Thanks Pete For Speaking Out About Disney's Free Dining Plan Debacle

[CJLove79]

Another great Podcast is in the books and I think its outstanding what Pete said about how Disney's systems are crappy each time they have a promo especially as big as the Free Dining. Personally, I don't need the Free Dining but there were other things I needed to use their website for and couldn't do a thing. Even simply searching to modify my Dining reservations was a chore and I know it has to do with the Free Dining promo. I even tried to contact a Cast Member for assistance, I went through the same deal, long waits, multiple disconnects and I'm not even trying to use the promo. Pete's "rant" isn't really a rant me, its just good old fashion bluntness from someone who has a substantial following. Honestly, I feel that the only way we can make Disney change their tactic is through not paying for or making the sacrifices for these promos.

To have ANY business change their policies, is through our wallets, plain and simple. I hope that whenever they offer the Free Dining, not many people capitalize on it that way Disney will say "Ok, we get it, we'll change our systems immediately" and get the job done. Of course, that's just wishful thinking on my part but my fingers will be crossed. LOL. Yeah, saving money is always a great thing but what good does it do you when you can't even add the promo or call someone to get the promo or even worse, find out that you don't qualify for the promo? There's many different ways to save money on Dining, there's a lot of websites, forums and blogs that give tips and advice.

That posting Pete read where the poster said its like a lottery, it most definitely is, not only with these promos but with Dining Reservations too. Even if you log into your MDE account at 6am on the nose, you STILL can't get a reservation at Be Our Guest. And if you manage to find one, its for the most part when you're at the right place at the right time, no different than a lottery. And when you get that BOG reservation, what's the feeling you get??? You start jumping for joy like you just won Powerball. I know this because I felt that way just a few days ago. LOL. I sincerely hope Disney reads these boards and others and get their act together with their website and systems. Because point blank, we the customers deserve better and need better.

 

[mcd2745]

You're preaching to the choir...

A couple of months ago, I had the unfortunate coincidence of my 180-day mark being the same day they opened up the BOG lunch reservations for the firs time (I believe it was Feb 25). What a disaster! The website completely crapped out and then everyone started calling and spending 1-2 hours waiting on the phone for a CM (when they actually didn't get a busy signal and got through), only to have them tell you that the system was down completely and even they coudn't make ADRs for anyone. The added insult for me...we had no interest in making a BOG reservation.

Kinda surprised to hear about all the trouble after they announced free dining. Following the boards...many people had already made their reservations the last 6-8 weeks or so, purely on the speculation that they would offer free dining and would cancel everything if it wasn't offered. So many people looking for free dining already had their ADRs booked.

 

[dcibrando]

in the world of cloud computing where you can easily ramp up and then ramp back down server resources for high demand like this, it really wouldn't cost them a large amount.... they just seem to choose not to do it.

I believe it could also be a disconnect between departments or just bad management (ex. does IT know when these things are about to happen or has any stress testing ever been done?)

sometimes when companies get so big, communication in general just seems to break down among various groups/orgs

 

[3DisneyFanz]

The sad thing is this isn't anything new. Everytime something new and exciting is released the same thing happens. Like most things there isn't much incentive for them to change because regardless of experience we still line up to throw money at them time and time again. We may not go as often as we used to but I know better than to say "I'll never" when it involves Disney.

 

[Angel Ariel]

These constant crashes are ridiculous. There is no excuse for it. Disney has the resources to be able to fix it, and choosing not to as they are is unacceptable. It is sad to see how little they value the guest experience at times.

 

[rlduvall]

And it crashes the websites of many unrelated Disney departments - that's what really frustrates me. As a DVC Member I am not interested in FD, but I was interested in trying to book a DVC room for a December trip. BUT NO, Monday's FD debacle not only crashed the disneyworld.com site, it also crashed the dvcmember.com site.

 

[liljimmyt]

Counter Point: A defense of the my dinning promotion, and alternatives around it. (TL,DR: You can probably still get what you want, and there may be alternatives that are cost competitive.)

I have no interest in Free Dinning this year. I don't plan on going back to The World until September of 2017. If they have it then, that's great. However, it may not be best for me.

In a perfect world, I would like to go to Disney World the week after the week of Labor Day. This year, that would be September 13-19 (Sunday to Friday). I decided to check this year's prices compared to last year's when I went, and will just be including the money spent to the Mouse. Right now, at 12:03 pm CDT on Wednesday morning, I'm getting a quote at Pop Century for $1883 for my family of four, two adults, one child 5, and one child 3 at time of travel. Last year, two adults, one child 4 and one child 2 was around $1650. Basically, I'm paying $200 bucks extra for the park hopper (we didn't park hop last year, and I wouldn't plan on upgrading my dinning plan up from the counter service plan). However, two days after release, I'm getting exactly what I want with no fuss. I'm sure that, for most people, that is the case.

However, during this time, they are also offering a "Late Summer Preschool Package." This includes the above nights. It comes standard with 2 single park tickets, and no food, but I upgraded to 5 days worth of tickets. Grand total would be $1475. So, we are saving about $400 bucks. I qualify for this since I'm, in Disney's eyes, traveling with just one kid, but it does go to show that there may be alternatives out there. (room only was quoted at $86 a night, btw)

Last fall while on the dinning plan, I noticed that when you get your meal with the dinning credit, they still show the final price. I would guess that we ate about $40 worth of food each meal last year, on average. So, do the math, $40 x 10 meals equals $400. We'll say each snack was 4 bucks, so $4 x 18 equals $72. So, if we ate the exact same meals and snacks, we'd pay around $472. We'll round up to $500 in case I'm off a bit. So, Getting the "Preschool Package" and paying out of pocket for food would only cost me around $100 more than the "Free Dinning" package. Of course, how much food did we get last year that I normally wouldn't have gotten. Skip a bunch of desserts? Maybe get a cheaper Breakfast instead of a more expensive lunch and dinner. Knowing how cheap I am and how picky my kids are with eating, I simply would have packed some PBJs for lunch and kept on trucking. Still, the point is that there may be alternatives to "Free Dinning" if you want them.

One final point since I already know this has gone long. I've noticed that many of the complaints about people having trouble has included problems with transferring their existing reservations. Guess what...YOU are one of the reasons that availability is low. It is said every year, if you book in advance hoping to jump over the free dinning once it is offered, you are skewing the numbers in Disney's favor so that they don't have to open up as many rooms for the free dinning promotion. This year, not only did it reduce the rooms, but they are making you upgrade your tickets anyway. Just saying.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Counter Point: A defense of the my dinning promotion, and alternatives around it. (TL,DR: You can probably still get what you want, and there may be alternatives that are cost competitive.)

I have no interest in Free Dinning this year. I don't plan on going back to The World until September of 2017. If they have it then, that's great. However, it may not be best for me.

In a perfect world, I would like to go to Disney World the week after the week of Labor Day. This year, that would be September 13-19 (Sunday to Friday). I decided to check this year's prices compared to last year's when I went, and will just be including the money spent to the Mouse. Right now, at 12:03 pm CDT on Wednesday morning, I'm getting a quote at Pop Century for $1883 for my family of four, two adults, one child 5, and one child 3 at time of travel. Last year, two adults, one child 4 and one child 2 was around $1650. Basically, I'm paying $200 bucks extra for the park hopper (we didn't park hop last year, and I wouldn't plan on upgrading my dinning plan up from the counter service plan). However, two days after release, I'm getting exactly what I want with no fuss. I'm sure that, for most people, that is the case.

However, during this time, they are also offering a "Late Summer Preschool Package." This includes the above nights. It comes standard with 2 single park tickets, and no food, but I upgraded to 5 days worth of tickets. Grand total would be $1475. So, we are saving about $400 bucks. I qualify for this since I'm, in Disney's eyes, traveling with just one kid, but it does go to show that there may be alternatives out there. (room only was quoted at $86 a night, btw)

Last fall while on the dinning plan, I noticed that when you get your meal with the dinning credit, they still show the final price. I would guess that we ate about $40 worth of food each meal last year, on average. So, do the math, $40 x 10 meals equals $400. We'll say each snack was 4 bucks, so $4 x 18 equals $72. So, if we ate the exact same meals and snacks, we'd pay around $472. We'll round up to $500 in case I'm off a bit. So, Getting the "Preschool Package" and paying out of pocket for food would only cost me around $100 more than the "Free Dinning" package. Of course, how much food did we get last year that I normally wouldn't have gotten. Skip a bunch of desserts? Maybe get a cheaper Breakfast instead of a more expensive lunch and dinner. Knowing how cheap I am and how picky my kids are with eating, I simply would have packed some PBJs for lunch and kept on trucking. Still, the point is that there may be alternatives to "Free Dinning" if you want them.

One final point since I already know this has gone long. I've noticed that many of the complaints about people having trouble has included problems with transferring their existing reservations. Guess what...YOU are one of the reasons that availability is low. It is said every year, if you book in advance hoping to jump over the free dinning once it is offered, you are skewing the numbers in Disney's favor so that they don't have to open up as many rooms for the free dinning promotion. This year, not only did it reduce the rooms, but they are making you upgrade your tickets anyway. Just saying.

The debacle being discussed on this week's show was that no one could make a reservation.

The online system didn't work. The phones didn't work. When you did get through to someone, they weren't trained in this promotion and they then transferred you to another line where you were promptly disconnected. This wasn't just reservations looking to add a promotion. this just didn't work. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Bupkiss. Nothing.

As for limited availability...Disney listed this as a 4 month promotion. John read the dates that were really available. also, within that time frame, the amount of rooms available were even more limited.

This was a just a complete and utter mess.

The only one to point the finger at is Disney.
\
This was an EPIC fail

 

[CJLove79]

I Love Disney just like everybody here, I'm definitely not against having the Free Dining promo or any promo for that matter. I'm currently having my fingers crossed about the 30% Room Discount for Fall/Winter promo. Its just that Disney's systems are not up to par with companies of its size and influence. Pete mentioned Facebook & Amazon who get more traffic than Disney will ever get and yet their systems are extremely superior to Disney's, which is a shame really. The websites of airline carriers are waaaaaay better than Disney's systems and they're responsible for bringing Disney's guests over to their parks. Now I know where my thousands of dollars went to because it definitely didn't go towards updating their systems. If Bob Iger came to me and gave me the choice of which to update first, the parks or their computer systems/servers, I'd tell them do a total overhaul of their systems as well as provide the Cast Members with the appropriate hardware & software to use it. Once all that's done THEN continue updating, cleaning & refubishing the attractions in the park accordingly. Pete mentioned that they don't care about the Guest Experience and that's where I disagree with him to a certain degree. Yeah, there's a truck load of things Disney should change and make better service wise. But the fact that we can modify reservations online now, the Direct to Room service, being able to pre order your dining, etc shows that they're at least trying. Their system is pure B.S. hands down but I feel that it wouldn't be fair not to factor in the strides that they're making at the same time. I'm scared to call in for that 30% Room Discount now when its available for my vacation dates. Fingers crossed.

 

[uccats97]

I had to call yesterday to pay my remaining balance on a room only reservation. We check in Thursday. There is not an option to use gift cards as a payment online after you make the initial deposit on a room only reservation. I was on hold for 1hour and 20min. I don't get why the automated system screens your reason for calling if you get thrown into the same queue as everyone else. It would have been nice for callers with other needs besides booking free dining to be able to take care of business without dealing with the whole debacle.

 

[CJLove79]

An article I found from another Disney Forum...http://www.computerworld.com/articl...es-at-disney-over-use-of-foreign-workers.html After reading it, this definitely is one of the MAJOR reasons their systems are all sorts of messed up. Sooner or later, heads are going to roll at Disney when an overwhelming amount of guest complain about their system. I mean, how can you have Apple as a partner with Tim Cook as major stockholder/board member of the company and not utilize Apple's technical savvy to tighten up your system? Really???

 

[HubbDave]

One thing that Pete mentioned that I don't get is this:

What if they just didn't offer free dining? He mentioned they would face Internet forum backlash.

Well...so??? I still think the parks would be crowded and the hotels mostly full...

But they have people working on this

Top people

 

[Tardisblue]

Interesting read. Will this prevent anyone on this thread from going back to Disney or reconsider going?

 

[Angel Ariel]

One thing that Pete mentioned that I don't get is this:

What if they just didn't offer free dining? He mentioned they would face Internet forum backlash.

Well...so??? I still think the parks would be crowded and the hotels mostly full...

But they have people working on this

Top people

I think that was at least part of Pete's point. That not offering free dining would probably result in a backlash, but not as bad of a backlash as what they face when the entire system is.overwhelmed and crashes.

 

[4under4]

You're preaching to the choir...

A couple of months ago, I had the unfortunate coincidence of my 180-day mark being the same day they opened up the BOG lunch reservations for the firs time (I believe it was Feb 25). What a disaster! The website completely crapped out and then everyone started calling and spending 1-2 hours waiting on the phone for a CM (when they actually didn't get a busy signal and got through), only to have them tell you that the system was down completely and even they coudn't make ADRs for anyone. The added insult for me...we had no interest in making a BOG reservation.

This was us too!!! What a nightmare. I was especially nice to the CM when I finally got through because you could tell she was NOT having a magical day!

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

I hope that free dining just goes away next year. It's so stupid it ruins the entire dining options available. It's time for Disney to offer real discounts.

If you're going to offer something give more free days at the park! Lower room prices. I'm sorry if you can't afford to go to Disney unless they offer free dining, too bad, save for another year.

And yes everyone who booked pre the announcement, you indeed played a part in this insanity. Now granted Disney SHOULD just automatically apply the discount if you met the criteria but I doubt there were many options left.

 

[usd2bmd]

Our normal travel time is the end of August and for several years it coincided with the Free Dining promotion. We took advantage of it because it made sense financially and practically. From my point of view that is no longer the case. The last time we went we didn't even book the trip until 45 days out and we still got dining times that we wanted. There is no way we could do that now. I like to plan our trip, but I don't want every minute of every day planned.

I tend to agree with Pete and I have thought for several years that Disney was closing the free dining window more and more each year, at this point I wish they would just close it and leave it alone. Offer something else. We all know that people will still come and they will still make money. Who knows maybe the parks will go back to actually having a slow time.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I think a lot of the problems that seem to come up with free dining now are with how people try and book it. For example people will book a place holder reservation room only when the rates come out and change it to a package when one comes out sounds greet right. The only problem is in Disney's computer system it see the room as being booked just like how the cruise line system used to with the old system for place holder cruises. Now unlike with the cruise lien WDW resorts doesn't know that you are holding that booking until something else come along as they aren't set up the same way. Think of it as trying to get rate on expida for a hotel that you know dates are sold out on there website already you might get lucky and get one but if a hotel is booked then why do they need someone to pay a discounted rate to fill a room?

 

[Princess Jes]

Personally, I hope they don't offer it at all next year, but offer a room discount in say, September and October, the "slower" times.
We are going hopefully in September 2016, probably wouldn't want free dining anyway due to wanting to eat at signature meals as 4 adults on a trip together, and a room discount would be great and probably leave us availability to actually be able to get an ADR.

 

[DisneyKingpin]

These boards are littered with complaints of every kind. Nobody ever does anything about it. Everybody keeps buying tickets and staying at the resorts. There are so many threats of boycotts and the like. Nobody would actually follow through. If tickets doubled in price today, everyone would still buy them. Disney can offer crappy service because we allow it.

There's an old saying in psychology circles: "You teach others how to treat you." Meaning, if you let others walk all over you, they will. We have taught Disney that it's ok to treat us like this. We will gladly wait on the phone for hours and pay ridiculous prices just to be a part of the Disney experience. In a way, it is WE who are treating OURSELVES poorly.