Large party broken up, ADR times don't match

[sjb95u]

Hi! Hoping someone can help answer this.

I am traveling with a party of 9 June 19-26. On my 60 days I logged in online at 6amEST and was able to get only tables of 6 essentially at each restaurant I wanted.
At 7amEST I called and was on hold with Disney for about 2 hours before I got in touch with someone. During my hold I snagged some other tables for 3 but not at the exact same time (the app wouldn't let me, told me I had to pick the party of 6 or the party of 3 if they overlapped).

The CM I chatted with with very nice and did her best to help but I have quite a few ADRs that have our party split up by more than an hour:

Ex: Yak & Yeti
Party of 5 at 10:30 am
Party of 4 at 11:30am

Sanaa
Party of 6 at 5:40pm
Party of 3 at 6:50pm

What do you do about this? Split the difference? Show up with half the party early or half the party late? How does Disney handle these?

I've also got 8 scheduled for Chef Mickey's on 6/25 at 8am but still need 1 more to complete our group of 9. What about this situation?

Thank you all in advance! I didn't have this much trouble the last time I traveled with the group of 9 in 2015.

 

[GoofyDisneyDaddy]

You can't hold reservations with overlapping times, so establish an MDE account for a member of your party and use that account to get times that are closer together. I have a party of ten for the week prior, and I had to split up all my reservations into 5&5. I used my wife's account for the second reservation and was able to get pretty much the same time for the reservations I was able to get. Of course, there were still many I wanted that were simply just not available.

 

[sjb95u]

Right, thank you. Unfortunately that ship has sailed. There are not currently any open reservations to get for the additional party members. So at this time I'm just trying to figure out how to "show up" for our ADRs when the times don't match.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Right, thank you. Unfortunately that ship has sailed. There are not currently any open reservations to get for the additional party members. So at this time I'm just trying to figure out how to "show up" for our ADRs when the times don't match.

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do besides show up at the earlier ADR time and see if they can seat you together. They may or may not be able to accommodate and you should be prepared for a longer wait if they can. But as PP suggested, the better option is to establish another account and try to get the times closer together. You’ve got plenty of time between now and June to move times around as availability changes often.

 

[MarkS2112]

If you show up late you could lose your reservation for the early time. It all depends on how busy they are. they typically will hold about 15 minutes and the after that you roll the dice. If you get lucky you may get in but have to wait. If not you get the no show fee. If everyone did the show late it would be chaos. Unfortunately a party your size is hard to accommodate and get two tables especially with reduced capacity’s. Keep trying as reservations change all the time as people constantly change plans. Good luck.

 

[sjb95u]

Thank you for your replies! I will try to add a separate account and keep trying for times to line up.

 

[VeronicaZS]

I had the same situation and I had my husband’s phone logged in to MDE and as soon as I cancelled by second reservation it showed up as available on his account. Then I was able to play with both reservations, it took some time and constant checking but I have managed to get everything within 5 min of each other except for beaches and cream.

 

[sjb95u]

thanks for sharing your experience! I have 5 reservations over the week where the party's ADRs are separated by about an hour. (Plus I only have 9 for CM and I need 9).
So I've add myself as a "friend" to my original account using another MDE account and I've signed up for Mouse Dining alerts and touringplans alerts. We'll see what happens!

 

[CarolynFH]

thanks for sharing your experience! I have 5 reservations over the week where the party's ADRs are separated by about an hour. (Plus I only have 9 for CM and I need 9).
So I've add myself as a "friend" to my original account using another MDE account and I've signed up for Mouse Dining alerts and touringplans alerts. We'll see what happens!

If you’re not successful in getting times closer to each other, I would plan to have everyone in your party outside the restaurant around 15 minutes before the first ADR and check in with the CM, not via MDE. Have the two confirmation numbers handy, tell the CM you’re together and would really appreciate being seated together if at all possible. We had to do this for all but one of our ADRs the week leading up to Christmas for our party of 9, but we were seated together everywhere but Sci Fi. Good luck!
PS I had to call, too, and the lovely CM set up our split ADRs, so the Disney restaurants are accustomed to having large parties split up like that and will try to keep you together.

 

[jlstwinmommy]

If you’re not successful in getting times closer to each other, I would plan to have everyone in your party outside the restaurant around 15 minutes before the first ADR and check in with the CM, not via MDE. Have the two confirmation numbers handy, tell the CM you’re together and would really appreciate being seated together if at all possible. We had to do this for all but one of our ADRs the week leading up to Christmas for our party of 9, but we were seated together everywhere but Sci Fi. Good luck!
PS I had to call, too, and the lovely CM set up our split ADRs, so the Disney restaurants are accustomed to having large parties split up like that and will try to keep you together.

This. I did this for a couple reservations in January and will have to do the same in June. At yak&yeti, my sister got 11:30 and I had 10:45. I got there at 10:45 and explained the situation and they sat us all together. Same experience at homecomin. We have similar reservation issues in June and hope to resolve it the same way.

 

[fancymouse]

thanks for sharing your experience! I have 5 reservations over the week where the party's ADRs are separated by about an hour. (Plus I only have 9 for CM and I need 9).
So I've add myself as a "friend" to my original account using another MDE account and I've signed up for Mouse Dining alerts and touringplans alerts. We'll see what happens!

I think you had a typo, but earlier you said you needed one more person for Chef Mickey I think? That shouldn’t be a huge problem normally because when you mobile check in for a restaurant it lets you add one more person. However, since you are talking to the restaurant about moving times that kind of throws a wrench in simply adding the extra person since you probably shouldn’t do mobile check in. You could try I guess and then just go talk to them after you do mobile check in. At all of your reservations I would just be super kind and flexible. I find the hosts are always as accommodating as possible. I’m sure they deal with tons of unkind people, so kindness goes a long way.