Beginning to Loathe ADR's

[bibba410]

Today marks 180 days out for our December trip! We get up early. We're excited to attempt to make some ADR's when BOOM! We find BOG ressies! We find Cali Grill ressies! Ressies, ressies everywhere.... but not a dang one can be reserved because of some error in the system.

Why have online reservations available if the system consistently doesn't work? It's either "we could not search at this time" or "we're sorry, there has been an error."

Sorry to vent so early on a Tuesday morning - but dang this is frustrating! Anyone else have these issues?

 

[luvformickey]

I'm with you. I'm trying to make some reservations too. Got my time, entered my CC guarantee and phone number and then.........There was an error booking this reservation. Please try again or call 407-WDW-DINE or (407) 939-3463 for assistance.

I'm going to keep trying, but I have a feeling I'll be fighting phone lines in 40 minutes. Good luck to you!

 

[bibba410]

Ditto. Good luck to you too!

 

[luvformickey]

Editing in...was able to make our O'hana dinner reservation (although not on the day we hoped), but now I can't book anything else. Site says We were unable to check for available tables at this time. A problem occurred while looking for availability. Please try again later.

 

[bibba410]

Yes - we finally got one to BOG on our second date option. But we're now getting the same error you're getting over and over again. 15 more min until we call the folks.

I will also say that I totally get having website issues - but this is WDW. They shouldn't have these kind of problems on such a (seemingly) consistent basis.

 

[ThistleMae]

The site hardly ever, if ever for me, works! It is insane how inept their website is. I had to call, numerous times to book anything. Most everyone is saying the same thing. There are some folks who seem to have no problem, but it seems they are in the minority. Good Luck!

 

[luvformickey]

Got them all thanks to the wonderful CM on the phone. I should have just stayed in bed an extra hour.

 

[bibba410]

We got all but one. We'll just keep checking back on that one periodically. Yes - phone over online system from now on!

 

[Lavitz]

Not liking all the reports I've been hearing lately about this. People getting kicked after clicking on an available time, or sometime after that.

My guess is that the website is fine (coding wise at least) but for whatever reason they choose not to increase the capacity of the website to handle many simultaneous requests. The one thing basically ever complain I've seen recently is that this is happening at 6am, when I'm guessing thousands of people are trying to search for ADRs at once. I think I had this happen once to me at 6am on my 180 (kicked me when I clicked on a time), but thankfully that was it. This is also the same experience I got the day FD was released, their site was a mess. Even in the afternoon when I finally was able to search, it would constantly kick me back to the beginning half way through the process.

For a company as big as Disney not to just throw some money at some extra servers or whatnot to increase their capacity is crazy.

 

[bibba410]

You're right. It's frustrating that this is Disney and they are having these problems. For a company this size as well as the knowledge that pretty much every single day will be 180 days for someone - they really could spend some money to amp up the digital customer service side. Or just don't open up the dining at 6a ET and instead open it up as soon as people are at work the man the phones.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Got all mine at 180 days out. The only glitch was Wishes Dessert Party. They finally released the days and the whole world (including me) wanted a ressie at the higher price. System crashed. I got my ressie later that day.

 

[gregf71]

Glad to hear that you ended up getting most of what you wanted. Their site is so schizophrenic at times. If you have a chance, communicate your experience to Guest Services. The more information they receive about the repeated issues with the site, the increased chance that they will finally address it.

 

[bibba410]

Glad to hear that you ended up getting most of what you wanted. Their site is so schizophrenic at times. If you have a chance, communicate your experience to Guest Services. The more information they receive about the repeated issues with the site, the increased chance that they will finally address it.

Oh definitely! Of course the CM early this morning was super nice. And I did let her know about the difficulties. Hopefully she logged that info and passed it on to someone.

 

[Dean Marino]

Today marks 180 days out for our December trip! We get up early. We're excited to attempt to make some ADR's when BOOM! We find BOG ressies! We find Cali Grill ressies! Ressies, ressies everywhere.... but not a dang one can be reserved because of some error in the system.

Why have online reservations available if the system consistently doesn't work? It's either "we could not search at this time" or "we're sorry, there has been an error."

Sorry to vent so early on a Tuesday morning - but dang this is frustrating! Anyone else have these issues?

Best advice? BANG THE SYSTEM - keep hitting "refresh" with the shift key down. FLOOD the dog.

You are getting this garbage because the WDW backend database is overloaded. In the end, when all of this becomes a problem? CALL CALL CALL CALL.
In doing this, you are delivering a message - "your website does not work - hire more humans". Those would be the folks with benefits and pensions.... it does not take long for a corporation to do the obvious math (assuming they have a brain).

 

[gregf71]

You are getting this garbage because the WDW backend database is overloaded. In the end, when all of this becomes a problem? CALL CALL CALL CALL.
In doing this, you are delivering a message - "your website does not work - hire more humans". Those would be the folks with benefits and pensions.... it does not take long for a corporation to do the obvious math (assuming they have a brain).

I have a sense though that telling the Disney Dining rep on the phone is not as effective as writing and sending Guest Services an email. That Dining rep is there to focus on your immediate need to get your ADRs. Once that is done, their priority is to move on to the next caller. Not to mention, if they did takes notes of your experience, they are not going to be as detailed as an email you personally write. Plus, as with another poster on a different thread, emails are more easily forwarded to those Disney supervisors and departments that need to know.

 

[imahistorygeek]

We've had a much better experience using the app to book our meals.

 

[ScienceDad]

We've had a much better experience using the app to book our meals.

My 180 day for ADR is coming up shortly. Did you book @ 6AM ET using the app with no issues? We are trying to decide the best way to do this. If the app works better than the site we will do that.

 

[imahistorygeek]

My 180 day for ADR is coming up shortly. Did you book @ 6AM ET using the app with no issues? We are trying to decide the best way to do this. If the app works better than the site we will do that.

This I can't answer. I will say that we've had consistently better luck using the app than using the website. We've used the app different times of the days with good results.

 

[autkidd]

I had no issues whatsoever this morning at 5am central time. Also have changed a couple today and haven't had any issues.

 

[Dean Marino]

I have a sense though that telling the Disney Dining rep on the phone is not as effective as writing and sending Guest Services an email. That Dining rep is there to focus on your immediate need to get your ADRs. Once that is done, their priority is to move on to the next caller. Not to mention, if they did takes notes of your experience, they are not going to be as detailed as an email you personally write. Plus, as with another poster on a different thread, emails are more easily forwarded to those Disney supervisors and departments that need to know.

- no, no - not LITERALLY complaining to the poor phone rep . They ABSOLUTELY can't do anything about this . No - I meant that by simply using the PHONE system, over the broken WEB system - you are sending a clear message . Your ACTIONS are probably the most effective "complaint" out there .

Imagine - if everyone just abandoned the MDE dining reservation system, and we ALL "Called"? Yup, chaotic. Metrics for old phone system go UP, metrics for broken web system go DOWN, should be fun at budget setting time .