Interesting because I was told it was setup differently for 3 and 4 party groups. That is why you get different times when try to do a 3 or 4 person reservation. My family has 3 so I was curious.
Go ahead and judge. I have a family of 3 and have to live with the system too. I choose to follow the rules even if it means I don't get all my ADRs. Rules, even if flawed, are there for a reason.
In actuality, it is a known issue in the reservation system having to do with odd numbers. Reservations for one extra while keeping the same size table are valid and a common practice by both self-bookers as well as CMs. Not all CMs are aware that it's a flaw in the system and booking for the +1 is a valid option, but several are. (In fact, it was a CM that told me to book for 2 on my solo trip due to this bug. I doubt there's many 1 person tables that would fall under the "different setup" rationale).
Now, not knocking you (though you do come off a bit antagonistic tbh), just the CM that told you the false information. Any table that seats 4 should be open for a party of 3. Just like any table that seats 2 should be open for a party of 1, and so on. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the system (although, it's really easy to change it....). There are a few tables set up for 3 (typically 4-tops set against a wall), but it's far from the norm. There are no (to my knowledge) tables set up for the other odd numbers though. Since the issue persists with any odd number, it's unlikely that it's actually due to the setup.
Now, it could be a limitation based on how much they want to pass through, but that'd be a rather sketchy thing to do for the "odd numbered" families. (Although, Disney does like their families of 4 now don't they
).
Edit:
Wow, talk about fail. I read the first page and responded, and didn't realize it was up to 3 pages! Well, um, if you've already said something else to this same tune, I apologize
.
Ok, read through the rest hehe. I R Gud at Reeding!
mdc2745 said:
My preference to only allowing resort guest to make the ADRs doesn't come from simply wanting to keep non-resort guests out. I just see tying the ADRs to resort reservations as possibly the best way to prevent people from at 180 days out making ADRs for say, Le Cellieir, Ohana, Chef Mickey's (and add a couple more of the more popular restaurants) for each place for every night of their stay with the thinking they'll sort out which restaurant they'll go to on each night as their trip gets closer. At which point, maybe they cancel the extra ADRs, maybe they don't. So my motivation is to eliminate practices like this, not to keep non-resort guests or friends/family of guest out. If there are better ways to eliminate those types of practices, I'd be all for it.
Another point to think about. Early July is 180 days before early January. Packages can't be booked until early- to mid-August. These people planning to book onsite, but simply unable to yet, will also be left out of that plan.
The system in place is far from perfect, but it's really the best solution considering all sides. Could the dates be tweaked a bit? Perhaps. For example allowing 190day before date of dining (the current glitch for example) for on-site and 180 before date of dining for off-site (the current real method for off-site) could work. I don't think much more of a spread than that would work out well though. This has been discussed several times before, some heated, some not-so-much, but it always ends up that there really isn't another plausible solution. Even credit card holds on all of them wouldn't work for several reasons (and much less limiting the amount of meals reserved at any given time).
So I have a family of 4, but my youngest will be 10 months when we go to disney (next month) and isn't much of an eater yet. When we called to order our tickets and make resort reservations that cast member told us that we needed to make reservations for 4 anyway, but if they charge based on that and my baby isn't eating, will I be charged anyway. Should I only be saying 3 if one if an infant?
They won't charge for the infant. Reservations are by pure number of people, the actual bill will take into account the little one being under 3.
I'd like Disney to fix things but I really don't think they feel they need to. Don't let Disney see you'd be willing to pay, you know they could see another way to make money. 
