What's up with the short wait time at restaurants?

[Grim Grinning Marathon Runner]

We just got back from a wonderful trip from 7/15 - 7/21, and had a GREAT time!

The weather was pretty hot, but we did midafternoon naps and spent a good bit of pool time at the Poly. The crowds were high, but not anywhere near as big as I've seen them before during other summers, President's Day, or Soap Weekends.

Anyway, with the high crowds and busy areas of the parks, I figured we'd settle in for at least a 45 minute wait at many restaurants, but that was definitely NOT the case.

We walked right in to any restaurant we wanted, at any time of the day, and usually walked right up to the checkout area with zero wait.

What shocked me the most was when we had dinner at the Columbia Harbor House one night, a lot of the first floor was vacant, and there were probably only about two families on the second floor!

What's up with this??

The only thing I can figure is that I saw several families wheeling around large luggage size coolers, maybe they brought in food for the whole day.

I'm definitely not complaining, because going to Cosmic Ray's Starlight cafe, the Columbia Harbor House, Nine Dragons, Rainforest Cafe, and many, many others with no wait is NOT a problem!

[SBETigg]

Wow, no wait? Did you have ADRs or do you mean no wait even for walk-ins? That's pretty incredible. Sounds as if you are the right places at the right times. Cool for you!:thumbsup: Glad to hear you had a wonderful trip.

[Grim Grinning Marathon Runner]

We made ADRs for the Prime Time Cafe and two character breakfasts, but otherwise we just walked in. I really couldn't believe it, either. I tried to talk to as many CMs as I could to see if they could venture a guess about it or tell me how long this has been going on, but they were clueless too.

[DessertDivaFL]

That is amazing that you didn't have to wait long for table service dining. We can only be so lucky. Did you dine early? I usually try to dine earlier than the peak times.

[dolphinmickey9170]

But I thought they didn't allow you to bring in coolers with your own food?

[CanadianWDWFan]

Glad you didn't have to wait for your meals!:thumbsup:

We always find that Columbia Harbor House is always empty. Because of this it is one of our favourite places to eat at MK.

Thanks for your report.

[moe513]

Great. We have never waited a long time either.

[cinderellagrl]

we encountered a similar situation during the week of fourth of July! While we made at least one adr for each night we were able to do many walk ins for lunch! We walked into Coral Reef on the 2nd of july around 12:30 and into Alfredos on the fifth of July around noon as well!

[Becky'sMom]

I just got back and had the same situation. We even had adr's for cp for 5 people and then our friends wanted to join at the lastsecond and they gave us 2 tables to seat 10 people!
I personally believe that the extreme heat created alot of last minute cancellations with people just too exhausted to stay in the parks for dinner and also cancellations for lunch from people who just wanted to go back to their hoel for a while until the hottest part of the day passed.
Lauren

[pixiesmimi]

That is great to hear about the short lines. We didn't have any problem in June with walk ups either. And to answer the question about bringing your own food in, yes, you can take a cooler with your own food and drink in the parks but what I was told was that it should be in small collasable coolers or the size to fit in lockers. Would not have wanted to drag a large cooler around all day. We took a small one for the kids and with frozen water bottles that we could fit in the back of a stroller. We put snacks in ours but could have put sandwiches or such in there if we had chosen to. You can eat in any of the outside table areas and I had heard that you could eat inside also with your own food but don't know for certain about this.

[irish1967]

Mid-June we walked up to Alfredo's at 12:30 on a Sunday and were seated w/in 5 minutes. And at that point (my SIL called during our lunch) Soarin' was a 2 hour wait and FPs were out for the day - so it wasn't a particulary lean day :confused:

Although we ended up cancelling the ADR (members of our party didn't have WDW tix) we were able to make an ADR for 25 (yes that is twenty five) less than a month in advance for mid-June in EPCOT.

I was able to make ADRs for 7:00 pm for 4 adults 171 days out today for Le Cellier, Boma, Brown Derby and Kona Cafe - I was kind of worried about times given that is the Marathon weekend and (I hear) is a very crowded time.

My guess - the people who really focus on food are going for the free dining and not worrying about the crowds.

Better for me - I like the ENTIRE experience and if the restaurants aren't crowded when I am there ...

[mainemajor]

Glad you didn't have to wait for your meals!:thumbsup:

We always find that Columbia Harbor House is always empty. Because of this it is one of our favourite places to eat at MK.

Thanks for your report.

You do not read a lot about Columbia House but we have eaten there a couple of times and got right in and it is such a relaxing place to eat and get out of the hustle and bustle of the park.:mickey: