Will I be seated on time?

[JM1226]

Just curious if I have a ADR for 5:30pm will I have to wait or will I be seated right away?

 

[Disneylover99]

Depends on the place.

Always arrive 15 minutes early for your ADR and expect to wait 15 minutes (or even longer) after your reservation for a table.

Your reservation guarantees that you won't be turned away. But if it's really busy, it is possible to wait 30 minutes or more for your table.

 

[aubriee]

Depends. We always arrive early. Sometimes we have been seated early, sometimes we are seated within a few minutes of our ADRs times, and sometimes we have waited waaaaay past our ADR times. It seems like Ohana and Le Cellier are the two worst for running really behind. With an early time like 5:30pm though, I'd guess you have a good shot of being seated close to ontime. The longest we've ever waited past our ADR time was almost 75 minutes at Le Cellier one night. Oh yes, we also waited a really, really long time past our ADR at Rose & Crown and also Chef Mickey's before.

By the way, if you show up too early for your ADR, some restaurants will tell you to come back no more than 15 minues prior to your ADR time. I know we've arrived 30-45 minutes early and have been told to return closer to our ADR time at Le Cellier, Crystal Palace, Ohanas, and probably a few others.

 

[TDC Nala]

Totally depends on how things are going when you arrive. Having an ADR is no guarantee that you will be seated at that exact time.

 

[maxiesmom]

Your ADR does not guarantee you will get seated at that exact time. It gets you the next table available for your size party.

Which restaurant are we talking? The Crystal Palace is known for running way behind. As is 'Ohana.

 

[figment_jii]

I'll also toss in that we've had to wait considerable amount of time past our ADR at Be Our Guest and Citricos.

As others have said, it really depends on the restaurant and the crowds. I've been to Rose & Crown and seated as soon as we arrived and other times I've had to wait an hour past our ADR. There is really no way to know until you arrive.

In general, I would say that if you have an ADR close to the opening time of a venue, you're less likely to have to wait a long time. So, if your restaurant opens at 5:00 pm, you'll probably be seated fairly close to your ADR time, but if the restaurant has been open for a while, you might have to wait.

 

[gtpoohbear]

We've generally been seated within 5-10 minutes of our ADR time (and sometimes even before it when we've arrived early) but there is never a guarantee of that. I think the longest we waited was 40 minutes past our ADR at CRT, and close to 30 minutes at Le Cellier. We've also waited about 15-20 minutes past at character meals like CP, Ohana, and TH. Those are the only ones I can think of that we've had a significant wait at, and we've done close to 40 TS meals over the past 5 years.

 

[sjs314]

As others have mentioned it depends on the Restaurant. I find most times we are seated 10-15 mins after the ADR time. We normally check-in 15-25 mins early and if it is a popular restaurant I try to get the earliest Time available, 11-11:30 for Lunch, 4-5 for Dinner which tends to cut down on wait time.

 

[lisagirl88]

We had to wait a VERY long time after our ADR at O'hana's last year and we were there when the restaurant opened and it was not a busy time of year. It got to the point after 90 minutes that I asked to talk to the manager and complained(waiting that long with 4 kids is trying). We also had to wait about 45 minutes past our ADR at CP and our ADR was just after the restaurant opened. I can see waiting up to 15 minutes, but the 90 minutes was not approriate IMO. Why bother making ressies if you are made to wait that long. We were traveling with my parents and my dad was ticked which made for a few tense dinners!

 

[maxiesmom]

I can see waiting up to 15 minutes, but the 90 minutes was not approriate IMO. Why bother making ressies if you are made to wait that long. We were traveling with my parents and my dad was ticked which made for a few tense dinners!

And ADR guarantees you will be seated. It does not guarantee you will be seated at that exact time. Rather it gets you the next available table for your size party.

 

[mickeynut1]

Just curious if I have a ADR for 5:30pm will I have to wait or will I be seated right away?

As others have said, it depends on the restaurant, time of year, etc. But with that said, I make all of our ADRs around 5:30-5:45 as that's our normal dinner time at home and we have yet to wait a considerable amount of time to be seated. We always arrive 10-15 minutes before our time and more times than not have been seated right at or just a few minutes before our allotted time.

 

[Hillbeans]

We waited almost 50 minutes for our ADR at Boma on Sunday November 2nd, and we were departing for a cruise so we didn't have a lot of extra time to wait around. The lobby area was a total zoo and I think they were not turning away walk-ups either, so it just made for a huge mosh of people waiting around.

It really makes me question why I even bothered with the ADR in the first place and there was obviously a huge breakdown in the process. Why even bother making a reservation months in advance if you're going to be made to wait another 50 minutes?