What if we have fewer people than our ADR?

[rbalcom]

This is the first time I will be travelling with other family members at WDW and I'm a little worried that while everyone has agreed to our ADR's, they may change their minds at the last moment. We are a group of 13 which includes 4 different families. We will be at WDW for Easter week and we have 4 ADR"S which include everybody. What happens if they change their minds? Will we all lose the reservation? Can we change at the last moment for fewer people? Anyone with ideas on this? Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

It has happened to us. If you know in advance, give them a courtesy call. If not, just show up with fewer people. We've done it several times for various reasons with a group of nine that became six or seven. Didn't seem to be a problem when we did it.

Bob

 

[shellybaxter]

Did you have to give a credit card for any of your ADRs. If so you may be charged a no-show fee for those who did not make it. Other than that it shouldn't be a problem

 

[byoung]

No credit card except for dinner shows and event dining.

 

[shellybaxter]

No credit card except for dinner shows and event dining.

The OP said they were going for Easter week. I know that some holiday dinning, even at regular restuarants, requires a credit card hold. Also, I believe the Cali Grill is now requiring a credit card and I wouldn't call that an event. Of course both princess meals now require credit cards as well as fantasmic, so even on a regular week a family could have one or more credit card ADRs

Shelly

 

[majortom]

No credit card except for dinner shows and event dining.

If you have a pre-pay or a guarantee, their official policy is that if your change in party size results in a need for a table size other than what you booked, you are responsible for the guarantee for each person different than your original priority seating.

Three examples:

You book 4, you show up with 3. Same table size and you are not charged anything for your missing fourth guest.

You book 3 and show up with 2. You went from a 4-top to a two-top. You owe them $20.

You book a 4 top and show up with 5 people. You went from a 4-top to a round. You owe them for $80 and you get put on their standby list.

Now, I have never booked a table that requires a guarantee (and because of policies like these, I would never do it). They may or may not actually enforce this, but since I do not think any of their guarantee restaurants would be worth taking that kind of risk.

/carmi

 

[ccw]

For my trip in Nov., our party size dropped by one from the time I made our ADRs. I thought the thing to do was call Disney to change ressies but, when I tried that, I was told they would have to totally cancel my existing ADRs,and then re-book new ones SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY which, of course, was the problem. Not only were the times I originally booked not available but there were no available slots even close! SO the CM said to keep the existing ADRs and just tell the host/hostess when we showed up for our meal that our party size had changed. (we were not impacted by credit card guarantees). So that is what we did and it worked out just fine.

 

[webray]

Fewer people shouldn't be a problem, just don't take extras.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We haven't had problems lowering the number of people but increasing it can cause a lot of hassles.