How will Disney handle BOG reservations after the Prix Fixe change?

[MIAMouseketeer]

I think it's safe to say we all are aware of the changes to the BOG dinner menu starting in July. But I think most of us are in the minority. I've seen in many FB groups and other forums of people making reservations just to meet the Beast. I have a friend who made a reservation for November for dinner and only intends to order dessert and drinks so her daughter can meet the Beast. When I told her that is no longer possible, she insisted she was doing it anyway. She said, "what can they do about it?"

So this got me thinking, how will Disney handle these reservations? Given that I'm seeing that reservations at BOG are still hard to come by at 180 days leads me to believe that many of these are "cupcake" reservations.

 

[Moliphino]

I'm sure if it starts becoming an issue Disney will start making it prepaid, like CRT. But you won't be able to just order drinks and dessert, as there will be no dessert menu.

I'd imagine it will work like AYCTE meals, where everyone will be charged no matter what.

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

I'm sure if it starts becoming an issue Disney will start making it prepaid, like CRT. But you won't be able to just order drinks and dessert, as there will be no dessert menu.

I'd imagine it will work like AYCTE meals, where everyone will be charged no matter what.

Oh I know there's no dessert menu. Was just curious as to how they will handle these guests when it happens. Personally I was surprised they didn't make it pre-paid like CRT when it was first announced.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

They will charge each guest the fixed price, just like they do at all fixed price meals.

 

[HopperFan]

There is virtually no availability and I can not believe that based on new pricing/credit structure. We all know Disney doesn't do what would seem normal, and they do like to wait until the last minute for notifications for changes. But if it were my call ... in July everyone who has a reservation for the new meal will get an email explaining the new meal, the price, the menu and how it will be handled. This will give those folks a final heads up and they can cancel if they want. Any new reservations should have a pop up come up to notify guests before they book, I haven't gotten a time to come up to know if it does. And if it becomes a problem, they can pre-pay like CRT.

 

[disneyvoice]

It will be no different than any other fixed priced restaurant at WDW. If she only wants to get drinks and eat dessert that is her choice but they aren't going to discount the price because she isn't eating anything else. Does your friend not understand that it will now be fixed price when you goes?

 

[Moliphino]

There is virtually no availability and I can not believe that based on new pricing/credit structure. We all know Disney doesn't do what would seem normal, and they do like to wait until the last minute for notifications for changes. But if it were my call ... in July everyone who has a reservation for the new meal will get an email explaining the new meal, the price, the menu and how it will be handled. This will give those folks a final heads up and they can cancel if they want. Any new reservations should have a pop up come up to notify guests before they book, I haven't gotten a time to come up to know if it does. And if it becomes a problem, they can pre-pay like CRT.

The restaurant page on the Disney website has a notice in red "Beginning Friday, July 27, 2018, Be Our Guest Restaurant will introduce an enhanced dinner experience—with a prix fixe, 3-course menu. À la carte dinner options will be offered through Thursday, July 26, 2018." It's right next to where you can look for availability. The note is there on MDE, but towards the bottom of the page and easier to miss.

 

[HopperFan]

It will be no different than any other fixed priced restaurant at WDW. If she only wants to get drinks and eat dessert that is her choice but they aren't going to discount the price because she isn't eating anything else. Does your friend not understand that it will now be fixed price when you goes?

I think the problem Disney has here is ....
- Breakfast was announced Prix Fixe but they never enforced it so guests had the ability to eat how they want
- They are changing the meal structure of an existing restaurant where guests had ability to eat how they want

Hopefully people can understand that there is one menu, with one price and you will pay that no matter what ... but I will bet most holding reservations right now have no idea there will be a change. Even though there is a little blurb on front page ... many will just look at the dinner menu - the ONLY dinner menu showing and book. They need to fix the drop down menu to show Current Menu and Menu After July 26th so it is very clear what the costs are.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

The restaurant page on the Disney website has a notice in red "Beginning Friday, July 27, 2018, Be Our Guest Restaurant will introduce an enhanced dinner experience—with a prix fixe, 3-course menu. À la carte dinner options will be offered through Thursday, July 26, 2018." It's right next to where you can look for availability. The note is there on MDE, but towards the bottom of the page and easier to miss.

That wasn’t there when I booked for July 27. I thought it was strange that July 27 wasn’t available when my 180+ window opened up, but I assumed Disney was just slow loading the times. A few weeks later it opened up. I made the reservation without ever knowing of the menu change. I only learned of it from reading this board. I would have known sooner if I’d been paying attention to this board last winter, but that’s what I get for working too hard! lol

 

[mom2rtk]

I assume they will tell every guest checking in that they will be charged. The disappointment will happen at the check-in desk.

 

[HopperFan]

The restaurant page on the Disney website has a notice in red "Beginning Friday, July 27, 2018, Be Our Guest Restaurant will introduce an enhanced dinner experience—with a prix fixe, 3-course menu. À la carte dinner options will be offered through Thursday, July 26, 2018." It's right next to where you can look for availability. The note is there on MDE, but towards the bottom of the page and easier to miss.

VERY easy to miss if you never go to that specific page .... many don't, not necessary to see that page to book.

You can book all your meals by using the Disney Dining Page (which is basically what you see on the app as well) and that way you can compare all your options available for your date/location. This is how I book when I'm looking to get all my meals for a trip. I usually only go to the individual restaurant page when I am trying to change an existing ADR to that restaurant.


OKAY >>>>>>> just got through.

I went to the Disney Dining Page and just put in my date, my number and looking for dinner.
BOG was listed with three times open.
I clicked a time.
Took me direct to reservation page.
Took me to reservation (MNSSHP dining with no warning, not good).
Took me to finalize payment (no warning about party or menu change).
All set, other than it calling it MNSSHP-BOG Restaurant, no warnings.

My email ...
NO bold mention of me having to have Party tickets
Said if on DDP, it will be 2 Entitlements
Scroll down and it's all the same special requests, cc guarantee, cancellation policy
Buried deep in restrictions and requirements; if applicable Hard Party tickets ....
Booking info, special meals, online reservations, phone reservations, at the restaurant
Lots to roll through

At NO POINT in the entire process was I notified of a clear cut (with date) change in the pricing structure, change in the menu, shift to prix fixe and the fact that we can't just order dessert like folks have been doing for years. If I were an average guest booking, I would assume it is the same menu, process and business as usual for my October reservation.

This is a major change, and it absolutely should be flashed to you on EVERY page, on your final reservation page and in your email. #fail

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I know enough about the DIS to know to get my popcorn bucket now while we deal with the aftermath of this decision...

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I think it's safe to say we all are aware of the changes to the BOG dinner menu starting in July. But I think most of us are in the minority. I've seen in many FB groups and other forums of people making reservations just to meet the Beast. I have a friend who made a reservation for November for dinner and only intends to order dessert and drinks so her daughter can meet the Beast. When I told her that is no longer possible, she insisted she was doing it anyway. She said, "what can they do about it?"

So this got me thinking, how will Disney handle these reservations? Given that I'm seeing that reservations at BOG are still hard to come by at 180 days leads me to believe that many of these are "cupcake" reservations.

What they will do about it is charge guests the full prix-fixe dinner price for their cupcake. Unfortunately, as HopperFan points out, Disney does not clarify things very well on its website and I think the CM's at BOG are in for a lot of angry guests when this switch-over occurs.

VERY easy to miss if you never go to that page .... many don't, not necessary to see that page to book.

You can book all your meals by using the Disney Dining Page (which is basically what you see on the app as well) and that way you can compare all your options available for your date/location. This is how I book when I'm looking to get all my meals for a trip. I usually only go to the individual restaurant page when I am trying to change an existing ADR to that restaurant.


OKAY >>>>>>> just got through.

I went to the Disney Dining Page and just put in my date, my number and looking for dinner.
BOG was listed with three times open.
I clicked a time.
Took me direct to reservation page.
Took me to reservation (MNSSHP dining with no warning, not good).
Took me to finalize payment (no warning about party or menu change).
All set, other than it calling it MNSSHP-BOG Restaurant, no warnings.

My email ...
NO bold mention of me having to have Party tickets
Said if on DDP, it will be 2 Entitlements
Scroll down and it's all the same special requests, cc guarantee, cancellation policy
Buried deep in restrictions and requirements; if applicable Hard Party tickets ....
Booking info, special meals, online reservations, phone reservations, at the restaurant
Lots to roll through

At NO POINT in the entire process was I notified of a clear cut (with date) change in the pricing structure, change in the menu, shift to prix fixe and the fact that we can't just order dessert like folks have been doing for years. If I were an average guest booking, I would assume it is the same menu, process and business as usual for my October reservation.

This is a major change, and it absolutely should be flashed to you on EVERY page, on your final reservation page and in your email. #fail

I just did an experiment to see if I could find BOG dinner availability on a MNSSHP night and to see what type of disclaimers, terms and conditions I would find. When I did the search, it was very clear I was making an ADR during a party and would need a party ticket to eat, however, when reading through the terms and conditions, it stated, if applicable, this was a 1 TS meal!!! This was an ADR for 8/28! WDW really needs to get their website together.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

in July everyone who has a reservation for the new meal will get an email explaining the new meal, the price, the menu and how it will be handled. This will give those folks a final heads up and they can cancel if they want.

They ABSOLUTELY should do this. They probably won't...but they should. I feel bad for the poor CMs who will have to deal with people showing up with no clue about the change. Gonna be ugly.

 

[HopperFan]

I just did an experiment to see if I could find BOG dinner availability on a MNSSHP night and to see what type of disclaimers, terms and conditions I would find. When I did the search, it was very clear I was making an ADR during a party and would need a party ticket to eat, however, when reading through the terms and conditions, it stated, if applicable, this was a 1 TS meal!!! This was an ADR for 8/28! WDW really needs to get their website together.

That is craziness ..... the only thing that came up for me was on the reservation page the name of the restaurant was "Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party - Be Our Guest" ......... it never said "warning you need tickets" or it's during a ticketed or private event. It wasn't even via a MNSSHP Dining Page like they did last couple of years. This was direct through the front dining page. I was even looking for warnings of all kinds ... I imagine the average guest is not looking for that stuff just excited to get a reservation via the regular channel.

And you got 1 entitlement, mine was clearly 2. We just both experimented within what, 30 minutes, and had two different experiences. Like HOW? How is their software written so badly that can happen?

They ABSOLUTELY should do this. They probably won't...but they should. I feel bad for the poor CMs who will have to deal with people showing up with no clue about the change. Gonna be ugly.

Sadly Disney leaves too many things for the front line CMs to deal with ... rather than do it up front.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I have a friend who made a reservation for November for dinner and only intends to order dessert and drinks so her daughter can meet the Beast. When I told her that is no longer possible, she insisted she was doing it anyway. She said, "what can they do about it?".

I would love to witness this.

 

[Shelleyfs]

I feel bad for the CMs at the check in desk. They are gonna get it from really unhappy guests!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

That is craziness ..... the only thing that came up for me was on the reservation page the name of the restaurant was "Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party - Be Our Guest" ......... it never said "warning you need tickets" or it's during a ticketed or private event. It wasn't even via a MNSSHP Dining Page like they did last couple of years. This was direct through the front dining page. I was even looking for warnings of all kinds ... I imagine the average guest is not looking for that stuff just excited to get a reservation via the regular channel.

And you got 1 entitlement, mine was clearly 2. We just both experimented within what, 30 minutes, and had two different experiences. Like HOW? How is their software written so badly that can happen?




Sadly Disney leaves too many things for the front line CMs to deal with ... rather than do it up front.

Yes, I agree. When I pulled up the main dining page it stated, "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party Dining", and then had CP, BOG and CRT listed with times and then it stated you needed a ticket in the fine print, so, I guess they made it fairly clear, but you really need to read those terms and conditions. I just searched the same date again (8/28) and it still states it's a 1 TS meal . . . . I'd be right angry if I had the DDP and booked this right now only to find they would charge me 2 TS at the restaurant.

 

[Pumbaa_]

What will happen is guests will get their menu. See it is prix fixed and have a decision to make. Stay and eat at a signature meal w set price or get up and leave

At some point, there will be disappointed or mad guests. They will still have 2 choices

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

It will be no different than any other fixed priced restaurant at WDW. If she only wants to get drinks and eat dessert that is her choice but they aren't going to discount the price because she isn't eating anything else. Does your friend not understand that it will now be fixed price when you goes?

She's read on forums about "all you need to order is a cupcake to meet the Beast". She's like, well if they make me order prix fixe, then we just won't go. I've tried to explain to her that 1. she will likely get charged $10/pp for cancelling late and 2. she is taking the spot from someone who truly wants the reservation. She doesn't care. I've given up because it makes me angry. We are ones who love Be Our Guest and it took us 5 trips and 14 months to be able to get a reservation for dinner.