New Disney dining E-mail system

[I'm mikey]

This was posted on the disney parks blog today

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/04/new-disney-dining-email-system-to-serve-disneyland-resort-guests/

New Disney Dining Email System to Serve Disneyland Resort Guests

posted on April 12th, 2012 by Erin Glover, Manager, Social Media and Print


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As you may know, Disneyland Resort guests may book dining reservations through the Disney Dine Line (714-781-DINE) but, beginning today, we’re offering a new way to request a dining reservation at the resort.

Here’s how it works:
•Guests may now email their dining reservation requests to dine@disneyland.com
•Requests will be reviewed the same day, when received during the hours of 7 a.m. – 9 p.m., 7 days a week
•Requests received after hours will be reviewed the next day
•Guests may request Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and Studio Disney 365 reservations through this email address as well
•Email requests should include the following information:
•Name of the restaurant or experience you’d like to book
•Requested reservation date and meal period (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)
•Total number of guests in your party
•Your name and phone number

•Remember: Your request is not confirmed until you’ve received a confirmation number



We know that Disneyland Resort guests are very excited about the upcoming opening of Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disney California Adventure park on June 15. Dining reservations are not available at this time, but keep an eye on the Disney Parks Blog and @Disneyland on Twitter for updates on when the booking window for this brand-new restaurant will open.

 

[Escape2Disney]

This was posted on the disney parks blog today

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...ail-system-to-serve-disneyland-resort-guests/

I'm happy to see this for a couple of reasons....

1) They are finally giving confirmation numbers. A few times they've botched my reservation date/times and I had no record of what it should have been. This will help in that case.

2) No more sitting on hold!! Sure, we'll still have to do that for Fantasmic, but it's one less phone call.

 

[skiingfast]

Hopefully this is a sign that sooner than later we will be able to make dining reservations online, or with the Mobile Magic App.

 

[ArchOwl]

Just used it today! Sent the email at 1:43pm and got my email with confirmation numbers at 2:15pm. Nice! I like having the confirmation numbers. Nifty service for people like me who hate using the phone and prefer to do everything online.

 

[skiingfast]

Just used it today! Sent the email at 1:43pm and got my email with confirmation numbers at 2:15pm. Nice! I like having the confirmation numbers. Nifty service for people like me who hate using the phone and prefer to do everything online.

On your reply, does it have instructions, such as to show up early or print this out? Anything of that nature?

 

[ArchOwl]

On your reply, does it have instructions, such as to show up early or print this out? Anything of that nature?

Here is the text of the email. I made reservations for AG and BB. I crossed out the names and confirmation numbers.

Thank you for contacting dine@disneyland.com.


Good Afternoon XXXX,

You have been confirmed with:

Blue Bayou 5/XX Conf# XXXX at 11:30

Ariel's Grotto 5/XX Conf# XXXX at 12:00pm

Both for a party of 6

Blue Bayou is located inside Disneyland® Park. Theme park admission is required.

Parties of 7 or larger may be seated at different tables that may not be near each other.

For parties of 8 or larger, there will be one bill with an automatic 18% gratuity added.

Should you need to cancel, please do so at least 48 hours in advance.


Ariel's Grotto has seating both indoors and outside under a canopy. Princesses do not appear at dinner. For parties of 1-7, a 15% gratuity is added; for larger parties, the gratuity is 18%. For parties of 9 and larger, you may be seated at separate tables. We will attempt, but cannot guarantee, to place split parties next to each other.

Please check in at the location 10-15 minutes before your seating time.

Should you need to cancel, please do so at least 48 hours in advance.

This restaurant is located inside Disney California Adventure® Park. Theme park admission is required.


Should you have additional questions, please contact us again by replying to this e-mail.


Best Regards,

dine@disneyland.com

 

[skiingfast]

Thank you.

Looks really simple. I wonder if you need that confirmation number, or can still check in with , Smiths 4 people at 5:15?

 

[I'm mikey]

Here is the text of the email. I made reservations for AG and BB. I crossed out the names and confirmation numbers.

Thank you for contacting dine@disneyland.com.


Good Afternoon XXXX,

You have been confirmed with:

Blue Bayou 5/XX Conf# XXXX at 11:30

Ariel's Grotto 5/XX Conf# XXXX at 12:00pm

Both for a party of 6

Blue Bayou is located inside Disneyland® Park. Theme park admission is required.

Parties of 7 or larger may be seated at different tables that may not be near each other.

For parties of 8 or larger, there will be one bill with an automatic 18% gratuity added.

Should you need to cancel, please do so at least 48 hours in advance.


Ariel's Grotto has seating both indoors and outside under a canopy. Princesses do not appear at dinner. For parties of 1-7, a 15% gratuity is added; for larger parties, the gratuity is 18%. For parties of 9 and larger, you may be seated at separate tables. We will attempt, but cannot guarantee, to place split parties next to each other.

Please check in at the location 10-15 minutes before your seating time.

Should you need to cancel, please do so at least 48 hours in advance.

This restaurant is located inside Disney California Adventure® Park. Theme park admission is required.


Should you have additional questions, please contact us again by replying to this e-mail.


Best Regards,

dine@disneyland.com

did you request a specific time for each reservation or where you assigned
a time to be at each restaurant

 

[ArchOwl]

Thank you.

Looks really simple. I wonder if you need that confirmation number, or can still check in with , Smiths 4 people at 5:15?

Not sure, I will have the confirmation numbers on my phone just in case. Since they didn't tell me I had to have the numbers, I am going to assume they are just back up.

did you request a specific time for each reservation or where you assigned
a time to be at each restaurant

In my email I requested the earliest seating times available for lunch. Not sure what would have happened if I had asked for a specific time.

 

[rsleleux]

I made a reservation today using the new email system and received confirmation in less than 10 minutes!!!

 

[ktlm]

Thank you.

Looks really simple. I wonder if you need that confirmation number, or can still check in with , Smiths 4 people at 5:15?

If it is like WDW, you don't need the confirmation number unless they have lost your reservation. You check in by name. If for some reason they can not find your reservation, your confirmation number is your back up that proves you have one. They usually can locate your ADR on the system with the number, and even if not they usually go ahead and give you a table. We've had to use ours a couple of times at WDW when they have lost our ADR. You definitely want to take yours with you. It always makes me nervous at DL that there are no confirmation numbers. Even before the online system went into place at WDW, they would still give you a confirmation number when you called to make an ADR. I just wish DL would go to online reservations. It is so much easier!

 

[PHXscuba]

It's better than what they had, but why not just go completely to an online reservation system like WDW's? They obviously already have the technology for it, so it seems like they are just putting in an extra step -- using a human to exchange e-mails with you instead talking direct by phone.

And what if you e-mail them -- say, a week in advance -- and there's nothing at Blue Bayou for lunch next Saturday? It would take several more sets of e-mails to determine whether you could get dinner the same day or lunch on a different day. At that point I'd rather talk to a human who can look at all of the choices at once, or an online system that could show me what is available, either by restaurant or by time/date.

Plus, to me, the timeframes aren't defined enough. "Lunch" could give you 11:00 or 2:30.

 

[motherhoodandmickey]

It's better than what they had, but why not just go completely to an online reservation system like WDW's? They obviously already have the technology for it, so it seems like they are just putting in an extra step -- using a human to exchange e-mails with you instead talking direct by phone.

And what if you e-mail them -- say, a week in advance -- and there's nothing at Blue Bayou for lunch next Saturday? It would take several more sets of e-mails to determine whether you could get dinner the same day or lunch on a different day. At that point I'd rather talk to a human who can look at all of the choices at once, or an online system that could show me what is available, either by restaurant or by time/date.

Plus, to me, the timeframes aren't defined enough. "Lunch" could give you 11:00 or 2:30.

I agree that an online system would be better, but I actually just made reservations for breakfast at Ariel's Grotto three weeks from tomorrow. I asked for breakfast at Ariel's on day 2 or 3, preferably an early seating. If that wasn't available, I would want breakfast at the Plaza Inn on day 1, 2 or 3 instead. They came back within half an hour with breakfast at the Grotto on day 2 at 10.00 am. Perfectly painless. So you can give back-ups or specifications, if you want, even though there are no guarantees, of course.

 

[Feej]

Does this have be within the 90 day window or whatever the period is?

 

[ArchOwl]

Does this have be within the 90 day window or whatever the period is?

Yes, on the Disney Parks website it does say you must request within the 60 day window in the comments below the story.

 

[disneydreamer74]

Hmm..the email did not specify inside or outside seating for AG. I wonder how that will be addressed.

 

[Beee]

this is awesome for those of us in different time zones, I was not looking forward to getting up at 4am to make reservations

Maybe by the time I am making reservations they'll be online rather than email which would be even better!

 

[Mickey527]

I want to make reservations for May 27th for the WOC dinner but they don't show on the calander yet whether WOC will be twice on that night. How would I go about making the reservations for that?
I thought I would like to have dinner about 5:30 for the early show which I am guessing is 7:30. then if they have the 2nd show that night I can try and see it from the back or standing room but I want to try and get a better view for my first time seeing the show.
Also, it says Disneyland Resort guests. Does this mean only people staying at their resorts can make reservations in advance?

 

[skiingfast]

I want to make reservations for May 27th for the WOC dinner but they don't show on the calander yet whether WOC will be twice on that night. How would I go about making the reservations for that?
I thought I would like to have dinner about 5:30 for the early show which I am guessing is 7:30. then if they have the 2nd show that night I can try and see it from the back or standing room but I want to try and get a better view for my first time seeing the show.
Also, it says Disneyland Resort guests. Does this mean only people staying at their resorts can make reservations in advance?

Anyone can use the email reservation system, all guests not just the hotel guests.

Reservations can only be made 60 days(actually two months) out. So you can email or call on the 27th of April. Though you can't see the calendar, people in reservations can. While they can help you, rarely though sometimes things change like show schedules and later you will have to fix your reservation.

 

[I'm mikey]

I want to make reservations for May 27th for the WOC dinner but they don't show on the calander yet whether WOC will be twice on that night. How would I go about making the reservations for that?
I thought I would like to have dinner about 5:30 for the early show which I am guessing is 7:30. then if they have the 2nd show that night I can try and see it from the back or standing room but I want to try and get a better view for my first time seeing the show.
Also, it says Disneyland Resort guests. Does this mean only people staying at their resorts can make reservations in advance?

I want to make reservations for May 27th for the WOC dinner but they don't show on the calander yet whether WOC will be twice on that night. How would I go about making the reservations for that?

may 27 is a sunday, looking at the three previous sundays on the disneyland calender, it shows WoC playing at 9:00 and 10:15 pm, so i would assume it will play the same times on sunday may 27.

as skiingfast has said, dining reservations can be made 2 months in advance, you should be able to make reservations now for may 27 by calling the disney dine line at (714) 781-3463 or send an email to dine@disneyland.com