Can't get ADR; still seats available for walkins?

[TwoAtDisney]

Have been trying for quite some time & can't get a reservation for Le Cellier during our DDP which begins on 9/24/2010 & ends on 10/1/2010. I always try for every day, beginning at 11:30am thru 7:30pm (latest we would want to eat). I'll continue trying, but just wonder -

Do the restaurants leave tables available for walkins? Anyone had any luck with just showing up & asking to be seated? If we can't get an ADR, I guess we can try that. However, we don't have park hopper tickets, so we couldn't just show up every nite of our trip. Guess it would be best to try week nites, like Tues or Wed, rather than weekends.

Julie

 

[MSLRAC]

It won't hurt to ask but with it being LeCellier and during free dining, it will be a long shot.

 

[LilyWDW]

Have been trying for quite some time & can't get a reservation for Le Cellier during our DDP which begins on 9/24/2010 & ends on 10/1/2010. I always try for every day, beginning at 11:30am thru 7:30pm (latest we would want to eat). I'll continue trying, but just wonder -

Do the restaurants leave tables available for walkins? Anyone had any luck with just showing up & asking to be seated? If we can't get an ADR, I guess we can try that. However, we don't have park hopper tickets, so we couldn't just show up every nite of our trip. Guess it would be best to try week nites, like Tues or Wed, rather than weekends.

Julie

No tables are held for walk ins. LeCellier is also one of the restaurants most likely to tell you no availability. In fact, I have personally over heard the famous line there...

Person: "Excuse me, do you have any openings?"
Host: "Sorry, but we are booked for tonight."
Person: "Oh, well, do you have any openings for this week?"
Host: "Sorry, we are booked through October." (this was May)

Also, you are going during free dining. I would not expect walk ins in general during this time.

 

[Symans3honeybees]

You could try! but I could tell you now that over the many many times we ate at Le Cellier during the peak season or free dining, I have never seen once when walk-ins actually got in.

 

[maxiesmom]

Have been trying for quite some time & can't get a reservation for Le Cellier during our DDP which begins on 9/24/2010 & ends on 10/1/2010. I always try for every day, beginning at 11:30am thru 7:30pm (latest we would want to eat). I'll continue trying, but just wonder -

Do the restaurants leave tables available for walkins? Anyone had any luck with just showing up & asking to be seated? If we can't get an ADR, I guess we can try that. However, we don't have park hopper tickets, so we couldn't just show up every nite of our trip. Guess it would be best to try week nites, like Tues or Wed, rather than weekends.

Julie

If you don't mind lunch instead of dinner, go right when Le Ceiller opens. I had luck with this during Spring Break week. So you may very well get lucky.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Good idea, Maxiesmom. I've been checking lunch times, so we might try a walkin for lunch.

Seems strange that no one has seen walkins. Would think some folks' plans change & they don't make it to their reservation - hence, seats available at the last minute for walkins.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll keep trying.

Julie

 

[lagunn]

Have been trying for quite some time & can't get a reservation for Le Cellier during our DDP which begins on 9/24/2010 & ends on 10/1/2010. I always try for every day, beginning at 11:30am thru 7:30pm (latest we would want to eat). I'll continue trying, but just wonder -

Do the restaurants leave tables available for walkins? Anyone had any luck with just showing up & asking to be seated? If we can't get an ADR, I guess we can try that. However, we don't have park hopper tickets, so we couldn't just show up every nite of our trip. Guess it would be best to try week nites, like Tues or Wed, rather than weekends.

Julie

I have an adr for 30th sept @ 1.45 pm if you want it.

 

[ratlenhum]

Just keep trying. I wanted Le Cellier and took a time I really didn't want but would settle for. I try several times a day and did it for weeks and finally got what I wanted.


Just recently we wanted to change our Yak & Yet. For a few weeks I'd try for the time we wanted and got nothing, then it happened. A table for 3 opened up at 6pm on the day we wanted. I clicked so fast!! A few minutes later I tried again just to see what was available and there was nothing. So I must have just hit it as someone canceled.

Don't give up hope!

 

[twooley2]

I find ADR's and the idea intriguing after three trips to Disney. I swore by making reservations to find on our third trip that twice I asked about getting in as a walk in. Once at Sci Fi during lunch and another time Dinner at Bomas and both times they had availability. People get to Disney and their plans change or they must change according to crowds and unexpected delays, illnesses and such so don't give up all hope.

 

[catne]

the main reason you won't see walk-ins at Le Cellier is the place is so small and they slightly over-book to compensate for the no-shows.

As for whether or not you need ADRs in general, that really depends on what time of year you're going AND what time you want to eat. We've gone to Kona Cafe several times when it was mostly empty...but we we're eating at 5:30. This past May we went for a 7:30 p.m. reservation, and the waiting time for people without ADRs was 90 minutes - this was the weekend before Memorial Day, so the summer crowds had not begun to arrive. Same can happen in September/Free Dining -- if you're willing to eat late lunch or early dinner, you may very well find seating available - when we've chosed 5:30 ADRs during Free dining, it has usually been a very empty restaurant in that first couple of seating (Le Cellier was the exception to that -- they fully seated the place within the first 15 minutes of opening for dinner) But if you choose to eat at Prime Dinner time, not much chance at the convenient park restaurants, or the walking-distance Boarwalk/Beach club area or the monorail resorts. Our experience has been the outlying resort restaurants are much better bet for walk-in seating, so if you have a car, go for it.

 

[Petraman]

If you don't mind lunch instead of dinner, go right when Le Ceiller opens.....

This is excellent advice, and was actually the only way we were ever able to go to this restaurant. It may still not work during free dining but worth a shot

 

[kaytieeldr]

Good idea, Maxiesmom. I've been checking lunch times, so we might try a walkin for lunch.

Seems strange that no one has seen walkins. Would think some folks' plans change & they don't make it to their reservation - hence, seats available at the last minute for walkins.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll keep trying.

Julie

Not as strange as you think.
1. Le Cellier is very small
2. Le Cellier is very popular
3. ALL* restaurants are extremely busy during Free Dining
4. Your trip overlaps with the start of the Food & Wine Festival, i.e. ultra-very-busy
5. A WDW dining reservation isn't really a reservation, it's simply call-ahead seating to the extreme
6. It's REALLY hard to get a reservation for just one or two people
6.1. You need to post more, so you can get and send private messages

*okay, not "all"; just the ones that accept dining plan credits as payment

 

[TwoAtDisney]

nevermind

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Ok, I changed my profile so that I can send & receive private messages.