First-hand experiences with new CC guarantee

[Missyrose]

Hi all,
We were in Disney March 6-10 and ate at several of the restaurants that require credit card guarantees. I just wanted to share some of the info I got from talking to hostesses and/or restaurant managers while I was there. I spoke to CMs at Cape May, Le Cellier and 'Ohana and was told:

*The bugs were worked out of the system (early reports had some people being charged no-show fees even if they were just late to their ADR) and the system now charges the no-show fees at midnight each night.

*There is no no-show charge for partial parties (i.e. if your ADR is for 6 and MIL decides she's too tired to go to dinner, happened to us at Cape May and there was no problem).

*The cancellation policy is a full day before the ADR. So if you want to cancel dinner on Tuesday, you better do it before the close of business on Sunday.

All of these things came from at least two different CMs, sometimes three. I know the flow of Disney info always is dependent on who you speak with. But getting confirmation from several different restaurants made me feel pretty good about the info I received. I hope this helps those planning your ADRs (25 days until I can make my ADRs for October! ) Happy planning!

 

[CajunMomof3]

Thanks for this info!
I have 4 ADRs like this coming up, and I was a bit concerned!

 

[Paradise18]

Thanks for posting. I was curious about the partial no show policy as we had to book our ADRs before we knew for sure if one person in our group was definitely going or not.

 

[graceesmom]

Thanks for the first hand information.

 

[jlk806]

I think that is fair to not charge a no-show fee as long as part of the party shows up. At least they are making money off of those who did show up..

 

[disneyred]

*The cancellation policy is a full day before the ADR. So if you want to cancel dinner on Tuesday, you better do it before the close of business on Sunday.

If I cancel on Monday for tuesday Dessie it's too late to get back my deposit?

 

[Missyrose]

If I cancel on Monday for tuesday Dessie it's too late to get back my deposit?

That is correct, if you cancel a Tuesday meal on Monday, they will charge you the $10 per person. If you need to cancel that Tuesday meal, you need to do it on Sunday to avoid the penalty.

 

[purple figment]

I found this set of Dining FAQs on the Disney site. The next to the last question confirms the info regarding partial parties, but the very last question has different info on the cancellation deadline.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/dining/#/subCategory6

 

[Missyrose]

I found this set of Dining FAQs on the Disney site. The next to the last question confirms the info regarding partial parties, but the very last question has different info on the cancellation deadline.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/dining/#/subCategory6

Ugh, gotta love Disney and their inability to have solid information across the board. I was told at Le Cellier and 'Ohana that it was a full business day before, whether that is the actual company policy we'll never know until someone tests it and reports back.

 

[TDC Nala]

All the info we have says it is a full day before. Not the first time they've put the wrong info on the website, so I'd go with the full day.

 

[cigar95]

This is interesting - Disney has actually put it *in writing* on their own public web site that it's *not* a full day requirement. I would say this has to trump the "full day" policy that they put in writing in a private email. (All these reports of verbal explanations really don't carry much weight (formally) because there's no way to prove what was said.) This gives anyone grounds to appeal if they're charged for cancelling a Friday reservation on Thursday morning.

It doesn't mean that the charge won't be made for a day-before cancellation, but one can almost certainly get it reversed if it happens. All you'd need to say is "I was just going by what you told me on your own web site." Essentially saying "The problem is yours - you guys work it out amongst yourselves."

 

[aubriee]

Hi all,
We were in Disney March 6-10 and ate at several of the restaurants that require credit card guarantees. I just wanted to share some of the info I got from talking to hostesses and/or restaurant managers while I was there. I spoke to CMs at Cape May, Le Cellier and 'Ohana and was told:

*There is no no-show charge for partial parties (i.e. if your ADR is for 6 and MIL decides she's too tired to go to dinner, happened to us at Cape May and there was no problem).
(25 days until I can make my ADRs for October! ) Happy planning!

Glad to hear this. Prior to the new policy, if you showed up one person short, you were charged for that one person for ADRs that required a cc guarantee. I know we were one year at Akershus when we showed up one person short. I was sick in the room and assumed that as long as our party showed up, we wouldn't be charged the no show fee, but we were. Of course the only ADRs back then that required the CC guarantee were Akershus, CRT, Fantasmic pkg, and the dinner shows.

 

[Missyrose]

Glad to hear this. Prior to the new policy, if you showed up one person short, you were charged for that one person for ADRs that required a cc guarantee. I know we were one year at Akershus when we showed up one person short. I was sick in the room and assumed that as long as our party showed up, we wouldn't be charged the no show fee, but we were. Of course the only ADRs back then that required the CC guarantee were Akershus, CRT, Fantasmic pkg, and the dinner shows.

Just to clarify, I don't think the new policy of not charging when members of your party are missing applies to the prepaid meals, CRT and the like.

 

[keatonsmommy03]

My last trip to the world was 2/8-2/14 and had ressies for many different dates through the end of march. My mom kept changing her mind if she was going or not. The middle of Jan finally locked in our dates and it was just me and dd. So I called the hotline several times to check for fantasmic and pricing. The last time I called I told the woman to cancel all ressies after the 14th as we would not be there. Thought everything was done, but then I was looking over my bank statement a couple of weeks ago and I had two seperate 20 charges. I called and they took about two hours to research what actual ressie it was the triggered those charges. I guess those to were under a different last name (tho they could not tell me what last name, my guess is either they misspelled it or it was a typo) so when I canceled back in mid Jan they were not able to see all of them due to the name error. Took about 3-4 days to get refund.

 

[jagafen]

I found this set of Dining FAQs on the Disney site. The next to the last question confirms the info regarding partial parties, but the very last question has different info on the cancellation deadline.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/dining/#/subCategory6

Thanks Purple PIgment!!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Great info! Thanks Missy!

 

[kt_mom]

I canceled two character breakfasts the night before the ADR and was not charged a no show fee at all on either of them so its definitely not a full business day. Its not even an actual 24 hours. Both times DD decided she wanted to do something different and I decided to just suck it up and lose the $20 on each ADR but I did cancel so the restaurant would know they had the available table. Both times it was about 9pm the night before the ADR.

 

[chimilady]

That is correct, if you cancel a Tuesday meal on Monday, they will charge you the $10 per person. If you need to cancel that Tuesday meal, you need to do it on Sunday to avoid the penalty.

According to my friend who works sometimes in the Dining Reservations Center, it is only one day, so you can cancel Tuesday for a ressie on Wednesday without being charged.

 

[AuroraRose]

Just wanted to jump in with our experience last week- We had a reservation at Le Cellier and one of our party member's ended up feeling sick that night so we had to cancel our reservation. It was probably an hour before we were supposed to be there, and when we called the dining line, they asked if we wanted to reschedule for the next night, which we did. My DH asked if we would be charged since we had to cancel, and they said that since we were rescheduling it, we wouldn't be charged. If we went minus the person, we wouldn't be charged either, it was just if we decided not to show up all together that we would get charged. Figured it might be useful to know, just in case.