Add/Drop Coordination - HELP!!

[JacknSally]

I also posted this on the Restaurants board, but I consider this to be a theme park planning strategy, and am hoping someone here sees this and has some advice!

OK, so, Disney Dining and I are not on great terms right now!

Was online at 5am (CST) to make our ADR's. Today is our 180+10. Our honeymoon trip is only 5 days and we only had 3 ADR's we wanted, so I knew it was going to be difficult. But it's 6:30am CST now and all morning the site has been telling me "We're unable to search for available tables at this time." I can get times for 10/25 (check-in day) and the +10 dates are all selectable, but yield no results. Last night nothing was selectable beyond 10/24, and now all of my dates are.

I've tried calling several times since the lines opened at 6am CST, but only get "All circuits are busy. Try again later." UPDATE: Finally got through on the phones but they told me I don't exist!

Someone in an October 2015 Facebook group was able to find results online this morning and so kindly made the 3 reservations I was needing, and has offered to hold them for me until we can coordinate an add/drop. SO THANKFUL FOR HER!

So, now we're at this point - what's the best way to do this? I've never tried this before so I don't know the options. Can she just transfer the reservation to us? Do we both need to be on the phone with a CM at the same time? Do it online and hope for the best? We're not doing it right now because I'm still not pulling up any times beyond 10/25.

Any and all tips/tricks/advice are welcome!!

 

[My3Princez]

"Do it online and hope for the best?"
That's what we have done. Coordinate a time to be online at the same time. One drops, one grabs.

 

[AngiTN]

So sorry you got bit by the free dining craze. I said yesterday that it would suck to be one that was trying to book FP or ADR yesterday. Free Dining frenzy killed the website, or made it severely handicapped. I hope you are able to get your reservations. Have you tried to get them on your own now? Other than BOG, most are pretty easy to come by

 

[JacknSally]

So sorry you got bit by the free dining craze. I said yesterday that it would suck to be one that was trying to book FP or ADR yesterday. Free Dining frenzy killed the website, or made it severely handicapped. I hope you are able to get your reservations. Have you tried to get them on your own now? Other than BOG, most are pretty easy to come by

Echoing the cries of many others, but you'd think a company as big and rich as Disney could make this whole process not suck as much! I've been to Disney several times but this is my first trip booking things on my own, and if it were my first trip at all, I would seriously be rethinking some things!

The Dining line CM's I got this morning were so rude. I'm staring at my MDE page with my hotel confirmation and the names on the reservation, and she kept telling me that there was no hotel reservation under either name or the confirmation number I was giving her.... I told her that I was looking at it on MDE so I knew it existed, and she said "If you can do this online then why did you even call." Seriously!?

I kept explaining to her that I wasn't upset with her personally and I know FD came out yesterday and things have been insane for them, but my goodness! To tell me my reservation doesn't exist when I'm sitting there staring at it, and when I asked who I needed to contact or what number she needed if the only one I had didn't work, she didn't know and couldn't tell me anything other than "if you can do this online then why did you call" or "I do apologize for that." So so frustrating.

Still can't actually nail down a reservation online, either. Sigh.

 

[SJSloan]

Do it online and hope for the best.

I have done this recently with several ADRs for others, mostly with success but some failure. You 2 agree on a time to cancel, you perform a search for that day, time, party #, and restaurant before the cancellation; the person holding the ADR cancels, you refresh the page and grab it. A few things I noted in the process...

1) Make sure you are already logged on to the website, app, etc.
2) Make sure your credit card, and all information are saved in your MDE account so you don't have to enter it again.
3) The actual website works better than the app. My friend was trying to reserve a reservation via her app that I had just cancelled and each time she tried it would take her back to the home screen. I told her to switch to the website and it worked.
4) Pick a completely random time. I think a lot of people search for ADRs (especially hard to get ADRs like BOG) often, and maybe every hour, or even every half hour. The few ADRs that I cancelled that disappeared in an instant and the other person was unable to grab it were done right around the 30 mark. So I would suggest picking a time like 1:52 or something like that when people may not be searching yet. Note: This is my own theory.

 

[mom2rtk]

Echoing the cries of many others, but you'd think a company as big and rich as Disney could make this whole process not suck as much! I've been to Disney several times but this is my first trip booking things on my own, and if it were my first trip at all, I would seriously be rethinking some things!

The Dining line CM's I got this morning were so rude. I'm staring at my MDE page with my hotel confirmation and the names on the reservation, and she kept telling me that there was no hotel reservation under either name or the confirmation number I was giving her.... I told her that I was looking at it on MDE so I knew it existed, and she said "If you can do this online then why did you even call." Seriously!?

I kept explaining to her that I wasn't upset with her personally and I know FD came out yesterday and things have been insane for them, but my goodness! To tell me my reservation doesn't exist when I'm sitting there staring at it, and when I asked who I needed to contact or what number she needed if the only one I had didn't work, she didn't know and couldn't tell me anything other than "if you can do this online then why did you call" or "I do apologize for that." So so frustrating.

Still can't actually nail down a reservation online, either. Sigh.

That really was rude. She needs to hope someone continues to need her help by phone or she wouldn't have a job.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Would the person from the October thread just allow you to use their name when you show up for the reservation? Restaurants don't check for ID; at most, they may need the phone number associated with the MDE - I've never had a CM ask for my phone number.

If they will just allow you the use of their name, there is no way the ADR can be lost in a transfer.

 

[supersnoop]

The person who booked the ADR is on the hook for the $10/person no-show fee. I can't imagine any stranger taking that risk for me.

The process is well documented in the reservations forum. I recommend using http://nist.time.gov to synchronize the add/drop. Have your browser set up and ready to search for the exact reservation. And search just as soon as the other person clicks the cancel confirmation button. It can take 30 seconds to receive the cancellation confirmation screen, but the reservation is released as soon as the button is clicked.

 

[JacknSally]

Would the person from the October thread just allow you to use their name when you show up for the reservation? Restaurants don't check for ID; at most, they may need the phone number associated with the MDE - I've never had a CM ask for my phone number.

If they will just allow you the use of their name, there is no way the ADR can be lost in a transfer.

That is an option, though their credit card is on file for the guarantee, and while I have zero intention of not showing up for these reservations, I wouldn't want to be responsible for any possible charges to someone else's card. Plus, I'd like to be able to access the reservations through my MDE account and have them show up in my personal itinerary. And if for any reason any changes need to be made, I'd want to be the one to have to deal with that, rather than asking someone else to be responsible for it.

The person who booked the ADR is on the hook for the $10/person no-show fee. I can't imagine any stranger taking that risk for me.

The process is well documented in the reservations forum. I recommend using http://nist.time.gov to synchronize the add/drop. Have your browser set up and ready to search for the exact reservation. And search just as soon as the other person clicks the cancel confirmation button. It can take 30 seconds to receive the cancellation confirmation screen, but the reservation is released as soon as the button is clicked.

Thank you for the link and the info regarding the responsiveness of the system! That is very handy information.

 

[JacknSally]

Do it online and hope for the best.

I have done this recently with several ADRs for others, mostly with success but some failure. You 2 agree on a time to cancel, you perform a search for that day, time, party #, and restaurant before the cancellation; the person holding the ADR cancels, you refresh the page and grab it. A few things I noted in the process...

1) Make sure you are already logged on to the website, app, etc.
2) Make sure your credit card, and all information are saved in your MDE account so you don't have to enter it again.
3) The actual website works better than the app. My friend was trying to reserve a reservation via her app that I had just cancelled and each time she tried it would take her back to the home screen. I told her to switch to the website and it worked.
4) Pick a completely random time. I think a lot of people search for ADRs (especially hard to get ADRs like BOG) often, and maybe every hour, or even every half hour. The few ADRs that I cancelled that disappeared in an instant and the other person was unable to grab it were done right around the 30 mark. So I would suggest picking a time like 1:52 or something like that when people may not be searching yet. Note: This is my own theory.

Thank you!!


In your experience (or anyone else's) are there higher/lower traffic days of the week or times of day?

 

[SJSloan]

Thank you!!


In your experience (or anyone else's) are there higher/lower traffic days of the week or times of day?

I have only done it on the weekdays, and usually during the day (generally after noon, EST). I did have one evening experience in which I was attempting to get another's BOG dinner reservation, and was successful. I am thinking that was shortly before 8pm. I have never done it on the weekends.