ADR HASSLES for DVC members--what about future FP?

[knockUout]

First, Merry Christmas! I awoke at 5 am today to make ADRs since it is 180 days till our arrival. Logged onto disneyvacationclub.com, accessed my reservations, and went to make dining reservations. I was sent to the new WDW site where it recognized my name but did not have any knowledge of my DVC reservation. I was able to make only one reservation for our arrival date but was not able to do anything beyond the first day. I saw on the site where I could manually enter my reservation since I "did not use disneyworld.com" to make my initial ressie (disney vacation club membership). I manually entered my reservation for our stay at BCV. It did not "stay in the system". It kept returning me to the site where I need to manually enter my resort reservations. This kept me busy for an hour so I called Disney Dining at 6 am and made my dining ressies over the phone. Got everything I needed-yay! Unfortunately, doing this over the phone does not transfer the info to the "my disney experience" on the disney site. I was able to make my ADRs for the entire stay so 180+. Biggest concern for me is that disney and DVC do not communicate with each other. How in the world will DVC members to able to book fast passes if the future if that is what is coming down the pipe for fast pass? I need to contact DVC with these concerns. Best address to do this? Will need to do this after the holiday celebration- time to get ready for church.

 

[disneynutz]

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

Bill

 

[Sandisw]

I wonder if there was something with the system as I have had success booking my dining reservations and having them linked to my DVC reservation without having to continually enter in the number.

I have not yet tried the new Disney experience site so can't speak about that. But, I hope that as things get moving forward with FP changes that the transition for DVC members will be an easy one.

 

[abdgeek]

First, Merry Christmas! I awoke at 5 am today to make ADRs since it is 180 days till our arrival. Logged onto disneyvacationclub.com, accessed my reservations, and went to make dining reservations. I was sent to the new WDW site where it recognized my name but did not have any knowledge of my DVC reservation. I was able to make only one reservation for our arrival date but was not able to do anything beyond the first day. I saw on the site where I could manually enter my reservation since I "did not use disneyworld.com" to make my initial ressie (disney vacation club membership). I manually entered my reservation for our stay at BCV. It did not "stay in the system". It kept returning me to the site where I need to manually enter my resort reservations. This kept me busy for an hour so I called Disney Dining at 6 am and made my dining ressies over the phone. Got everything I needed-yay! Unfortunately, doing this over the phone does not transfer the info to the "my disney experience" on the disney site. I was able to make my ADRs for the entire stay so 180+. Biggest concern for me is that disney and DVC do not communicate with each other. How in the world will DVC members to able to book fast passes if the future if that is what is coming down the pipe for fast pass? I need to contact DVC with these concerns. Best address to do this? Will need to do this after the holiday celebration- time to get ready for church.

Whenever I need to make ADRs, I login to the Disney website and put in my reservation number. The system will then ask you how you made the reservation(using DVC, etc.). At that point, your dining is tied to your DVC reservation. I agree that it is a pain, and hopefully it will be fixed if enough people complain.

 

[myxdvz]

My BCV and BWV ressies appear on my disneyworld account. All I did was "Retrieve" reservation using the Confirmation # I got from DVC.

 

[bumbershoot]

since I "did not use disneyworld.com" to make my initial ressie

Don't take that erroneous error message seriously.

The WDW site has been having ISSUES for over a week now. Apparently they are switching over to a new site, and decided to switch it before it was anywhere near finished. Some people get the new site. Some get the old. Some get some weird crossover between old and new. Some people get the old site, it's working great, they come back to their computers and it doesn't work. So they have to clear cookies and cache and start again.

Some have reservations show up. Some don't. Some do for a period of time and then they disappear. Some don't have them and then the magically show up. Some manually enter them all, and then they disappear.

They are working on the site (apparently have never heard of having a "master" site to do the work on that is days "in the future", to be slowly rolled out as each day goes by) and the work is showing, big time, to people. It's rotten and awful, but, apart from when it actually messes people up (like not being able to make an ADR online, or not being able to do online checkin), the error messages aren't to be taken seriously, nor are the "did not use disneyworld.com" messages. This is Disney's version of IT, which is, apparently, done by tamarin monkeys (b/c chimpanzees and gorillas would do a better job, being smarter).


If they are open for calling in for ADRs today, call 'em. Ack, I still need to call about the tea room, ever since they took it off from online ADRs. Guess I'll be finding out if they are open, LOL.

 

[csharpwv]

I have ranted on the Disboards about this about a week ago, but I will rant again on the same topic...

With all of the "Advanced Reservation' frenzy flying around these days...

Deciding where you want to eat dinner 6 months in advances... (and being nearly totally screwed in terms of dining at GREAT restaurants if you DO NOT make your reservations at 180 days....)

Now booking Fastpasses online....in advance....

What's next - a pre-assigned, pre-determined - inflexible appointment to USE THE RESTROOM?

Numbered parking spaces?

Reserving your EXACT villa 11 months in advance?

Reserving square footage standing space to watch the fireworks?

Pre-ordering your meal/entree - drinks, desserts etc 180 days in advance?

I REALLY do understand that people want to reserve things in advance - and I really can appreciate that some people are absolutely anal retentive about taking care of every detail as far in advance as possible - lest they obsess and become compulsive reaching the point of becoming unbearable to everyone around them that they HAD to dine at Ohana at 5:27 and 43 seconds on Tuesday the 27th - being the 43rd reservation of the day....


BUT is all of this 6 month dining reservations, advanced reservations to EXPERIENCE AND ATTRACTION getting annoying to anyone else?

How about local Orlando area folks, people that can't plan reservations 6 months in advance, or people that plan last minute trips?!

This whole thing of reserving things SO far in advance is making WDW totally unapproachable for the average family!

How many families plan their dinner reservations 6 MONTHS in advance?!

How many people plan within a 10 minute time frame of what they will be doing on a certain date?!

All of this is making Disney a scheduled and forcefully regimented experience that leaves SO little room for magic that it makes me think that all of this is brought about about by cold unfeeling backroom bean counters to project and forecast every last cent that Disney will earn within any given calendar year..... IT IS RIDICULOUS!

Disneyland only reserves dining reservations 30 days in advance AND you can make your request via e-mail... AND it works like a charm from my experience!

I just don't want Disney to become a machine in terms of experience - and all of this is making the whole process very un-enjoyable for people who like to live in a world with a few surprises - not planning every meal down to the very last napkin....it is just ridiculous!

Does anyone believe the same and wish they would take a more flexible approach to allowing the experience to be more magical?!

 

[DebbieB]

I agree, it's ridiculous. I never liked the 180 day ADR's, 60 days is plenty. We like to park hop, spending time at one park in the morning/early afternoon, go to the resort for a break, go to another park in the evening. Some of it is last minute decisions. The rumored way this new system will work is you can only pick fastpasses for one park per day. My friends and I used to be anal planners, have ADR's way in advance. Now we just scratch down our plans last minute. That's supposed to be one of the advantages of DVC, you don't have to be park commandos.

 

[JimC]

I like having the option to book in advance or not. Living in Orlando we book in well in advance, make spur of the moment decisions and even make short notice advance reservations.

A six month booking window does seem excessive. 30, 60 or 90 days should work just as well, in my opinion. They could even adopt the DCL staggered approach. As long as the system is intuitive to use, fast and accurate. Unfortunately I have expereienced many of the issues others have reported and they are irritating and waste time working around.

I believe meeting the needs of planners and non-planners alike should be possible.

 

[vacationer1954]

But not at the same time. Most of what is good for planners is going to be bad for non-planners so the best we can hope for is some things good for us and some things bad for us regardless of who we are.

 

[wdrl]

I guess it comes down to attitude. Do you feel you are a slave to the booking windows or do you feel you can use the booking windows to your advantage?

I like the option of planning. But I also accept the fact that if I delay in making reservations I run the risk of not getting something that I want. It would be nice to walk up to a restaurant on the spur of the moment and get a table right away without a reservation. But before I promise the kids I'll take them to Cinderella's Royal Table, I'd like the assurance that I can get into the restaurant. Hence, I like being able to make reservations for the things I really value.

In my opinion, it matters little whether the reservation window opens at 10 days, 30 days, or 180 days. If we had to wait until 10 days before the date to make a reservation, I suspect there would be a huge number of people calling or signing on right at the instant the 10-day booking window opens. The competition for the finite number of reservations would be complicated by the volume of people trying to book all at the same time. A 30-day window might have slightly less volume than a 10-day window, and a 180-day window has even less.

Whether its booking a DVC villa, making a dinner reservation, or even finding a spot to watch a parade, the person who plans ahead will have first choice. If something means that much to me, then I'll plan ahead.

 

[CarolMN]

I guess it comes down to attitude. Do you feel you are a slave to the booking windows or do you feel you can use the booking windows to your advantage?

I like the option of planning. But I also accept the fact that if I delay in making reservations I run the risk of not getting something that I want. It would be nice to walk up to a restaurant on the spur of the moment and get a table right away without a reservation. But before I promise the kids I'll take them to Cinderella's Royal Table, I'd like the assurance that I can get into the restaurant. Hence, I like being able to make reservations for the things I really value.

In my opinion, it matters little whether the reservation window opens at 10 days, 30 days, or 180 days. If we had to wait until 10 days before the date to make a reservation, I suspect there would be a huge number of people calling or signing on right at the instant the 10-day booking window opens. The competition for the finite number of reservations would be complicated by the volume of people trying to book all at the same time. A 30-day window might have slightly less volume than a 10-day window, and a 180-day window has even less.

Whether its booking a DVC villa, making a dinner reservation, or even finding a spot to watch a parade, the person who plans ahead will have first choice. If something means that much to me, then I'll plan ahead.

I agree! I know I can adapt to whatever new thing comes along, even if the prospect of the change annoys me at first, LOL. For example, I was completely sure the booking window change from check out to check in would be totally awful. But as it turns out, I like the change and do not want to go back to the old method of booking.

Right now for FP+ , it's very hard to separate fact from rumor from assumptions from stuff people just totally made up. I decided not to worry until a month or so after something actually rolls out. Might not be a need to worry once all the facts are out and the tweaks completed.

 

[supersuperwendy]

If you call MS then can do it for you...

My 180 was last week on a morning they launched a new format for wdw.com... it was a mess and I couldn't figure where to associate my dvc reservation.

I called MS and the cm very kindly booked all of my dining 180+6 for me. The next day wdw.com was back to normal.

 

[tjkraz]

I understand the desire to plan in advance but I have to ask this: are there really any restaurants require use of the 180+10 in order to get a reservation?

We don't come close to booking at 180 days anymore but always get acceptable dining reservations. For our last trip we booked Sci Fi, 50s Prime Time and even the Candlelight Processional dinner package on less than 2 weeks' notice.

My take is that 180 ADRs and even the forthcoming FastPass+ are fine for people who wish to use them to the fullest extent. But I doubt my trip will be seriously diminished if I wait until much later in the game to make my plans.

 

[bakenatj]

When you make ADR's don't use the DVC members website. Go to the WDW web site and use your reservation number to make your ADR. I never have any problems doing it this way, nor is it a pain. Just because the web site didn't say DVC it didn't take away from my experience.

I work in IT so I hear complaints all the time why software doesn't do this or why can't I make it do this. I just laugh when I see post like this

 

[wdrl]

I understand the desire to plan in advance but I have to ask this: are there really any restaurants require use of the 180+10 in order to get a reservation?

Cinderella's Royal Table or Victoria & Albert's can be tough ones at times. But I agree, if you stay flexible, you can usually get reservations at any restaurant at WDW within 30 days of a trip. Several times we have had success getting an ADR for later the same day. Of course, it helps to tell the CM we'd accept a couple different restaurants within a two-hour time frame.

On our last trip, the #1 thing I wanted to do was the "Dine With an Animal Specialist" Luncheon at Saana. We made reservations as soon as our booking window opened and we planned our entire day around that one event. But the rest of our days at WDW we remained fairly flexible and planned our days about a day in advance. That is one of the benefits of being a DVC member: We know we'll be back soon, so whatever we miss on this trip we'll make up on the next trip.

 

[18sprint]

Ok, now I'm concerned. I used the DVC member website a couple weeks ago for booking Be Our Guest in April, then, just today, still using the DVC member site, I booked Victoria & Alberts for May. Didn't seem to have any issue. Got my confirmation numbers and all seems fine. Should I be worried something isn't going to transfer over?

 

[bakenatj]

Ok, now I'm concerned. I used the DVC member website a couple weeks ago for booking Be Our Guest in April, then, just today, still using the DVC member site, I booked Victoria & Alberts for May. Didn't seem to have any issue. Got my confirmation numbers and all seems fine. Should I be worried something isn't going to transfer over?

If you have your confirmation numbers you are fine. I would just use the WDW site in the future. It seems to have less glitches. One thing you can do is go use the reservation lookup on the WDW site and use the confirmation number you have to make sure it comes up on that site too.