Disney Dining Buddy done?

[Tiggeroo]

If you have an existing reservation booked through dining buddy will it be cancelled?

 

[coletteh]

As I understand it, Dining Buddy just LOOKED for the reservation--YOU had to log in to your MDE account to actually place it (and it would often be gone before you could respond to the alert), so I don't know that Disney can track how you determined that spot was available. I guess I can't say for sure, but it doesn't appear to be a concern.

 

[jne7043]

If you have an existing reservation booked through dining buddy will it be cancelled?

You can't book a reservation with dining buddy. Dining Buddy only alerts you when there is an opening on the WDW ADR page. Any reservations would have been booked directly with Disney and they would not know that Dining Buddy alerted you to the opening. So, in short, no reservations would not be cancelled. But, just wanted to clear up that there are no reservations with Dining Buddy.

 

[jne7043]

Crazy to me how Dining Buddy is no longer functioning. But, the site that is actually selling reservations is still up. It's possible that they got the cease and desist letter and are just ignoring it. I mean, surely, of all people they got one right?

 

[Tiggeroo]

That's right. The reservation shows up under my disney experience

 

[coletteh]

Crazy to me how Dining Buddy is no longer functioning. But, the site that is actually selling reservations is still up. It's possible that they got the cease and desist letter and are just ignoring it. I mean, surely, of all people they got one right?

I wonder why it's still up too--I am sure they're ignoring it, they had no problem creating fake accounts and god knows what else to sell ADRS, so yeah, probably. I don't really know how it worked for the seller sites, but I feel like I've read here that they had to be using some type of CC info to get these reservations and that makes me wonder a little bit. I am glad DDB took the high road (I mean, sort of?) and complied with the letter right away.

 

[mcd2745]

As I understand it, Dining Buddy just LOOKED for the reservation--YOU had to log in to your MDE account to actually place it (and it would often be gone before you could respond to the alert), so I don't know that Disney can track how you determined that spot was available. I guess I can't say for sure, but it doesn't appear to be a concern.

They probably can, however, track who/what keeps searching the site for availability. And if they find that it is some sort of bot and not an actual person searching, I'm sure they can track the IP addresses or something (I'm far from a tech expert).

 

[Princess candy]

Are we going to get a refund? I paid for two searches for Oct trip (didn't receive any alerts since I guess no tables were available). It would be nice to have my $16 back

 

[22Tink]

Are we going to get a refund? I paid for two searches for Oct trip (didn't receive any alerts since I guess no tables were available). It would be nice to have my $16 back

Their message on the site says if you have active searches to watch for an email within the next week with info regarding refunds.

 

[blrem]

Are these sites why this year dining reservations are a nightmare? We traveled to WDW in November 2012 and 2013 with free dining plans and had ZERO problem getting reservations when we booked 100-130 days out. The really popular ones were hard (BOG, CRT) but everything else (Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace, Tusker House, etc) were easily booked 100 days out. We were floored back in June when we booked and there were ZERO character dining to be had. Nada. Nothing. I've slowly got all but one day filled with what we want and am keeping my fingers crossed I can get Crystal Palace when we want it. I am using Scout, as I felt I had to because I cannot stay on my phone that much checking. Scout is the only reason I have gotten my reservations so far. I understand why sites like this are under fire. I disagree with booking and charging clients but alerting seems fine, but it creates an unfair playing field. If they go, so be it. But I'm curious now if these sites are why dining is a nightmare this year.

I read that it was the release of free dining for this fall that caused the rapid disappearance of many ressies. Since the free dining promotion hadn't been offered in some time many people were waiting to plan their trips around this popular offer and waited until the exact moment dining reservations could be secured to snap up as many as they could. As your trip date gets closer, some of these will likely be cancelled so keep watching.

 

[Pumbaa_]

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