Waiting with ADR's?

[OKW Lover]

Although I voted for "within 10 minutes", to my mind there is a large leap between that and "waited for a long time". I'd really expect my wait to be in the 15-20 minute range unless going at a less busy time.

 

[DisCopper]

When I created the poll, it was based on two things:
1. Things I'd read in other threads, and
2. My personal expectations for dining outside of Disney.

In my mind, if I have a reservation, especially at a decent restaurant, I expect to be seated almost immediately. I would say a 10 - 15 minute wait would be long (but probably appropriate since they may have to clean tables, etc...). Anything over that would be "a long time."

So I purposely left out additional timespans. Maybe instead of "a long time," I should have said, "over 10 minutes." But I wanted to get a feel for people who were aggravated at their wait time (which seems to be a lot here on the boards- although not on this thread).

 

[maxiesmom]

When I created the poll, it was based on two things:
1. Things I'd read in other threads, and
2. My personal expectations for dining outside of Disney.

In my mind, if I have a reservation, especially at a decent restaurant, I expect to be seated almost immediately. I would say a 10 - 15 minute wait would be long (but probably appropriate since they may have to clean tables, etc...). Anything over that would be "a long time."

So I purposely left out additional timespans. Maybe instead of "a long time," I should have said, "over 10 minutes." But I wanted to get a feel for people who were aggravated at their wait time (which seems to be a lot here on the boards- although not on this thread).

But Disney ADRs are not like reservations at restaurants outside of WDW. All an ADR does is guarantee you the next slot that opens up for a party of your size. They do not guarantee a particular exact time.

http://allears.net/din/reserv.htm

 

[SAHDad]

For most ADRs, we have been seated within 10 minutes or so. Last January, when it was just DW and I, for example, we never had to wait more than a couple minutes - maybe 5 at most.

In October, on the other hand, we waited more than an hour for Crystal Palace, and almost 90 minutes at Trails End. FWIW, we were a large party (over a dozen), but try explaining to the kids (all of whom were under 6) that we had to wait "just a few more minutes" when they see other groups show up, go in, eat and come out while we are still waiting for an ADR that was more than an hour previous.

 

[DisCopper]

But Disney ADRs are not like reservations at restaurants outside of WDW. All an ADR does is guarantee you the next slot that opens up for a party of your size. They do not guarantee a particular exact time.

http://allears.net/din/reserv.htm

Yep... I know that. But my experiences at Disney do compare to reservations out in "the real world." I've always been seated very quickly.

I realize that lots of people don't know the ADR rules, so I suspected that some of the people who complained had similar experiences during one vacation, and when they returned, complained about a 15 or 20 minute wait.

 

[Pakey]

We have been to WDW more than 20 times in the past dozen years; we've eaten at almost every TS there at least once, some several times.

The ones where we are almost always seated behind (more than 15 minutes past ADR) are:

Coral Reef
Ca Grill (I would rank this one the worst as the wait is frequently more than 30 minutes)

We've also had isolated incidents of a long wait. I think that can happen to anybody. I never comment on these.

 

[JCMHutch]

We go to Disney once a year and the time of year varies per trip. We've been there in March, May, June and October. We always arrive 15 minutes prior to our time and we always have ADR's set-up (I do try to book them at a more "off" time - lunches around 2:00 and dinners around 7:00).

Even when the parks have been very busy we have never waiting more than 10 minutes or so for most restaurants. The only exceptions to this were Ohana (25 min) and Le Cellier (45 minutes).