Dining & DVC

[Chuck S]

Here's another for this 90 days business! I called at 6:59am (on a Sat no less) sat on hold for 40 minutes and while we did get LeCellier, it's at 8:35pm and we did get Spirit of Aloha, but it's the early show. We couldn't get an 8pm during our entire trip. We did get our other requests, but not necessarily on the days/times we wanted. Personally, I think there should be so many ressies allotted for the free dining people, so many for DVC and so many for everyone else. Either that, or some kind of advantage for us DVC members. Let's face it, while none of us probably wants to cook on vacation, we could if we had to. Furthermore, I think the vast majority of us use some kind of grocery service (non-Disney) for our staples. One would think that if we are going to spend our $$ eating on property or being on the DDP, we should get some kind of priority booking.

I really don't see any advantage to Disney to giving the free DDP and then having the ADRs filled early by DVCers or non-free DDP onsite guests. Free diners would simply cancel their room reservations if there was no where available to eat, costing Disney $$, totally defeating the purpose of filling the rooms by offering the free dining in the first place.

All onsite guests are treated equally. If the restaurants are so full that you are unable to get your ADRs, whether they are filled with DVCers, free diners, or cash guests, really makes little difference to Disney. The lack of ADR availability, I suspect, has more to do with the "+10" aspect than the "90 day" policy, people who have a reservation starting up to 10 days prior to your arrival could very well already have most of the ADRs filled, free dining or not.

 

[dvcdisney]

But I planned that way before I was a DVC member - and a lot of people do. It isn't just DVC members who are compulsive planners or book a year out. Plenty of CRO guests do the same advanced planning.

Absolutely! I also planned far in advance before I became a DVC member. But this may be the reason why I became a DVC member. It caters to the way I plan my vacations. I love the idea of booking 11 mths in advance and not having mousekeeping everyday.

I have met more people who have become DVC members because of the way the plan - very much in advance. Although it is not necessarily true, I have met many who have said that they wouldn't become DVC members because it was outrageous that they would need to book 7 mths in advance. I did mention that no one needs to book that far in advance, but in reality, DVC does cater to those who want to plan that far. If you don't, there is a good chance that you may be disappointed if you wanted a popular resort or popular room category. That is how the system works. If you travel during low season, then it's not such a big deal. But things change. We had always travelled during low season until our children started getting older and we didn't want them to miss too much school. So now we HAVE to go during regular to peak seasons like Spring Break and Summer. And if I had not been booking far in advance before, I would have to now.

My point is that there seems to be a lot of more advance planners in the DVC community as a whole compared to CRO guests. Not to say that only DVC members plan in advance. But I would think there is a higher percentage. CRO guests tend to wait for resort promotions and sales and like Free Dining, they would have to wait until 4 -5 mths, if that, to book. I believe the 4/3 promotion was announced with only weeks in advance notice. I think maybe more often than not, many just wait for these promotion to book their trip. I think that if the promotions are not far in advance, I would have no reason to book too early. 11 or 7 mths booking is more prevalent in DVC members. (Again, not only DVC members, but a good portion of us.)

By the way, it was only a suggestion to get the 180days+10 perk for DVC guest because I think a lot of us love the idea of booking our ADRs that far in advance. I would be ecstatic if it was back to 180 days +10 for ALL resort guests and 180 days for offsite guests.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I do NOT want a 180+10 booking back. I hate planning my meals that far in advance. Heck, since I have been a DVC member so long, I hate planning what day I'm going to be in what park that far in advance! I remember the first couple of years of DVC never planning our meal times until we actually got to the resort. Our first order of business was to touch the "dine" number on the phone and book our ressies for the week. Frankly, I'd be in favor of that again too. Of course that would only work if they also did not allow off site guests to book early too.

I think 90+10 is great for on site and 90 for for off site.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I absolutely HATE the 90 day rule. Park hours are being released late too which makes it next to impossible to do ANY planning way ahead of time.