Disney dining buddy shut down?

[RRuszczyk]

I agree that the sites that grab and re-sell ADRs need to be shut down, and fast. But ones that just look for you, and send you an email or text? I was actually excited to learn of such a thing, I thought it was a great idea. As somebody mentioned previously, it's really not so different from paying a travel agent (which I am) a service fee to scout ADRs or room/package discounts for your trip.

Apparently a lot of people feel that alert services like this one made it "unfair" to the people who aren't willing to part with $8.00 per request. If that's true, then I personally think having to check back 20 times a day all day everyday just to maybe get the booking I'm after is "unfair" to the people with, you know, lives and stuff.

I for one found the service to be invaluable to me in planning our upcoming trip, and I'm sad to see it go.

I completely agree. We booked last minute and they were absolutely essential, especially with ADR hoarding going on and being unable to get on the MDE site during work hours.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I am so surprised they shut this down vs. the site that books the ressies and then actually sells them to people. Seriously?

 

[tamerbelles]

I completely agree. We booked last minute and they were absolutely essential, especially with ADR hoarding going on and being unable to get on the MDE site during work hours.

Agreed. Disney needs to find a way to stop the practice of "throw away" rooms as well. They created this monster ...

 

[5kidsmommy]

Agreed. Disney needs to find a way to stop the practice of "throw away" rooms as well. They created this monster ...

Yes but when pages like this help people use the system the practice will just continue.

 

[subtchr]

While I agree that the sites that actually book and sell dummy reservations are the main "villain" here, even the sites such as DDB are likely taxing the system in a way that affects WDW guests, so I think they are wise to shut them all down.

With the increasing popularity of this system, guests who are NOT willing to use a similar site are at a huge disadvantage.

Say you are a guest who would really like a BOG lunch 100 days from now. Of course they are all booked. So throughout the day and evening, you check the app what, 5 times? 10? 50? If you are really lucky, at some point in the next three months, you will hit the site at EXACTLY the right time to snag the ADR you want, or close to it.

But these sites constantly scan the ADR reservation system. I don't know exactly how they do it, but I imagine they can check, what, 1000 times a day? Every minute? Every 30 seconds? And when it DOES detect an opening, how many people have subscribed to the system to receive the instant notification? I'm sure that varies, but everything I have read indicates that if you do not respond immediately to a notification, you won't snag the ADR. That to me means MANY people are subscribed.

So I'm glad that this will hopefully level the playing field a bit more. We will see if they will take any other measures.

 

[boufa]

I hadn't considered the load on Disney servers. It could even be a small version of a denial of service attack where a site hammers a server with so many requests that it takes down the server. So not only are these people paying for an advantage, they are bogging down there servers so that the rest of us actually get at least slightly slower service. How long until we have to do one of those "catcha" things like reading the squiggly numbers before we can make FP changes, or dining reservations.

We finally got rid of the people who would make dinner reservations at 4 different places on the same day... so that they had options... now to find someone else gaming the system. Nice.

 

[Elevationist]

With the increasing popularity of this system, guests who are NOT willing to use a similar site are at a huge disadvantage.

Say you are a guest who would really like a BOG lunch 100 days from now. Of course they are all booked. So throughout the day and evening, you check the app what, 5 times? 10? 50? If you are really lucky, at some point in the next three months, you will hit the site at EXACTLY the right time to snag the ADR you want, or close to it.

But these sites constantly scan the ADR reservation system. I don't know exactly how they do it, but I imagine they can check, what, 1000 times a day? Every minute? Every 30 seconds? And when it DOES detect an opening, how many people have subscribed to the system to receive the instant notification? I'm sure that varies, but everything I have read indicates that if you do not respond immediately to a notification, you won't snag the ADR. That to me means MANY people are subscribed.

So I'm glad that this will hopefully level the playing field a bit more. We will see if they will take any other measures.

Where as I, and many people like me, felt that these kind of services "leveled the playing field" for people with full-time jobs and busy evenings with kids and families... So basically the people who don't have the luxury of time to check 5-50 times a day for 3 months.

People who have the time to spend searching, good for them. People who have the $8.00 to spend on a service to do the searching, good for them too. Either way, it was an investment into getting the ADR you wanted. This service created that choice for people to make, and I appreciated it.

 

[maxiesmom]

I hadn't considered the load on Disney servers. It could even be a small version of a denial of service attack where a site hammers a server with so many requests that it takes down the server. So not only are these people paying for an advantage, they are bogging down there servers so that the rest of us actually get at least slightly slower service. How long until we have to do one of those "catcha" things like reading the squiggly numbers before we can make FP changes, or dining reservations.

We finally got rid of the people who would make dinner reservations at 4 different places on the same day... so that they had options... now to find someone else gaming the system. Nice.

Or how long until they charge us a $25 per person hold fee to make ADRs, and then credit that back to you when you show up?

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Agreed. Disney needs to find a way to stop the practice of "throw away" rooms as well. They created this monster ...

Yeah it's a shame they don't put a system in place that would keep that from being an option to enhance your experience.

 

[subtchr]

Where as I, and many people like me, felt that these kind of services "leveled the playing field" for people with full-time jobs and busy evenings with kids and families... So basically the people who don't have the luxury of time to check 5-50 times a day for 3 months.

People who have the time to spend searching, good for them. People who have the $8.00 to spend on a service to do the searching, good for them too. Either way, it was an investment into getting the ADR you wanted. This service created that choice for people to make, and I appreciated it.

I see your point, but the point I was trying to make was that with the system, even the people who DON'T have "full-time jobs and busy evenings with kids and families" were not getting ANY ADRs unless they were VERY lucky. These sites were scanning constantly, detecting the openings, and notifying their subscribers. Any openings were being snatched immediately by those subscribers. A person not using this service was just out of luck.

 

[ArwenMarie]

We finally got rid of the people who would make dinner reservations at 4 different places on the same day... so that they had options... now to find someone else gaming the system. Nice.

How did they do that? The penalty? I'm not sure that helped that much with that particular issue.

 

[GATORinaZ28]

I've had luck with one of them and didn't see anything wrong with it. However, the one that books ADRs with fraudulent info is definitely wrong and needs to go.

 

[lroger01]

My guess is all of them are getting "cease and desist" letters from Disney's lawyers. Some, like DDB are honoring the letter quickly. Others, like the ones that grab actual reservations, are fighting the request. By fighting it they can continue operating for now. I'd be surprised if any of them are still operating a year from now.

 

[Brenda Kim]

I am sure that Disney has already served all of them including ************** (the one selling reservations) but they can have their lawyers go to work and fight and keep the website up while that it happening perhaps.

Seriously, selling reservations WOW! part of me is disgusted and the other part is going why didn't I think of that.

 

[mcd2745]

I hadn't considered the load on Disney servers. It could even be a small version of a denial of service attack where a site hammers a server with so many requests that it takes down the server. So not only are these people paying for an advantage, they are bogging down there servers so that the rest of us actually get at least slightly slower service. How long until we have to do one of those "catcha" things like reading the squiggly numbers before we can make FP changes, or dining reservations.

We finally got rid of the people who would make dinner reservations at 4 different places on the same day... so that they had options... now to find someone else gaming the system. Nice.

I'd be surprised if we don't see the "captcha" phrases, or a similar measure, added to the site in the near future.

I don't think they ever fully got rid of the folks who make reservations all over WDW for each day. I'm sure it's been reduced, but probably not totally eliminated. Add a non-refundable deposit charged at the time the reservation is made and you'll virtually eliminate that (as well as any other abuses) entirely.

 

[mcd2745]

How did they do that? The penalty? I'm not sure that helped that much with that particular issue.

Create multiple MDE accounts with different names/email addresses. Then cancel right before you get hit with the fee.

It's a little more of a hassle to do...but can still be done. Disgusting behavior, IMO.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Create multiple MDE accounts with different names/email addresses. Then cancel right before you get hit with the fee.

It's a little more of a hassle to do...but can still be done. Disgusting behavior, IMO.

Right, that's what I was referring to. I don't think the $10 pp fee did anything to stop ADR hoarding.

 

[maxiesmom]

Right, that's what I was referring to. I don't think the $10 pp fee did anything to stop ADR hoarding.

I do. After the fee was introduced it was much easier to get ADRs for places like Le Ceiller and The Crystal Palace. Before these ADR scanning sites existed, that is.

 

[mousehockey37]

I think all of them being hit at once is a matter of 1 ruining it for the rest.

WDWTF hasn't responded to customer inquiries as of now and DISDS has said he's not been contacted as of yet and he's IN Disneyland...

The weight that this will take off the Disney Dining servers though, may make it possible for people to get reservations now.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm sure it is a coincidence, but I was just able to snag an ADR I had been stalking for my trip in 2 weeks!