How early have you been seated?

[January-2007]

Here's a question that I'm sure will vary in answers, but all the same, how early have you been seated at restaurants? As in, you're ADR time is 6:00 but you show up at some earlier time, have they told you to come back or do they give you a pager, and if the latter, have you been seated way before your ADR time?

We generally get to the restaurants right on time or within that 15 minute prior window, but twice we showed up early. At the Sci Fi it was no problem, and were actually finished and paying for our meal at the exact time our ADR was actually for, but at the Liberty Tree Tavern we had to come back at our ADR time because, well, they weren't open yet.

What have your experiences been? We're going to the most TS ever imaginable in September since we're participating in the Free Dining Plan so this is something that has spiked my curiousity. Also, how late can you show up and they will still honor your ADR?

[Guya103]

For us, it seems to depend on the time of day. We always tend to be early and have also had different results. Last year, for example, We dined at the Brown Derby for lunch and they were ready for us right on time. We dined at Prime Time for dinner the time before last and waited well over 1/2 hour just for our table. It has never really bothered us much. The waiting is ample time to people watch!!

The only terrible experience with dining that we have ever had with timing and other conditions would be the Backyard Barbeque (Do they even have it anymore?). The food was warm, bugs were everywhere and we waited over an hour for our bus to arrive at 11:30 as we all stood in complete darkness. Oh well! It's Disney, bad experiences happen everywhere-it has never bothered us, that's for sure!

Good question, though. I am also curious if others have waited an absurd length of time to be seated with reservations.:mickey:

[tadshome]

We used the DDP in June last year and I made all 14 of the ADR's for around 6pm. We generally arrived 10 minutes before our time and were seated almost straight away.
The only exception to this was Le Cellier where we had to wait until 6.20 but this was not a problem. :eat:

[jodijo]

Every time we have gone to CRT it has been frustrating. We normally make ADR's around 9pm for dinner. (We live on the west coast so that is 6pm our time.) So, we normally arrive at 8:45. However,we have never been seated before 9:30! We have never had a problem anywhere else.

[MsMin]

I showed up 20 min early for Japan and they fussed at me for coming too early. She made me wait another 10 min. before checking in then we waited another 45 min. for a table.
Typically I get there 15 min early and have been fortunate enough to be seated fairly quick. We had to wait @ CRT (before the switch) b/c we had the first time slot and lunch wasn't finished and we had to wait for the restaurant to completely empty before we could go upstairs, so be aware of those transition times.
We had a problem last Dec. b/c we lost my dad right before we had to leave for our ressies @ Concourse and I asked guest services about late arrivals for an ADR, they called the restaurant for us to alert them to our problem and then treated us to a taxi to get us there by the fastest method. They did seem to think that it was important to get there w/i a reasonable time of the ADR. I'm sure that w/ heavy crowds and/or if w/ free dining the ressies will not hold very long, our experience was in Dec. before the big holiday rush.

[tinksmom02]

Every time we have gone to CRT it has been frustrating. We normally make ADR's around 9pm for dinner. (We live on the west coast so that is 6pm our time.) So, we normally arrive at 8:45. However,we have never been seated before 9:30! We have never had a problem anywhere else.

We showed up early for every ressie on our last trip (5-15 minutes early), and were seated very promptly, with the exception of CRT (breakfast).

We had 2:30 ARDs at LeCellier, showed up at 2, just to check in. The hostess told us our table wouldn't be ready until 2:30, we said fine, we were just checking in early, and went to the KidCot station. Not 3 minutes later, the hostess comes walking down the path looking for us, our table was ready! LOL

[Pocahontas]

We once got to Ohana's about 40 minutes early for our ADR, and decided to check in anyway. We were seated within 10 minutes or less.

Also at Nine Dragons resturant in Epcot we went about 30 minutes early and we were seated almost immediately.

I think a lot of it depends on what time of year your going and early evening also seems to be a little less crowded. It's also possable someone else either didn't show up for their ADR or came late so that may be why we were seated early.

[disney100%]

On our last trip we found with my son (first time we traveled with a little one) we needed to eat earlier than most of our ADRs. We had no problem anywhere. We showed up to Beirgarten 30 min early and they seated us within 5 minutes of asking if we could be seated early.

On our "pre-children" trips, I don't remember ever having to wait to be seated and we have always eaten at TS restaurants for dinner and some lunches. But, as someone else mentioned, we did show up early to Teppanyaki once and that was not well received. They still didn't seat us until it was our ADR time, which of course was fine with us, we were just happy to be there.

[sleepingbooty]

Last year, we were pretty much right on time for everything. But the year before, we showed up an hour late for our ressie at Ohana our first night. We had just driven in that day, and had fogotten to factor in the change from Central to Eastern time, so we got in a little later than planned. Then we got all turned around and lost trying to get to the Poly. It was so frustrating! They were wonderful about it and got us in right away. The next day we had a 2:50 ressie for Cinderella's Royal Table. Around 12:30 it became apparent that Lucy (almost 2 at the time) wasn't going to make it much longer without food and a nap. We checked with them about getting in early - and they said they'd see what they could do. We had a table within 10 minutes!

[LoriMistress]

It depends on how early you arrive and what time your ADR is. If your ADR is after 5:30pm then I would recommend arrive at least a minium 1/2 hour early--because most likely you'll be seated before the crowds get in.

[Natazu]

We're probably in the high 80% of getting seated within 5 minutes of checking in, up to 30 minutes before our ADR. Most of the 20% has been during Free Dining. I always wonder if I tell them we paid for our dining plan, can we go ahead and get seated.