Stupid Dining Tricks?

[Cheshire Figment]

Until a few years ago you could make your reservations up to 60 days out if you were a Resort Guest and up to 30 days out if you were not staying on property. I would like to see them go back to that.

I would also like to see all Resort Guest dining reservations tied to the Resort reservation number, and you could have multiple telephone numbers (such as home, work and cell) tied to the reservation number.

If you cancel the Resort reservation all of your dining reservations go away. Also it should not be too hard to do some programming that will detect multiple dining reservations for the party fo the same meal. It would have to be smart enough, or be reviewed by a live person, so if you had eight people on the Resort reservation and two dining reservations with four people each there would not be a problem, but if you had two reservations for the same meal each for eight people both would go away.

[ktulu]

My wife and I like to play it by ear when we go to WDW, so we don't plan what days we'll be at what parks, unless there is something special going on or we want to do something like lunch at the castle, even though we may park hop or spend 1/2 the day. We did hop more this trip than we usually do. Anyway, if they just limited the number of DDP's that can make ADR's would be helpful, or if they at least kept a few tables open for last minute bookings, walk ups, etc.

Bleh, the topic of ADR's and DDP make my blood pressure go up. Goos fraba.

[February]

sorry didn't mean to raise anybody's blood pressure with the topic, goodness knows I have to watch mine (points to cuff next to computer)

If people keep this up, I foresee credit card guarantees for all ADR's, like they do now for Akershus and I think Le Cellier?

They don't for LeCellier as of last month when we were there. But they did tell us if we were noshow or canceled less than either 24 or 48 hours I forget which for Cali grill that my CC would be charged 20 per person for each person on our ressie.

Stuff like that would sure discourage the double booking, which IMO is just plain selfish. Make up your freaking mind, people. Or go counter service.

[leftcoaster]

Until a few years ago you could make your reservations up to 60 days out if you were a Resort Guest and up to 30 days out if you were not staying on property. I would like to see them go back to that.

I would also like to see all Resort Guest dining reservations tied to the Resort reservation number, and you could have multiple telephone numbers (such as home, work and cell) tied to the reservation number.

If you cancel the Resort reservation all of your dining reservations go away. Also it should not be too hard to do some programming that will detect multiple dining reservations for the party fo the same meal. It would have to be smart enough, or be reviewed by a live person, so if you had eight people on the Resort reservation and two dining reservations with four people each there would not be a problem, but if you had two reservations for the same meal each for eight people both would go away.

I was thinking the same thing. Set up the reservations computer program so that it will not allow more than one reservation within a one hour time frame. Unfortunately, real world situations would win out, where SG's would make multiple reservations under different names. But, if you were a staying on property, you would have to give your resort reservation number.

I don't mind planning my trip, but I unless I know when EMH's are, I don't wish to be planning where we'll be 6 months ahead of time. Does the EMH schedule come out 6 months ahead of time?

[Marilou]

We tried the DDP last trip (not at free dining time) & it never would have even occured to me to book multiple ADRs for same day/meal just cuz "we're not sure where we want to eat today" mentality.....sheesh

My SGT was I booked some butt-crack-of-dawn meals then found out I couldn't get there (using Disney transpo) Cranbiz & BW: don't tell me now that I could have made it there cuz that would totally bum me out...LOL (Concierge told me there was no way I could get bus from ASM to BC for 7am ressie) So we actually forfieted (sp) one meal each....oh well, my fault for not researching it better. But I can tell you I didnt slam anybody due to my own stupidity.

Oh and the EMH does get posted right @ 6 months in advance now. Altho I noticed some info changes as you get closer but its usually adding hours not taking them away.

[Big Wallaby]

We tried the DDP last trip (not at free dining time) & it never would have even occured to me to book multiple ADRs for same day/meal just cuz "we're not sure where we want to eat today" mentality.....sheesh

My SGT was I booked some butt-crack-of-dawn meals then found out I couldn't get there (using Disney transpo) Cranbiz & BW: don't tell me now that I could have made it there cuz that would totally bum me out...LOL

Sorry, couldn't tell you. I don't do mornings very often.

[mechurchlady]

I was thinking the same thing. Set up the reservations computer program so that it will not allow more than one reservation within a one hour time frame. Unfortunately, real world situations would win out, where SG's would make multiple reservations under different names. But, if you were a staying on property, you would have to give your resort reservation number.

I don't mind planning my trip, but I unless I know when EMH's are, I don't wish to be planning where we'll be 6 months ahead of time. Does the EMH schedule come out 6 months ahead of time?

To get around that by booking two rooms and then reserving under each room. There has to be a better way but SGs are devious.

[Princess Susi]

We did the DDP on our trip to WDW last year and surprisingly we had NO problems. Why? Because we read the material we were given and if we had a question we asked BEFORE we ordered. It was actually pretty convenient, but I would like to see them change it to charging the credit card a % if you don't show for a meal, when you have made more than 1 reservation. BETTER yet, make sure a family can make ONLY ONE reservation for a particular meal. There are lots of people who need ADRs and no one should have the right to tie up 3-4 resses for one meal time! That blows! That would keep more ADRs open. I like the idea of leaving a few resses open for walk-ins. Ralphie and I like to eat during weird hours anyway so we don't have much problem booking meals. Lunch at 2 or 3, dinner, at the latest res they have...We don't have to worry about feeding kids on time, so we have a little more freedom to eat when we want. It also helps to open up ADRs for other people at those times when kids get hungry, like noon when we do NOT go to restaurants. We had so many meal credits left last trip that the concierge lounge folks gave us 10 amenity baskets with chocolate Mickeys and tea baskets and the like that we had to ship home. They sure made nice gifts to give the family from our trip to WDW! :D:
We went on the Platinum plan that had a shitload of meals, all three meals and 2 snacks per day! We never could have used them all. I will say that Platinum Plan is awesome. You get EVERYTHING included! Recreation, fireworks cruises, all the tours except Dophins in Depth, meals, concierge level hotel, massages etc...I loved being pampered during vacation. And we are very good tippers so the Platinum pkg people LOVED us. We tipped everyone and had a great time and received the most awesome care from all the CMs. I think we will try it again this next Spring, if they still offer it. I liked the convenience of everything being included in one price and we just had to schedule it all, no biggie for me. I picked times and dates and tours and restauarants, called them in and that was it. We did it in time and never had a problem with resses. When we did not have resses, we ate at fast food places, which was great because I wanted to take everything in at WDW being a WDW virgin! blush........ and fast food is just that, fast. We had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again, come Flower and Garden time next year and we will do the DDP again, it is just the simplest equation for us. Besides the DDP is part of the package.
sooooooozie queen wannabe

[Princess Susi]

An afterthought.....
We are not a Park commandos and take things a little more relaxed. We look at what we want to do and make the resses and try NOT to schedule too much. WE are more of free spirits anyway, and Disney does it's best to quash that by requiring resses and times and dates, so we just don't sweat the scheduling too much. Allows for more time by the pool or for those two hour rest periods I HAVE to take for my back. We managed to get our character breakfasts in as well as the F! dinner show and some nice dress up meals. We LOVE room service, so we often have dinnner late in the room at the end of the day. And when you go concierge, you have all the food there in the lounge to eat a decent breakfast and have snacks all day. That is why we had so many food credits left. We were there just about 3 and half weeks and I NEVER could have eaten that many meals everyday, plus munch on the goodies made for the concierge lounge and they were DELISHUS snacks!!!! :p: 3 full meals and 2 snacks a day plus concierge food???? Who eats that much? I know there are people who do, but I couldn't. There were a number of hungry hippos in the lounge every day and we just watched fascinated at how much these women could stuff into their pieholes! Nothing against "people of weight" See how I did that, I am so PC! I am chubby myself! Believe me I could afford to lose 60-70 lbs easy! That is why I just won't eat that much. I did go through water and that was one of the best treats of all, having H2O available at the concierge lounge. We could pack up a couple bottles in the back pack for the early part of the day, go back and rest, get more water from the lounge and back to the Parks. Saved $$ on buying so much water in the Parks, but hey, we really PAID for it with the cost of the Platinum pkg. It is expensive, but for us the convenience of having everything included and not having to pay extra for this tour or fishing or Disney Quest or whatever made it easier on me to actually figure out how to schedule what we wanted and not have to pay for a lot of separate activities on the side. A Plus side also is that you get your very own concierge person starting from the time you pay for your trip and they call you at home and make all the resses for you, if you want,and all you have to do is have a list made up of what you want and when. They do all the legwork for you, but I actually did some of my own. I like to be part of the planning and scheduling, makes the vacation more mine. But that concierge service person is awesome. And she was so sweet and such a great person. She even put up with me and laughed at my bad jokes. ;) They take care of you through out your whole trip if you have questions or issues, we had no issues, lots of questions as first timers to WDW! It was like having our own personal assistant to take care of the details of the trip. Pretty cool!
sooooooozie

[Big Wallaby]

We are not a Park commandos and take things a little more relaxed.

Thank you for being that way. I wish everyone was.