Calling Disney-- It shouldn't be so.

[ekatiel]

Here's a little screen shot from my "recent calls" on my phone this morning. Shameful. (Both that it would take so many calls to get through, AND that I would be so persistent for a stinkin' lunch reservation!!). I did get the ressie, however. Disney needs to increase its call acceptance volume (or stop releasing 180 days of reservations for its most popular restaurant on the same day. . . ).

 

[mom2rtk]

Disney knows their phones/IT systems cannot handle days like this. But they also know people will book all the spots they have for these things, so they don't have to care. It was just like this when BOG initially opened to reservations in 2012. As long as they fill the spots and people keep coming back for more, why spend a bunch of money to upgrade systems?

Congrats on getting your spot though. The only thing worse than spending half a day booking a lunch is spending half a day not booking a lunch.

 

[tinkerbella16]

I am so glad that I did not enjoy BOG lunch enough to be trying for an ADR 180 days in advance for a QS meal. It was a huge disappointment. That is an insane amount of calls! Glad it all worked out in the end!

 

[perditax]

To be fair, they can't pay for year-round staffing at levels that could cover these occasional hits. I'm not saying their infrastructure doesn't suck, but if they hired enough people to answer all the calls they got this morning in a reasonable amount of time, they'd have to lay most of them back off next week.

 

[mom2rtk]

I am so glad that I did not enjoy BOG lunch enough to be trying for an ADR 180 days in advance for a QS meal. It was a huge disappointment. That is an insane amount of calls! Glad it all worked out in the end!

That's a tough one to swallow. I can't imagine waiting on hold longer than you would actually be sitting at the table eating your lunch. I'd be tempted to chew very slowly.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That stinks. But I agree, you can't alter infrastructure for an anomaly situation. I know that upsets people. But even training temps to handle temporary call volume won't work because that takes time. (I used to do call center work out if my home and training for Pizza Hut took a few days.)

Good thing you were able to get what you wanted. As I noticed folks having better luck this evening, I hopped onto the computer and was able to book without any issues.

 

[JVig]

I went on the app and got an adr for lunch first try, no hassle. Guess I got lucky!! I commend your persistence!

 

[Dizduke]

Thats an awesome screenshot!

 

[tzolkin]

I went on the app and got an adr for lunch first try, no hassle. Guess I got lucky!! I commend your persistence!

Yes, you did get lucky. It seems that the booking system was down for most of the day. I was checking constantly and just got a reservation around 5pm.

 

[IrishNYC]

No meal would be worth me sitting there trying to call almost 300 times in 20 minutes.

 

[ekatiel]

No meal would be worth me sitting there trying to call almost 300 times in 20 minutes.

It was actually about an hour (the 6:42 is the last time I called before I accidentally called my mom, hence the "blank" in between the two Disney calls.-- I erased her name from the screen shot!). I started calling right at 6am, and gave up just after 7. I didn't get through until I tried randomly calling around 8:30. This is all CST, so add an hour for EST. But, yes, I questioned my sanity several times during the process!

 

[larryz]

To be fair, they can't pay for year-round staffing at levels that could cover these occasional hits.

Well, they could, but then some executive would only get a 20 million dollar bonus, instead of a 22 million dollar bonus...

 

[perditax]

Well, they could, but then some executive would only get a 20 million dollar bonus, instead of a 22 million dollar bonus...

I get what you're saying, but a lot of those reps would also spend a lot of time with nothing to do.

(I work in an industry with extremely erratic staffing needs. For major product launches we train temps for short term contracts.)

 

[cakebaker]

Well, they could, but then some executive would only get a 20 million dollar bonus, instead of a 22 million dollar bonus...

Nah, more likely the ticket price would rise $10 instead of 5. Execs are not going to have bonuses cut. This doesn't happen often, to staff at those levels would be a waste of resources and someone gets to pay for it and that's us.

 

[David Brent]

Wow. I thought I've read it all....until today.

 

[Missyrose]

It is unacceptable that it would take so many tries to get through, but my only question is why did you start calling a full 20 minutes before the phone lines open?

 

[mom2rtk]

Well, they could, but then some executive would only get a 20 million dollar bonus, instead of a 22 million dollar bonus...

Or maybe they could have staggered dates people could book, opening one month every day for 6 weeks instead of 6 months all at once? Or something along that line. There are things they could have done.

Or they could have opened the Poly DVC bookings on a different day.

But I think Disney just likes a good feeding frenzy every now and then.

 

[metzgardesign]

Insane. One of the reasons I have not missed our annual trips the last couple of years. I always enjoyed out rips, more or less, but experiences for us and stories like this just helped realize that life is too short to deal wit that.

I'd like to go back at some point, but I dunno if I have the intestinal fortitude to jump through the hoops which becoming increasingly prevalent. More power to those who do have that stamina, though.

That's nuts.

 

[IrishNYC]

It is unacceptable that it would take so many tries to get through, but my only question is why did you start calling a full 20 minutes before the phone lines open?

Maybe OP doesn't live in the eastern time zone.

 

[ekatiel]

It is unacceptable that it would take so many tries to get through, but my only question is why did you start calling a full 20 minutes before the phone lines open?

The 6:42 time is actually the time I made call #223. We live in the Central time zone, so that was 7:42am, EST. Rest assured, I started calling at exactly 6am my time, which is 7am EST.