New credit card guarantees. Restaurant list, policy & common questions in 1st post

[DisneyFamily123]

I made a reservation for a Candlelight Processional package for 3 people, but now it will only be two. In the past, we would just show up and say we were two or however many if someone opted out for a meal. Do you think I will have a problem calling to modify this reservation? There aren't any left for that night, so, I don't want to lose it.

Call dining reservations. I did just that.... I couldn't get a reservation for 3, but there was one for 4.... I reserved it online.... then called dining reservations... they changed it to 3 and I verified that my reservation printed from the Disney web site said 3 people.

 

[Marshay]

So I started playing around with my ADRs for my upcoming January trip and noticed this writing at the bottom of the Disney Dining Reservations page:

"Major credit card guarantee is required for some reservations. Reservations must be cancelled at least 48 hours in advance or a cancellation charge may be incurred. "


Now this just throws another kink in the whole system. Either they haven't updated their website (which they are notorious for doing) or they are adding yet another interpretation of the cancellation plan.

I did bold the at least 48 hours part but if this is true, then we are really talking about cancelling ADRs more than 48 hour in advance!!!

And I thought the 24 hours in advance was ridiculous...

 

[Colleen27]

I'm pretty sure the 48 hours wording has always been there, and the reason it says 48 hours is because that's their longest/most restrictive cancellation policy. As far as I know it still applies only to dinner shows and other special experiences like the F! dinner package, chef's tables at V&A and a few of the signatures, etc.

The vague "one day" policy is still what is in the detailed reservation information for the restaurants on the new guarantee list.

 

[Maryrn11168]

Question about the charge for a missed ADR.

If we have a credit card held ADR, say Chef Mickey's, for 10 people and only 8 people show (say 1 child gets ill and 1 parent stays at the room with them) Is there a charge for the 2 people that do not show? On the 1st page od this thread it says that they do, but the cast member I spoke to told me that as long as some people show there is no charge.

Anyone have any experience with this??

Thanks!!

 

[Marshay]

I'm pretty sure the 48 hours wording has always been there, and the reason it says 48 hours is because that's their longest/most restrictive cancellation policy. As far as I know it still applies only to dinner shows and other special experiences like the F! dinner package, chef's tables at V&A and a few of the signatures, etc.

The vague "one day" policy is still what is in the detailed reservation information for the restaurants on the new guarantee list.

Ok, that must be what they are referring to. I was making a reservation for T-Rex, so it doesn't have the charge for no-shows...found it very surprising to see 48 hours...

 

[Missyrose]

Has anyone been successful in trying to cancel ADRs online since this policy went into effect? I've tried and only get error messages. The only successful online cancelations have been when I'm making a new ADR that conflicts with an old one.

 

[supersuperwendy]

What is the current status of partial parties showing up for an ADR? We are bringing extended family on our June trip so for most meals it's 11 of us and at 'Ohana it will be 14. I'm assuming right now as my 180 gets closer that all will go perfectly and everyone will be there right on time....but I don't have a crystal ball. What will happen if perhaps.... my brother who lives locally in Orlando can't make it last minute so it's just those of us staying onsite. Will I be charged $30 for him, his girlfriend and her daughter? This whole thing makes me nervous with so many people in our group and my credit card on the ADRs.

 

[Colleen27]

Has anyone been successful in trying to cancel ADRs online since this policy went into effect? I've tried and only get error messages. The only successful online cancelations have been when I'm making a new ADR that conflicts with an old one.

What browser are you using? I haven't tested it in a while but in the past you have been able to book using alternative browsers but can only cancel using Internet Explorer. I have cancelled reservations since the new policy but I default to IE when doing anything on the Disney website out of habit.

 

[Missyrose]

What browser are you using? I haven't tested it in a while but in the past you have been able to book using alternative browsers but can only cancel using Internet Explorer. I have cancelled reservations since the new policy but I default to IE when doing anything on the Disney website out of habit.

Oh, good call. I'd only tried using Chrome and Firefox. I don't have IE at home on my Mac, so I'll try to cancel using IE at work.

 

[aubriee]

Question about the charge for a missed ADR.

If we have a credit card held ADR, say Chef Mickey's, for 10 people and only 8 people show (say 1 child gets ill and 1 parent stays at the room with them) Is there a charge for the 2 people that do not show? On the 1st page od this thread it says that they do, but the cast member I spoke to told me that as long as some people show there is no charge.

Anyone have any experience with this??

Thanks!!

What is the current status of partial parties showing up for an ADR? We are bringing extended family on our June trip so for most meals it's 11 of us and at 'Ohana it will be 14. I'm assuming right now as my 180 gets closer that all will go perfectly and everyone will be there right on time....but I don't have a crystal ball. What will happen if perhaps.... my brother who lives locally in Orlando can't make it last minute so it's just those of us staying onsite. Will I be charged $30 for him, his girlfriend and her daughter? This whole thing makes me nervous with so many people in our group and my credit card on the ADRs.

Not sure about currently, but I have posted in the past about our experience at Akershus a few years ago. I was ill that morning and sent my party on without me, thinking that as long as the others showed up, we would not be charged. My husband told them when they checked in that I was ill in the room. The CM just said OK. We didn't find out until we got home and I went to pay my cc online that we had been charged for that one 'no show'. I did call and ask about it and as soon as the CM brought it up, she told me it was for one person not showing at Akershus. I was surprised that she could immediately tell me what the charge was for.

 

[supersuperwendy]

Maybe we should just do quick service dining .....ugh

 

[sarahbug79]

I just returned on Wednesday. I checked my credit card online and was billed $50 from Disney Dining. I called right away to find out why. The cm said it was for not showing up at Akershus for a party of 5. We did go and we did eat there. They messed up checking us in because we checked in along with my cousin party of 6. They seated us together at a table for 11. The cm said they will look into it and took my number she said it could be up to 14 days before its credited. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out since we were on Disney dining that credits were used. We also had the gratuity billed to our room and it showed up on our receipt. I just hope to get the money back soon.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

We can agree that Disney had a problem to address.

I can also agree that when too many kids act out at lunch at my daughter's school, THEY have a problem. But it irks me when they make the entire class miss recess for it.

Disney is telling everyone they have to miss recess for the actions of a few (or a lot, but certainly not all or probably even a majority).

Here's the deal that the politicians get wrong all the time too. Recognizing that there is a problem is not enough justification for THIS change to be necessary.

I agree the problem is punishing the masses for the few mentality(way too prevalent in our country IMO). My one son had to leave a reward Field Trip early because of 2 disruptive kids. These same 2 disrupted another Field trip the whole class then had to miss part of. Now I may not have a teaching degree but I would have thought those 2 should not have been allowed on any outings the rest of the year instead of continuing to punish the whole class every time. I have 5 kids if we did this in our family we would likely be home 80% of the time as my kids aren't perfectly behaved all the time and certainly not all of them at once.
Disney had other choices as to how to handle this they chose this option regardless of how it impacts the majority who do follow the rules but may have something come up (sickness, meltdown etc) and have to cancel within the 24 hr. timeframe. This policy is just another step in Disney being less customer oriented. How much more before Disneyworld is less "Disney" and just another theme park is the big question and one that has me worried as I am a Disneynut but it may be a hardsell for even me in a few more years. At least there is Disneyland which has been improving and the boys have been following the new Carsland being built.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

I think it's completely unrealistic to think that there won't be a meltdown from some child in a restaurant, regardless of the reason, while in WDW. I mean, really....................

Not to mention, how would someone (Disney) know the reason a child is having a meltdown is because their family was "forced" to keep an ADR. Come on, let's be realistic, would it really be Disney's fault because a child may be overstimulated or over tired? No blame on the parent that may have planned too much?

Regardless, if this were to happen and there was a screaming child in a restaurant I would hope that a parent would have enough common sense and courtesy to the other guests to take the child out of the restaurant until they calmed down.

I have had 5 kids and I can assure you that even with naps and taking it easy and doing everything right you can have a child have an unexpected meltdown. So before you judge try to remember everyone's kids are different and react different.
And yes in the past I would have taken said kid and sat somewhere or walk around pushing them in stroller to if little to calm them while DH went and ate with other kids. But now I may be charged $20 for being courteous to others now most likely I would still be courteous as that is ingrained in to my upbringing but I would be tempted and others may decide to try and see if they can calm down the child in the restaurant rather than be charged. This is Disney's fault with the policy and yes people should have a right to complain about the noise if it bothers them as Disney created the problem. Once again Disney had other ways to deal with this and chose the easy money making route.

 

[miprender]

I just returned on Wednesday. I checked my credit card online and was billed $50 from Disney Dining. I called right away to find out why. The cm said it was for not showing up at Akershus for a party of 5. We did go and we did eat there. They messed up checking us in because we checked in along with my cousin party of 6. They seated us together at a table for 11. The cm said they will look into it and took my number she said it could be up to 14 days before its credited. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out since we were on Disney dining that credits were used. We also had the gratuity billed to our room and it showed up on our receipt. I just hope to get the money back soon.

Thanks for posting and hope they resolve the problem quickly.

Imagine how many more charges are going to start popping up on people's cc with errors like these

 

[starousse]

Thanks for posting and hope they resolve the problem quickly.

Imagine how many more charges are going to start popping up on people's cc with errors like these

I think this whole thing is messed up. I can't imagine how many people are going to have incorrect no show charges on their cc. This was in no way put into place to prevent people from making several reservations, this was purely to make more revenue. People are still able to make multiple reservations, as long as there within an hour of each other. So this is doing nothing, but pissing everyone off.

 

[SLJ6974]

Exactly. There is nothing more to this than making more revenue. I am sure this want the intent from the get go. They are having to pay for free dining discount that they seem to be offering year round now. I think they may be having fewer people actually buying the dining plan now due to the cost going through the roof and Disney knows that.

 

[dtstampz]

I had my first experience with this policy last week. Dh and I had a reservation at Jiko Tues. 29th. He was having some medical issues and it took all day to finally reach his PCP, and when she called we had arrived at AKL and had about an hour til we would check in for dinner. When we were told by his dr. to go directly to minor care, we went down to let the hostess at the check-in podium know. She told us we would be charged the $10 fees if we had a cc linked to the reservation, regardless of the reason. Luckily, I had made the reservation before the new policy, but I still felt bad having to cancel. The Centracare van picked us up about 15 minutes later.....
I guess I have mixed feelings about the cancellation policy!

 

[Mkrop]

We just got back and I kept thinking of this policy while we were touring...

we check in at Mama Melrose and we were told they were running very far behind...told us to come back in an hour...not a credit card restaurant but how would that be handled if we couldnt/didnt want to wait an hour to eat. Would we be charged?

Then Wed night it started raining around 5ish. We had just gotten back from Universal. We did not have reservations bc we did not know what time we would be back. We wound up with pizza at the Boardwalk. But I just kept imganing how ticked off I would be if I had to drag my family out in the cold rain just to get to a dinner reservation that could be cancelled anywhere else on the planet. We are all fighting colds as it is, the last thing I would have wanted to do was to take them out in that kind of weather.

 

[Colleen27]

I had my first experience with this policy last week. Dh and I had a reservation at Jiko Tues. 29th. He was having some medical issues and it took all day to finally reach his PCP, and when she called we had arrived at AKL and had about an hour til we would check in for dinner. When we were told by his dr. to go directly to minor care, we went down to let the hostess at the check-in podium know. She told us we would be charged the $10 fees if we had a cc linked to the reservation, regardless of the reason. Luckily, I had made the reservation before the new policy, but I still felt bad having to cancel. The Centracare van picked us up about 15 minutes later.....
I guess I have mixed feelings about the cancellation policy!

So much for the idea that Disney would be forgiving of fees for legitimate reasons like illness.