ADR - Why 180 days???

[karpy111]

Does anyone know the reason behind the 180 days? I just did my reservations and now I'm all excited and ready to get to Disney World and I still have to wait 6 months. Couldn't they lower it to 70, 80, 90 days in advance?
Why is it 180?

 

[mcd2745]

It's ludicrous. I'm sure Disney would tell you that it's what guests want. And there sure are some people here who love it. I don't get it. I always felt it was the #1 reason behind all the problems they had with ADR hoarding and high no-show rates that led them to institute the CC guarantees. I've always felt 45 days was the number that made the most sense.

 

[Mikie]

Great question! My first trip with kids, it was only Cinderellas Royal Table that booked so far out. . . I can't remember if only that one was possible at 180 days and others had a shorter window, or if all ADRs could be made then & nothing else was as much in demand. This was only 11 years ago and it was nice to do other reservatio site a much shorter window or even *gasp* find walk-up availability on the day of. I love to plan, but 180 is pretty nuts.

 

[Mikie]

It's ludicrous. I'm sure Disney would tell you that it's what guests want. And there sure are some people here who love it. I don't get it. I always felt it was the #1 reason behind all the problems they had with ADR hoarding and high no-show rates that led them to institute the CC guarantees. I've always felt 45 days was the number that made the most sense.

Agree - it gives restaurants plenty of time to staff and plan and it ties into your payment deadline on package reservations. Now with FP+, I think I'd like ADRs a little longer than 60 days because my ADR selections help determine which park I'm in, then I can pick FP for that park after I know my days and meal times (and not have to do ALL of it at once).

 

[smiths02]

When we went in 2009, they had just switched from 180 to 90 (except for CRT and Chef Mickey). Something must have happened to make them switch it back.

 

[MrInfinity]

Does anyone know the reason behind the 180 days? I just did my reservations and now I'm all excited and ready to get to Disney World and I still have to wait 6 months. Couldn't they lower it to 70, 80, 90 days in advance?
Why is it 180?

I guess you have to cap it somewhere, tho I could see a case for not putting a cap at all. Certainly the sooner Disney gets information about your upcoming trip -- the better. If I know I'll be there in December, and I already know on what day I'll be eating somewhere, why shouldn't I just be able to book it now? Who cares what I do? I dunno. Disney puts an artificial limit on just how early you can plan details of your trip, and this probly hinges on this being around the time that Disney commits to its park hours and refurb schedule..

This overall Disney operating schedule... They most likely know their refurb times, construction times and staffing somewhat precisely within a 6-mo window. This coincides with about when they release their park hours for upcoming months. It would not be good to allow ppl to book ressies 2 years in advance, then later find out CRT will be closed for refub, or the park hours will be different.

Should they make it less than 180 days? Well, no, there's really no business case for having people book things later... if they're willing to book sooner, that's in every way more profitable. Disney would simply be forfeiting information to prevent people from booking expenditures early. Why would they ever want to do that... you certainly want to accommodate any guest offering you money, as early as you can feasibly promise them the product they want.

Then there is the fact that bookings of rare restaurants cause the consumer to mentally get invested in their trip sooner, at the "when should we go to Disney" stage instead of the "we're going next month - oh shoot I guess we should get a restaurant" stage. You want ppl figuring out where they'll be well in advance, not last minute, or even 45 days out.

So I think the answer is... you cap the booking window at such at time that it is as far out as feasible, given the time frame Disney generally knows for it's hard planned closures and park hours being about 6 months, so 6 mo seems about right for the point at which they should let you book things. That's about when they know the product they have to sell, and people are willing to book at that point.

 

[mcd2745]

Agree - it gives restaurants plenty of time to staff and plan and it ties into your payment deadline on package reservations. Now with FP+, I think I'd like ADRs a little longer than 60 days because my ADR selections help determine which park I'm in, then I can pick FP for that park after I know my days and meal times (and not have to do ALL of it at once).

Exactly. But now, as you mentioned, FP+ adds in another layer of complexity. I'm curious what most people would prefer which reservation window should come first - FP+ or ADR? Myself...I'd rather make the ADRs first and work the FPs around the them instead of the other way around. So now, ideally, I would put ADRs at 60 days and FP+at 45 days.

 

[mcd2745]

Should they make it less than 180 days? Well, no, there's really no business case for having people book things later... if they're willing to book sooner, that's in every way more profitable. Disney would simply be forfeiting information to prevent people from booking expenditures early. Why would they ever want to do that... you certainly want to accommodate any guest offering you money, as early as you can feasibly promise them the product they want.

Well, for a time, it was almost certainly having the opposite effect. It was hurting profitablity because of supposed fully-booked restaurants sitting half-empty due to all the double and triple bookings and subsequent no-shows that it caused.

 

[tlmadden73]

The issue I have is the 180 days is from the start of your vacation. So, if I have a 7-day vacation .. I can book a reservation a week before someone who is starting their vacation later.
I'd like to do Be Our Guest for dinner .. and my 180 day time is tomorrow ..but I know that it is booked for the days during my stay (because my brother-in-law, who is starting their vacation earlier .. tried to book it and it was full).

So that is frustrating, because I was choosing to go in August so I could plan in advance for special meals (rather than going with a week or two notice this Feb)... Frustrating when you CAN plan 180 days in advance and still not get a reservation you want.

I just feel bad for people who want to plan a vacation with less than 6 months time and looking for a specific experience they've heard so much about like Be Our Guest or a specific character meal .. There are a lot of opportunities that can be missed simply because you couldn't jump the gun and reserve something so far in advance.

That being said, reservations aren't always needed that far in advance if you can be flexible...
On my last trip--
1 - Was able to book a LARGE lunch reservation (3 families) for 4:15 PM at Tusker House a few weeks before we went in October. Since that was considered lunch still it was a character meal, but late enough we just used it as an early dinner (which worked better for the kids). A great meal and experience.

2- Crystal Palace - no reservation on a busy park day .. walked up at 5:00ish thinking we'd have a long wait with no reservation and had to wait a grand total of 5-10 minutes before our table was ready.

3 - Ohana - just took a bus over to meet some friends (large group) at Ohana and they had a few open spots at their table (they were split between 3 tables) and we just joined them after asking the hostess if that was all right. We were just going to say hi and eat at the other restaurant there.. but turned out we got a great meal unexpectedly.

Three great meals with only 1 reservation in early October.

 

[karpy111]

I just feel bad for people who want to plan a vacation with less than 6 months time and looking for a specific experience they've heard so much about like Be Our Guest or a specific character meal .. There are a lot of opportunities that can be missed simply because you couldn't jump the gun and reserve something so far in advance.

I totally agree. I was just talking to people at work and saying that you really cant just pick up and say lets go to Disney next week or next month. I know people are going to say you can but i mean you will not get into any restaurants or get any of the big rides. Have you ever talked to anyone who has never been to disney? They cant believe that you need to plan so far ahead. They look at you like your crazy when you tell them 180 days out.
It would be nice to plan around 2-3 months out. Say 75 days for dining and 45 for FP+. Disney would still know over two month ahead of time that what kind of staffing they need to accommodate the reservations.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

they actually did change it to 90 days once. That didn't last very long, it went right back to 180 days.

i think the answer is that Disney has determined that 180 days is what works best FOR THEM.

They found an alternate method of taking care of the epidemic of no-shows - have the guests pay for not showing up.

 

[tlmadden73]

I also think the 180 thing and the 'ease' of making online reservations causes issues too. With the feel for "urgency" for some reservations .. people feel they need to do whatever they can to lock in those hard to get reservations.

I know (from trying some reservations this morning) I could book dinner reservations at multiple places as long as they were different times. I did do that .. and went back and canceled the ones I wasn't using right away, but there may be hoarders .. groups who are booking a several large reservations for their family (at slightly different times) to "lock it in" then deciding later which one to go with once it actually gets closer.

I wonder how many reservations they actually take based on the capacity of the restaurant. They have to leave some spots open for walk-ups don't they? Or customers would be extremely frustrated that they couldn't get a seat at a less popular restaurant on a long, hot day.

 

[vrajewski10513]

I wonder how many reservations they actually take based on the capacity of the restaurant. They have to leave some spots open for walk-ups don't they? Or customers would be extremely frustrated that they couldn't get a seat at a less popular restaurant on a long, hot day.

lol unfortunately I dont think they care much about people having a long day or being hot if they didnt make a reservation. Theres plenty of restaurants that are virtually impossible to get a walk up table. I'm not 100% but I think that if Disney could fill a restaurant to capacity with prior reservations they would. People who dont or cant make reservations will just fill in the spaces that arent filled, or will have to grab quick service. Its not like they'll starve if they cant get a TS meal.

I kind of look at it this way... say Disney saves ten tables in a restaurant for walk-ups.. If they dont have enough walk ups to fill those ten tables then theyre losing money. I think they'd prefer the (somewhat) guarantee of butts filling those seats then just leaving it to chance that someone will show up.