What's a reasonable amount of time to expect to be seated in?

[Asnell]

What would you consider an average time to expect to be seated in as compared to your actual ADR time?

I'm curious as to whether others have found the waits to be reasonable. If we're subject to a fee for no-shows, I would like to be seated within a reasonable time, or if the wait goes beyond our threshold, I'd expect not to be charged a no-show fee.

What's been your experience with this? Anyone ever choose to to leave without eating after an unusually long wait?

 

[disney world dreamer]

in my experience it really depends on the restaurant.

first i always arrive 15 minutes before my ADR to check in as disney recommends.

at crystal palace i'm usually seated before my ADR time arrives.

at sci-fi if i don't have an ADR for right when it opens i expect i'm gonna wait a good 15 minutes AFTER my ADR time has come so its about a 30 minute wait when you factor in that i got there and checked in 15 minutes before my ADR.

at chef mickey's you tend to get your pic taken quickly but then sit around forever to be seated.
once they were not calling us and were not calling us and my niece who was 3 at the time was very hungry and started crying.
we tried to get someone's attention but they would not come over.
finally the photographer came over and asked what was wrong so we told her and she literally ran and got my niece a juice box cuz she was so hungry she felt ill. within 2 minutes we were seated so clearly they forgot about us somehow.
in that situation we had been waiting for 45 minutes including the 15 minutes prior to our ADR time. that was about the only time that we considered saying screw it we are leaving.

but for the most part i would say waiting no more than 15 minutes after your ADR is a reasonable time to wait.

 

[Missyrose]

In talking to CMs, Disney's unofficial rule is to have you seated within 20 minutes of your ADR. There are some places that have issues with that time frame -- 'Ohana, Sci-Fi, Chef Mickey's.

Your ADR isn't a reservation in the typical sense, though. It gives you the next available table for a party of your size, which is how Disney gets away with running behind reservation times so often.

 

[lizard1]

I'd say it depends on your party size. We travel as a party of 8 so I expect that it takes a little longer sometimes, as larger parties seem to take longer to finish or sometimes they have to find 2 adjoining tables to seat us at. We always arrive to our reservation and check in 15 minutes early. Usually we are seated within about 15 minutes of our reservation time. The longest we have waited was this past summer at Hollywood and Vine where we weren't seated until almost 1 hour after our reservation time.

 

[maxiesmom]

Don't expect them to waive the fee if you decide to leave. It doesn't work that way, even if it would be nice if it did.

Most of the time you are seated within 15 minutes. But it can take longer.

 

[palmettogirl07]

We once had a two hour wait for Garden Grill. They allowed us to cancel when we checked in and didn't have to pay a fee. But that was before the CC hold.

 

[julluvsdisney]

We usually wait less than 15 min. In July we checked into Ohana and they said they were running about an hour behind and gave us the option to cancel and they would waive the fee. I think if the wait is really long it benefits everyone if they give you the option to cancel and they waive the fee.

 

[emij]

Last week we ate at 1900 PF for dinner - we were seated within 5 minutes.

At Mama Melrose we had a 12:15 adr - they opened at 12, so one would think it would be a short wait, but it was about 25 minutes.

At Crystal Palace we had a 1:15 adr, we checked in at 1:05 and were seated about 1:40.

We had a Sunday Brunch at Cape May for 10:15 - we checked in at 10:10 and were seated at 10:40.

 

[mickeynut1]

What would you consider an average time to expect to be seated in as compared to your actual ADR time?

I'm curious as to whether others have found the waits to be reasonable. If we're subject to a fee for no-shows, I would like to be seated within a reasonable time, or if the wait goes beyond our threshold, I'd expect not to be charged a no-show fee.

What's been your experience with this? Anyone ever choose to to leave without eating after an unusually long wait?

Everyone's experience is different, but we usually arrive at least 15 minutes prior to our ADR time and have always gotten seated right away or within 5 minutes of checking in, with the exception of Boma where we are usually seated right at our ADR time.