Reservation for 4, party of 3? (Ethical Question)

Cabius

More Disney-obsessed than is healthy.
Joined
Nov 22, 2017
I'm trying to book an early dinner reservation for 3 at Whispering Canyon Cafe on Saturday 1/20. Our party consists of me, my wife, and our 20-month-old daughter.

Right now, the earliest reservation for 3 is at 6:30 PM, which is a bit late for my daughter's bedtime. I'm hoping to find something at 5:00-5:30 so we can eat and have her back in bed by 7:30.

There ARE reservations for 4 available when I want them.

Is it egregious to book a table for 4 and then show up with a party of 3? Are there actually separate tables for 3 vs 4, such that it would genuinely inconvenience other guests (I don't want that!) or is it an artificial distinction?

I certainly don't want to harm any other guests, but am not familiar with how seating at the restaurant works. Any advice would be appreciated!
 
Go for it. Disney dningvis very literal. A 4 top is a 4 top. They don't see it as 3 person viable.

Enjoy!
 
Go ahead and book the reservation for 4. Some restaurants have a few 3 top tables, but in most places a party of three will be seated at a 4 top. Also, Disney's dining reservation system has a glitch that often makes it hard to find a table for an odd numbered group. Since most tables have an even number of seats the system wants to fill every seat so if you input an odd number (e.g. 3) the system bypasses available 4 top tables. If you add one person and search for 4, often tables become available. When you arrive at the restaurant just let them know you are a party of 3. You will not be charged for the "missing" person.
 
You can do it, but you might have an extra wait. We had someone not able to come on one of our trips at the last minute, so we showed up to all of our ADRs with 1 fewer person than we had reserved them for. We were often seated after an unusually long delay. I don't know if that was really needed or if some of the CMs thought we were doing it on purpose, like you're contemplating.
 


I don't see a problem. Disney doesn't really have reservations for odd numbers as someone said above. I had the same problem searching for 1. You know what you can do that worked for me is book the reservation on the phone app for a larger party than yours what you can find available. Then log in to the website and click modify reservation. It always lets me change it from 3 people to 1 for the same time. Don't know why it works, but it does. That way they know how many people are showing up and they can allocate the remaining seats correctly for other reservations. FYI you want to book the initial reservation on the app otherwise it asks you to specify the names of all guests in youR party on the website. That's a problem if you don't really have like 5 people.
 
So glad to see everyone so far agrees with me. As a solo, I always make reservations for 2, but then show up with one. I don't feel guilty showing up with one less than my reservation. Maybe I'll get surprised with a dining companion. But that never happens. Anyways, don't worry-make your reservations for 4.
 
So glad to see everyone so far agrees with me. As a solo, I always make reservations for 2, but then show up with one. I don't feel guilty showing up with one less than my reservation. Maybe I'll get surprised with a dining companion. But that never happens. Anyways, don't worry-make your reservations for 4.
Try the method I listed above. This trip I am solo and it has worked for every reservation. Maybe not for last minute ressies for places with limited seating, but it worked every time for me. I was able to change every reservation to a party of 1.
 


Thank you all for the advice! I've booked a table for 4 and will see if I can modify it.
 
Do it a friends daughter travels alone most of the time to WDW. She found that while she could almost always get an ADR for 2 people she had a lot of trouble getting the same ADR for 1. She now books her meals for 2 and if anyone asks she replies " We broke up". Says it ends all questions right there ( and has gotten her more than one free desert).
 
I'm trying to book an early dinner reservation for 3 at Whispering Canyon Cafe on Saturday 1/20. Our party consists of me, my wife, and our 20-month-old daughter.

Right now, the earliest reservation for 3 is at 6:30 PM, which is a bit late for my daughter's bedtime. I'm hoping to find something at 5:00-5:30 so we can eat and have her back in bed by 7:30.

There ARE reservations for 4 available when I want them.

Is it egregious to book a table for 4 and then show up with a party of 3? Are there actually separate tables for 3 vs 4, such that it would genuinely inconvenience other guests (I don't want that!) or is it an artificial distinction?

I certainly don't want to harm any other guests, but am not familiar with how seating at the restaurant works. Any advice would be appreciated!

After you take the four seater- go to change reservation search for 3 and your time will come up with 3. That is what I do when I am looking for 2 but can't find any. Look for 3 and change after :)

If you want to...
 
We showed up to two of our reservations in December with 3 instead of the original 5 that I had reserved. My husband and son opted out of Be Our Guest and Coral Reef when it was close to our reservation time. When I told them we had 3 instead of 5 it was no biggie at all and they sat us right away both times.
 
along these same lines.. we will be travelling as a party of 7 in august. should I search for 8 person reservations?
 

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