7am Eastern time opening for ADRs and FP....

[DizBelle]

I've heard the reason for this is so that people don't have to try and make reservations "in the middle of the night" but I'm not sure I buy it.

When the opening time was midnight eastern time, if you are in the central time zone, you would have to get online at 11pm to make your reservations. Mountain time would get online at 10pm and Pacific would get online at 9pm. The folks in the UK would have to get online at 5am.

Now, with the 7am opening, central time will have to get online at 6am. Mountain time 5am and pacific time 4am. The folks in the UK now have it pretty good as the opening time for them is noon.

The only people that can get online at a reasonable morning time (8am - 11am local) would be the people that happen to live in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, South America or Greenland. What percentage of WDW guests come from these areas?

I'm just not sure the new opening time for reservations benefits the "most" people as just about everybody in the US gets the shaft.

I'm in the central time zone and I was good with getting online at 11pm for reservations. I'm not too happy with having to do it at 6am now.

Am I missing something?

 

[LilyWDW]

Except for the fact that when it was at midnight, there would be no one AT Disney to call if there were technical issues or other problems. This way, there are phone employees available if a visitor needs to call.

 

[Accident]

I think to a degree it's also because midnight may not equal the next day for parks that are opened.. just seems to make more sense for both someone to call, not having to call in on call rotation staff for problems and spreading out the load to make it a nicer app experience in the park.

 

[Koz]

Except for the fact that when it was at midnight, there would be no one AT Disney to call if there were technical issues or other problems. This way, there are phone employees available if a visitor needs to call.

Plus, Sanjay and his crew in Dehli are already up and standing by, hoping to address any IT issues that might come across their "help" desk.

 

[mom2rtk]

Except for the fact that when it was at midnight, there would be no one AT Disney to call if there were technical issues or other problems. This way, there are phone employees available if a visitor needs to call.

Yep. That.

 

[DebbieB]

Plus, Sanjay and his crew in Dehli are already up and standing by, hoping to address any IT issues that might come across their "help" desk.

Is the IT help desk now in India? My understanding was the big story about hiring foreigners were for jobs in the US (here on H-1B Visas).

My guess is most companies do routine maintenance in the middle of the night, they would rather not have people on.

 

[Koz]

Is the IT help desk now in India? My understanding was the big story about hiring foreigners were for jobs in the US (here on H-1B Visas).

My guess is most companies do routine maintenance in the middle of the night, they would rather not have people on.

Agreed about the maintenance. I know that the jobs were being outsourced but my recollection was that it was a combination of overseas along with H-1B talent.

 

[Sparkly]

It's better for us in the UK- in the middle of the day instead of at 5am!

 

[CAS239]

No matter what time it'll be inconveniencing someone. You don't HAVE to book right when your slot opens to get everything you want. So you can easily wake up at 8 or 9am instead of 7 and 99.99% of the time get the same.

I think they should've just left it at midnight or moved it to 10pm eastern

 

[jsmla]

Everyone's not the same. I'm an early bird and found the 11:00 PM (CDT) timing inconvenient. Much prefer the 6:00 AM time slot. It works very for me.

 

[JimmyV]

Problem #1: Midnight was always a bad idea as it created confusion as to which day was your 60th/30th day. I can't tell you how many times people asked here: "Does my FP window open up as Tuesday rolls over to Wednesday, or when Monday rolls over to Tuesday." Getting rid of the midnight starting point ended that. There is still a place in the world where the starting time is at midnight, but it is somewhere west of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific. So Problem #1 was solved.

Problem #2: People with "issues" needed to talk to tech support. There was no Tech Support at 1:00 a.m. Move the starting time to a point which includes the work day for Tech Support and Problem #2 was solved.

Problem #3: For some reason, the FP system needed the park to be closed in order for the window to open. Even if it was 12:30 a.m. on the east coast, if the MK was still open at that hour, the day had not yet ended and the "60 days in advance" had not yet started. So in order to book FPs at the moment the window opened, you needed to know current park hours in real time. Not hard to find out, but many people never thought that they needed to look resulting in lots of "WHAT'S GOING ON?? I CAN'T BOOK MY FPs" panic reactions. With a 7:00 a.m. start time, Problem #3 is solved, (unless they bring back the 24 Hour Event).

 

[John Marecek]

Problem #1: Midnight was always a bad idea as it created confusion as to which day was your 60th/30th day. I can't tell you how many times people asked here: "Does my FP window open up as Tuesday rolls over to Wednesday, or when Monday rolls over to Tuesday."

Problem #1, more specifically, too many people don't know how to tell time.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Oh I thought ADRand fast pass time was at 6am eastern. I didn't realize it moved to 7am! That is when my shift starts. Darn. Oh well ADR's have been done a long time but fast pass coming in a month.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Problem #1, more specifically, too many people don't know how to tell time.

Yes. This. 12:00 AM is not a time on 2 different days. It is the first minute of a new day. It isn't one day "rolling into another."

I used to work as a business analyst and was on a project last year with an implementation starting at 12:00 AM and you would not believe the number of discussions we had to have about "what day that is."

Being up early inconveniences some people, while staying up late inconveniences others. I do think that this change is overall better though, due to the confusion of not being able to book while a park is still open, and having support staff available in case of a problem.

 

[Metalliman98]

So are online ADRs and FP now at 7 AM eastern? I had understood they were at 6, and the phones opened at 7. I would love for it to be 7, since I am on the west coast, but I want to be sure I have the right time.

 

[DizBelle]

Yes. This. 12:00 AM is not a time on 2 different days. It is the first minute of a new day. It isn't one day "rolling into another."

I used to work as a business analyst and was on a project last year with an implementation starting at 12:00 AM and you would not believe the number of discussions we had to have about "what day that is."

Being up early inconveniences some people, while staying up late inconveniences others. I do think that this change is overall better though, due to the confusion of not being able to book while a park is still open, and having support staff available in case of a problem.

Agreed. But it seems that the 12am opening inconvenienced way fewer than the 7am opening.

 

[DizBelle]

So are online ADRs and FP now at 7 AM eastern? I had understood they were at 6, and the phones opened at 7. I would love for it to be 7, since I am on the west coast, but I want to be sure I have the right time.

The FP FAQ thread says it opens at 7am eastern time.

 

[John Marecek]

Agreed. But it seems that the 12am opening inconvenienced way fewer than the 7am opening.

Agreed. I'm sure cast members weren't thrilled with the change. It has to be miserable enough dealing with 180 day dining and vacation package offers being released at the same time. Now add in panicky FP+ people. In the end, it is what it is, Disney isn't changing it, so we adjust. I really would like to know the percentage of those booked on property are there at first moment they can book rooms/ADRs/FP+. Guessing this impacts a small percentage of their guests, but the vocal ones.

 

[js]

When did this start? I made my ADRs on Wednesday at 6:00 am.

 

[Missyrose]

So are online ADRs and FP now at 7 AM eastern? I had understood they were at 6, and the phones opened at 7. I would love for it to be 7, since I am on the west coast, but I want to be sure I have the right time.

ADRs online are 6 a.m. and FP+ reservations online are at 7 a.m.