Disney to launch online dining reservations

[jrgutknecht]

While I'm all for doing things online, I do EVERYTHING online. I haven't set foot in my bank in three years.... BUT

I for one won't be able to use this site because my employer BLOCKS access to the disney sites. Ever since they launched their online gaming on their sites, the Disney sites have all been blocked because of it. Sure I could go to corporate management and ask them to unblock Disney, but that ain't gonna happen.

So unless they keep the phone lines active, I'll have to resort to taking a sick day to do my bookings at home.

And I agree with the many earlier posters, unless there is a way to prevent double bookings, this is going to make hard to get into resturants, IMPOSSIBLE to get in.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

In a way, I think that if they want to do this to the advantage of the onsite guests, it's pretty simple.

First, and I hate to say it, but first you reward the guests that book a package and stay on property & DVC, even if without a package booking. With everything tied together, it shouldn't be hard to allocate the TS credits to the reservation number. Give these folks the 180 day booking window. For the package bookings,regular and DVC, have a system in place that has the set number of TS credits as the ONLY bookable options at 180 days out. So, for a family of 3 with 1 adult and 2 children staying for 5 nights with the basic dining plan, there would be 5 potential TS blocks open. Of course the 2 credit establishments would block access to one of the preset blocks, once it was booked. The kids would also get 5 potential TS blocks and again, if a 2 credit ADR was made, the access to the 5th block would be locked out. For the DVC, non-package bookings, have their options open like what is suggested below for the non-DVC folks going without a package.

For the folks, like me, who usually just book a room without a package would get the next round of booking that would be made available at 120 days. We would have more flexibility in booking, because we would automatically be given TS bookable blocks for each meal. Only one TS restaurant would be bookable for any meal's timeframe block. There would be no allowance for anything more than 3 TS meals a day. Those meals would have to be scheduled at the very least 4 hours apart or else the system would block the desired bookings for that day.

The final round of bookings would be made available at 90 days out for all offsite guests. The same type of rules apply that were offered to the guests who booked at 120 days.

With this system, the onsite package guests are rewarded first, which I honestly think is fitting, if they want to promote package purchases. The system still rewards onsite guests in general by offering the next round of bookings to them a month prior to the general public. This in my mind would make for a more fair distribution of the ADR's and the potential for fraud would be greatly reduced. By the time that the 90 day window opened up, the majority of the onsite guests will have made their plans and should not be shut out of the dining opportunities that they desire.

Now, do I think that Disney's IT team can make this happen, technically speaking yes. Will they make it work flawlessly.....um, I just don't have any great faith that they can or will.

I would prefer to have the option of online booking, but I want to be able to call and talk to a dining CM. I know that the internet is an amazing tool, but the human connection factor is a must!

 

[Pumbaa_]

i went out to the Mom's panel on the Disney site and first, let me say, how cool is that? They have duplicated the DIS on Disney

Here is the post that someone earlier mentioned seeing:

The reservation system used at Walt Disney World Resort for booking dining, recreation and tours will be undergoing an "extreme makeover." This new reservation system will provide guests opportunities to book multiple reservations during one booking session AND guests will also be able to make dining reservations online at disneyworld.com as early as December 2008. During this system upgrade, some changes will be made to the current booking horizons. The normal 180 day booking window will be reduced starting July 31, 2008. Reservations for dining, recreation and tours will only be accepted through January 25, 2009 for a short amount of time. On October 24, 2008, the anticipated upgrade completion date, reservations will again be accepted for the normal 180 day window or April 21, 2009. Reservations for Victoria & Albert's, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Chef Mickey's will NOT be impacted by these changes. These three venues will continue to observe normal booking windows.​

I for one can't wait to be able to make my own ressies. What I want to know, what is going to stop people from making and selling those hard to get ressies? xmas morning breakfast at Chef Mickeys, or Wishes for NYE at the CG? (ok, that one requires a CC, but you get the drift)

I hope it works and doesn't have too many bugs (as I sit here dreading my call to make a change....should do that soon, don't you think )

 

[bumbershoot]

In a way, I think that if they want to do this to the advantage of the onsite guests, it's pretty simple.

First, and I hate to say it, but first you reward the guests that book a package and stay on property & DVC, even if without a package booking. With everything tied together, it shouldn't be hard to allocate the TS credits to the reservation number. Give those folks the 180 day booking window. Have a system in place that has the set number of TS credits as the ONLY bookable options at 180 days out. So, for a family of 3 with 1 adult and 2 children staying for 5 nights with the basic dining plan, there would be 5 potential TS blocks open. Of course the 2 credit establishments would block access to one of the preset blocks, once it was booked. The kids would also get 5 potential TS blocks and again, if a 2 credit ADR was made, the access to the 5th block would be locked out.

Now, with that out of the way, the folks like me, who usually just book a room without a package would get the next round of booking that would be made available at 120 days. We would have more flexibility in booking, because we would automatically be given TS bookable blocks for each meal. Only one TS restaurant would be bookable for any meal's timeframe block. There would be no allowance for anything more than 3 TS meals a day. Those meals would have to be scheduled at the very least 4 hours apart or else the system would block the desired bookings for that day.

The final round of bookings would be made available at 90 days out for all offsite guests. The same type of rules apply that were offered to the guests who booked at 120 days.

With this system, the onsite package guests are rewarded first, which I honestly think is fitting, if they want to promote package purchases. The system still rewards onsite guests in general by offering the next round of bookings to them a month prior to the general public. This in my mind would make for a more fair distribution of the ADR's and the potential for fraud would be greatly reduced. By the time that the 90 day window opened up, the majority of the onsite guests will have made their plans and should not be shut out of the dining opportunities that they desire.

Now, do I think that Disney's IT team can make this happen, technically speaking yes. Will they make it work flawlessly.....um, I just don't have any great faith that they can or will.

I would prefer to have the option of online booking, but I want to be able to call and talk to a dining CM. I know that the internet is an amazing tool, but the human connection factor is a must!

All of that sounds fine until you think of all the exceptions. Females in a family doing a girl's day while the males have fun on their own, possibly requiring at least 2 ADRs at once. People like me who have family in the area, and so me, my aunt and my cousin might go one place while others go somewhere else. And so on.


I for one do NOT trust Disney's IT people to make any of this happen well, LOL. They can't even create a useful, glitch-free, website that doesn't make my computer have a conniption fit! They want it to *look* pretty but the function doesn't impress me. Since an alumnus of my college from my year has just become part of the website group, maybe I need to get in touch with him, have a little chat!

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

What I want to know, what is going to stop people from making and selling those hard to get ressies? xmas morning breakfast at Chef Mickeys, or Wishes for NYE at the CG? (ok, that one requires a CC, but you get the drift)

They will need to create a confirmation system that requires a printed "ticket" for the ADR and the name on the "ticket" has to match the photo ID of at least one person in the party, or else the "ticket" will not be honored. The "ticket", will contain a ID theft level of personal information that will tie the ADR to the room reservation and/or a cc for all offsite guests. In the event of illness/death/inability to make it to the ADR, the family of the "ticket" holder may go to guest services and ask for an exception, however, an exception will not be guaranteed, but it will be considered.

With this level of personal ID disclosure, there will be few takers willing to expose their personal info to others in order to make a buck. All "tickets" will be checked against a photo ID and then will be returned to the guest so that they can dispose of it in a safe manner.

How's that?

 

[maj42169]

Great. I hope Disney plans to upgrade their servers to handle the slamming they're going to get on 180 day marks.

Well, let's see.............the 180 day or 90 day (whichever is the new going thing) will be EVERY day because new people arrive at the resorts each day of the year..........so the system needs to be prepared to be able to handle all of that overload.

Hey, what about those families that do not have internet...believe it or not, they do exist.........and many people in my town are only on modem if any connection at all to internet......those people do all of their Disney planning by phone......will there still be phone service as well for those folks??

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

All of that sounds fine until you think of all the exceptions. Females in a family doing a girl's day while the males have fun on their own, possibly requiring at least 2 ADRs at once. People like me who have family in the area, and so me, my aunt and my cousin might go one place while others go somewhere else. And so on.


I for one do NOT trust Disney's IT people to make any of this happen well, LOL. They can't even create a useful, glitch-free, website that doesn't make my computer have a conniption fit! They want it to *look* pretty but the function doesn't impress me. Since an alumnus of my college from my year has just become part of the website group, maybe I need to get in touch with him, have a little chat!

Each guest would have their own "drop down box" for each TS opportunity. At least that's how my mind's eye sees it. With each guest in the party having the opportunity to each be booked at a different place for the same meal, if so desired. The 4 hour exclusion window would be applied to each individual guest.

I do share your opinion of the Disney website, it's just so glitchy and lacks proper function when it comes to the travel site's offerings, even when the low bandwidth option is selected. My laptop is no piece of junk and even with a high speed DSL connection their website is a horror!

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Hey, what about those families that do not have internet...believe it or not, they do exist.........and many people in my town are only on modem if any connection at all to internet......those people do all of their Disney planning by phone......will there still be phone service as well for those folks??

God, I hope they don't fire all of those dining CM's. There are some of them that are such great folks, several of them post on the DIS. I would hate to see them lose their jobs. Unfortunately, if this online thing does work, I potentially see the Dining CM workforce decreased and the wait times increased when calling (407)WDW-DINE.

 

[Pumbaa_]

They will need to create a confirmation system that requires a printed "ticket" for the ADR and the name on the "ticket" has to match the photo ID of at least one person in the party, or else the "ticket" will not be honored. The "ticket", will contain a ID theft level of personal information that will tie the ADR to the room reservation and/or a cc for all offsite guests. In the event of illness/death/inability to make it to the ADR, the family of the "ticket" holder may go to guest services and ask for an exception, however, an exception will not be guaranteed, but it will be considered.

With this level of personal ID disclosure, there will be few takers willing to expose their personal info to others in order to make a buck. All "tickets" will be checked against a photo ID and then will be returned to the guest so that they can dispose of it in a safe manner.

How's that?

Now that is funny. Most guests can't even remember their ADRs and need a printout never mind print out a ticket and take it with you to each meal each day. Can't be that hard, can you imagine the nightmare of administering something like that?

I am also not giving any personal information in order to eat dinner at Disney, nope, not gonna happen

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Now that is funny. Most guests can't even remember their ADRs and need a printout never mind print out a ticket and take it with you to each meal each day. Can't be that hard, can you imagine the nightmare of administering something like that?

I am also not giving any personal information in order to eat dinner at Disney, nope, not gonna happen

Awww....come on! Where's your sense of adventure?

 

[kimberh]

I do everything I can online. I certainly hope this is true. I bet you will have to log on to your account, it will track your days and reservations. Sounds great to me!!!!

 

[kimgof]

Does anyone know if they are going to make guests make ADRs exclusively online or will guests have the option of calling? If they give everyone the option it might lighten it up on the phone but not make it overwhelming online.

 

[shellybaxter]

I like thinking out loud and i have done a lot of it on this subject too.

I agree, cc's will help. It won't stop a hard core double booker, but it certainly would discourage.

I like the fee idea EXCEPT sometimes you legitimately change your reservation. I'd HATE to have a 180 day window and then no flexibility to move things because I changed my mind. Though if there was a fee, you can bet that there'd be NO more double bookings (just lots of annoyed guests)

It's intriguing to try to think of a way to create a system that won't get abused.

I'm wondering if Disney will start requiring a CC number for all ADR's? Or "charge" a deposit to your reservation? No clue, but I would bet Disney will start implementing some sort of financial penalty or at least accountability for their reservation system. Right now it's chaos and filled with SO many fake ressies, while so many others can't possibly get legitimate reservations when they try.

That would sure cut down on a lot ressies being made that people never show up for. Sure, you could use multiple cards to make ressies, but if you forget to cancel, your cards will be cancelled. But at least then the ressie system would be more streamlined and not have so much clutter in the system (ressies people have no intentions of using).

Personally, I love the idea of being able to book ADR's online, especially since the current verbal system doesn't allow me any "proof" until check-in of my ressies I make 180 days out!

Just thinking aloud...

ok, just a thought, so don't shoot me, please

What if they treated the dining reservations like regular hotel reservations. You have until a week or two weeks before your dining date to make any changes or cancelations before you are incurred a small penalty fee to your credit card IF you don't show up. Nothing horrible, of course, but enough to keep someone from thinking twice before double booking like maybe $5???

So what do you think? There is a lot of room for ideas around this one...

They will need to create a confirmation system that requires a printed "ticket" for the ADR and the name on the "ticket" has to match the photo ID of at least one person in the party, or else the "ticket" will not be honored. The "ticket", will contain a ID theft level of personal information that will tie the ADR to the room reservation and/or a cc for all offsite guests. In the event of illness/death/inability to make it to the ADR, the family of the "ticket" holder may go to guest services and ask for an exception, however, an exception will not be guaranteed, but it will be considered.

With this level of personal ID disclosure, there will be few takers willing to expose their personal info to others in order to make a buck. All "tickets" will be checked against a photo ID and then will be returned to the guest so that they can dispose of it in a safe manner.

How's that?

WDW is a THEME PARK resort. I will be shocked if they go to these lengths to prevent double booking. CCs (and I know a few restaurant already do this, but not the majority and they are "special" restuarants) and ID systems with printouts will discourge far too many people from making reservations at all.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Does anyone know if they are going to make guests make ADRs exclusively online or will guests have the option of calling? If they give everyone the option it might lighten it up on the phone but not make it overwhelming online.

The exception will be if the computer/online opens up availablity for the new day at Midnight in the Eastern Time Zone. It would be "wiser" for those of us that want to get the hard to get stuff to stay up until midnight to snag what we want online, than to wait until the phones open at Disney Dining at 7am, when everything could very well be gone for the day due to it's online availablity for the previous 7 hours.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

WDW is a THEME PARK resort. I will be shocked if they go to these lengths to prevent double booking. CCs (and I know a few restaurant already do this, but not the majority and they are "special" restuarants) and ID systems with printouts will discourge far too many people from making reservations at all.

Great! I will never be shut out of Le Cellier again!

 

[Condorman]

This is how I see it:

1.) When this goes into action (presumably in October) they will keep the online and phone-in ability for at least six months. At some point a message will tell you when you call in, perhaps as soon as late 2009, that within a few months you will no longer be able to call in your ADRs - you will have to do it online. Then, yes, a majority of those Dining CMs at the call center will be repositioned, for lack of a stronger term.

2.) For anyone concerned that the online rez system won't be able to handle the massive requests on a daily basis I share your anxiety. However, Disney has said this is a whole new reservation system that will tie in vacation, recreation and dining, which could potentially mean systems akin to Expedia or Travelocity which can pull up 2500 hotels in Paris in 12.5 seconds. The whole point of Disney making this move is to make booking via their site more attractive than their competitors.

3.) I believe all ADRs using this system should be linked to hotel reservations, and CC#s must be given to secure ADRs. A cancellation policy of anywhere from 72 hours to 10 days should be enforced, otherwise the CC# will be charged $10 for each person on the reservation. In other words, you book 12:30 pm at Le Cellier for (4) people on 4/25/09. If you cancel on 4/23 or don't show up on 4/25, then you are charged $40. This is the only way to prevent double booking. Oh, it won't stop it completely but it would force people to make up their minds well in advance. Anyone who dislikes this policy, well, don't make a reservation. Be a walk-in. You might get lucky. But there are many people who make a rez and stick to it. They have nothing to worry about.

Nobody likes change but this new system is necessary. I've said it on other boards but if they model it after Opentable.com it could work. If Disney posted menus, 360° tours of the restaurants, opening hours, available times, etc. they could make the experience wonderful. We go to WDW in December and have already made our ADRs. We won't go back until next year and by then the system will have been perfected. Remember, this is not a test. If it does not work well at first they will make it better. They are doing this so as to cut the workforce of CMs taking your reservations. There is no turning back, so I look forward to using it in the future.

 

[scrump]

I, too, do everything I can online. I hope this goes well!

 

[aribelle]

While I'm all for doing things online, I do EVERYTHING online. I haven't set foot in my bank in three years.... BUT

I for one won't be able to use this site because my employer BLOCKS access to the disney sites. Ever since they launched their online gaming on their sites, the Disney sites have all been blocked because of it. Sure I could go to corporate management and ask them to unblock Disney, but that ain't gonna happen.

So unless they keep the phone lines active, I'll have to resort to taking a sick day to do my bookings at home.

And I agree with the many earlier posters, unless there is a way to prevent double bookings, this is going to make hard to get into resturants, IMPOSSIBLE to get in.

But that would be part of the GOOD thing about online booking.....just like with hotel rooms now, they could make it so that people could book ADRs 24/7. Right now they have to pay someone to answer the phones so there are only certain hours.....online could be all day or night.

I think this would be MUCH better for their overseas customers...I know I've read many people who don't live in the USA complain about the international phone charges just to make an ADR....and of course if you're staying a week it could take 20 minutes to make all of those, not to mention the hold time.

Since they're closing down most of their ADR booking starting next week and opening it again in October, i.e. 3 MONTHS from now, I'll bet they're doing a trial run of this while they're off line. Maybe all those employees that would normally be answering phones are going to be "attacking" the new system to try to get all the bugs worked out before the public gets a chance. I think that would be quite fun.

It would be very nice to be able to play around with the times to see what's available and what days....but wow, I can just see pulling up a reservation for Le Cellier and by the time you click to book it it's already gone!

Oh well, the next few months are gonna be interesting to say the least. That said, though, I think I better call tomorrow and get my final few ADRs made...I keep putting it off because they're not popular places that I really need to worry, and I can't make up my mind about them, but I think I want to get them tied down before they change the ADR system. Then in October when the new system comes up I can play around making changes, lol.

Gives new meaning to the "check every day for cancelling if you don't get what you wanted.". I can see some of us checking every 5 minutes, lol.

 

[IMACM]

God, I hope they don't fire all of those dining CM's. There are some of them that are such great folks, several of them post on the DIS. I would hate to see them lose their jobs. Unfortunately, if this online thing does work, I potentially see the Dining CM workforce decreased and the wait times increased when calling (407)WDW-DINE.

It's kinda funny but VERY sad, the CM's have not even been told that online booking will start in December!! I actually read about it on the mom's board and I am very sad to say I see my job going away sooner than later!! I am not sure if you are aware of this but Disney has outsourced a lot of the dining reservations to a "work at home" company so there are many times you don't even talk to actual CM's. I am thinking this will be where all of the dining, tours and rec will be taken care of and those CM's in this particular community will be put in other communities, if there are available spots.

Happy online booking!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[imthatgirl]

im sorry but i think its crazy to think they will eventually get rid of telephone ADRs, so what? if you dont own a computer you cant eat at disney, no i dont think so. it just sounds to that they are adding another way to make your ADRs. whats wrong with options?