Another article about trying to book ADR's

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Thanks for that. It's interesting. They must not be grabbing these at 180+10 then. I'm still a little confused how it's all happening. Maybe they really are just relying on the computer to snap up whatever gets released. I still have a hunch there are companies somehow grabbing things at 180+10 and sitting on them.

I envision an MDE account with hundreds of friends accounts attached to it.

 

[igk]

really? I will have to check on this because our 45 day mark is Monday and Iw as planning on removing the dining plan making it room only

I booked room only for Oct and paid 25% deposit upfront. The confirmation said the balance was due on arrival date. The T&Cs also state that to receive a refund of the deposit notice of cancellation needs to be at least 5 days prior to arrival.

 

[ArwenMarie]

really? I will have to check on this because our 45 day mark is Monday and Iw as planning on removing the dining plan making it room only

I think the balance on a room-only is due at check in. After the 5 day mark, if you cancel, you would lose only one night's deposit which is how much you have to pay at the time of booking as a deposit to hold it

 

[AP1209]

Just wanted to say that I had a 9:05pm reservation at BOG on December 19 that was just going to be too late so I cancelled it 3 days ago and signed up for Disney Dining Buddy. Just got an email from them with a reservation time of 7:35pm which is much better. I am very pleased with this service. Well worth the $8 so I dont have to stalk the reservation website. I would stay away from this scalping website.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

I was curious about that, too, so I looked at the FAQ's on their website:

"We actually go in and set up a MDE account in your name (and address) and then email you that account information and you will be given the name the ADR is under to use at check in."

So, asking for ID wouldn't be a deterrent. Seems like it would have to be presenting the credit card you reserved under, but that brings up problems that PP's have already noted.

Actually if you read down further in their FAQ.

From here
http://www.**************.com/pages/adr-info

Here is the whole Guaranteed ADR FAQ ...
Guaranteed ADR's ($15) - These ADRs are booked under their own email/MDE account under a specified name. When you pay the fee for this service, we will go in and set up the MDE account to reflect your name and address. This will not change the contact name the ADR was booked under (it cannot be changed, even by Disney). We provide you with the name the ADR was booked under, for example, John Doe (we generally use gender neutral names). When you check in at the restaurant, you will check in under the name John Doe since that is the name the ADR is booked under. John Doe is not required to be present to dine. Being that you will have full access to the email account and MDE account associated with the ADR, you can go in and update the Guest Names to your parties names. We do not suggest linking this MDE account to any other MDE accounts you have. This MDE account should be considered a spare or throw away account.

So I believe a photo ID would still be a deterrent, IF it were followed up by Disney with the ADR owner must be present (or maybe just the CC that the reservation was booked under as you and others have mentioned)

I don't know why this bugs me so much, it just does. To me, $8.00 for alerting you to the fact that a reservation is available seem fine but $15.00 to give you an actual reservation doesn't. I just don't know why.

I have actually been posting to a similar thread on the Restaurant board looking for answers I guess.

 

[ttintagel]

And the higher-priced one that most people reference where you pay $15 and they give you all the information you need to check in for the meal.

Ah, that makes sense.

 

[angierae]

Actually if you read down further in their FAQ.

From here
http://www.**************.com/pages/adr-info

Here is the whole Guaranteed ADR FAQ ...
Guaranteed ADR's ($15) - These ADRs are booked under their own email/MDE account under a specified name. When you pay the fee for this service, we will go in and set up the MDE account to reflect your name and address. This will not change the contact name the ADR was booked under (it cannot be changed, even by Disney). We provide you with the name the ADR was booked under, for example, John Doe (we generally use gender neutral names). When you check in at the restaurant, you will check in under the name John Doe since that is the name the ADR is booked under. John Doe is not required to be present to dine. Being that you will have full access to the email account and MDE account associated with the ADR, you can go in and update the Guest Names to your parties names. We do not suggest linking this MDE account to any other MDE accounts you have. This MDE account should be considered a spare or throw away account.

So I believe a photo ID would still be a deterrent, IF it were followed up by Disney with the ADR owner must be present (or maybe just the CC that the reservation was booked under as you and others have mentioned)

I don't know why this bugs me so much, it just does. To me, $8.00 for alerting you to the fact that a reservation is available seem fine but $15.00 to give you an actual reservation doesn't. I just don't know why.

I have actually been posting to a similar thread on the Restaurant board looking for answers I guess.

I think the difference is that one is just saying "hey, there's an opening, go grab it" and one is grabbing them right from the time they are available, then holding them hostage and selling them. There's CLEARLY a difference and it's totally unfair.

And I don't know how to fix this. You can't say "The lead on the reservation needs to be present" because what if mom makes all the reservations in her name, and then one night she's not feeling well, so dad and the kids go to dinner?

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

I think the difference is that one is just saying "hey, there's an opening, go grab it" and one is grabbing them right from the time they are available, then holding them hostage and selling them. There's CLEARLY a difference and it's totally unfair.

And I don't know how to fix this. You can't say "The lead on the reservation needs to be present" because what if mom makes all the reservations in her name, and then one night she's not feeling well, so dad and the kids go to dinner?

That's probably it, I like the "hostage" terminology. I guess at some later date the demand will go down and the "hostage takers" will no longer have a viable business model. Thanks for the insight.

 

[Disneyliscious]

Those of you using the text base services (Scout and Buddy) are also part of the problem. The bots crawl Disneys ADR site looking for ADRs and this slows the site down tremendously. Ever wonder why you're getting so many errors when searching? There are 4 or 5 services like this and they all have crawler bots crawling Disneys ADR system. There is NO way around it that they are bogging the system down. Remember, without demand - none of these places woudl exist. But as Disney said....If you build it, they will come.

I posted the below on one of the other threads in the Restaurant forum Re: the scalping site:

Including those that have already sold (for the month of October)

4th
6th
8th x 2
9th
10th
12th X 5
13th x 2
14th
15th x 2
16th
19th x 2
20th
21st
22nd x 2
23rd
28th
31st

Thats 26 ADR's for an entire month which result in (if I counted right) 107 seats for the whole month. 14 days of that month there aren't any ADR's offered at all.

BoG alone seats 500 people at a time. If they had 6 seatings a day (6 x 1.5 dining hours per seating = 9 hour park day) thats 3000 people for ONE restaurant EACH DAY which means 93,000 people for that one restaurant per month. Given the volume of the Disney restaurants, I really don't think the place who is seating 107 people for an entire MONTH is the problem. I'm not saying it doesn't cause issues or that I even agree with it, but looking at it objectively makes a BIG difference. The scalper site and bot sites are not the reason people can't find seats. Its regular people hoarding.
_________

Also this:

Disney has a lot of loopholes to close. Or do they?

We have the ADR bots and pre bookers as mentioned here in this thread.
We have people using old sets of MB's to gain extra FP+.
We have people booking throw-away rooms at camp sites to get the perks of booking ADRs and rides early.

At the end of the day, the monster that Disney has created is a Panic which drives people in DROVES to act out of fear that they won't be able to do something thats really important to their family. As long as people keep feeding into this craze, Disney will probably turn a blind eye to the monster thats creating its profits - at least until they are forced to make a change for PR reasons. How does this create profits for Disney?

Throw-away Rooms (camp sites) - thousands of people are paying for 1 night at a campsite so they can secure bookings as an onsite guest. They do not use the campsite so there is no clean up or use of amenities. NO wear and tear on the units/sites. Its 100% free money for Disney.

Using old Magic bands to get more FP+ - Allowing this is causing thousands of people to buy additional MB's so they can have spare ones to use and get extra FP+ as soon as they arrive in the parks that morning. All those MB's are increased sales to Disney which wouldn't be happening if they didn't "allow" this loophole.

ADR scalpers and bots - By allowing these services to run it creates a false panic or sense that "omg I'll never get my ADR's if I don't use one of these services!". While Disney does not directly get the money from these services, what they do get is increased food prices from you - the eater. If ADRs were plentiful, there would be less drive for people to "worry" about dining there. "Oh, we'll eat there on our next trip. No big deal." By allowing ADRs to appear scarce, and with social media being used to drive the thought process of "I have to get it now or I'll never get it!", Disney is profiting on the fears of the public demand. By letting you pay $8 to another service for an ADR, they will gain $10-$30 per person in your dining party because of the higher priced food at the TS restaurants versus you eating a sandwich at counter service.

*Insert The Apprentice theme song here - "Money money money money"

 

[jeneric997]

So I just went in to make a dining reservation and it forced me to add a guest name from my account. I have never had that happen, I usually just leave it blank. Maybe this is part of Disney's solution, force you to call to modify and change guests.

Edit: There was a reason I had to list guests- I was booking the wine seminar! I know I was on Beaches and Cream, but the website was not loading properly. Just so you know those are non-refundable!! Just spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to get my money back.

Making reservations non-transferable could help curb the problem!