Admit it: You lie about having priority seating

[majortom]

One poster did admit to not having a reservation but calling the reservation number from the restaurant to get a reservation for any time that night and then going up to the desk claiming to be there early for their reservation.

We could not "claim" to be early for our "reservation" as Disney no longer has reservations, just priority seatings. If they actually had real reservations, one would be seated at the stated time 99% of the time, something that is not true at Disney's restaurants. We have always told the Cast Member what time our priority seating was, and have never acted as if it was a mistake that we were there early.

Two questions for you (and those others that claim that they have never had a priority seating lost:

First, how common is your name?
Second, when you said you eat at Disney often, could you quantify that (once a week, twice a month, once a month, every other month, once a quarter, twice a year)?

I travel quite a bit. Having flown over 250,000 miles on commercial airlines with over 35 hotel stays last year alone. Even with hotels in whose frequent guest programs I am an elite member I have problems with reservations. Wrong dates, wrong cities (Minneapolis instead of Indianapolis).

Most of trips, (85% or so) things work out just fine. Because of this, I do not bother to carry confirmation numbers (something common for frequent travelers that make their own reservations based on my informal survey of other United 1K and AA Executive Platinum members).

Just because you have never experienced a lost reservation, does not mean that they do not get lost nor that someone arguing with a Cast Member about one is lying.

/carmi

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I've never lied about a ressie. Nor would I.

I think most of the problems are either genuine mistakes on Disney's part or genuine mistakes on the customer's part.

But I'm sure there's a portion of it, and not a trivial portion that is indeed someone lying.

 

[NMW]

Never lied, would never gamble like that with an ADR! We also have never had a problem with an ADR being lost. Granted we do have a fairly common last name that is easy to spell. I am an obssesive planner and I always carry my ADR numbers with me. If you have the number, how can they not find you?

And, yes, I do think people sometimes lie about having ADR's. I'm sure it happens to people who think they are going to wing it and then get there and can't even go on stand-by for a TS restaurant without an ADR. I also think it's wrong to show up really early and expect to be seated ahead of your ADR time. Those people should just be told they have to wait, period.

 

[majortom]

I think most of the problems are either genuine mistakes on Disney's part or genuine mistakes on the customer's part.

You reminded me of a story from my distant past.

In 1991, a friend of mine and I were meeting two other friends at Brown Derby for lunch. Since we had both been to MGM many times and since we had arrived early, we decided to go sit in Guest Relations while we waited to go meet them.

As we sat there, a couple in their 50's or 60's entered and started to speak to the Guest Relations Cast Member. They were very polite, and explained that they had been there for several hours and were unable to find the castle and were very upset about.

The Cast Member politely explained that they were in Disney-MGM Studios and the castle was in the Magic Kingdom. He asked to look at their tickets and found out that they were One Day One Park tickets and they had arrived at around 9:00am or so (it was around 12:15PM or so). He checked something in the computer and then explained that while normally, they would not be able to go to another park with the ticket they had purchased, he was going to make an exception because of their mix-up and was going to take their ticket and put a note in the computer allowing them to pick up new One Day One Park tickets at Magic Kingdom Guest Relations that would be good for the balance of that day.

They were very happy and left.

After they left, my friend and I approached him and asked why he had done what he did. We said that they were clearly trying to scam Disney.

He laughed and said that there were three possibilities:

1. They had come that morning with the intention of doing exactly what they did, spending half a day in one park and half a day in the other. He noted that if he did not give them the tickets, they would just leave and Disney would lose all afternoon's revenue, but by doing this, they are likely to spend even more since they think that they just got $35 or $40 (I do not remember how much those tickets were then) free, so in fact, they were being played and that given that they would not have bought additional tickets it had no significant added cost to Disney.
2. They had really intended to come to MGM-Disney Studios, but once they got there, decided that, for whatever reason, they were not happy and really wanted to be in another park. Again, while they were not completely honest, if he did nothing, they would, most likely have left and Disney would have been deprived of another half day of revenue.
3. They could really just be that dumb (or as he said it, "confused"). They did not understand the difference between Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom and boarded a bus at their hotel to Walk Disney World. It got to its first stop and they got off. Again, not really understanding, they entered the park. They really did look for the Castle while rinding those rides they found and after a bit realized they were not where they wanted to be. Again, by solving their problem, he was creating happy guests and generating more revenue.

He went on to note that he had looked up their names in the computer and found no record of any incident like that (or for that matter any other record of them), and so felt like it was most likely options two or three. Finally, he added that since they were now in the computer, they would not be able to do this again.

Applying that to this situation, a Cast Member has to make a choice:

Believe the guest and assume that it is either Disney's mistake or an honest mistake on the guest's part (thought they booked for today, but really booked for tomorrow) and resolve it by letting them get seats or do not believe the guest and refuse to seat them.

Either the guest really was right (or is making an honest mistake) in which case not seating them is doing them a great disservice (and can really ruin their whole vacation), or the guest was wrong, in which case seating them is rewarding bad behavior but (given cancellations, late arrivals, no-shows, party size changes, etc.) is unlikely to have a substantial effect on any other guest.

Given this, it seems like an easy choice. You accept the guest's word and seat them when you can.

/carmi

 

[Del]

I always bring my numbers with me, and I have never lied about an ADR. One time they had our name spelled wrong but we realized that pretty quickly.

Del

 

[majortom]

I also think it's wrong to show up really early and expect to be seated ahead of your ADR time. Those people should just be told they have to wait, period.

Even if it has no real impact on when anyone with a later priority seating gets seated (because of cancellations, late arrivals, no-shows, etc.? Exactly how early would you set the cutoff? Thirty minutes? Forty-five? One hour?

What if that means that they just leave and go somewhere else (maybe off property) and so costs the restaurant (and maybe Disney) $180 - $300 for a party of six?

Would you do this only if the reservation was made that day or no matter when it was made (I made my reservation 180 days ago but since we finished our day in the park 1.5 hours early we want to get seated early)?

/carmi

 

[NMW]

All I can say is that if I made an ADR for 5 at 7:30, I wouldn't show up at 5:00 and expect to be seated. It doesn't matter when the ADR was made-180 days, or 20 minutes ago. The CM's might seat us and then someone with a 5:15 ADR could show up (on time) and have to wait. That just doesn't seem fair.

 

[majortom]

All I can say is that if I made an ADR for 5 at 7:30, I wouldn't show up at 5:00 and expect to be seated. It doesn't matter when the ADR was made-180 days, or 20 minutes ago. The CM's might seat us and then someone with a 5:15 ADR could show up (on time) and have to wait. That just doesn't seem fair.

If Disney wanted to make sure that your theoretical guest at 5:15 did not have to wait, they would provide actual reservations, not priority seatings, and guarantee a reservation time. According to Disney's policy, your guest with a 5:15 reservation should have been there at 5:00 to check in (they always say to check in 15 minutes before your priority seating).

It is just as likely that if you showed up at 5:00 and someone that was supposed to arrive at 5:15 would be delayed, or not show up at all, and that people that arrived at 6:30 took longer to eat then expected and so you would have to wait had you been there at 7:30 (as would those who came after you), but since you were already seated at 5:00, everyone else was seated on time. So in this case, everyone wins.

So, you have now at least set 2.5 hours as a bar before with no one should be seated. What exactly is your window? Is it 2 hours? 1.5? 1? 30 minutes?

If I check in for my 7:30 priority seating at 7:16 and I get seated right away, but at 7:16 a 7:20 priority seating arrives and has to wait, is that fair? What if the people that Disney was expecting to leave to make way for you at 7:30 decide to stay until 8:00 and now this 7:20 guest has to wait an extra 40 minutes because you got seated 15 minutes early?

Disney decided to move to priority seating from fixed reservations, to priority seatings to maximize their revenue and to account for the fact that at a theme park people's plans change much more often then at a regular restaurant.

/carmi

 

[rowan]

We have never lied to get seated at a restaurant. I am traveling with 2 children under three and I know that if I want to sit and rest during a meal I need to plan it in to my day.
I agree that Disney should not honor people who show up early for their ADR. I mean Lets say you have a 6:30 ADR, you show up at 6:15, I think it is reasonable to put you line for the next table, but if the person with a 6:20 ADR shows up right behind you then you should not get seated first just because you were there 1 min earlier and then they have to wait.
If you show up 2 hours early then you should be put on the stand by list until your ADR time is within 15 min or so. It just isnt fair to the people who plan and play by the rules.

 

[majortom]

It just isnt fair to the people who plan and play by the rules.

It is, in fact, playing by the rules. It is also true of most restaurants, not just those with priority seatings that if you arrive early, you will get seated early. Just as one can stand by for an earlier flight on most airlines for no charge.

It simply accommodates people's real behavior. Especially in a vacation and theme park environment, people's plans change. That is why they over book these restaurants, and why they will just seat people when they arrive.

Unless you never seat anyone until at least their reservation time, you will always take the risk that someone will have to wait because someone whose time was after theirs got seated first. Again, here is an example:

I have a priority seating at 7:30, you have one at 7:20.

I check in at 7:15 and because there is an open table, I am immediately escorted to my table. You arrive seconds after I have left the podium. Unfortunately, there is no longer an open table and now you have to wait. Worse, everyone that is there is now waiting to see the 8:00pm fireworks and so no one starts to leave until 8:15 when it is over and they get their checks. It takes another 5 minutes to clear and re-set your table and you get seated at 8:20, an hour after your original time.

Now, had they seated the two parties that had 7:00 priority seatings when they arrived at 5:00 and not left the tables open because those parties that were supposed to be there at 5:00 decided not to go at all, you would have been seated on time.

/carmi

 

[rowan]

If there are tables that are open at 5:00 then by all means have a seat. Like I said in my earlier post, these people who come 2 hours early should be allowed to join the standby line. What I am saying is that when they come at 5:00 for a 7:00 ADR they shouldnt be put in front of the people who have 5:00 - 6:00 ADR's.
I am sorry if I implied that there should ever be just empty tables sitting around because I do not feel that way at all. And in your other post your example was only 14 min early. I mentioned that I definately feel that is acceptable.

Here is an example of what I mean-

Chef Mickeys is booked solid until 9:00 so I made my ADR for 9:00.
I try to show up at 6:30 and expect to get worked in 2 and half hours early. So do three or four other families plus there are the normal amount of walk ups waiting standby.
If the CM works us all in around 6:30 or 7:00 then when the people who have an 8:15 ADR show up at an acceptable time of say 8:05, they end up waiting for more than an hour because all the tables are backed up with people who shouldnt have even been seated yet.
I guess we just disagree on what is fair, but it doesnt matter because Disney is going to do it however they want to anyway. I am just giving my opinion on the matter that was brought up.

 

[jann1033]

i don't make it a habit to lie about anything so i'm sure not going to do it about an adr...however given how messed up my last trips adrs were( by cms,not by me) i would imagine a lot of people who made adrs get there and there is not a record of it. however, they should have a confirmation number so it seems that it could be solved fairly easily

i was under the impression that you could only show up a few mins pre adr and have it "count" meaning you would get the next available table. if there are empty tables naturally you'd get seated but i thought you just got put in as a standby if not, not with an adr. so anyone with an adr for the right time went before you. if there are empty tables what difference does it make if it is someone with an adr for later who fills them or a walk up. if they get to booked they will just turn walk up away later ( not good for the walk up but doesn't affect you any differently if you have an adr, you'd still wait for that table no matter if whoever sat there had an adr or not) i might be misunderstanding the previous few posts but they don't keep adrs indefinitly . i was told if you are more than 15 mins late,then you are like the lowely non adr guest. they don't hold tables open for 2 hrs waiting for someone who might skip an adr so i don't think it would be the impact mentioned a few posts above. if the table is empty and no adrs are there, it gets filled within a few mins. by standby.

 

[majortom]

i might be misunderstanding the previous few posts but they don't keep adrs indefinitly . i was told if you are more than 15 mins late,then you are like the lowely non adr guest. they don't hold tables open for 2 hrs waiting for someone who might skip an adr so i don't think it would be the impact mentioned a few posts above. if the table is empty and no adrs are there, it gets filled within a few mins. by standby.

Since these are just priority seatings, they do not hold tables at all. They seat people as tables are available. That is the big difference between reservations and priority seatings.

To understand why they treat someone early for their priority seating appoximately the same as someone showing up with a priority seating for right then, one has to understand how priority seatings work. Disney calulates a certain no-show rate and an average meal length for each restaurant. Next they figure out how many slots they have based on those numbers and the number and types of tables they have in each restaurant. They then book as many of those slots as they can. What this means is that if you have a have a priority seating, they expect to serve you a meal that day. Given that this is based on fluid flows (changes in party size, people canceling or just not showing up, people arriving early or late) their goal is (and should be) to get people seated as quickly as possible.

Based on experience, about as many people will show up early as will show up late. Adding in no-shows and cancellations, it becomes clear that anyone that they planned to feed that day should just get seated as they arrive.

Unlike someone with a priority seating, however, Disney did not expect to feed walk up customers and they have not been included (directly) in these calculations. This is why many times they will not take walk ups. They have filled every slot they think is available and they do not expect to be able to seat any others.

My examples before were to try to explain why people should be seated when they show up. My point was that if you ever seat people out of order, you run the risk of delaying people for indefinate periods.

Since this seems to be a moral issue for some of you ("It is not fair") and not about actual restaurant seating dynamics, I do not expect to convince you I am right. I am just trying to explain to you why this happens.
/carmi

 

[LeCras]

We have never lied about having an ADR and never would - we would rather have an honest CS meal than try to lie our way into a TS restaurant.

Our surname is very unusual and apparently difficult to pronounce, so I keep all our ADR numbers in my iPaq. I'm sort of working on the assumption that the name will be misspelt...

Oh, and I would definitely recommend confirming your ADR's before leaving. At least that gives you some time to sort things out if it turns out your reservations got messed up somehow.

Charlotte

 

[bdg100]

We could not "claim" to be early for our "reservation" as Disney no longer has reservations, just priority seatings. If they actually had real reservations, one would be seated at the stated time 99% of the time, something that is not true at Disney's restaurants. We have always told the Cast Member what time our priority seating was, and have never acted as if it was a mistake that we were there early.

Two questions for you (and those others that claim that they have never had a priority seating lost:

First, how common is your name?
Second, when you said you eat at Disney often, could you quantify that (once a week, twice a month, once a month, every other month, once a quarter, twice a year)?

I travel quite a bit. Having flown over 250,000 miles on commercial airlines with over 35 hotel stays last year alone. Even with hotels in whose frequent guest programs I am an elite member I have problems with reservations. Wrong dates, wrong cities (Minneapolis instead of Indianapolis).

Most of trips, (85% or so) things work out just fine. Because of this, I do not bother to carry confirmation numbers (something common for frequent travelers that make their own reservations based on my informal survey of other United 1K and AA Executive Platinum members).

Just because you have never experienced a lost reservation, does not mean that they do not get lost nor that someone arguing with a Cast Member about one is lying.

/carmi

I am not saying ALL people who are arguing with a Cast Member are lying. What I am saying is that I have personally witnessed people trying to scam the system. Apparently, they think their family's dinner is more important than other family's dinner. Again, I would be willing to wager one ADR at Chef Mickey's that a large percentage of people who claim to have been lost in the system AND cannot propduce an ADR number are being fraudulent in an attempt to get their family seated thereby excluding somebody else from getting seated. It just makes me mad that's all.

 

[NMW]

If Disney wanted to make sure that your theoretical guest at 5:15 did not have to wait, they would provide actual reservations, not priority seatings, and guarantee a reservation time. According to Disney's policy, your guest with a 5:15 reservation should have been there at 5:00 to check in (they always say to check in 15 minutes before your priority seating).

It is just as likely that if you showed up at 5:00 and someone that was supposed to arrive at 5:15 would be delayed, or not show up at all, and that people that arrived at 6:30 took longer to eat then expected and so you would have to wait had you been there at 7:30 (as would those who came after you), but since you were already seated at 5:00, everyone else was seated on time. So in this case, everyone wins.

So, you have now at least set 2.5 hours as a bar before with no one should be seated. What exactly is your window? Is it 2 hours? 1.5? 1? 30 minutes?

If I check in for my 7:30 priority seating at 7:16 and I get seated right away, but at 7:16 a 7:20 priority seating arrives and has to wait, is that fair? What if the people that Disney was expecting to leave to make way for you at 7:30 decide to stay until 8:00 and now this 7:20 guest has to wait an extra 40 minutes because you got seated 15 minutes early?

Disney decided to move to priority seating from fixed reservations, to priority seatings to maximize their revenue and to account for the fact that at a theme park people's plans change much more often then at a regular restaurant.

/carmi

If people with ADR's can just show up whenever they want, then why do they even give ADR times and ask you to arrive 15 minutes early? Why doesn't the dining CM just say "Well, your ADR time is 7:30, but just show up any time you like and you'll get seated." I realize priority seating is not perfect, but it's the best Disney has. I think it works better if everyone shows up when they are supposed to-not 2 hours early, not 2 hours late, etc. Just my opinion.

 

[3mickeys&me]

We've never lied about ADR. I make them way in advance and bring my Confirmation # with me. We have never had a problem and we don't have a common last name

 

[Fionasmommy]

We haven't been to WDW yet, but I've already made all of our ADR's so no, we won't be lying about having them.

 

[LWcalif]

Made ADR's well in advance of our trip. Three of the restaurants told us that we were 1 hour late for our ADR. I had previously called to confirm our ADR's prior to our trip, so I knew we were confirmed for those times and were not late. Not sure why there was a discrepancy, but after the first one, we knew to bring our confirmation number and info with us. Didn't have a problem getting seated timely. Must have been a glich in the system.

 

[majortom]

What I am saying is that I have personally witnessed people trying to scam the system.

How is it that you know that they were trying to scam the system? Is this just your feeling or is this based on evidence?

Again, I would be willing to wager one ADR at Chef Mickey's that a large percentage

What is your definition of "a large percentage"? Is it 95%? 50%? 25%? 2%?

I would expect that it is greater than 2% but less than 25%.

AND cannot propduce an ADR number

Many of you act as if most real people (by that I mean people that go to Disney World for vacation, not for a religious experience, and do not spend their time on here and five other boards obsessively planning their trips - in short 99% of Disney guests), do not cary their priority seating numbers with them. I would bet that many do not even write them down. I never do and I go very often.

are being fraudulent in an attempt to get their family seated thereby excluding somebody else from getting seated. It just makes me mad that's all.

First, while not condoning this practice, in most cases it will not have a great impact on when others get seated, and will not prevent anyone with a priority seating from getting a table that night.

Second, as my experience at Disney-MGM Studios showed me, I will bet that more than half of those people that do lie, do so out of frustration, not out of malice or active lack of planning. In other words, I would expect that for these people they did not understand that most restaurants would be sold out long before they got to Disney World and after 3 days of not being able to have a nice meal in table service restaurant, snap and behave in a way they probably wish they did not. You feel angry at them, I mostly feel sorry for them.

/carmi
P.S. every time I read your title for this thread, I get annoyed. Your title indicates that you think most people on here lie about their reservations (something based on your posts, you would never do and you find offensive), which indicates to me that you look down on most of us here.