What kind of wait to be seated should I plan on, even with ADR?

[Jperiod]

I keep coming across lots of people saying they had to wait long to get seated, even though they had ADRs. This really worries me since I already feel like we're short on time for the week and I don't want to waste any of it sitting around waiting to eat!

We're going 12/10-15, during a low crowd week, and will be eating dinner at biergarten, garden grill, and akershus, and breakfast at cape may, tusker, and crystal palace.

Most of our dinners are early and most of our breakfasts are late, if that matters. Thoughts?

 

[ScoJo15]

In my experiences over many years with ADR's I don't think I've ever waited more than maybe 10 minutes??

This includes character meals (Akershus, Garden Grill, Crystal Palace) that you mentioned and most of the signature restaurants and regular table service.

I usually shoot for dinners in the 7:30ish time.

Hope this helps...and interested in hearing of others experiences as well.

 

[LoriABil]

I can only comment on Breakfast at Cape May and Tusker House. Cape May was super quick to be seated, with lots of character interaction. Tusker House, on average, I think was slow. We waited on average 10 minutes past our dining time. But I will say, after going here 4 years in a row, this last experience was the best. In May we were very quickly seated. (We had an 8:10 reservation, seated at 8:08).

Generally, just try to arrive early, and this will help you get seated sooner. The only horrible wait we have had came at 50s PTC when we arrived right on time.

 

[Pakey]

Tusker and Crystal Palace are slow. The others on your list have always been on time for us.

 

[Jedi]

every ADR ive had let me in right when i checked in so... earlier then my adr time!!!! EXCEPT yak and yeti had a 10 min wait

 

[lilpooh108]

We've done Crystal Palace twice and both times (with our ADRs) had to wait over 30 minutes. The first we waited about 30 minutes. The second we waited almost 40 minutes. It was packed though, and I don't think people before us were leaving their tables "on time." It was really really annoying, and they gave us a table for 2 and we had 2 adults and a toddler so we were really squished.

At Akershus (ate there twice), we waited approx 15-20 minutes. Wasn't too bad, but the service is slow there.

 

[danceintherain]

It's really hit or miss. Character meals tend to have a reputation for longer waits, probably due to the fact that everyone pretty much always stays for the full rotation of characters. Some people will even stay longer if they miss a character while they're away from their table.

The most painful wait I ever had was at 1900 Park Fare. We arrived early and still waited a decent amount of time after our ADR. I don't even think we waited for Cinderella to come around, because we had already gotten pictures with her at CRT, and we were trying to go to EMH at the Magic Kingdom that night.

Most everywhere else we've arrived early and gotten seated around our ADR time.

The only thing that seems to make a huge difference is if you're one of the very first ADRs of the day, then you don't have to wait for others to vacate your table. By the end of the day, many places seem to get more behind.
Your early dinners might be ok, if they had a lull between lunch and dinner or don't serve lunch at all, but that doesn't always happen.

 

[Havana]

I keep coming across lots of people saying they had to wait long to get seated, even though they had ADRs. This really worries me since I already feel like we're short on time for the week and I don't want to waste any of it sitting around waiting to eat!

We're going 12/10-15, during a low crowd week, and will be eating dinner at biergarten, garden grill, and akershus, and breakfast at cape may, tusker, and crystal palace.

Most of our dinners are early and most of our breakfasts are late, if that matters. Thoughts?

We go during the busy time and an average wait is approx 10 minutes. We try to check in a little early. From your list, I do remember sometimes having to wait a little longer to be seated in Cape May.

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

I've found that Crystal Palace can have a bit longer wait times b/c of the sheer volume of people there. But I've never had to wait more than 30 mins for our table. I've experienced the same thing with Ohana for breakfast.

Everywhere else I've waited maybe 15 minutes.

The only place I had a BAD experience with a wait time was Teppan Edo....we had a late reservation, waited over 90 minutes for our seating and they nearly didn't even seat us! If we do that again, it would only be with an early reservation.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

The only time that we have waited more than 10 minutes for our ADR was during free dining. 2 hour wait at Coral Reef convinced us that we will never go during free dining again!

 

[Jperiod]

The only time that we have waited more than 10 minutes for our ADR was during free dining. 2 hour wait at Coral Reef convinced us that we will never go during free dining again!

Well, we started out on dates that don't have free dining, but Disney has since added it. We're doing an RCI exchange into DVC, so we're paying OOP for our dining plan! The whole goal was to go during a low crowd week, but I'm realizing that might not work the same as it does at Disneyland. Seems like once free dining comes available, everyone goes crazy!

Our crystal palace ADR is for lunch first thing, so hopefully that one will work ok. And Cape May is very early breakfast.

So for those of you that ended up having crazy waits, did they tell you when you checked in? Or did "15 minutes" turn into 2 hours? I was just thinking, if they're upfront about it, I can evaluate the kids' hunger and decide if we need to go elsewhere or what. Maybe I should load that app on my phone for back up.

 

[squirrel]

My longest wait was at 1900 Park Fare. We had an ADR for 5pm, which I thought was at opening. We checked in and had photos taken. Then the lobby area for the check in slowly emptied. We were the only ones there at one point. My niece kept going for more photos to pass the time. After about 30 min, I went back up to ask why it was taking so long. I was told that the restaurant opened at 4:30pm. I was not impressed, the computer system should not allow booking at 5pm if there aren't any tables left. We were finally taken to a table at 5:55pm.

 

[RMulieri]

Just a note..Free dining is going on as is the CANDLELIGHT processional dining pkgs, both can make waits at Epcot eateries a little longer..I had longer waits for my adrs in December during Free dining at the Epcot eateries then anywhere else..They work on getting the CP pkg guests in and seated and done on time since they need to be out by a certain time.We arrived 10-15mins early for Biergarten, Garden Grill and Les Chefs and got seated 10-45 mins PAST our adr times..

 

[GAGirlInVA]

We went during a different time period, but we arrived early (like recommended) and were seated before our reservation time everytime.

I don't think we ever waited more than 10 minutes.

I wouldn't expect that during CP though.

 

[lemondog]

In March of 2010 it was predicted to a 7 on the crowd calendar but ended up as a 10 EVERY SINGLE DAY. That trip we waited 30 minutes for dinner at Ohana and 45+ minutes (it was closer to an hour) for dinner at Boma. Boma was having some kind of computer problem. That was wait time BEYOND our original ADR time. My problem with Boma was they did NOT let anyone know about their computer issues, so there were a LOT of very pissed off guests waiting and waiting and waiting until finally someone went up and demanded answers. I think we all would have been much more understanding if they had just told us at check in they were slammed and had computer problems on top of that.

We have waited up to 20 minutes for dinner at LTT but that is back when it was still a character meal. Most everything else our waits have been minimal....less than 5-10 minutes.

 

[dadschum]

I will second what RMullieri said about Epcot restaurants in December. We were there last year from 12/3-12/12. We had reservations at Le Cellier on Thurs 12/9 at 5:20pm for the Candlelight Processional package. We were a party of 5.

The show was at 8:15pm so I figured we could have a nice 2 hour dinner and take our time walking to the outdoor theatre. I don't remember exactly what time we got seated but it was after 6:30pm. And the theatre is at least a 15 minute walk from Canada.

As the wait kept getting longer and we were getting more agitated I had our group look at the menu so that when we sat down we would all know what we wanted. When the waitress took our drink order we ordered everything except dessert.

We got no explanation other than "Sorry we are very busy tonight'. What I thought would be a nice relaxing and enjoyable meal before a great show turned out to be a big rush. We ate, paid the bill and made sure we all got a trip to the restroom in about an hour and 15 minutes.

The food was fantastic, some of the best steaks we had ever had but we had to shovel it in our mouths. We got to the theatre with minutes to spare.

So yes, at that time of the year I would say waits in Epcot restaruants are probably quite long. The food was great and the show was spectacuar. I would eat at Le Cellier again and I would see the show again, but never as part of a package.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

The longest wait we had this last week was Chef Mickey's which was a 7 PM ADR due to the time we arrived, waited probably 15-20 minutes. The rest of our ressies were at 5 PM, we waited maybe 10 minutes at WCC and Crystal Palace, the rest of them, Cape May, Le Cellier 11:30 lunch, Boma, and Ohanna, the pager went off almost as soon as it hit my hand! I think in general the earlier the ADR, the less backed up they are. We also had a party of 8 so in some ways that's easier since there are less parties that size.