Early entry without ADRs

[wilde_oscar]

Simple answer to what stops people from lying about reservations just to get in early.

ETHICS - What a bad lesson to teach you kids - lie to get in early.

Shame on those that do it.

yup, and shame on a lot of things people do

 

[jenjersnap]

If you've booked an early morning breakfast at the Tusker House for Donald's breakfast you will not be able to get into the other side of the park. They have it roped off and there are CM's at the rope. There is a special entrance to AK for the breakfast and no one is allowed into that entrance if they do not have a reservation. There will be CM's along the pathway leading to the Tusker House but, rest assured, there will also be CM's along the way leading you to the right place. Even if you don't have a reservation and trying to get into the park early, a CM will question you why you are standing where you are.

And, to expand on that, you don't get much of a jump on crowds anyway because the CMs wait until the main crowd (all of those guests heading to the Safari) nearly catches up to the Tusker House crowd before dropping the rope. There is really no advantage to be had at AK, IME.

 

[Tomh]

Yes, they WILL fill that table with a walk up, but I'm inclined to think the person planning ahead for a special event should have more of a shot at it instead of a walk up.

When we are talking about an early breakfast (and that IS what we are talking about) there aren't likely to be many walk up's. I am fairly confident that instead of relying on walk ups, or taking a chance on having an empty table, Disney simply overbooks by a certain percentage. It's really a pretty common practice in service industries, and indeed Disney does it quite often at their resorts (which is why people will occasionally get bumped up into a better room, or a nicer resort, because they've overbooked, and everyone showed up).

 

[mom2rtk]

When we are talking about an early breakfast (and that IS what we are talking about) there aren't likely to be many walk up's. I am fairly confident that instead of relying on walk ups, or taking a chance on having an empty table, Disney simply overbooks by a certain percentage. It's really a pretty common practice in service industries, and indeed Disney does it quite often at their resorts (which is why people will occasionally get bumped up into a better room, or a nicer resort, because they've overbooked, and everyone showed up).

So you think they would be doing someone a favor????

Really.... I'm still thinking of that poor person sitting at home dialing and dialing, hoping for that long sought after spot for breakfast with Pooh.....
If they GOT that spot, even if CP was slightly overbooked, they WOULD get in, they WOULD pay the bill, and they WOULD enjoy themselves.....

And by the way. We were there in December before park opening. I'm not sure how they worked it out, but right ahead of us checking in was a party looking for a walk-up spot. They worked them in. Didn't sound overbooked to me......

 

[wendylovesdisney]

If you really honestly thought I was going to try and do this, and you thought it was so wrong, why wish me luck?

Sorry someone was rude to you about it, when you innocently posted.

You have to have a thick skin here at times because of the way people can be. I got flamed myself from someone recently who would not let it go and it can get ridiculous.

So let me stop right here... please don't post to this poor person unless you are responding to their comment in a constructive way. We don't need oodles of posts on how you think they are up to something or are a bad person. It kills me when someone is skewered for being curious.

 

[maxiesmom]

So let me stop right here... please don't post to this poor person unless you are responding to their comment in a constructive way. We don't need oodles of posts on how you think they are up to something or are a bad person. It kills me when someone is skewered for being curious.

Maybe it is just me, but when someone makes a post along the lines of "This would be breaking the rules, but could I get away with it, not that I intend to do so" I go hmmmmmmmmm. First off, I think that even with all the protesting, there is at least a tiny part of anyone who posts something to that effect going, "Yay, I could get away with it!"

Second, why would you want to give others the idea of how to do something wrong, even when you don't intend to do it your self? Most likely we now have a few not so nice people calling and making ADRs they have no intention of keeping. Why do we need to have posts which help others to do the wrong thing?

 

[Disneyadore]

So let me stop right here... please don't post to this poor person unless you are responding to their comment in a constructive way. We don't need oodles of posts on how you think they are up to something or are a bad person. It kills me when someone is skewered for being curious.

O please there always people here who are only on these boards to see if they can bend the rules there own way.
There only seeking approval for there ideas here and if some else got away whit them. And you know all these "wonderful " ideas are always costing some one els money or take a piece of the magical cake they pay for.

Making a reservation and knowing you are not going to use it is stealing a table from some one else no matter how you try to sugar coat it.
I really hope that with the new system to make ADR's they also enforce the rule to pay an amount of money for each person that you make a reservation fore.

 

[wilde_oscar]

really, this is still going?

 

[fbb]

And by the way. We were there in December before park opening. I'm not sure how they worked it out, but right ahead of us checking in was a party looking for a walk-up spot. They worked them in. Didn't sound overbooked to me......

So you can get into the park early by looking for a walk-in spot for breakfast?

 

[mom2rtk]

So you can get into the park early by looking for a walk-in spot for breakfast?

I still haven't figured out HOW they got to the podium to inquire about a walk-up. Maybe if it's a day they can accommodate walk-ins, they leave a note at the front gate.

That's REALLY NOT THE POINT...... Early park entry is for people EATING in the restaurants.

I'm amazed someone hasn't closed this thread down yet.......

 

[Robo]

So you can get into the park early by looking for a walk-in spot for breakfast?

I still haven't figured out HOW they got to the podium to inquire about a walk-up.

The CM's at the "Character Breakfast" gates communicate with the check-in desk at the restaurant.

We've been waiting for the gates to open when the gate CM's make announcements asking if anyone standing at the gate would like to have breakfast at CP.

We decided we would do that on-the-spur-of the-moment one morning ourselves.

The gate CM wrote us a little ticket to take to the CP check-in desk, and off we went. Fun!

So, if you are there early and want to inquire if there are any walk-up tables available, just ask the gate CM's.

 

[Tomh]

^ Now that is informative. I had NO idea that it would ever be possible to get a walk up for an early morning breakfast. Although I'll certainly try to always make ADR's for those meals, it is good to know that it is sometimes possible to get a walk up.

mom2rtk, I don't think it would be doing someone a favor, I don't think it is a nice thing to do, I would certainly never do so myself. I would also be upset if that caused another person (who would use the ADR) to not get an ADR, I just don't think that it works that way.

I think that Disney keeps track, and books enough extra seatings to account for the no shows. If everyone were showing up for those ADR's, I don't think Disney would then book extras, I think they would quickly notice that all booking were showing up, and they would adjust the number of bookings accordingly.

In the end, it doesn't matter a hill of beans whether you and I agree on this or not. If someone is going to book and not show, they will do so. If Disney is going to overbook to account for it, or not, they will do so, and if you and I want to get that breakfast spot at CP, then we can avoid worrying about this whole issue by making the call for our ADR's promptly at 6:59 in the morning exactly 90 days prior to our arrival. Even after being stuck on hold for more than a half an hour, I was able to get CP breakfasts no later than 8:10 on all four of our MK days. I'd say as long as we make those calls on the 90 day mark, early, we don't have to worry about it being booked full.

Of course, Disney could put an end to this easily by requiring a CC, and charging full price for any booking, no show or otherwise.

 

[LJD2143]

We had 8:05am reservations for CP one year.

The gate CM did not verify our reservation.

I was SO excited at the possibility of having a clear shot of the castle - but it sure didn't turn out that way. Although the gates were not yet open to the public, there were masses of people with CP and CRT reservations. I didn't even get that clear castle shot. We just ended up waiting in line at the podium. Definitely not the "empty park feel" I was hoping for!

 

[mom2rtk]

We had 8:05am reservations for CP one year.

The gate CM did not verify our reservation.

I was SO excited at the possibility of having a clear shot of the castle - but it sure didn't turn out that way. Although the gates were not yet open to the public, there were masses of people with CP and CRT reservations. I didn't even get that clear castle shot. We just ended up waiting in line at the podium. Definitely not the "empty park feel" I was hoping for!

Or perhaps it was full of people sneaking in the gate without and ADR also wanting that "empty park" photo...... (you'll have to read the entire thread to get to that discussion...)

I still contend that you should decide your priority with early entry ADR's. If you want to be done by rope drop, you'll need to be near the front of the line so you can be first to the podium to get in with no wait. Stop for photos and you WILL end up in that first rush of people.

If your priority is to get empty park photos, then make 8:30 adr's and go in AFTER that first rush of people. You won't be done for rope drop, but you'll enjoy the photos more.

 

[Tomh]

I think that is likely true, if you have the earliest reservation for breakfast (which is 8:05 for CP), then the park will not be empty at opening time. You can wait the crowd out just a bit, and get the pictures, but then you aren't going to be the first ones in the restaurant, and might not make rope drop. We got a few pictures, not empty, but there were only a couple of people in them, which was good enough for me. We then made our way to the Podium, and were probably seated about 8:15 or so. We did miss the rope drop, but only by perhaps 10 minutes or so. We still managed to get plenty done during the day, and were not unhappy with the results. I'm sure that waiting a bit longer would have afforded us pictures with no one in the background, and getting to the podium a bit quicker would have gotten us done with breakfast in time to make rope drop, but I think ours was a decent enough compromise.

 

[LuvMy3Monkeys]

Sorry someone was rude to you about it, when you innocently posted.

You have to have a thick skin here at times because of the way people can be. I got flamed myself from someone recently who would not let it go and it can get ridiculous.

So let me stop right here... please don't post to this poor person unless you are responding to their comment in a constructive way. We don't need oodles of posts on how you think they are up to something or are a bad person. It kills me when someone is skewered for being curious.

Thank you. Obviously some people are so hard-pressed to find a wrong-doer in the crowd that they will settle on someone who mentions other peoples' wrong-doings.

I was more curious for the fact that I get frustrated with people who try to bend the rules that I was actually expecting to hear about how Disney ensures that only us guests with actual ressies get entry at the appropriate time.

Unfortunately, people seem to want to jump the gun and make assumptions and start pointing fingers. Well, to those who want to, you can keep on pointing... right over to ASMo... where I'll be sleeping... because I'm too lazy to get up for no other purpose than to get in to a park 15 minutes early.

Our next trip is in September, staying 14 nights, and 18 table service ressies. 10 of which are breakfasts...
8 of which are in parks...
7 of which are at or before opening time for said park...

Now, you tell me... if I have to be up at the a**crack on dawn during half of our trip... why would I want to wake up again on a day w/o an early ADR just to see the same thing I saw the day before... and the day before... and the day before??

Come on people... ask before you flame. You might just learn something

By the way, Wendy, where in Ohio? We're in Canton.