Wait time with reservations

[sophie832]

This thread makes me nervous, since it confirms what I'd read about the wait times being a lot longer when your ADRs are in the middle-to-end of the dining period. Almost all of our dinner ADRs are from 7:30-8:30pm. We did that because we are probably going to be on West Coast time, and we're already late eaters at home. Now I'm worried we'll have to wait a long time for every ADR. My only comfort is knowing that we planned on eating through the park closings, so we aren't counting on getting out of there in a hurry.

 

[primgirl]

We just got back last night. We only had to wait a couple of times.

We had a 20 minute wait at 50's Prime Time. We told our server when we were seated that we wanted to make the 9:30 Fantasmic show and we ordered our meal with our drinks. We made the show with time to spare.

One night we had an ADR at Rose and Crown, but a huge storm rolled in so we canceled those and got last minute reservations at Boatwrights. Boatwrights was really crowded due to the storm, but our wait time was only 10 minutes. The meal we had at Boatwrights was hands down the best meal of our trip.

We had a problem with slow service at Via Napoli. Our ADR was at 5:45 and we were seated right away, however the meal took 2 hours from start to finish. Other tables around us were getting their food much quicker. We had 3 adults and 2 children in our party, so it wasn't like we had an overly huge party. Our waiter was very apologetic.

Our waitress at Kona Cafe disappeared on us and was way more attentive to the other tables in her station. We were also crowded into a table for 4 which is a huge pet peeve of mine.

 

[honeydiane1953]

We have been lucky I guess with wait times as we have not had any. There always seems to be hoards of people trying to get into Crystal Palace. We have never eaten there thank goodness. Hoards yes I said it.

 

[TDC Nala]

Depends on how busy they are and how small the restaurant is (Le Cellier is very small.)

 

[Cinderella94]

We've never had to wait more than 10-15 min for an ADR, and we regularly eat at Ohana's, Le Cellier, Chef Mickey's, CRT, Crystal Palace, 1900 PF, and other "hard to get" ADRS during the summers. We usually make our ADRs for between 6:00 and 7:00 and check in 15 min early.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Forgot to post the first time that dinner at Mama Melrose took 2 1/2 hours. They sat us 30 minutes late, the server was slow and each course came out far apart from each other. It was super frustrating.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Following up this question, how far away from the podium can you go without being too far? Can you be a couple hundred yards away? If Akershus is backed up, and there isn't a line for Maelstrom, could you do a quick ride while you wait? Or is it more of a "you have to be within the sound of my near-whisper" scenario?

I know at the resorts they tell you not go off into specific areas or the pagers they give you won't work when your table is ready. Now I haven't been to Akershus but some theme park restaurants I have been to is Liberty Tree Tavern, Tony's Town Sqaure, The Plaza and 50's Prime Time Cafe and at each of them our names were called to say our tables was ready, so personally I wouldn't risk going off somewhere else not hearing our name be called and miss our seating.

 

[JimmyV]

This thread makes me nervous, since it confirms what I'd read about the wait times being a lot longer when your ADRs are in the middle-to-end of the dining period. Almost all of our dinner ADRs are from 7:30-8:30pm. We did that because we are probably going to be on West Coast time, and we're already late eaters at home. Now I'm worried we'll have to wait a long time for every ADR. My only comfort is knowing that we planned on eating through the park closings, so we aren't counting on getting out of there in a hurry.

Always hard to predict, but your times may not be so bad. Remember that the ADR is NOT a reservation. In other words, they do not keep a table empty awaiting your arrival as restaurants with traditional reservations do. It is a "next available table system". In my experience, the 6:15-6:45 time slot is where the log jam occurs. If they fill every table at between 5:00 and 5:30 (which sounds early, but not in Disney's world), then the folks with 6:15 times are at the mercy of the people who sat down at 5:00. If they are slow or linger, then the restaurant backs up. If you have an 8:00 slot, then the table that you get will probably be one that they are trying to turn from a 6:30 sit down. That should be OK, as that table was probably occupied from 5:00-6:15 by the first group, and 6:20-7:45 by the second group. But in the end, there is no way to know how stuffed they filled their books that night, or how slow the diners are ahead of you.

 

[ktlm]

In several trips, we've only had one bad experience with a really long wait. The only place we have ever had more than a 20 minute wait was dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We got there 30 minutes before our ADR time, and did not get seated until over an hour after our ADR time. That was not fun with a hungry 3 year old. I think our ADR was at 6:00. It also wasn't much better inside the restaurant. The characters were extremely spread out and we had to wait a long time for them to rotate through our table. I had not planned on spending 3 1/2 hours on that character meal, but it was around 9 when we got out. Other than that, we usually show up about 20 minutes before our ADRs to the character meals, and more often than not we get seated before our ADR time. We had about a 20 minute wait after our ADR at CRT once, and about a 15 minute wait past our ADR at Crystal Palace. Those are the longest I can recall.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Following up this question, how far away from the podium can you go without being too far? Can you be a couple hundred yards away? If Akershus is backed up, and there isn't a line for Maelstrom, could you do a quick ride while you wait? Or is it more of a "you have to be within the sound of my near-whisper" scenario?

At Akershus you will lose your ADR if you wander out of earshot. And, you'll still have to pay since this is a credit card guaranteed reservation. The CMs at the checkin desk are VERY clear that you have to stay right there. If you can't hear them call your name you WILL lose your table.