Majority of dining scalping websites shut down by Disney

[DisMommyTX]

Many people responding here don't understand what sites like Scout did. They didn't make any reservations or in any way hold or take ADR's. I have heard of others that did, but I believe they were all shut down a while back, as we all agree they should be. I don't think it's fair to lump all the sites together.

The sites like Scout searched for a specified time and date at a restaurant, then sent a message if anything became available. To me, that sounds a lot like the airfare search tools that email you when the fare prices drop for a particular route. If Disney determined that the bots were a drain on their IT infrastructure, they could have just added a captcha step like ticketmaster and thousands of other websites have used for years. Of course, if it was the bots causing problems, then their reservations site should have been running better tonight, instead of constantly kicking me out and repeatedly giving the ' unable to search at this time ' error.

Actual improvement would be if they redesign their search interface to streamline end users' efforts, by allowing us to search for availability over multiple days or time frames. Then I wouldn't have to search 10+ different combinations, multiple times per day, trying to get a lunch reservation for 7 at Be Our Guest after plans changed 4 months out. The fact that people were willing to pay for a search service should have been taken as an indictment of their system. Instead of using litigation to bring these other sites down, they need to upgrade their own capabilities to make those outside services obsolete.

 

[Minniesgal]

To be honest I think the ADR frenzy is a bit laughable at best.

There is nowhere to eat at Disney that is so good I'd be prepared to go to these lengths to get an ADR. While there are places we like to eat if we can great if we can't well plenty other places will take our money it's not like we are going to starve.

I regularly check same day or next day openings just to get a feel. Lot of available ADRs for today 13th really don't get either the hype or the need for these sites.

 

[middlechild]

For our 25th wedding anniversary, I'd like to go to Victoria and Alberts on April 13 2016. This is 180 days from now. Through Disney's dining reservation site, it only tells me the query result is no tables available, it does not suggest what is available. I am left to search from day to day. If there was a service that would do that for me, I would use it.

Perhaps WDW needs to add a "suggest" to the results, saying your request is not possible, but here is one that is....

I guess the next move is to call 800-W-DISNEY and book an on-site stay with dinner reservations at V&A. Perhaps they can tell me what is available around that particular day.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Funny about the frenzy. I just went on Disney's site and looked at the ADRs available for breakfast in 180 days every restaurant that is open for breakfast has openings, including CM, BOG and CRT. It's 3:40 pm, at my 180 almost all breakfasts for those restaurants were gone almost immediately but that was when these dining scalpers were going strong. So it appears now that they are gone suddenly the 180 days isn't as big as a deal.

Glad to see them go, I truly believe the "frenzy" was artificially created by the scalpers.

Lack of ADRs existed before these sites did. What creates the frenzy is people being able to book at 180 days, and since 180 days is too far out for most people they book a series of ADRs and cancel at the last minute. You can create unlimited MDE accounts to hold ADRs at various restaurants for the same time. If Disney had a more reasonable timeframe--like 30 days--by then most people will have a better idea of where they want to be when and there would be less hoarding of reservations.

 

[bpadair32]

Lack of ADRs existed before these sites did. What creates the frenzy is people being able to book at 180 days, and since 180 days is too far out for most people they book a series of ADRs and cancel at the last minute. You can create unlimited MDE accounts to hold ADRs at various restaurants for the same time. If Disney had a more reasonable timeframe--like 30 days--by then most people will have a better idea of where they want to be when and there would be less hoarding of reservations.

Or people could just do what most of us do - Book your ADRs at 180 days for where you want to eat and then plan the rest of the day around the ADR when that time comes. Its not hard.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Or people could just do what most of us do - Book your ADRs at 180 days for where you want to eat and then plan the rest of the day around the ADR when that time comes. Its not hard.

My point was that there has always been a problem with ADRs that existed before the scouting sites did because people hoard ADRs. I agree the hoarding ADRs issue would be resolved if people didn't hoard. But Disney's long booking window encourages hoarding. Disney has tried several techniques to limit the hoarding--requiring up front payment for some meals, requiring a credit card to make all ADRs, and setting parameters in MDE so that people can't use the same MDE account to make multiple ADRs at the same time. But even with these measures the problem persists because people are prone to hoard when they feel forced to make a decision on where to eat 6 months in advance. That is crazy talk for most rational people. Because Disney's steps so far haven't worked to resolve the hoarding issue, another way to reduce it would be to offer a shorter window for making ADRs. People certainly aren't going to stop hoarding on their own...a look at the cancellation threads on the Dining board gives an idea of how much of it goes on, and the people who post there are at least generous enough to let people know when they're releasing ADRs. There have been people who release multiple ADRs for the same time all the time and there are plenty of people who hoard and don't announce it.


ETA: As a participant in the cancellation threads, I'm not implying that there are only hoarders there. There are plenty of people whose plans simply change. But we all know every once in awhile a person pops in with six BOG or Le Cellier cancellations in a week. And it's those people I'm referring to.

 

[bpadair32]

My point was that there has always been a problem with ADRs that existed before the scouting sites did because people hoard ADRs. I agree the hoarding ADRs issue would be resolved if people didn't hoard. But Disney's long booking window encourages hoarding. Disney has tried several techniques to limit the hoarding--requiring up front payment for some meals, requiring a credit card to make all ADRs, and setting parameters in MDE so that people can't use the same MDE account to make multiple ADRs at the same time. But even with these measures the problem persists because people are prone to hoard when they feel forced to make a decision on where to eat 6 months in advance. That is crazy talk for most rational people. Because Disney's steps so far haven't worked to resolve the hoarding issue, another way to reduce it would be to offer a shorter window for making ADRs. People certainly aren't going to stop hoarding on their own...a look at the cancellation threads on the Dining board gives an idea of how much of it goes on, and the people who post there are at least generous enough to let people know when they're releasing ADRs. There have been people who release multiple ADRs for the same time all the time and there are plenty of people who hoard and don't announce it.


ETA: As a participant in the cancellation threads, I'm not implying that there are only hoarders there. There are plenty of people whose plans simply change. But we all know every once in awhile a person pops in with six BOG or Le Cellier cancellations in a week. And it's those people I'm referring to.

And some people will still hoard them at 30 days, except then you are going to have a lot more people that are really stressed out about not being able to get an ADR for their favorite restaurant and its only 30 days away.

 

[skier_pete]

People forget that a few years ago Disney switched to a 90 day ADR policy. They did that I think to try and reduce cancellations. I am not sure what the reason they went back to 180 days - they never said - but if you think it is a frenzy at 180 days, you should look back and see what it was at 90 days.

As @rteetz pointed out, restaurants were never a problem before the advent of the DDP and particularly the free dining program. In those days, you rarely had trouble getting into restaurants the day of (except the character meals). The interesting thing is that DDP drove people to the TS restaurants because it was such a bargain. Now it's hardly a bargain at all, yet people have been conditioned to it. Smart move by Disney.

 

[awilliams4]

Disney created this issue themselves. People wouldn't pay for websites like these if it wasn't such a frenzy for ADRs 180 days in advance.

Isn't the fault the popularity of WDW itself? If so, shouldn't your relatives, neighbors, friends and us be blamed first?

 

[Eoghann]

As @rteetz pointed out, restaurants were never a problem before the advent of the DDP and particularly the free dining program. In those days, you rarely had trouble getting into restaurants the day of (except the character meals). The interesting thing is that DDP drove people to the TS restaurants because it was such a bargain. Now it's hardly a bargain at all, yet people have been conditioned to it. Smart move by Disney.

The Dining Plan really encourages that mentality because to make it work you need to use up all (or almost all) your credits. So obviously you're going to try and book all the places you want to make sure you can get into them. And everyone else is doing the same thing. Between that and the effect on food quality, the Dining Plan may have been very good for Disney but it was not at all good for guests.

 

[rteetz]

Isn't the fault the popularity of WDW itself? If so, shouldn't your relatives, neighbors, friends and us be blamed first?

Disneyland is very popular, Tokyo Disneyland is very popular but neither have this sort of problem.

 

[Eoghann]

Disneyland is very popular, Tokyo Disneyland is very popular but neither have this sort of problem.

I don't know about Tokyo but the average Disneyland guest is a different breed I think. WDW trips tend to be longer and much less frequent. Which sort of lends itself towards planning and everything having to be "perfect" or the whole vacation is "ruined".

 

[rteetz]

The Dining Plan really encourages that mentality because to make it work you need to use up all (or almost all) your credits. So obviously you're going to try and book all the places you want to make sure you can get into them. And everyone else is doing the same thing. Between that and the effect on food quality, the Dining Plan may have been very good for Disney but it was not at all good for guests.

Perfect example. In 2012 we didn't use the dining plan we booked two ADRs for our week trip. 2014 we used the dining plan booked 5 ADRs for our 6 day trip. We still ended up having quick service credits left.

 

[rteetz]

I don't know about Tokyo but the average Disneyland guest is a different breed I think. WDW trips tend to be longer and much less frequent. Which sort of lends itself towards planning and everything having to be "perfect" or the whole vacation is "ruined".

That is true. Tokyo is often looked at as the closest thing to WDW outside the US because it's parks see very large numbers and crowds are always an issue. They have FP which many use like WDW's was where people would rush when the parks open to get them. I don't know how long people spend at TDR compared to WDW. I would assume that aspect is closer to Disneyland.

 

[skier_pete]

Disneyland is very popular, Tokyo Disneyland is very popular but neither have this sort of problem.

Disneyland does have a different clientel, but really it's funny when you think about it:
Disneyland gets 25.6 million guests and has less than 20 "sit-down" restaurants.
Disney World gets 51.4 million guests and has about 100 "sit-down" restaurants.

Yet Disneyland you can generally get a table at any restaurant (besides Blue Bayou) a week or less in advance, while many Walt Disney World restaurants are booked months in advance.

But I think @Eoghann hit the nail on the head. Being majority locals at DLR means most of these people treat Disney dining as you would your local Olive Garden - and in addition many guests don't even eat at these restaurants for most stays. Which is why the TS restaurants at DLR tend to lean more towards high end affairs and less about Character Dining. (DLR has 3 character meals that I can think of. WDW has about 20.)

WDW the dining has become part of the vacation. Actually it was probably not so much the shift to the Dining Plan as much as the shift to the on-site stay that caused this. In the 70s/80s very few people stay on site, meaning very few people needed to dine at Disney. The nineties saw the shift in on-site properties, but really until the dining plan came along, the public wasn't "trained" to eat a TS meal every day. Now it's considered by many the norm.

When we bought into DVC, we decided that we would sacrifice the DDP/daily TS costs to spend a little more on our resorts. After our first trip, we found this shift to actually be very nice. Too much time and too much food was devoted to TS eating, I think we much more like having 4-5 TS meals per trip instead of 8-9.

 

[Mousetopia]

For our 25th wedding anniversary, I'd like to go to Victoria and Alberts on April 13 2016. This is 180 days from now. Through Disney's dining reservation site, it only tells me the query result is no tables available, it does not suggest what is available. I am left to search from day to day. If there was a service that would do that for me, I would use it.

Perhaps WDW needs to add a "suggest" to the results, saying your request is not possible, but here is one that is....

I guess the next move is to call 800-W-DISNEY and book an on-site stay with dinner reservations at V&A. Perhaps they can tell me what is available around that particular day.

I suggest calling this number direct 407-WDW-DVNA (939-3862) up to 180 days prior to your visit.

 

[sndral]

For our 25th wedding anniversary, I'd like to go to Victoria and Alberts on April 13 2016. This is 180 days from now. Through Disney's dining reservation site, it only tells me the query result is no tables available, it does not suggest what is available. I am left to search from day to day. If there was a service that would do that for me, I would use it.

Perhaps WDW needs to add a "suggest" to the results, saying your request is not possible, but here is one that is....

I guess the next move is to call 800-W-DISNEY and book an on-site stay with dinner reservations at V&A. Perhaps they can tell me what is available around that particular day.

Best to call V&A, the computer system and their system aren't exactly in sync @ the moment - they probably have openings on the day you are interested in. Good luck.

 

[Kurfees]

Any suggestions on how to get an ADR--I couldn't book my trip 180 days out. I'm going to WDW with 4 kids and at least want to go to one character meal during 11/14-11/20. I'm having no luck--any suggestion? Thanks!

 

[rteetz]

Any suggestions on how to get an ADR--I couldn't book my trip 180 days out. I'm going to WDW with 4 kids and at least want to go to one character meal during 11/14-11/20. I'm having no luck--any suggestion? Thanks!

Ask the dining board

 

[Kurfees]

Is Disney dining assistant shut down also? Are all the third party dining websites completely shut down?