Walking away from an ADR

[Heather07438]

Yes I know it's just a next table available situation which is fine. We have never waited longer than about 20 minutes or so which is reasonable but I dont want to feel like I have to wait longer than say 35 40 mins or I'll be penalized

Yeah, 20 minutes is fine. 30 minutes is starting to push it.

We've had some 50 minute waits. When it's happened at Skipper Canteen, Sci-Fi & BoG, we watched as tables kept sitting clean & ready. Look next time there's a long wait and you'll probably see >25% of various sized tables sitting empty on arrival and stay that way for a long time. When a party gets up, it takes 30+ minutes for a new party to be sat.

Don't know why sometimes they don't operate closer to capacity when there's a starving mob outside ready to spend money. Maybe they hold back seating when the kitchen is in the weeds? I don't know.

 

[POTCfan]

I've had to wait for Sci-Fi and Ohana regularly, but it has never been an hour. Maybe 40 minutes tops. But at other restaurants, most of the time we get seated fairly quickly (within 10 minutes - though we are mostly a party of 3 or 4, so those tables are easy to come by). While I have never walked away, I am sure that almost any restaurant would allow you to walk away if they are running behind. It only helps them get caught up and have fewer complaints. I could see that maybe there might be some newer cast member that might say otherwise if they interpreted the rules that way, but then I would just talk to another CM or manager.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Yeah, 20 minutes is fine. 30 minutes is starting to push it.

We've had some 50 minute waits. When it's happened at Skipper Canteen, Sci-Fi & BoG, we watched as tables kept sitting clean & ready. Look next time there's a long wait and you'll probably see >25% of various sized tables sitting empty on arrival and stay that way for a long time. When a party gets up, it takes 30+ minutes for a new party to be sat.

Don't know why sometimes they don't operate closer to capacity when there's a starving mob outside ready to spend money. Maybe they hold back seating when the kitchen is in the weeds? I don't know.

There's always a chance they are understaffed when you see empty tables like that. Perhaps servers called in or didn't show up for some reason. They can't just fill tables that are empty if they don't have enough servers for those tables.

 

[Dug720]

It was here's a buzzer and a few "it will just be a few more mins" while we watch lots and lots of people go by....

I can understand seating groups of 2- 4 quicker, but there were bigger groups , maybe not 12 but 6 -8.

Maybe it was that those 6-8 parties were not together and the delay was trying to get 2 tables close together for your larger party?

 

[jo-jo]

Maybe it was that those 6-8 parties were not together and the delay was trying to get 2 tables close together for your larger party?

I'm sure that was it, but if I was told because you have such a large party it will take an extra long time to get two tables together, I would have said "who's wants to eat at Casey's". This was our family trip with a 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 , 15 year old kids and 8 adults. Waiting for an hour with those kids made it seem twice as long. This was our only TS of the trip, so I don't know if it would have have been a constant problem.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

On our last trip, we waited about 45-50 minutes at Yak and Yeti and 50s Primetime. My son wanted to walk away but I was sure it couldn't be much longer!

WOW, was the park extremely busy? I don't think I have ever seen Yak and Yeti when it wasn't walk up. In fact, we eat there most trip and never even felt the need to make an ADR! 50's on the other hand, yeah, have no trouble believing that.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

We've had some waits, but only O'hana was even close to an hour.

 

[Beer Me]

Lots of good advice here, but just wanted to chime in that - in my experience Disney is reasonable with enforcing those penalty fees.

Once a penalty fee showed up on my card weeks before our planned trip to Disney. I called thinking it was their mistake ready to give them hell and after talking to someone for a minute realized it was my mistake. Somehow I stupidly made an adr for the wrong month. How I didn’t notice on mde or my emails I don’t know.

So I didn’t ask for anything. Just apologized for wasting their time willing to pay for my mistake but they removed the charge anyway.

The fees are there to keep people from abusing the adr system so that isn’t what you’re doing they will work with you.

 

[Pooh2]

WOW, was the park extremely busy? I don't think I have ever seen Yak and Yeti when it wasn't walk up. In fact, we eat there most trip and never even felt the need to make an ADR! 50's on the other hand, yeah, have no trouble believing that.

It was Thanksgiving weekend.
Larger parties checking in after us were taken in before us.
I suspect they were limiting parties of two to the two top tables to keep open the larger tables for 4 or more.
Definitely soured my husband's attitude toward going there on our next trip.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Well, hope he changes his mind, they are worth a second chance.

 

[maxiesmom]

Sure it it's true, at least the vast, vast majority of people who attend Disney operate under the assumption that a reservation means a short or no wait for a table. Disney's website even states as much -- "You can relax—confident that your table is waiting for you—whenever you have a dining reservation at a Walt Disney World theme park or Resort hotel restaurant." https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/help/dining-reservations/

Sounds like advertising. Do people really think a table is sitting there empty, waiting for them? If so they are the same people who think mermaids are in the pools and that Cinderella often runs down the stairs at the Grand Floridian. And ghosts are riding the boats.

 

[freshmanjs]

Sounds like advertising. Do people really think a table is sitting there empty, waiting for them? If so they are the same people who think mermaids are in the pools and that Cinderella often runs down the stairs at the Grand Floridian. And ghosts are riding the boats.

There is a lot of ground between "a table is sitting there empty" and "you will be seated an hour after your ADR time." No one thinks the former, but it should not be the latter either. Nice strawman, though!

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

On our last trip, we waited about 45-50 minutes at Yak and Yeti and 50s Primetime. My son wanted to walk away but I was sure it couldn't be much longer!

And this is why we are Landry's Select Club members. We have always been seated within 5-10 minutes, even with a party of six on Thanksgiving Day.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Sounds like advertising. Do people really think a table is sitting there empty, waiting for them? If so they are the same people who think mermaids are in the pools and that Cinderella often runs down the stairs at the Grand Floridian. And ghosts are riding the boats.

I "really think" that Disney markets their dining reservation system as a true reservation system like you'd encounter at any non-Disney restaurant. My experience at multiple Disney restaurants over multiple trips is that my table is almost always "waiting" for me, or ready within a reasonable 10 minute or so period of our reservation time.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

It isn’t intuitive to think that a Disney restaurant reservation operates significantly differently than a reservation in the real world. They even use the word reservation now, where I don’t think they used to. Wasn’t it priority seating?

I think it’s completely logical to expect that you will be seated within a reasonable amount of time when you arrive on time for a reservation. This is how restaurant reservations work. How the restaurant handles it on their end is not my concern, if their methods are regularly making me wait significantly past my reservation time that is IMO an issue that has to be addressed not simply accepted. Restaurants that frequently run into this issue need to be taking less ADRs.

For the record, most of the time we are sat almost immediately. If we were not, and had to wait say 30 mins past check in time, I would say something.

 

[bumbershoot]

Then if they insisted they were going to charge me anyway for leaving, then I'd complain vociferously.

The host will have no say if you’re charged. From what I’ve learned here (and experienced) its at the end of the day when the manager sits down to compare ADRs to who showed up. If your reason for leaving wasn’t noted ornoticed they might charge you. And then you can make a quick call and get it reversed.

The point is, waiting an hour for a table anywhere is completely ridiculous. I would never wait that long, no way no how. Life is too short to be standing there with a beeper waiting impatiently to be seated.

Our group once decided that 40 minutes was too long to wait. People were hungry!

and then we looked around Epcot for over an hour for a place with food everyone wanted to eat until we finally went to SS. It was a problem for our group because my then husband is diabetic and gets really freaked out and angry when hungry (he’s type 2 and it’s not really a hypoglycemic thing). Fun.

We wouhave eaten quicker if we’d just waited.

And this is why we are Landry's Select Club members. We have always been seated within 5-10 minutes, even with a party of six on Thanksgiving Day.

lucky!

Our checkin was just fine. Sent almost immediately inside. And then we waited 30-40 minutes in line at the checkin desk inside the restaurant behind all those before us (either members or people simply called before we got there). And then to be called to a table.

 

[Hobbes]

Last June when I went with my parents we had an ADR at the Plaza. When we checked in they told us they were running behind and it would be about an hour. They let us cancel with no penalty and then gave us each a voucher for a free QS meal anywhere, which they were doing for everybody who wanted to cancel.

Funnily enough the longest wait we ever had was plaza-about 40 minutes. And of course , knowing they have no bathrooms inside, I nipped to the restrooms by Tomorrowland Terrace which was the EXACT moment they came outside to take us to the table!

 

[slyster]

I find it interesting that some are saying it's not like a real reservation. What does ADR stand for? I get waiting 15-20 minutes, but not much more than that. I read earlier that some restaurants tell the waiting party when they check in how long the wait will be. If it's more than 30 minutes, a party should be able to cancel without penalty.

 

[HarleenQ]

We've walked away from a Brown Derby F! package reservation. They let us know when we checked in we were looking at 60 minutes or more of a wait. They also told us we could cancel without penalty without us even asking. It had been raining earlier, and people end up lingering at tables because they don't want to head back out in the rain.

We had a Jedi Training reservation that interfered with the delay. We let the hostess know we wanted to cancel but we didn't want to lose our reserved seating for F! and she gave us the tickets for F! and sent us on our way.

Honestly, it was kind of nice. We had the benefit of F! dining package seating without the cost and time suck. I really think if it's reasonable, they aren't going to charge you a no show fee.

 

[GovieMom]

WOW, was the park extremely busy? I don't think I have ever seen Yak and Yeti when it wasn't walk up.

On our most recent trip the second week of May, we had to wait at Yak & Yeti about 15 minutes past our ADR time. So yes, it does happen. Also, I've been trying to change our upcoming ADR there during the first week of March to a different time slot, and there are none to be had!