tell people to try back after 7:30-8:00.

My neighbour booked a trip for end of August with DDP. I tried to tell him about ADR but he just shrugged me off. He seems to think that with "over 100 Disney restaurants" his family should be able to get seating somewhere. Well, I tried to help, but what can you do if people want to be stubborn.

 

[jbird327]

During the week of Dec 16-23rd 2005, we only waited at Boma and Le Cellier, Boma was the longest at about 30 min. We usually show up about 10 min before our scheduled time (about 6:30 or 7 for dinner), the approx. 14 other ADRs during that trip had minimal or no waits. On my Jan 05 trip only LeCellier had a long wait.