Why ADRs instead of reservations?

[AquaDame]

I just got back from a trip to WDW and had a mostly positive experience. There were definitely hangups here and there and I had to spend over two hours all told and four trips to the concierge at my hotel and one 20 minute visit to guest relations at the main gate of MK trying to get them sorted out. We also had to wait at almost every single restaurant for quite awhile to be seated which gave me time to notice a few things;

The ADR system seems to cause a lot of trouble. People don't get it and seem to either stand uncomfortably to one side, stand around complaining and trying to laugh it off with one another or even verbally berate the cast members for the system and get sat RIGHT AWAY. We watched this happen no less than three times at one of our five ADRs. I can't even imagine how common this is, but I hate when pushy people get to go in front of me because I am accepting the rules and not being a complete dick. We also saw ourselves go in front of other people who had been waiting longer (same size party) AND watched several groups who checked in after us (again, same # of people) go in front of us. I just can't see how it is first come first served given that, and we finally asked a CM about it at Tusker House and were told - repeatedly and for 15 minutes - that OUR table was still being cleared. So maybe it works like this;
1) You get a check in time that you can fudge given the # of people with later ADRs than me checked in and seated before us (I later checked in 45 minutes early to 1900 Park Fare without issue because we were already there so I thought what the heck and I had seen it happen so many times by that point in our trip for others. Then a manager ran over to us and we were told we would have to wait until our ADR time which we didn't mind - we were in the end sat 5 minutes early which is MUCH better than the times we checked in 15 minutes early per the rules)
2) You are then assigned a table that is clearing up. I am guessing on this point due to what I saw at Tusker House but if not then how would they know "our table" was being cleared and other people at other tables who were behind us were seated first?
3) When THAT TABLE YOU WERE PREASSIGNED AT CHECKIN becomes available, you are sat, not a the next available one.

Which leads me to my question... why don't they just do a normal reservation system? Or at least make it so you can't check in early and 'beat' all those before you and make them wait longer? I understand that it is very hard to guess how long a group will stay at a given table, but that's an issue other restaurants seem to have solved. It would be so much less confusing, and guests would not get upset by a system they don't understand....

 

[catne]

I'm not sure how they could do it much differently, given the dynamics of resort & theme park dining. The only way I can see that they could do it differently is to make them hard-reservations for a pre-paid meal ...like CRT...where they can hold your table for you because you've already paid for that meal...if you don't show up, they don't lose a dime. As it is now, whether it's "reservations" or "ADR" (which used to stand for Advanced Dining Reservations, so it's basically the same thing anyway) Anyway, people make reservations and then don't show up, or show up early or late, or show up with more or less people than original reservation, etc. And the restaurants seem to do a pretty good job of working with all those variables & seating the majority of people with reservations in a reasonable amount of time. Yes, we've seen a few goof-ups but we've eaten at most of the Disney table service restaurants and only a couple of them seemed to have real problems with the seating system (both in the Polynesian...'Ohana was a mess, and Kona Cafe on a Saturday night was crazy to try and check in too.) But even there, we were actually seated within 15 minutes of our actual ADR time.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I just got back from a trip to WDW and had a mostly positive experience. There were definitely hangups here and there and I had to spend over two hours all told and four trips to the concierge at my hotel and one 20 minute visit to guest relations at the main gate of MK trying to get them sorted out. We also had to wait at almost every single restaurant for quite awhile to be seated which gave me time to notice a few things;

The ADR system seems to cause a lot of trouble. People don't get it and seem to either stand uncomfortably to one side, stand around complaining and trying to laugh it off with one another or even verbally berate the cast members for the system and get sat RIGHT AWAY. We watched this happen no less than three times at one of our five ADRs. I can't even imagine how common this is, but I hate when pushy people get to go in front of me because I am accepting the rules and not being a complete dick. We also saw ourselves go in front of other people who had been waiting longer (same size party) AND watched several groups who checked in after us (again, same # of people) go in front of us. I just can't see how it is first come first served given that, and we finally asked a CM about it at Tusker House and were told - repeatedly and for 15 minutes - that OUR table was still being cleared. So maybe it works like this;
1) You get a check in time that you can fudge given the # of people with later ADRs than me checked in and seated before us (I later checked in 45 minutes early to 1900 Park Fare without issue because we were already there so I thought what the heck and I had seen it happen so many times by that point in our trip for others. Then a manager ran over to us and we were told we would have to wait until our ADR time which we didn't mind - we were in the end sat 5 minutes early which is MUCH better than the times we checked in 15 minutes early per the rules)
2) You are then assigned a table that is clearing up. I am guessing on this point due to what I saw at Tusker House but if not then how would they know "our table" was being cleared and other people at other tables who were behind us were seated first?
3) When THAT TABLE YOU WERE PREASSIGNED AT CHECKIN becomes available, you are sat, not a the next available one.

Which leads me to my question... why don't they just do a normal reservation system? Or at least make it so you can't check in early and 'beat' all those before you and make them wait longer? I understand that it is very hard to guess how long a group will stay at a given table, but that's an issue other restaurants seem to have solved. It would be so much less confusing, and guests would not get upset by a system they don't understand....

Maybe it's just me, but thats an incredibly hard post to follow so I apologize if my comments don't make sense.

The actual wait time isn't a reflection of who should be sat first by my understanding (unless disney operates reservations different than everywhere I haver worked at). Generally, people who miss their reservation will get the next available, bt that depends on how far behind they are seating people who actually arrived promplty 10-:15 before your actual reservation).

For example, if I have a reservation at 5 pm, and you have one at 4:40 pm and we both show up at 4:50, I SHOULD get sat before you, no matter how long it takes.

Also, if you show up :30 early for your reservation, it is very understandable that you may wait :40-:45 minutes and watch other parties (same size as yours) walk up and be sat within 5-10 minutes.

Again, this is unless Disney operates under a different system that I am not aware of. Again, sorry if it doesn't help.

 

[AquaDame]

Maybe it's just me, but thats an incredibly hard post to follow so I apologize if my comments don't make sense.

The actual wait time isn't a reflection of who should be sat first by my understanding (unless disney operates reservations different than everywhere I haver worked at). Generally, people who miss their reservation will get the next available, bt that depends on how far behind they are seating people who actually arrived promplty 10-:15 before your actual reservation).

For example, if I have a reservation at 5 pm, and you have one at 4:40 pm and we both show up at 4:50, I SHOULD get sat before you, no matter how long it takes.

Also, if you show up :30 early for your reservation, it is very understandable that you may wait :40-:45 minutes and watch other parties (same size as yours) walk up and be sat within 5-10 minutes.

Again, this is unless Disney operates under a different system that I am not aware of. Again, sorry if it doesn't help.

They do use a different system it seems and that is what I don't understand. I keep hearing people say the way it works is that they take first come first served, thus the ADR vs reservation. They do not seem to stop people from checking in way ahead of time, and go ahead and seat them, presumably making people who come at their reservation time take longer to be seated. To be more clear I NEVER came late. We were always there 15 minutes early, or more in the case of 1900 Park Fare (was trying out my theory - it worked, I admit that doesn't mean its correct) If you are late to your reservation you are put into the 'stand by' line which does make sense with the reservation system I have seen at other restaurants.

 

[LSUfan4444]

They do use a different system it seems and that is what I don't understand. I keep hearing people say the way it works is that they take first come first served, thus the ADR vs reservation. They do not seem to stop people from checking in way ahead of time, and go ahead and seat them, presumably making people who come at their reservation time take longer to be seated. To be more clear I NEVER came late. We were always there 15 minutes early, or more in the case of 1900 Park Fare (was trying out my theory - it worked, I admit that doesn't mean its correct) If you are late to your reservation you are put into the 'stand by' line which does make sense with the reservation system I have seen at other restaurants.

Ah, I got ya, I wasn't aware of that, but then again, we haven't had any issues which seemed abnormal so I never thought about it.

 

[twooley2]

When we were there they told us at most places that we could not check in until 15 min prior to our ADR time. We were also assured an ADR did not guarantee a specific time just that you have a reservation. After 2 X at donalds breakfast on two different visits they are off our list after waiting over an hour past our time. I think this is because its the only character breakfast in the parks early and people figure the park closes early so they must eat there for breakfast.