Why is there no guide to party size for restaurants at Disney?

[DVCKev]

See the title. When booking a party of 5 for instance I get no love it seems, but switch it to 3 and 2 and voila they are there. But nothing says what the max party size is for a given restaurant. Even worse if you have a party larger, then you have to split them up. But from experience places like the German place in EPCOT I know can handle parties of 7 or more based upon seeing their long table set up (pre-covid, have no clue now lol). So why don't they put up something to advise folks regarding party size, seems so easy and helpful especially now that the 60 day reservation mode has made it barbaric to get any reservations now, God help you if your not on property to get a reservation. I understand the 6am thing now to get anything but at least letting people know what the max party size is would save folks some time at the 6am rush and you could plan to split up if needed to go to the place you want to with your party. Just thinking out loud.....It is my first experience in 15 years needing to book 5 instead of the usual 4, and it sucks imo.

 

[gregskellington]

Well a table of 3 and a table of 2 can fit at a 4 top. A table of 5 cannot. ADRs are based on table split, not total of seats in the restaurant.

 

[lockets]

Agree that ideal party size parameter is convoluted when booking ADR. Even if they had a "max pax per table" or book parties of X in two groups or something of the like would help.

 

[CarolynFH]

See the title. When booking a party of 5 for instance I get no love it seems, but switch it to 3 and 2 and voila they are there. But nothing says what the max party size is for a given restaurant. Even worse if you have a party larger, then you have to split them up. But from experience places like the German place in EPCOT I know can handle parties of 7 or more based upon seeing their long table set up (pre-covid, have no clue now lol). So why don't they put up something to advise folks regarding party size, seems so easy and helpful especially now that the 60 day reservation mode has made it barbaric to get any reservations now, God help you if your not on property to get a reservation. I understand the 6am thing now to get anything but at least letting people know what the max party size is would save folks some time at the 6am rush and you could plan to split up if needed to go to the place you want to with your party. Just thinking out loud.....It is my first experience in 15 years needing to book 5 instead of the usual 4, and it sucks imo.

I agree it would be helpful for the restaurant's description to specify the largest party they could accommodate. But did you know that you could book for a party of 6, show up with 5, and have everyone seated at the same table, with no penalty? Disney's ADR booking system doesn't like odd numbers, and I've read of people dining solo who had to book a table for 4 because the system told them there were no tables for parties of one, two or even three.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Agree that ideal party size parameter is convoluted when booking ADR. Even if they had a "max pax per table" or book parties of X in two groups or something of the like would help.

It's frankly a joke that they don't.

You have to just feel it out by trial and error.

 

[ninafeliz]

I agree that would be helpful. We have 9 for our upcoming trip and I wish I knew which places would have even been able to book 9 vs the ones that won’t even let you! Instead they just all come up as none available, there’s no difference between all previously reserved and not even an option.

 

[maleficent55]

I agree that would be helpful. We have 9 for our upcoming trip and I wish I knew which places would have even been able to book 9 vs the ones that won’t even let you! Instead they just all come up as none available, there’s no difference between all previously reserved and not even an option.

You might be better off booking for 10

No penalty to show up with 9

 

[lifebybethany]

I agree that would be helpful. We have 9 for our upcoming trip and I wish I knew which places would have even been able to book 9 vs the ones that won’t even let you! Instead they just all come up as none available, there’s no difference between all previously reserved and not even an option.

From recent experience booking for a super long trip when we were looking at like 60 days + 7 days out and we could get basically anything with small parties, the only thing over 8 I ever got was a Skipper's for 10. My mom saw a 7:30am at Topolino's for 14, but that wasn't gonna happen for our group. I was disappointed and even called the 'group line' and was told they can't do anything that doesn't show up on the system online.