Be Our Guest Lunch Fast Pass

[TigBaby]

Hello All! I learned something new about BOG Lunch. As background, I visited WDW with my parents in October 2014. I'm not going by myself for a few days in February before my Disney Dream cruise. 28 days before my arrival date, I received the email inviting me to schedule a fast pass for BOG Lunch. When I clicked the URL in the email, I was able to log in, however the dates available to me were only for the next 7 calendar days. The site would not allow me to see availability for the days in February when I am scheduled to be there. I called WDW-Dine, and was told to keep trying. A few days later, I called them again, and asked to speak to Tech support. They told me there was nothing they could do, since they did not administer that website. (Really????) Seriously frustrated, I sent an email to guest services. I got a very nice phone call from them. Here's what I learned.....It's built into the site to not allow you to make a fast pass reservation earlier than 7 days IF you have dined at BOG for lunch within the past calendar year. This policy is in place to give others the chance to dine there for lunch. I'm grateful that someone explained it to me, although I'm not sure if prohibiting a frequent visitor is really the right model. But I can live with it, and hope that someone who doesn't visit that often will enjoy their lunch. The woman also told me that they will be training their call center people to actually give this explanation rather than tell people to "try the website later". She also said that they are doing walk-ups again for lunch, which was not available when I was there in October. So that may be a possibility if I really feel the need to lunch there. Anyway, wanted to share what I learned. Thanks!

 

[disney world dreamer]

i've dined at BOG for lunch twice within the last year but did not get a fastpass for it as i was able to walk up.

i was on the dining plan though so disney knew i ate there twice since we touched our magicbands to the mickey head.

so does that mean that i cannot make a fastpass reservation for my solo trip in april at 27 days out?
or because i did not use the fastpass site before i still can?

 

[superrach]

I was there in October as well. I had one fastpass previously booked a few weeks before our trip and then we ate there two more times by finding fastpass times open the morning of. Both times we found a fastpass reservation within an hour of the restaurant opening. If you can't get one in advance, maybe you could try the same day the way we did. Both times nothing was available the night before but then there was that morning. Good luck!

 

[beer dave]

I had a BOG fastpass in september booked early and just took a trip in january where I booked one at 27 days. ??? Maybe the one in september was inside 7 days, but I don't think so...

 

[nalajms]

.It's built into the site to not allow you to make a fast pass reservation earlier than 7 days IF you have dined at BOG for lunch within the past calendar year.

That's completely false. We had FP+ around Thanksgiving, ate there for Lunch and Dinner during that trip (DDP). I got FP+ for our Jan MLK trip well before 7 days. Ate there for lunch (charged to room). Came back 2 days later, booked Fp+ for Feb Valentine's trip.

I suggest keep trying. Sometimes it takes a while for your reservation to show up. For our Thanksgiving trip, I booked a hotel in Feb, then changed the dates before summer. Even in Oct it was still showing me the wrong dates on the BOG FP site.

Honestly, if they just offer the cupcakes and soup at Gaston's we wouldn't even need to go back!

 

[bellapecas]

I received the FP lunch email for my trip this past May and then again earlier this month for my trip this weekend. Obviously you can book a BOG FP lunch twice a calendar year more than 7 days out from your trip.

 

[TigBaby]

Thanks for all of the replies. So the woman told me a lie. It's not the end of the world if I don't eat there, but it's the principle of the thing.

 

[DebbieB]

I've read that before but I've done it 3 times without a problem. It's possible she has incorrect information, which is different than a lie.

 

[cwdefouw]

Usually this type of information that turns out to be false is really just a case of the person you talk to not knowing the real answer so they make something up that sounds good, or maybe they were told this by a colleague or supervisor, and are just passing on what they were told. A lie implies some malicious intent, and that is definitely not the case here.

With a system as huge as FastPass+ / MagicBands it is highly likely that there is no one person that knows every little detail about the system and I would expect that the people answering the phones probably know the least about it, so you have to take what you get from them with a grain of salt. Then check the boards here. You will likely find better information gained from personal experiences with the Disney systems here. The people answering the phones probably have little or no actual experience using the systems, they just tell you what they have been told to say.