Cancelled ADR"s for Double Booking?

[RMulieri]

Just wondering "per disney standards", what would constitute a double booking? Is there a number of hours rule they go by? Is it if you have 2 during a dinner or lunch time frame??? For instance, if you booked a 5pm and then a 950pm- would that be a double?? How would this be different than if you had a 400 lunch and a 900 dinner? Just wondering since we are west coasters and we tend do late lunches and even later dinners....
Also, we like to park hop and have consdiered the idea of some progressive eating.... such as drinks and apps one place ( says around 4pm), dinner a few hours later ( 6-8pm) and then desserts a few hours ( 9-10 pm)after that all in differrent restaurants and different parks and/or resorts...

More like making a 505pm at Crystal Palace in the MK, and a 505pm at Coral Reef in Epcot for a party of 3..just an example

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

While I also agree with the others who like the idea of using a credit card when making ADR's, what if someone had to cancel at the very last minute or a few hours before their ADR and it was a legitamite reason? For example someone gets very sick or has transportation problems. Unless when calling to cancel the ADR the Cast Member see's they did not double book any of their ADR's so could they wave and possible fee charges for cancelling so late?

 

[scanne]

While I also agree with the others who like the idea of using a credit card when making ADR's, what if someone had to cancel at the very last minute or a few hours before their ADR and it was a legitamite reason? Unless when calling to cancel the ADR the Cast Member see's they did not double book any of their ADR's so could they wave and possible fee charges for cancelling so late?

Last summer we were supposed to eat at Restaurant Akershus for dinner. This is one of the places that requires a CC and charges a no-show fee. Well, my DD got sick the day we were supposed to eat there. I called WDW dining from our hotel room and explained the situation. The reservation was cancelled with no charge. So, I believe that there are some legit ways to get out of a ressie like that.

But the CC # to hold a ressie may deter double bookers...I like the idea of going back to the 180 day out ressies. That was great for me. I love to plan!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Last summer we were supposed to eat at Restaurant Akershus for dinner. This is one of the places that requires a CC and charges a no-show fee. Well, my DD got sick the day we were supposed to eat there. I called WDW dining from our hotel room and explained the situation. The reservation was cancelled with no charge. So, I believe that there are some legit ways to get out of a ressie like that.

Well that's good to know that they did not charge you.

 

[GemmaPixie]

I hate the thought of planning my meals 6 months before I eat them!! I just don't get it!! What if I book an american type restaurant and feel like chinese on the night? I don't want to plan my holiday around where we eat I want to plan where we eat around my holiday!

PS I also hate the thought of planning 3 months ahead aswell for same reasons.

 

[grimley1968]

But the CC # to hold a ressie may deter double bookers...I like the idea of going back to the 180 day out ressies. That was great for me. I love to plan!

Agreed on the need for a CC hold. It's the easiest and sanest way to quickly combat the double-booking issue.

I've been to Hoop De Doo several times, the Luau once, and these both require CC holds. I never had a second of waiting (well, we ALL had to wait for the mass seating, since these are shows), even though the place was packed. We walked up to the podium when the seating window arrived, told them our last name and confirmation #, and were taken immediately to our table. That is a true reservation, and well worth the CC hold. I would imagine the CM's at the podium appreciate it as well, not having to deal with irate guests who have to wait 20-40 minutes for tables with their ADR's.

On the 180-day ADR window, I don't see Disney going back to this. The reason is that people who want to plan every ADR want and need to know the park hours before hand. Disney may have been able to comply with this for a while, but they're nowhere close to that kind of calendar notification now. It's extremely difficult for them to know what hours their parks will need to be open 6 months from now, due to not knowing which attractions may break down and need to be closed, necessitating park hour adjustments to deal with more packed in crowds. 90 days is probably very difficult for them, but 180 days must have been a nightmare to plan.

The best thing, IMO, they could do is just to make sure that they have the park calendars up before, or at the same time, as the ADR window, whatever length that window may be.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I hate the thought of planning my meals 6 months before I eat them!! I just don't get it!!

1) But, that is Disney.
2) Your options are slim if want that kind of flexibility.
3) Or, you pick another vacation destination.

 

[grimley1968]

I hate the thought of planning my meals 6 months before I eat them!! I just don't get it!! What if I book an american type restaurant and feel like chinese on the night? I don't want to plan my holiday around where we eat I want to plan where we eat around my holiday!

PS I also hate the thought of planning 3 months ahead aswell for same reasons.

I totally agree, which is why I only book things like Hoop De Doo or possibly one favorite restaurant any more than 30 days out. Otherwise, we used to end up having to park hop just to race from one ADR to the next. These days we make those one or two ADR's a month out, and then possibly make some more when we arrive. The number of cancellations, no-shows, and just plain inconsistencies in that ADR system is staggering. We've honestly not had much problem with just showing up at most TS places, except for the absolute most popular ones in EPCOT.

 

[frogfuzz]

maybe they can make a fastpass machine outside Lecellier everyone can run when the park opens and get their time to come back
__________________

I think this is not a bad idea. Like an atm, punch in a time and it spits out a ressie for nearest time you request.

Or book week in advance Just think of the people who book and do not even go on the vacation and don't cancel their ADR's

hate the thought of planning my meals 6 months before

This is part of the fun for my family(kids in early 20's). They like the anticipation of a particiular place and plan the day around it.

 

[Pumbaa_]

i would not and will not leave a credit card for a regular ressie. Not going to happen. The day that I need a cc to reserve lunch or dinner (outside of those that require it today) is the day we go offsite and/or cs. Just not worth it to me

I bet it is not worth it to Disney either. Can you imagine the hassle of maintaining a system that requires CC? What about those that call same day - you want a cc for dinner in an hour?

What about those that do not have credit cards. Or choose not to use them. In this day and age, many people are not using their cards nor want them tied up to hold a ts reservation

I don't know what the right answer is. For me, 180 days is far out, i don't even usually book until 3 or 4 months out or less. 90 days works for me, actually 30 or 60 would be better.

No matter what the answer is, some will be happy, some will not. It is what it is. Make the best of it and just have a great time

 

[GemmaPixie]

1) But, that is Disney.
2) Your options are slim if want that kind of flexibility.
3) Or, you pick another vacation destination.

Hence why I don't eat TS in Disney. If I am there for mealtimes I will do CS but most of the time we will eat offsite. Universal and IOA will be the only parks I will eat TS in because you can walk straight up.

 

[grimley1968]

I bet it is not worth it to Disney either. Can you imagine the hassle of maintaining a system that requires CC? What about those that call same day - you want a cc for dinner in an hour?

They do it already for a few places/shows. It seems to work quite well from what I can tell - a whole lot better than the chaotic non-CC ADR system at all the other places. It's only 3 or 4 extra data fields in the same database. Not a big deal at all. If the airline industry and Disney resorts can do it, it stands to reason dining CMs could handle it too.

As for when the ADR is made, I don't see why that shouldn't be subject to the same rules as ADR's made 90 days out, whether they require a CC hold or not.

For those that choose not to use CC's, debit cards would work fine for the purpose.

 

[Tricia1972]

Respectfully, the cc holds don't have anything to do with how chaotic seating is or isn't. It has more to do with the seating system at the places you went. (Everyone seated at the same time)

Other restaurants at Disney also require CC holds, and their waits are just like any other restaurant.

We had a CC hold at Victoria & Albert's, seating was fine, but that is a reservation with a finite seating time and not an ADR. (More like what I'd expect at a Dinner show like your experienced)

We also had an ADR for Mama Melrose, and it was one of our longest waits. Most of those also seated had CC holds, as they were all part of the Fantasmic Dining package, and we still waited over half an hour.

I've also heard that the waits at California Grill can be crazy (up to an hour), and they too require a CC hold.

It's not a big deal really, just food for thought.

 

[mom2aandp]

I am going to DW in July with my husband,parents and children One particular night we booked and dinner for just me and DH and my parents are taking the kids to another TS dinner.
My TA just emailed me and said I had to call DW ASAP b/c they were going to cancel all my ADRs as I had a double booking. So I call DW and she saw that there were 2 ts for one night and said that was no problem as she could tell it was two different times and number of people. I really hope this is not an issue when we get down there.

 

[RMulieri]

I am going to DW in July with my husband,parents and children One particular night we booked and dinner for just me and DH and my parents are taking the kids to another TS dinner.
My TA just emailed me and said I had to call DW ASAP b/c they were going to cancel all my ADRs as I had a double booking. So I call DW and she saw that there were 2 ts for one night and said that was no problem as she could tell it was two different times and number of people. I really hope this is not an issue when we get down there.

No thats different.you should be fine

 

[bubblycoconut]

I agree with all those who feel it's time for Disney to require a credit card to make reservations at table service restaurants. Many places do this now and inform you that if the reservation isn't cancelled by a certain time, a charge will be levied against the credit card. It's unfortunate that those who play by the rules have to get punished for those who don't.

I wish they would do this too. While I don't think it would solve the problem I think it would really help with the double booking issues.

Please don't flame me for this, but why should there be a reservation system at all? Why can't people just do walk in instead of ressies? This would eliminate the problem of double/triple booking. I mean, even with ADR's you usually have to wait for your table. If there is a TS that you REALLY have to go to...then WAIT for it. Even with free dining, I think it would be a better system. I remember when there was no such thing as an ADR, and we had no problems getting a TS that we wanted. And not to sound like a parrot repeating myself, but if we wanted that place we would WAIT for it. This would eliminate the madness at TS. I can't tell you how many times I have heard " WHat do you mean our table isn't ready? I have an ADR for this time, and I don't think we should have to wait." Easy solution in my head...no adr's. People don't understand that an ADR is not a guarantee of the time, but rather just a table at some point. Just my humble opinion

I think that would add to the craziness of table service restaurants. Can you imagine how many people would be waiting. You would spend so much of your day just waiting to eat. We have some restaurants near us that don't accept reservations and the wait times are usually an hour or more. On the weekend around popular dining times the wait can be well above two hours.

maybe they can make a fastpass machine outside Lecellier everyone can run when the park opens and get their time to come back

We don't hardly wait for anything at Disney. We purposely tour in the off season so we don't have to wait for much of anything. If an attraction has over a 25 minute wait we Fastpass it and come back later. So if I'm not willing to wait 2 hours to ride Space Mountain, I'm certainly not going to wait 2 hours to eat at Crystal Palace. The ADRs need to go back to 180 days out, along with the calendar and they need to put a credit card hold on all dining reservations.

That's how we are. I can't imagine waiting in line for 2 hours. Although even if I was willing to wait in line for two hours there is no way my son would wait that long. Our first trip was in October and this trip is in August so I have a feeling we will be using the fast pass system quite a bit on this trip.

While I also agree with the others who like the idea of using a credit card when making ADR's, what if someone had to cancel at the very last minute or a few hours before their ADR and it was a legitamite reason? For example someone gets very sick or has transportation problems. Unless when calling to cancel the ADR the Cast Member see's they did not double book any of their ADR's so could they wave and possible fee charges for cancelling so late?

That's a very good point. If they do require a credit card I would hope that they consider legitamite last minute cancellations. Now if someone calls to say their sick but have double booked I would hope they still get charged for at least one of the reservations.


When I was making our adrs for this trip I mistakingly double booked. I had called several times thoughout the day on our 90 day mark since I didn't have everything planned out. Well the first call I booked our top choice restaruants and called later to fill in our other days. Some how I ended up with a couple of things overlapping but didn't realize it until later that night when I was writing everything out. The following morning I called to cancel or move the reservations that overlapped. I had added another adr before I fixed the ones that overlapped and was suprised because the cm didn't even mention it to me. I guess they don't really pay attention to your other adrs unless you ask them to pull them up. I'm not really sure how all of that works but I'd imagine if you had a lot of adrs it would take them awhile to go through the list.

 

[Tinkerbell10403]

In regards to credit card # holding....I have been asked on numerous occations for a CC# to hold my ADR, so I am pretty sure they already do this. Also, I am not really sure what park hours would have to do with your ADRs. I mean, if you plan to eat at MK at a certain time on a certain day, then you plan around that and show up at said place at said time. We have never used park hours as a guide for ADRs. I understand some people wanting to be eating at the park they are at on a certain day, but I do not see why anyone would double and triple book just because they don't know when park hours are.

 

[TheDWord]

I think holding CC #'s is a bit draconian and there would be some unintended consequences from that- i.e. not only would you deter double bookers, but single bookers as well- this one included!

The answer is simple. Update the reservation system so that the CM can easily pull up your reservation history (based on contact phone number and address). If there are multiple bookings for the same night at different restaurants, the CM simply queries the caller and asks why there is a double booking. There will be instances where it will be legit, but will be up to the CM to decide. If they make a public announcement and put it on their website that the CM's taking your reservations will not honor double bookings, it will be a better, far superior deterrent than holding CC #s. Now, can people just make some reason up to get a double booking? Sure. Can people make up addresses and phone numbers? Sure, but I don't think your average double booker will go to those means to get a double booking.

The fact that CM's, for the most part, don't do that, tells me that either a) the reservation system is antiquated and needs updating or b) they don't care. If the dining system is like that of the hotel system, I'd put my chips on a).

 

[TheDWord]

In regards to credit card # holding....I have been asked on numerous occations for a CC# to hold my ADR, so I am pretty sure they already do this. Also, I am not really sure what park hours would have to do with your ADRs. I mean, if you plan to eat at MK at a certain time on a certain day, then you plan around that and show up at said place at said time. We have never used park hours as a guide for ADRs. I understand some people wanting to be eating at the park they are at on a certain day, but I do not see why anyone would double and triple book just because they don't know when park hours are.

Only certain places hold your CC- like dinner shows and a couple of character meals. Most restaurants have no penalty for no-shows.

Alot of people go by the UG for what parks to go on what days- alot of that depends on which park has EMH, what park closes when, etc. For example, people don't want to get stuck with a MK ADR if that day MK has evening EMH- it tends to be very crowded on evening EMH days.

People double/triple booking because they don't know the park hours yet is a totally lame and bogus reason for multiple booking. If you're making an ADR for september, you are not at a disadvantage because everyone making ADR's are doing so with the same handicap- noone knows what the park hours in September will be yet. "Well, everyone does that so I am at a disadvantage" You are basically then saying that since everyone cheats, I might as well cheat too.

 

[JLKennedy]

"It's not right, but everybody's doing it. So screw all of you for playing by the rules and screw Disney for letting it happen."

Did I get the gist of your post right? Because that's totally how it came off to me.

Nope, you misunderstood.

I said, I highly doubt that Disney is sophisticated enough (system wise and employee wise) to sort through all adr's looking for possible dupes.

Also, I'm not saying it's right, but I know during free dining that there are people who have been able to score walkups at ts locations like CR and LeCellier. So...we all hate the fact that people double book, but short of taking a credit card for each reservation, it'll happen. But if and when they request cc's, everyone here will be up in arms, can you hear it? " why can't I book, I don't have a cc, that's not fair"...