Admit it: You lie about having priority seating

[disneymom3]

Okay, well I have to say I have never even thought about lying about having an ADR. Truly never even occurred to me. I suppose some people might do it, but I doubt you are going to find any amongst the compulsive planners on the DIS.

 

[DMRick]

We've had a few lost over the years (but found when we had the number..one time I had to go all the way back to our hotel for the number, since I forgot to bring it, and come back, and they were nice enough to comp one of our meals..since it was right there, spelled right, etc..for some reason it just didn't come up under our name).
I've never noticed anyone trying to get in and arguing that they had a ressie and have it appear they didn't.
Nope, would never lie about it myself.

 

[Tinker74]

Now Iam getting really worried reading this thread.

What if after all my plans...calling at 180 days etc etc...some of my ressies go missing.
Is this unlikely if I keep my Adr numbers with me?
Another thing for me to stress about.

Do we need to carry ID for all meals or is it just CRT?

 

[Laurajean1014]

Wow, I haven't done this in the 30 or so times I've vacationed at Disney. Why not just make a ressie? Or walk in and be honest? They want to seat you and WDW has always found a way.

 

[majortom]

Wow, I haven't done this in the 30 or so times I've vacationed at Disney. Why not just make a ressie? Or walk in and be honest? They want to seat you and WDW has always found a way.

If I do not have a reservation made in advance, I will send someone from our party to walk to the desk and see what they say about standby. If it is going to be too long, I will call and make one for anytime that evening. Then I will just walk up and say that we are here early. They seem to be willing to get someone that is early seated before someone that is a standby.

/carmi

 

[hollandopolis]

I would have to say that most ADRs do NOT get lost. I actually had this one guest call in one day telling me he had an Ohana reservation and they wouldn't let him in the gate to get to the restaurant...I couldn't find it ANYwhere, I looked under his name, phone number..i even looked at every single reservation at Ohana that night and that whole week...there was nothing...he wanted to talk to guest services SO I was like.."ok, hold one moment" and i muted it for a second awhile I found the number and I guess he thought I had him on hold and I heard him say something like (don't remember exactly) "I think it's working" to the effect like he was lying..
People will try anything.

 

[dcgrumpy]

I've been told more than a few times that they had no record of my ADR. I just peek at the list and point it out to them. A couple of times the last letter of my name was written as an o instead of an i, the guard at CR thought DH spelled it with a B instead of a P, another few times it was written correctly so I don't know why they didn't see it.

 

[bdg100]

I would have to say that most ADRs do NOT get lost. I actually had this one guest call in one day telling me he had an Ohana reservation and they wouldn't let him in the gate to get to the restaurant...I couldn't find it ANYwhere, I looked under his name, phone number..i even looked at every single reservation at Ohana that night and that whole week...there was nothing...he wanted to talk to guest services SO I was like.."ok, hold one moment" and i muted it for a second awhile I found the number and I guess he thought I had him on hold and I heard him say something like (don't remember exactly) "I think it's working" to the effect like he was lying..
People will try anything.

You obviously work at the Polynesian. Do you work at O'hanas? That story is so funny. I didn't know that they wouldn't even let them through the gate without reservations. In the past we have, honestly, told the gate guy we didn't have priority seating but were going to try our luck with standby. We have never not been let it. Also, if we were willing to wait, sometimes two or so hours, we always got a table.

 

[hollandopolis]

No, I work in the call center actually.

edited to add: I didn't know they did that either, they probably do that when its really busy.

 

[crisi]

Well, this is a revealation. Maybe, they can be wrong, on occasion. However, I would be willing to bet that a significant percentage of the people who claim to have a priority seating that cannot be found at the time of checkin never had one in the first place. Call me cynical.

They completely mangled our last name on a trip as well. Our last name is seven letters. They had nine, and there were two letters in common. We used that name for the rest of the trip.

I've no doubt people do lie, but we don't. Why would I - I know where I'm eating two years from now.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

You obviously work at the Polynesian. Do you work at O'hanas? That story is so funny. I didn't know that they wouldn't even let them through the gate without reservations. In the past we have, honestly, told the gate guy we didn't have priority seating but were going to try our luck with standby. We have never not been let it. Also, if we were willing to wait, sometimes two or so hours, we always got a table.

I'm also waiting to hear the rest of the story!

I'm betting they weren't even there for dinner, but rather just to park for Magic Kingdom.

MG

 

[krdisneybound]

I've never lied about having an ADR BUT
I have shown up at opening time saying I don't have one and due to the fact that many people do not show up, I have gotten in pretty much right away with no problem at all. I have done this at Cape May, Chef Mickeys and O'Hana's. Sometimes we don't make ADR's and play it by ear

 

[hookedup]

I have never lied about a PS and I would never do it either. We have not had a problem getting PS's during our trip from a concierge for a last minute booking. I have also called WDW dining myself and gotten them last minute. It may not be for my first choice of time, or even location, but it is doable.

I have had my name spelled wrong which has caused confusion at check in before. One time we were hurrying to get to CRT for dinner and I left my PS list at the hotel. When we arrived to check in they could not find my name (figures) and I kept insisting that we did have the PS for that time and day.
There could have been folks around me thinking "Ya right you have a 6:00 reservation" Anyway it turned out it was a name badly misspelled. So after a few minutes of confusion it was all cleared up.
After that I did not forget my PS list again as dh reminded me about it every time we left to go out!

 

[bdg100]

I'm also waiting to hear the rest of the story!

I'm betting they weren't even there for dinner, but rather just to park for Magic Kingdom.

MG

Now that is one I will admit to. Once or twice we have left our vehicle parked at the Polynesian after dinner at O'hanas. A clear violation of the two hour parking limit written on the parking pass they give you when you drive in. We would never park there without eating at O'hanas first. Why would you? The bus service at Disney is just about as fast anyway. It would really be a pain to eat dinner at 6pm, done by 7pm, drive back to OKW or BW (we are DVC members) and then, take the bus back to Magic Kingdom. Go ahead flame me but under these rare circumstances we have just left our car in the parking lot longer than two hours after dinner.

 

[mybgirl]

Sorry to disappoint you but, no, I have never lied about having a reservation at WDW or anywhere else.

Of course, it does happen. For any given situation, there will be those that abuse the system. No news there.

You can say that again !!!!!!!!!!!

I wound also never lie about having PS

Why , I love working on them this is fun for my DS and I , ALSO Will take up more time ,and you may not get in,


TAKE CARE MARY

AND GOD BLESS

 

[Jennasis]

Well let me be the first to say YES.

I didn't lie...my dad did. I was maybe 11 at the time (I'm 29 now) and the shame of it still haunts me to this day. I don't remember the exact sequence of events but apparently the family (about 10 of us, my mom/dad/me/two sisters, aunt/uncle and 3 cousins) had ressies to get into Sci-Fi and they lost our ressie and wouldn't seat us. The group was so large and the restaurant was so crowded that they just couldn't...so we left and went to another restaurant that they (management) told us they could get us into. Well we get there (don't remember which one it was) and they refused to seat us without a ressie! It was chaos!

We went back to the hotel to swim and relax and unwind, but the moms were pretty angry and my dad was pretty deflated. We went back to Epcot that night and went to the Coral Reef where my dad had us all sit quietly while he went up to the host and said we had a PS for 10. When they couldn't find us in the sytem (DUH!) he launched into a tirade about management elsewhere swearing that there would be no problem after we were treated so poorly at the other two restaurants...

they seated us without hesitation...the restaurant wasn't terribly full. I was MORTIFIED! still am.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

Never lied about having an ADR when we didn't. On one trip a couple of years ago, we arrived with 2 ADRs for Chef Mickeys (one for arrival night) plus several others. We showed up at CMs at the appropriate time only to be told they couldn't find our ADR. After checking several times, I ran back upstairs (fortunately we were staying at the CR), grabbed our ADR confirmation number list and went back to the hostess.

They found the ADR -- the name was completely misspelled. We checked all our other ADRs and found they were similarly "hosed." Fortunately, we got them all fixed that evening.

The point: some people may show up and actually have ADRs that cannot be found for many valid reasons.

 

[dgaston]

We have had ADR mishaps twice. Once a PS for Donald's Breakfastosaurus was completely missing (they worked us in) and Boma had us down for a date three days after our trip ended! They too let us in. We have also had our last name spelled in very creative ways, but those ADR's are usually found. So I do believe that ADRs can get lost in the system. I generally have "Concierge" the old Guest Services print out my list of ADRs. It's funny to see ADRs listed for future trips, and if they're a surprise I have to be careful about who sees them.

 

[wdwcoltsfan]

We have never had a problem, but I always carry my confirmation just in case.

On our last trip in February, our kids decided they really wanted to eat at Chef Mickey's. I tried several times and was finally able to book someone elses cancellation. I was talking with a lady by our pool about this and she comments that several times they have gone up to the podium and told them they had an ADR when they didn't. She told me that disney always assumes it's their mistake and will get you seated as if you did have the ADR. I can honestly say I hadn't thought of it, but I guess I can see people trying it.


Rachel

 

[madalex]

I have never knowingly lied about a PS/ADR and also never had an issue with a lost reservation, but I did have one experience with CRT where I truly thought I had a PS, but it turns out that I did not.

It was back in 2000 (when things with the CRT breakfast were crazy, but not as crazy as they now appear to be). We were staying YC concierge, so I had the planners there make all the PSs. Among the requested PSs was a CRT breakfast a particular day. I was never informed that the PS was not made, so I assumed that it had been. When I checked into the hotel, I got a print out with the list of all the PSs and the CRT breakfast was listed on there.

So, I go to the castle on the appointed day, only to be told I had no PS. They called us up on the computer and had a list of all our other PSs, but there was nothing on there for CRT that morning. I did not have the PS print out with me, but I kept insisting that the YC concierge had made the PS. Thus, after a few minutes, they agreed to "slip us in" and, after a very short wait, we proceeded to have our breakfast in the castle.

However, upon return to our room, I found the print out with the list of PSs. I had not looked at it closely before. Sure enough, the CRT breakfast was listed there along with the other PSs, but there was a note that said that someone from the concierge desk needed to call to confirm the PS. So, apparently, I did not have the PS i thought I had after all. It was all an innocent mistake on my part and, in retrospect, I appreciated the fact that the CMs at the breakfast had been able to slip us in after all.