Just Wasted 2 Hours of My Life

[Alexander]

The online dining reservation system is a PITA! It took me 2 hours to make 4 reservations! It kept kicking me out of My Disney Experience, so I had to re-enter every time I wanted to book something. Then it kept telling me the server was down for maintenance when I tried to enter my CC. It completely kicked me out of the system in the middle of a reservation, so I went to start over again, and 'lo and behold, the reservation went through! Grrrr, this is so not worth it. Ended up cancelling everything because I couldn't finish my reservations. We will eat off property. Disney just lost $1500 from this family.

Just realized this should probably be in be sub-forum. Sorry!

 

[Mac4life30]

I am sorry you had issues with the system. Maybe you can give it a second try or a call to DRC? Wont it be less of a hassle to try one more time then to drive of property every day?

 

[Alexander]

I am sorry you had issues with the system. Maybe you can give it a second try or a call to DRC? Wont it be less of a hassle to try one more time then to drive of property every day?

Thanks! No, not really, food is less expensive and better quality. We would have driven to our reservations anyways. We can always eat in our villa too. We have a full kitchen. I didn't love the reservations I was able to get, so no big deal except the waste of time.

 

[letsgoreds]

That sucks. Sounds like you did something to piss off the Disney gods ; )

My recent experience has been very positive, if you get the itch again, I wouldn't hesitate booking on site.

When I got the Donald/busy try later (recent morning Candlelight Processional opened up), I just clicked 'refresh' and it submitted the information.

Pixie dust your way!

 

[minnie mum]

The online system is guaranteed to piss me off every time I use it. Which is why I refuse to use it to make any kind of reservation. I just call. Sorry you had such a frustrating morning.

 

[Making Costumes]

I agree with the previous posters. Just call, it's way easier. I was just at Disney for 10 days and most restaurants still had availablity until the day before/day of my reservation.

 

[Fivemuggles]

I agree, it's a mess. I have a reservation that I cancelled last week, that I still showing up on MDE. Wouldn't be a big deal, but it's for my OLD dates, which are 6 weeks ahead of my new ones, so it's messing up my countdown thing - so I have no idea how many days we are out.

Obviously I could manually count, but the fun part is logging in and seeing that number go down!

 

[RnbwSktles]

When I tried to make my ADRs at 6am on my 180 day mark, the website wouldn't work at all. I tried for about 35 minutes before I made myself breakfast and relaxed until 7 when I could call.

I wish I had just called from the beginning! I made 10 ADRs and it all went smoothly and there were still good times left, even for BOG. My only complaint at first was that I had to write down all the confirmation numbers and that I wouldn't be getting an email. However, 5 minutes later they all showed up in MDE! This was good since it turned out the CM made an ADR on the wrong day and I was able to call back quickly and make a new one. (Side note here, the 2nd CM told me I could not make ADRs yet because I had 2 hotel reservations and I was still 2 days away from that 180 day window. When I told her the first CM had no problem doing them all based on the first reservation, she had to put me on hold and get permission to do so)

This morning I had to change a few reservations from 2 people to 4, and I successfully did them online. It was painless! The website is just very hit or miss I guess.

 

[rustyanchor]

i had some trouble w/ the system last night, but it worked after an hour or so. it stinks that you wasted so much time, but it sounds like you have already made up your mind that it will be cheaper & better to eat offsite, so in that case everything has worked out for the best. just goes to show that different things work for different families!

 

[antmaril]

I think the Disney website is absolutely terrible. It drives me crazy. I often think to myself -- Doesn't anyone in charge over there ever try to use this website? You would think someone (with some clout) would try it and determine that it is unacceptable. I wish I could be Queen for a day.

 

[disney minnie]

Why didnt you just call before you became so frustrated?

 

[FiggieFan]

The really sad thing is that these issues have been going on for MONTHS - at least since the beginning of 2013. Too bad that they haven't really made any improvements since the new website went live. These are the same issues I was having booking for Feb 2013 and I am going to book for Feb 2014 in a month....not looking forward to it. Will probably just call.

 

[Alexander]

Why didnt you just call before you became so frustrated?

Mostly because I wasn't looking for specific restaurants, and wanted to see what my options were. I also wanted to try some new places and I needed to look at the menus.

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

I know!!! I HATE the new system!!!! It definitely doesn't work and they need to do something about it. It's easier to just call now or use the old website - hoping they don't make that stop working.

 

[BuddyThomas]

The system is awful and the barrage of "why didn't you just call" responses are honestly not that helpful. Every time something requiring a credit card comes up, I end up getting the angry Donald and then when I click refresh, the reservation I wanted is gone. So, of Chef Mickey's pops up (it has been unavailable), I can "just call@ instead of trying to book online, but it will be gone before I connect with an agent.

 

[lylone]

We wasted 2 hours one morning trying to book our trip via phone using the free dining PIN. The total for the booking was more expensive talking to a CSR compared to booking on line and leaving the dining plan off. After 6 calls between the 2 of us and many excuses of why booking through the phone was 500 more...I chatted with someone through the site. He gave me the link to be able to use the PIN online.
They need to get the website and their phone CSRs on the same page when quoting vacations!!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

The really sad thing is that these issues have been going on for MONTHS - at least since the beginning of 2013. Too bad that they haven't really made any improvements since the new website went live. These are the same issues I was having booking for Feb 2013 and I am going to book for Feb 2014 in a month....not looking forward to it. Will probably just call.

But the live website isn't finished. They started working on it in November or so, and they are still doing things. That's why things change, go down, come back up a bit differently, etc. It's not done.

I think the Disney website is absolutely terrible. It drives me crazy. I often think to myself -- Doesn't anyone in charge over there ever try to use this website? You would think someone (with some clout) would try it and determine that it is unacceptable. I wish I could be Queen for a day.

Again, it's not done.

Now, I seriously question the IT department for not just leaving it as is and creating a "master" site that they fix and make perfect before rolling out, like at least one other huge company has, but that's not what they've done. So taking things as they are, the answer is that they aren't done, and they have been changing things regularly.

Their other IT problem is that they, apparently, have no budget for a department to come up with error messages that make sense. Instead of "we're magically renovating, your reservations are safe, but we can't put them on the screen right now", people get "you have no reservations". No proper error messages.

The system is awful and the barrage of "why didn't you just call" responses are honestly not that helpful.

Well, if you were in hour 1 of what might become 4 hours, and you came across this thread, those answers might be very helpful indeed.

And for the last few days there have been countless threads and posts about "just call to save yourself the stress", so maybe this thread will help someone in the future to not even hit hour 1.

 

[bocaj1431]

The online system is guaranteed to piss me off every time I use it. Which is why I refuse to use it to make any kind of reservation. I just call. Sorry you had such a frustrating morning.

 

[magicLAL12]

I wasn't able to book anything at all a few days ago (which was our 180 day mark). Yesterday, I was able to book 1 day ahead and today I was able to book for our entire trip online (still 4 days ahead of time). I'm not sure if the system finally fixed its glitches, or if its because I used a different computer. I had been trying on my Mac, but I tried today on my desktop Windows at work and everything was much smoother.... Although that really shouldn't be a factor, who knows?

I'm sorry that you had such a frustrating time as well...DBF actually told me to "forget ADRs entirely" for our trip because he was getting so annoyed with MY frustration..and I almost gave up too (I just decided to surprise him with a few). Maybe you'll try again if you have the urge. Good luck and enjoy your trip!

 

[Alexander]

The system is awful and the barrage of "why didn't you just call" responses are honestly not that helpful. Every time something requiring a credit card comes up, I end up getting the angry Donald and then when I click refresh, the reservation I wanted is gone. So, of Chef Mickey's pops up (it has been unavailable), I can "just call@ instead of trying to book online, but it will be gone before I connect with an agent.

Yes, it was the CC guarantee ADRs that were the trouble. It either gave me Donald or told me my card was declined!?! Funny because I used it several times after trying to make reservations with no problem at all!

So, yes, if you know what you want, then call. I didn't. I just searched Epcot and Dinner on my date and browsed what was available. Then I attempted to book it. I did the same for four days, so calling wouldn't have really worked because I needed to read some of the menus before deciding. Oh well! There is always Olivia's that we can get into anytime.