Oh so THAT'S WHY I can't get a reservation at Be Our Guest (and every other restaurant in WDW)!!

[woodleygrrl]

http://www.eater.com/2015/9/9/9296645/disney-restaurant-reservations-fake-names?ref=yfp

Man, people are so so so sneaky.

What do you all think about this?

Jennifer

 

[calismic]

I just came here to see if that site was affiliated with the DIS. I really hope its not. I never had a problem with Disney Dining Buddy since really all it does is notify you when a reservation is available, it doesn't hold it hostage! Disney just needs to file a Trademark Infringement Complaint with the ISP and have the site taken down.

 

[V2000]

Maybe Disney should use their system to be unable to make an ADR in a park unless you have a ticket purchased. Similar to fast pass restriction.

 

[CandiceF]

I think the idea that you can't make an ADR without a park ticket is a great one! Disney is expensive enough, we shouldn't have to pay more to get the reservations we want!

 

[WIcruizer]

Maybe tie it to your resort reservation? Off-site guests wouldn't be able to make an ADR then, but that's the price you pay in my opinion. (And we have stayed off-site in the past, I would accept the fact I couldn't make ADR.) Heck, Disney could even sell that as yet another advantage of staying within WDW. But yes, tying it to a park ticket would be a good start.

Disney has a lot of smart people, and my guess is they know this has become a problem. Unfortunately, nothing ever gets fixed as quickly as we would like. One thing they could do immediately is cut down the number of ADRs you have in a day, or multiple ADRs at the same restaurant throughout the stay. I never realized how many people make multiple ADRs every day, then cancel later.

Any way you slice it, it's not acceptable that if you stay in a Deluxe (or even Mod) resort you can't get an ADR at a restaurant you want months in advance, or if you get lucky dinner is at 4:00 or 9:45.

 

[NC State]

If people are doing that for dining I wonder if they are doing the same with the new FastPass+?

 

[supersnoop]

1. Do you really expect people to buy their park tickets 180 days in advance?
2. The "extortionists" can always book a room-only reservation and cancel it before the five-day deadline. I figure people do that for FP+ already.

 

[karrit2000]

If people are doing that for dining I wonder if they are doing the same with the new FastPass+?

There's a very active thread on the Theme Park forum that explains in detail how to go about making multiple FPs with unused tickets & MBs. Seemed like way too much juggling of MDE accounts under different names, emails, etc. I got quite the headache reading it. Seems to me a lot of the advice threads these days promote a lot of practices that are pushing the boundaries of common decency and open the doors to those making a profit off of shady practices all in the name of free enterprise since Disney can't seem to implement a system that insures fairness to all guests.

 

[minnie mum]

I just came here to see if that site was affiliated with the DIS. I really hope its not. I never had a problem with Disney Dining Buddy since really all it does is notify you when a reservation is available, it doesn't hold it hostage! Disney just needs to file a Trademark Infringement Complaint with the ISP and have the site taken down.

According to other articles I've read, Disney is aware and are working on it. Unfortunately it's not always as easy as you've said with some of these shady characters.

I highly doubt they are connected in any way with the DISboards. Look at their name closely. They spell it DiS, not DIS.

 

[momto4obkids]

Maybe tie it to your resort reservation? Off-site guests wouldn't be able to make an ADR then, but that's the price you pay in my opinion. (And we have stayed off-site in the past, I would accept the fact I couldn't make ADR.) Heck, Disney could even sell that as yet another advantage of staying within WDW. But yes, tying it to a park ticket would be a good start.

Disney has a lot of smart people, and my guess is they know this has become a problem. Unfortunately, nothing ever gets fixed as quickly as we would like. One thing they could do immediately is cut down the number of ADRs you have in a day, or multiple ADRs at the same restaurant throughout the stay. I never realized how many people make multiple ADRs every day, then cancel later.

Any way you slice it, it's not acceptable that if you stay in a Deluxe (or even Mod) resort you can't get an ADR at a restaurant you want months in advance, or if you get lucky dinner is at 4:00 or 9:45.

Any way you slice it, if you stay at any level of disney resort, or even off site for that matter, you should be able to get an ADR at a restaurant months in advance.

 

[DanceswithDisney]

In another article I read, the last sentence read: ""Disney created a market here of a lot of very frustrated guests who are trying to get into restaurants and are not able to do it," he said. "Good entrepreneurs have found a way to serve that market."

As a firm believer in entrepreneurship, I see no issue that one company has created based on the monster Disney and their dining has become!

 

[RafikiTiki21]

There are lots of restaurants outside of parks, so tying ADRs to park tickets isn't feasible. I personally have made ADRs when I'm in the area for work and not staying at a resort or going to a park, I'm sure lots of locals and other types of travelers do the same.

Really frustrating to keep seeing people taking advantage of the situation instead of everyone just playing by the rules and basic workflows.

 

[DisneynBison]

Time for Disney to start charging a booking fee that is automatically charged to credit card at time of reservation then applied to the cost of the meal when it is used or refunded when cancelled. They charge a fee if you no show for a reservation, well maybe it is time to just start collecting that fee earlier.

 

[Kimosabe]

1. Do you really expect people to buy their park tickets 180 days in advance?.

Agreed - I think we all agree that a vacation to WDW ain't cheap. But one thing that helps make it affordable is the ability to pay for different things over time (assuming you know months in advance that you're going, which a lot of us on these boards do). We'll make our room reservations well in advance and pay the applicable deposit, but if we're buying tickets for that trip only, there's absolutely no benefit to paying for the park tickets any further out than the 60-day FP period (unless you found some great deal earlier).

I would argue that perhaps the current ADR timeframe should be shortened significantly to de-stress this whole thing. I remember fondly going into Epcot one morning, stopping by Guest Services and making a reservation at Alfredo's for that afternoon. Not necessarily advocating for same-day ADRs again, but 180 days is ridiculous (even if my family has admittedly fed the monster by calling 180 days out for some ADRs).

Similarly, on the no-ADR-if-no-park-ticket thing, if I'm taking a trip to WDW but taking a non-park day in the middle of my trip to hang out at the resort pool, etc., does that mean I am forced to eat quick service that day? How would WDW know in advance which of the days on my five-day ticket are going to be used when during my seven-day resort stay? Not only might I not want to buy my tickets six months in advance, but I also wouldn't want to have to decide which days are pool days (or whatever) that far in advance. On a related note, if I'm actually staying off-property (or am an Orlando local) but want to eat at California Grill or Yachtsman or any other resort-based restaurant, I doubt that WDW is going to want to deny me that opportunity to give them money.

I guess there's no perfect answer to any of this, which makes it fun to discuss/argue/rant - ha!

 

[SouthJersey]

They should tie adr availability to a system that becomes active after the trip's deposit is paid for.

Regardless, are people really struggling? I've made similar posts, we're going on a 12 people trip with several families also going with us and everyone has been finding everything. We found virtually every adr from 2-8 guests at 160-180 days, including be our guest. We're about 90 days out and we've been finding openings we've needed for all character meals, including CM and my sister just booked a 4 person CRT. We booked via Napoli and la hacienda the other day along with narcoossee's for a time change.

 

[JimmyBean42]

In another article I read, the last sentence read: ""Disney created a market here of a lot of very frustrated guests who are trying to get into restaurants and are not able to do it," he said. "Good entrepreneurs have found a way to serve that market."

As a firm believer in entrepreneurship, I see no issue that one company has created based on the monster Disney and their dining has become!

They actually are not serving the market, they are the ones who created the frustrated customers. It's no different then a ticket scalper buying a ton of tickets and selling them at a ridiculously high cost. Except if the ticket scalper didn't dump the tickets in time, they'd get stuck with the face value costs. These "entrepreneurs" don't get stuck with any costs if they cancel in time. It's lazy entrepreneurship if anything. If they were smart they'd think of a service that helps people while making money instead of creating additional problems and chaos.

 

[DanceswithDisney]

I disagree. Disney created this entire monster with the Dining plans to begin with and the 180 day booking window. A company has found a way to do the work for people and monetize it. Good for them. It is no different than a travel agent who charges fees to create touring plans.

 

[bumbershoot]

"Oh so THAT'S WHY I can't get a reservation at Be Our Guest (and every other restaurant in WDW)!!"

Whereas I got all that I wanted, including more than one BOG (since I like both lunch and dinner) without issues, over a few weeks' time (not all at once on the first minute booking them was available).

So...I think each of us are the ADR "enemies" of each other for the most part, not necessarily some random company.

 

[tomatecerise]

The Time is money. I find all my restaurants myself because i have the Time. I save at least 24$

 

[JimmyBean42]

I disagree. Disney created this entire monster with the Dining plans to begin with and the 180 day booking window. A company has found a way to do the work for people and monetize it. Good for them. It is no different than a travel agent who charges fees to create touring plans.

Here is how it is completely different then a travel agent. You book a travel agent before and tell them what you want and they get it (or try to in WDW cases). They are booking for customers who have plans already. This site is booking popular restaurant reservations without any customers and then selling them off at a high price and creating a demand for them to sell. So they are more similar to a scalper then a travel agent. And scalping is illegal in the United States.