Heard some thing very surprising from a TA this evening.

[eliza61]

So my family decided to have a huge, and I mean huge family reunion in Disney world next August. So far 20 people are confirmed but my house and a cousins are the only ones who have been before. In order to make things a lot easier (and to save my sanity) we hired a TA.

Before today I thought she was great. We had 3 "pre planning" meetings where she has been explaining 'Disney" things. ADR's, Fast passes, different resort levels, common acrynonms.

Tonight she was going over ADR's and a cousin mentioned how hard it would be to decide 180 days out where to eat. no biggie, that's a common complaint.

I thought Shelia would go into how having adr's is really necessary and easy but instead.......

TA said she advises her clients to make "multiple" adr's She says she simply calls the next day and keeps the adr's at least 45 minutes apart and never has a problem. I raised my hand and just said " I think Disney is cracking down on this practice" but she said "Sorry, with the ddp and free dining I have to insure my clients can get into a TS when they want to eat". So she recommended on the MK day making 3 dinner ADR's at 3 differnent places. for example say 5 pm at Tonys, 6pm at Crystal palace and 7 pm at the plaza.

I was floored.

 

[brenalexacamp]

I don't think you can do that- the computer "knows" when you type your email address in- it will actually come up and remind you that you have another reservation- even a few hours apart. I'd definitely make your ressies 180 days out if you could. I can understand the ta wanting to give her clients as much as she can but realistically, sometimes even at 180 days out we don't get a ressie we wanted.

 

[FireDancer]

I don't think you can do that- the computer "knows" when you type your email address in- it will actually come up and remind you that you have another reservation- even a few hours apart. I'd definitely make your ressies 180 days out if you could. I can understand the ta wanting to give her clients as much as she can but realistically, sometimes even at 180 days out we don't get a ressie we wanted.

That is assuming you use the same email address though. I have 4 personal email addresses and off the top of my head 5 at work. That is 9 reservations I can make per "seating".

I think it is kind of crappy but at the same time understand why she feels she has to do it. I find it ridiculous to make it so guests have to know where they want to eat 180 days out (often without even knowing park hours) and then if they don't they are stuck many times. Free dinning, which I pray they stop offering soon, only makes it worse IMO.

 

[Nadjalu]

Wow, that is terrible. Personally I would pull her aside and explain that she may want to rethink that practice. What once was is now going by the way side and if she continues she will lose clients and business as people's adrs will be cancelled.

Just horrible, thank goodness you can help your family not loose theirs, but think of the other people who rely on her.

Shameful!

 

[carrie1626]

That's a practice WDW should be advising all TA to immediately STOP or risk being affiliated.

How outrageous to take ADR's from another "guest".

comments from pp:
AGREE 180(+) is ridiculous w/o the park hrs available at the same time. I think 90 days out would be perfectly acceptable.
DISAGREE about FD I loved it and probably won't do it again Yes, I said probably won't.
BUT...I think giving familes more than one option for their WDW vacation and discount offerings is great

 

[princssdisnygina]

I don't think you can do that- the computer "knows" when you type your email address in- it will actually come up and remind you that you have another reservation- even a few hours apart. I'd definitely make your ressies 180 days out if you could. I can understand the ta wanting to give her clients as much as she can but realistically, sometimes even at 180 days out we don't get a ressie we wanted.

Yes, it does remind you that you have a ressie around the same time but it does give you the option to keep them both.

HOWEVER.... I would hope she wouldn't even CONSIDER that with a group of 20+ people! That is a lot of ressies taken away from other people!

She is your TA... you tell her what you want! Give her one restaurant only then make sure she gives you the conf #'s so if she does do that... you can cancel the ones you don't want!
Heck... if she doesn't want to do that... let me know! I would be happy to be your TA... FOR FREE!! I love doing stuff like that and I know about Grand Gatherings too!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

 

[MickeyNicki]

Hmmm..I was doing online dining ressies about 2 months ago and I had a 5:30 ressie for Narcoossee's and I tried to book a 7:50 pm ressie for Narcoosee's and it told me I had to cancel the earlier one first

Same thing for Cape May Clambake, I had an 8pm and tried to book at 5:35, Boma breakfast, I had a 10:35 and tried to book an 8:30am

Each time I had to cancel the reservation to make the new reservation

Maybe it was because it was the same restaurant?

 

[canopynut66]

So my family decided to have a huge, and I mean huge family reunion in Disney world next August. So far 20 people are confirmed but my house and a cousins are the only ones who have been before. In order to make things a lot easier (and to save my sanity) we hired a TA.

Before today I thought she was great. We had 3 "pre planning" meetings where she has been explaining 'Disney" things. ADR's, Fast passes, different resort levels, common acrynonms.

Tonight she was going over ADR's and a cousin mentioned how hard it would be to decide 180 days out where to eat. no biggie, that's a common complaint.

I thought Shelia would go into how having adr's is really necessary and easy but instead.......

TA said she advises her clients to make "multiple" adr's She says she simply calls the next day and keeps the adr's at least 45 minutes apart and never has a problem. I raised my hand and just said " I think Disney is cracking down on this practice" but she said "Sorry, with the ddp and free dining I have to insure my clients can get into a TS when they want to eat". So she recommended on the MK day making 3 dinner ADR's at 3 differnent places. for example say 5 pm at Tonys, 6pm at Crystal palace and 7 pm at the plaza.

I was floored.

Not sure either if you can do that as I accidently had two at different places for within the same hour and on line caught that. but do you really want to trust someone that would do that? really that is taking those ressies away from people who do want them.your spending a lot of money for 20 people gong on this trip. Hope your using some TA off Mousesavers.com or allears.net. but really would be as easy to do your self takes time with that many people but then you know what is what and what is not. ressies not that hard to make ONCE decided where you want to go and write them down and get online or the phone to a CM. Good luck

 

[kmk1180]

So my family decided to have a huge, and I mean huge family reunion in Disney world next August. So far 20 people are confirmed but my house and a cousins are the only ones who have been before. In order to make things a lot easier (and to save my sanity) we hired a TA.

Before today I thought she was great. We had 3 "pre planning" meetings where she has been explaining 'Disney" things. ADR's, Fast passes, different resort levels, common acrynonms.

Tonight she was going over ADR's and a cousin mentioned how hard it would be to decide 180 days out where to eat. no biggie, that's a common complaint.

I thought Shelia would go into how having adr's is really necessary and easy but instead.......

TA said she advises her clients to make "multiple" adr's She says she simply calls the next day and keeps the adr's at least 45 minutes apart and never has a problem. I raised my hand and just said " I think Disney is cracking down on this practice" but she said "Sorry, with the ddp and free dining I have to insure my clients can get into a TS when they want to eat". So she recommended on the MK day making 3 dinner ADR's at 3 differnent places. for example say 5 pm at Tonys, 6pm at Crystal palace and 7 pm at the plaza.

I was floored.

that is why I think Disney needs to start putting a deposit on ADR's
show up, and it's taken off the cost of your bill.
cancel without making a different one.. your out of luck
For most people that would work.
$10 deposit no big deal.
Change your mind and dine somewhere else, you still don't lose it.
But just canceling or double/triple booking, it'll cost you.
That would stop Travel agents from doing this, it would cost them too much money.

 

[Joan1]

I totally agree that it is not a good practice for the TA. Personally I would let the owner of where she works know unless that is common practice for them

My TA wouldn't make more than one for the same time frame. She said that Disney asked their agency not to make multiple ADR's for their clients and they are abiding by the request.

When they updated the dining reservation system last it does let you know when you have different ADR's that overlap

 

[cjsm&d]

I don't think you can do that- the computer "knows" when you type your email address in- it will actually come up and remind you that you have another reservation- even a few hours apart. I'd definitely make your ressies 180 days out if you could. I can understand the ta wanting to give her clients as much as she can but realistically, sometimes even at 180 days out we don't get a ressie we wanted.

She's a TA who uses her TA address. No way for Disney to know she's making these ADR's for the same people.

Sucks for those of us who miss out, but as she probably feels she needs to keep her clients happy.

 

[Aggiegrl]

I honestly would switch my reservation to another TA. To me this person's actions are unethical and I prefer not to give my business to people like that.

 

[Princess Sleepy]

That's a practice WDW should be advising all TA to immediately STOP or risk being affiliated.

How outrageous to take ADR's from another "guest".

comments from pp:
AGREE 180(+) is ridiculous w/o the park hrs available at the same time. I think 90 days out would be perfectly acceptable.
DISAGREE about FD I loved it and probably won't do it again Yes, I said probably won't.
BUT...I think giving familes more than one option for their WDW vacation and discount offerings is great

Why wouldn't you do it again?

 

[eliza61]

I honestly would switch my reservation to another TA. To me this person's actions are unethical and I prefer not to give my business to people like that.

The problem is that most people don't consider it all that unethical. They don't read the dis It's like pool hoppers, people who say "well I'm not really causing problems".

2nd problem I'm running into is that when it's your first time you really have no idea how disney works. I'm having a dickens of a time simply convincing people that simply walking up won't work. Also combine that with most of us are NY'ers, we're used to make reservations at a restaurant or two and not showing up. rude as that may sound.


We do have 4 grand gathering events plan so we don't plan on eating meals 20 people plus. I just am really worried that there will be pockets of cousins who will make 3 or 4 reservations to "hedge" their bets. I just wish she hadn't even mentioned doing it.

 

[msjprincess]

that is why I think Disney needs to start putting a deposit on ADR's
show up, and it's taken off the cost of your bill.
cancel without making a different one.. your out of luck
For most people that would work.
$10 deposit no big deal.
Change your mind and dine somewhere else, you still don't lose it.
But just canceling or double/triple booking, it'll cost you.
That would stop Travel agents from doing this, it would cost them too much money.

So if I make a reservation for dinner and then decide I want a counter service meal instead I would lose my deposit?

 

[dunbarfamily]

I honestly would switch my reservation to another TA. To me this person's actions are unethical and I prefer not to give my business to people like that.

You hit the nail on the head.

 

[tinkerbelle8878]

I doubt this is the only travel agent to do this. And I'm wondering if because it is a TA that the same issues with email addresses that a non TA faces are still applicable. For argument's sake, a TA, using a company email address could be booking many different families at different times at different places. So in that case, I'm sure Disney has provisions in place.

I can't imagine them requiring 20 different accounts for a TA to use for 20 different families.

That being said, I think the entire 180 days to make a ADR is a little insane. I think the entire system should be done away with and it should be a first come, first serve like any other restaurant. Only large parties should have to pre book long in advance. The rest should be day of like it used to be. Walkups welcome. Its terrible to think that someone has to plot out every meal they may want to eat so far in advance.

 

[MODisneyfan]

If she was a good TA she would already know exactly what he clients want and make those ressie 180 days out with out having to make 3 in the same evening. I am a TA and there is not way that I would do that. I always talk to my clients and make sure that we talk about dinning as soon as possible!

 

[eliza61]

If she was a good TA she would already know exactly what he clients want and make those ressie 180 days out with out having to make 3 in the same evening. I am a TA and there is not way that I would do that. I always talk to my clients and make sure that we talk about dinning as soon as possible!

Gotta disagree with this one. How would you know where we wanted to eat, if we don't know? that's the problem in a nutshell. You can make recommendations on where to eat but I gotta tell you I never ever know 3 months ahead where I want to eat. So what would you do? tell me just to pick one and live with it? Now multiply that by 10

Which is pretty much the reason I rarely make adrs. but when I do, I also don't care if I don't make it to the restaurant. call me selfish but this is the system I have to work with. I can make 7 adr's for a 7 night stay and it's a good bet I won't feel like eating at that particular place or time for 4 of them. I'm not about to stop and try to call disney dining to cancel.

The reunion is for 6 days and we're only planning for "togetherness" for 3 of those days.