Strange Walk-Up / ADR Experience at Epcot

[sndral]

I think the ADR only policy also reduces negative interactions between CMs and guests. It’s far easier to simply say “I’m sorry we don’t take walk ups” than to juggle seating/refusing a group of 12 who walked up right before a party of 2 who will fit.
By making the ADR the computer decides whether that size party will fit & when it will fit w/out delaying the seating & timely serving of guests w/ ADRs scheduled to arrive later given the chef/cook/wait person staffing levels.
Many years ago we had an ADR at Kona, we arrived for our ADR right behind a huge group pleading/arguing (the kids are hungry, we’re paying lots of money to stay at the Poly, etc...) to be seated as a walk up - after refusing a few times the hostess relented and seated all 12 or more of them at empty at that moment tables - but we, a party of 4 with our scheduled ADR, had to wait another 40 minutes before a table freed up to seat us, I was not impressed and haven’t been back to Kona since.

 

[TinkSassy]

That is really odd about them not taking walk-ups but having ADR space. About the people sitting and not eating anything, I hate that people do that, especially when there are those with food needing seats. But I can see how a person needs to sit down and have a break. Disney has created that issue with not having enough places for people to sit and rest in the shade. I would E-mail Disney with your experience and maybe suggest that they add more shaded areas for people to sit. After all, how much money are they loosing from people walking away because there are no seats.

Amen! I sent an email to WDW recently about the lack of areas to sit down in the parks. Every trip I consider a scooter not because I need one but because there is never a chair when I need one. I keep avoiding because I know I am still capable of doing it even though I'm hurting at the end of the day. LOL!

 

[TinkSassy]

That is really odd about them not taking walk-ups but having ADR space. About the people sitting and not eating anything, I hate that people do that, especially when there are those with food needing seats. But I can see how a person needs to sit down and have a break. Disney has created that issue with not having enough places for people to sit and rest in the shade. I would E-mail Disney with your experience and maybe suggest that they add more shaded areas for people to sit. After all, how much money are they loosing from people walking away because there are no seats.

Amen! I sent an email to WDW recently about the lack of areas to sit down in the parks. Every trip I consider a scooter not because I need one but because there is never a chair when I need one. I keep avoiding because I know I am still capable of doing it even though I'm hurting at the end of the day. LOL!

 

[RealBlast3]

Yes, it's been like this for several years at many table service restaurants in Disney. I mean, you still hear of some stories of walk-ins being seated, but one should never depend on that anymore at the world.

 

[JennyDrake]

We were at Chefs de France last week waiting to be seated when we over heard a person asking about a walk up. The CM told her that they do not take walk ups, only reservations. So maybe it’s a new trend.

I've had this experience multiple times at TS within the parks - and it was for early seatings not "prime time" ; I DO believe this is now the SOP for most TS. BUT as PPer noted, you can often get on the app and have something! This is aggravating for the 12 or so people left on the planet who prefer to not tote their cell phones while on vacation..... P.S. I'm one of them...

 

[Pumbaa_]

Or that don’t own a smart phone or a us phone

 

[kiford]

We were at Chefs de France last week waiting to be seated when we over heard a person asking about a walk up. The CM told her that they do not take walk ups, only reservations. So maybe it’s a new trend.

We had the same thing happen at 50's Prime Time in May - we had just booked an ADR and while we were waiting someone asked about getting a table and was told to look on the app which they did while standing there. It's not only about fairness, but if there's ADR times available and you seated someone who just walked in, you could potentially get into a situation where the person who just booked online will now have to wait longer since the walk-up sort of took that spot. We now always check the app for ADRs even if we're practically on our way down to the lobby to breakfast. It also guarantees that I'm not wasting my time either going to a full restaurant or having to wait a long time.

 

[vinotinto]

We had the same thing happen at 50's Prime Time in May - we had just booked an ADR and while we were waiting someone asked about getting a table and was told to look on the app which they did while standing there. It's not only about fairness, but if there's ADR times available and you seated someone who just walked in, you could potentially get into a situation where the person who just booked online will now have to wait longer since the walk-up sort of took that spot. We now always check the app for ADRs even if we're practically on our way down to the lobby to breakfast. It also guarantees that I'm not wasting my time either going to a full restaurant or having to wait a long time.

I think this is the main reason. There is a capacity to the restaurant, and the podium CM has no way of knowing if suddenly a few parties are going to make online ADRs and result in the restaurant getting crushed. Or if the rest of the evening, the restaurant is fully booked with ADRs and all the tables will be filled. Why have two separate systems (walk-ups and ADRs) when the online ADR system already knows how may tables it can have at each time frame.