Dilemma . . . Can anyone help?

[DIScruisers4]

We have 3 families (14 total people) traveling on the Western Magic in January 2005. All three reservations were linked and we were looking forward to eating dinner together - Early Seating. One of the families (5 people) just added a new passenger (17 y.o). Unfortunately, Disney told them that the only way they could add the new person was if the dinner seating for their entire group was moved to late seating. Apparently, the early seating was full and Disney would not let them add just 1 more person to our group. They really did not want to move to late seating especially since they have 3 children (7, 4 and 22 months). However, they really needed to add the teenager, so they reluctantly agreed. The best that Disney could do was to put them on the wait list for early seating with us. What this means, however, is that all 6 of them (the original 5 plus the newly added teenager) are now waitlisted for early seating. It seems that with a large group like this, it will be much harder for them to get put back into the early seating with us, even if they go to guest services as soon as they board.

It seems to me that the original five family members should have been able to keep their early seating reservations with us, and the newly added teenager should be assigned later seating (and put on the waitlist for early seating). This way, they would only have to try to get 1 person added to our dinner group, which seems much more likely than trying to add 6. In fact, they told the Disney rep that they were willing to accept this arrangement, but were told no. (BTW - the teenager is not their daughter - she's a friend, and she was also comfortable with this arrangement)

Can anyone recommend ideas for trying to get all of us together, or at least the original families and have just the one teenager waitlisted for early seating with us? I told this family to call Disney often to check on cancellations, especially just before the 60 day mark, but I'm wondering if there is a more efficient way to go about this.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Nfitzsimmons]

We were also trying to get switched and my TA suggested that my first stop after boarding be Lumiere's and the head waiter. They will sometimes make the switch.

 

[SueEllen]

Actually the original family should have kept their early seating and the additional person would have been put in as late seating and "waitlisted" for first dining (but would have ended up at first dining since the rest of the cabin was also.)

Your friend needs to call back and talk to DCL about this. We had this exact scenario on our reservation last October. I added another person to the cabin shortly before we were to cruise. She was technically second dining (we had early dining because of my 2 year old) and the rest of us were early, but I was assured we would all have early--and we did.

Call back.

Sue Ellen

 

[AmyJ of Ca]

I don't know how true this is but this kind of happened when I linked our reservation with my SIL and early seating was already filled and they couldn't be reserved for our 1st seating. The CM on the phone told me that they only allow about 1/2 of the first seating to be reserved. Closer to the sail date the person that arranges the seating in the dining rooms then puts all the people that are linked to a party that is in the desired seating with the rest of their party and then they go through the wait list with these people ahead of people that are not being split up. She told me not to worry about it AT ALL!! They would get to our seating and be placed at our table. I haven't heard anyone else here talk about this but this is what they told me, so I'm not going to worry about it. I assume this would be true for your family also. Good luck and let's hope that this is the way they go through the wait list....for both our sake. (Let me know how it works out as our cruise isn't until July)

 

[Houzer]

Good Luck...We are also travelling in January on the Magic for a 7 day cruise. We have been on the early seating wait list for 9 months now and we call periodically to see and there is always nothing. (There are only eight of us in our party.) I would keep calling and bugging till you get it. Houzer

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I can tell you that we had 7 in our group and were waitlisted and we were moved to 1st seating. So it is possible!

 

[DIScruisers4]

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful input. I am hopeful that everything will work out well. Perseverance may be the key!

 

[lovebuzz]

Can someone please give me the number to call to be put on the wait list for first seating. We sail in April and we have a 3 and 5 year old and only late seating was available when we booked. Thank you!