I have seen a couple of reports where people with ADR times let's say 8:30 arrived right at opening and were told to come back 5 minutes before ADR time. Is this happening all the time?
That is almost always true for any BoG ADR after park opening, but I've never seen it for a PPO.
They let everyone with a PPO back behind the castle whenever they check in with the CMs in the hub even if your ADR is 8:30 or after. In the past, BoG let's all PPOs into the restaurant in the order they arrive and not in the order of their ADR. Where have you seen people saying they couldn't get in for a later PPO?
January of 2018 they made us come back to sign in...said we were too early
Was that for a PPO ADR or for something AFTER the parks were already open?
If I remember correct it was a PPO ADR but right around opening, my daughters and I went in and my SIL who was not on the reservation came later.
If you are supposed to check in for ADR 10-15 minutes early, I cannot see them holding you at the front gate until 5 minutes before ADR- that would cause you to be late to get back to check in at restaurant... Not sure if I was reading this thread correctly but, I sure hope they let us back early for our 835 ADR at BOG
Disney has moved away from the you SHOULD check in 15 minutes early to more of a PLEASE DON'T ARRIVE THAT EARLY AND EXPECT US TO SEAT YOU.
This is because they started realizing that people were having to wait a solid 15+ minutes after their scheduled ADR time for a table making their total wait time a good 30 minutes which starts effecting park plans.
And SOME people started arriving even earlier expecting they'd get a seat before their scheduled ADR time.
At this point you really shouldn't arrive much more than 5 minutes prior.
Besides with BOG being QS for breakfast and lunch it doesn't work quite like a TS where they kinda plan out where people sit and how long people will be there.
Never supposed to check in more than a few minutes prior to your ADR.
They need to make sure enough people are moving out to allow more to move in so there are enough tables to go around and there are not too many people in the building for fire codes.
Says Who?This doesn't apply to PPO ADRs.
While they spread the ADR times throughout the PPO period to try and prevent everyone showing up at the same time, they know that those that come at 8:00 will be staying in the restaurant until the park opens. Therefore, the total number of PPO guests for all PPO times combined will fit together in the restaurant. Those with PPO ADRs need to wait for PPO people to get up and leave before they can be seated (assuming PPO sells out), but this usually isn't a problem as PPO people want to leave at rd.
My problem with this is it physically takes me longer than 5 minutes to get from the front of the park back to BOG, for us it would take closer to 15 minutes to do so.Not totally specific to your situation, but we have been told numerous times recently that they will not check us in for an ADR more than 15 minutes in advance. I could see them dropping that time to 5 minutes even.
Editing to explain that as they are getting stricter on the check in at the restaurant I could see them also holding people to closer to their time for PPO.
My problem with this is it physically takes me longer than 5 minutes to get from the front of the park back to BOG, for us it would take closer to 15 minutes to do so.
But we have checked in more than 15 minutes before our reservation before, but we just mention we are early and ask if they can accommodate an early arrival, if not we come back. not a big deal, but I have yet to be told no and when arriving early, we have always been seated before our ADR time. In fact on this last trip the only time we were seated after our ADR time was at 1900 Park Faire, but that was because one member of our party cut the leg on the corner of the bed and had to have medical attention before heading over. This meant we checked in late, but I had gone first and explained the situation and they were very accommodating.