Waiting with ADR's?

[DisCopper]

I was reading on another thread about people sometimes having to wait 45 minutes even with ADR's. Is this common?

I guess I've been fortunate... I go to Disney at least once or twice a year and always get ADR's. Before that, I used... what was it? Priority Seating? My wait time has never been more than 5 or 10 minutes.

My experience includes every table service restaurant in the Parks as well as most of the restaurants in the resorts.

Am I just lucky?

 

[chocovrdmicears]

You don't have an options for my choice...which is normally longer than 10 minutes, but not what I would say is "a long time".
The wait depends on a bunch of different factors...I think the 2 most important are when you go (time of day and time of year) and where you are eating.
Try getting into Crystal Palace at 9:00am during Free Dining...I promise you will NOT have a 5 minute wait.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

It's either a really long time or an almost immediate seating based on my personal experience with some restaurants worst then others.

 

[jenjersnap]

It happens that we have waited a loooooong time, but it is rare enough that I remember them: 'Ohana for both breakfast (waited an hour and left without eating) and dinner (about 45 minutes x 2), Boma dinner (an hour), Cape May dinner (40 minutes) .... funny enough, many people mention Crystal Palace but we have never waited long there. I would say 10 minutes is an average wait for us everywhere else.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

You don't have an options for my choice...which is normally longer than 10 minutes, but not what I would say is "a long time".
The wait depends on a bunch of different factors...I think the 2 most important are when you go (time of day and time of year) and where you are eating.
Try getting into Crystal Palace at 9:00am during Free Dining...I promise you will NOT have a 5 minute wait.

I agree. My last trip I picked less popular restaurants and had only short waits. I think the most was for Kouzinna which was about 15 minutes. Restaurants that I think have longer waits are:

O'hana
Kona
50's (watied 45 min w/ adr)
1900 Park Fare(waited over an hour w/ adr but they mixed up the pagers and sat the wrong family but this isn't the only time I have heard of this happening)
Teppan Edo
CP
Chefs de France

These were all for dinner. Feel free to add anything I may have forgotten.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

In all my trips the only places I have ever waited longer than 5 or 10 minutes for are Crystal Palace and 50's Prime Time. 50's PT was 30 minutes, and CP 35!

 

[tami82]

I found i had pretty good luck last year because i pretty much always booked the first seating for dinner or a little after. I waited maybe 5-10 mins if that.
My times would range anywhere from 4:30-5:15. I think at some places if you take a later ADR your chances of waiting will probably be much higher. If you dont mind eating a bit earlier would be your best bet with certain places.

 

[clc053103]

We had 18 ADR's on our last trip. We were seated within 10 minutes at 16 of them. We waited over 20 minutes at Whispering Canyon and over an hour and a half at Le Cellier. Neither of these places were worth the wait.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I say it depends on the time of year you will be at WDW. For example in December 2004 my family and I had scheduled two dinners on seperate nights at Boma, however both times I want to say we waited at least an hour or more past our scheduled ADR because they had to many ADR's for those nights and got very backed up.

 

[pooh4evr]

We are usually seated fairly quickly- however our last trip in Dec - not during the busiest time- we watied overn an hour for 1900 PF for dinner- ahh it was painful!

 

[maxiesmom]

I usually have good luck with my ADRs. Normally I am seated in under 10 minutes. That was true even over my 4th of July trip when I had 2 ADRs a day. The only wait was for dinner at the Crystal Palace, and I think we waited about 20 minutes for that one. Not too shabby.

 

[Luv2Roam]

If we have had to wait more than 10 minutes, it has slipped my brain. Seems like once (years ago) we had to wait a little longer than 10 minutes at Le Cellier. But it was not like we were in a hurry or cared. And I don't think it was that long.
Probably my longest waits with an ADR is when going just as they open, or right before. And then it has been a matter of them just opening and getting everyone in front of us seated too.
There have been just as many times where we arrived early and were seated right away. (Not hours earlier. Anywhere from 1 hour to 30 minutes earlier.) Even with that one time we ended up being seated at our original ADR time anyway. (Think it was Coral Reef.)
One time at the Garden View Tea they would not allow me to check in at their podium until exactly my ADR time. I felt like I was at a Fast Pass entrance.

 

[justplaingoofy]

I think part of it depends when you are traveling....

if its free dining...then everyone and their mother has the dining plan.
if its a school break then I think the lines/waits are longer

anything else....maybe nothing up to :20min.

 

[grace&philipsmom]

I have only once waited for more than 15 minutes. That was for lunch at Coral Reef. The wait was 30 minutes, but I think they forgot we were there!

 

[RMulieri]

I usually have gotten seated on time, with occasional long waits.But this past trip was a longer wait than usual .We waited 40 mins past for Biergarten and almost as long for Crystal Palace.But Free Dining was going on

 

[Hopefully]

I agree with PP, you do not have my choice listed. There is a huge difference between 10 minutes and a long time. I always consider what an ADR is - not a true reservation where they set aside a table for you to show up to, but the next available slot. I don't mind waiting 20 -30 minutes. We have nearly always been seated within that time.
Last trip I waited in line 45 minutes to check into Biergarten and then another 30 to be sat. That was excessive and not worth it, IMO

 

[JDUCKY]

We've usually been seated with 5-10 min. of our reservation time. Try to show up 15-20min early, too.

If we're seated before the reservation time, then I count it as a bonus.

Only one time did it take a while (about 15-20 min) and that was a night we were rushing to get to Rose and Crown and got there 19min. after the reservation time.

 

[MrsLS]

We went last year the full week after Easter and we didn't wait any longer than 15 mins and sometimes not at all or a min or 2.

 

[TammyC]

Our longest waits have been for character meals, specifically Cape May breakfast, Restaurantosaurus (sp?) breakfast and Garden Grill dinner. Ohana and Coral Reef dinners were both around 30 min waits. We had shorter waits for Liberty Tree Tavern dinner when it was a character meal and also short waits for Boma breakfast.

We now do most of our sit down meals for lunch and grab counter service for dinner. Works for us and easier to get ADR's.

Tammy

 

[DonaldTDuck]

On about 50 ADR/PS over the time I've been going to WDW I've had 3 waits of more than a few minutes. The first was at CP, where on a Saturday during free dining we waited 25 minutes, one was H&V where we waited a half hour on a Monday and the third was PTC, where we waited nearly an hour and then had good but very slow service. They were obviously short handed. We waited in the bar and that eased any pain of waiting. At least half the time we are seated within 2 minutes.