If you have an adr for a restaurant

married2mm

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 15, 2011
And your wait to be seated is way past your adr time-can you leave without penalty?

Or, if the servers inside the restaurant keep you waiting?

or any unpleasantness occurs before food and you wish to leave-would the $10 per head still be taken?
 
And your wait to be seated is way past your adr time-can you leave without penalty?

Or, if the servers inside the restaurant keep you waiting?

or any unpleasantness occurs before food and you wish to leave-would the $10 per head still be taken?
As I understand it - as long as one member of your party checks-in at the podium, you will not be charged the no-show fee.

That does not mean that this one person needs to be seated, just that they check-in.

So, that one person can decide, "No thank you, we're not hungry tonight." -- No fee.

As to the 'tone' of your question, no Disney does not necessarily have the reverse offer to patrons who: a.) are seated well after their scheduled ADR time, and/or b.) receive bad service in any way.

However, you may get a few Fast Passes.
 
That does not mean that this one person needs to be seated, just that they check-in.

So, that one person can decide, "No thank you, we're not hungry tonight." -- No fee.

I'm not so sure about this one. How would that be any different than just not showing up at all? The reason the no-show fee was instituted in the first place was they had too many people not fulfilling their ADRs and they had empty tables. If people start sending one person over to check-in and then say "no thank you," then Disney is in the same boat they were before. I just don't think they'll let you say "no thank you" for no reason.
 
I'm not so sure about this one. How would that be any different than just not showing up at all? The reason the no-show fee was instituted in the first place was they had too many people not fulfilling their ADRs and they had empty tables. If people start sending one person over to check-in and then say "no thank you," then Disney is in the same boat they were before. I just don't think they'll let you say "no thank you" for no reason.

Agree.
 


There have been reports on these boards and elsewhere where people were told that there would be a wait, wanted to leave because the wait would be too long, and were told that they would be charged the fee.
 
I'm not so sure about this one. How would that be any different than just not showing up at all? The reason the no-show fee was instituted in the first place was they had too many people not fulfilling their ADRs and they had empty tables. If people start sending one person over to check-in and then say "no thank you," then Disney is in the same boat they were before. I just don't think they'll let you say "no thank you" for no reason.
I don't understand how it makes sense either, because the end result is the same, but I've also read reports of one person showing up at the podium, saying they won't be dining tonight, and not being charged the fee. But, that may have been a restaurant or a manager who didn't feel like charging the fee that night even if they hadn't showed up anyway, I suppose, so I don't know if we can say for sure.
 
I don't understand how it makes sense either, because the end result is the same, but I've also read reports of one person showing up at the podium, saying they won't be dining tonight, and not being charged the fee. But, that may have been a restaurant or a manager who didn't feel like charging the fee that night even if they hadn't showed up anyway, I suppose, so I don't know if we can say for sure.

If one is willing to risk losing $10 a head, go for it.

Disney's cancellation policy is pretty clear, though.
 


I'm not so sure about this one. How would that be any different than just not showing up at all? The reason the no-show fee was instituted in the first place was they had too many people not fulfilling their ADRs and they had empty tables. If people start sending one person over to check-in and then say "no thank you," then Disney is in the same boat they were before. I just don't think they'll let you say "no thank you" for no reason.
Multiple reasons:

-- Walk-ups. If you do not arrive to 'honor' your reservation by saying, "No thank you," then Disney holds your slot....waiting for you. If, instead, you arrive at the podium to say, "No thank you," then you've created the opportunity for walk-ups. Disney can fill those empty tables if they know you are not planning on eating - because you have arrived at the podium.

So no, Disney is not in the same place as they were before if someone arrives at the podium to effectively cancel - now they can fill the seats.

-- There is no requirement to order food when seated. So let's say your party of 6-people arrive, and instead of walking away from the podium after saying, "No thank you, we had too much popcorn" instead, you sit down and order a single iced tea. Would Disney prefer that you order 1 iced tea or create the possibility of hungry 'walk-ups' filling your table and ordering food?

And no, Disney is not in the same place if you walk away from the podium, because now they can fill those seats with people who might actually want to eat.
 
In my experience, if the wait is unreasonably long, you can leave without penalty.

Not sure about the other two situations.


I can’t imagine doing this simply because the wait you would see anywhere else as a walk up without a reservation would be insane. But I suppose if you were abandoning the idea of relaxing TS and opting for on the fly QS...I am usually looking for the relaxation and a break from the mayhem. After so many trips I just can’t imagine needing to rush off just because of a wait. Long ago I adopted the “enjoy the journey” philosophy with all things Disney. With luck I would find some good conversation with others in an “unreasonable” wait. But, to each their own.
 
I can’t imagine doing this simply because the wait you would see anywhere else as a walk up without a reservation would be insane. But I suppose if you were abandoning the idea of relaxing TS and opting for on the fly QS...I am usually looking for the relaxation and a break from the mayhem. After so many trips I just can’t imagine needing to rush off just because of a wait. Long ago I adopted the “enjoy the journey” philosophy with all things Disney. With luck I would find some good conversation with others in an “unreasonable” wait. But, to each their own.
I would imagine it's only because people are really hungry and are willing to abandon the idea for CS simply because of speed. We were pretty close to doing this once at Coral Reef many years ago. And we enjoy our one TS per day break as well.
 
The very scenario the OP presents, happened to us 5 years ago with Tony's Town Sq (which we will never go back to again). While we did not leave, they served us when a table opened and did not charge us our table service credits. I equate that to no penalty; a bonus, really. My take is that it is probably restaurant specific, not a general rule. But my experience has always been that Disney attempts to right any "wrongs". Complain and advise you intend to leave. I'm sure, more often than not, no penalty. The policy behind the penalty is that YOU, not the restaurant, are the reason for a missed reservation. If the time has long passed since the adr time, the reason for the penalty is gone - and you are probably doing the restaurant a favor too.
 
I'm not so sure about this one. How would that be any different than just not showing up at all? The reason the no-show fee was instituted in the first place was they had too many people not fulfilling their ADRs and they had empty tables. If people start sending one person over to check-in and then say "no thank you," then Disney is in the same boat they were before. I just don't think they'll let you say "no thank you" for no reason.
If you cancel in person at the restaurant within 24 hours, there is no penalty.
 
After so many trips I just can’t imagine needing to rush off just because of a wait.

I can. I can probably get my 2 year old to wait 15-20 minutes. Any more than that and we would need to be looking at other plans. I’m not messing with a hangry toddler.

Fortunately, when we went when he was 18 months, we didn’t wait longer than 10 minutes anywhere.
 
That’s a nice way to look at it, and I suppose it could work if you didn’t have anything planned after dinner. In our case, we had a show to get to, and we didn’t have the time to wait more than 45 minutes after we had planned to be seated.

I also have no interest in talking to people I don’t know while waiting. To me, that sounds like torture. Different strokes, as they say!
Same! I'm not a fan of mingling really as it is, let alone hungry mingling, which is soon to become hangry mingling :rotfl:.
 
Same! I'm not a fan of mingling really as it is, let alone hungry mingling, which is soon to become hangry mingling :rotfl:.

I’m one that hates crowds. I won’t wait more than 10 minutes for a table at home. But, when I’m at Disney I tend to be calmer and more patient. I enjoy striking up conversations with others enjoying their vacation. This might be at a restaurant line, more often in a ride line, sometimes at a park bench enjoying an ice cream cone. I guess it’s just my way of coping with what is generally distressing to me. And, I have learned many tips in these conversations over the years. Sometimes a long term tip, sometimes something that is just relevant to the day. And, I have been known to offer suggestions and yes, even FP tickets that were deemed unusable by us to complete strangers.
 

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