New WDW Dining Reservations Policy

[Rumors Rocks]

sounds fair to me. Free up some res's.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I'm not sure how to fix it but dining is a complete nightmare.

they've ruined any ability to just walk up and eat at a table service restaurant, you have to wait 3 days. Even having a ressie only means the wait is close to reasonable.

Not sure how to fix it, but i'm not sold that this does anything to address that.

I'd rather walk around the parks, enjoy ourselves, and when we get hungry find a place to eat with a reasonable wait that serves more than emu legs.

even counter service has gotten to be a nightmare.

This is right on...

I'm not sure, with due respect to my esteemed colleagues, that this is a good thing.

Two words: "labor allocation"

 

[lockedoutlogic]

so do i have to re-enter my cc online for every ressie? seems like the disney adr page never retains my info.

What if the adrs don't book up and they reduce them to isolate parts of the restaurants?

We'll just walk up?
Same concern as above

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

This ha been a long time coming and the best system to solve the problems of abusers making multiple reservations and not caring a dam about other folk. It will make it easier to get reservations on line and for walk ups.

There have also been many reports of Disney being very agreeable and taking cancellations with a good reason later then the *prior day * limit and not charging the $10.00 fee.

This proved its not just some revenue thing and is really intended to solve the over booking problem.

AKK

 

[Tinkerdreams]

Does anyone know or have first hand knowledge of cancelling a reservation and being charged if there are unusual circumstances?

Last August we flew from JFK to MCO but our flight was supposed to leave at 2:00p.m and arrive at 4:00. Unfortunately, we never got to the resort till 10:00 p.m. due to our flight sitting on the runway for 3 hours!! I did not make any dinner reservations but am hesitating for our upcoming trip in December. We are supposed to arrive at 12:30 p.m. at MCO and will probably be at the resort by 2.

I would love to make a reservation for 6 p.m. but am nervous that if the flight is delayed, we wouldn't make to reservation and be charged.

 

[tjkraz]

Does anyone know or have first hand knowledge of cancelling a reservation and being charged if there are unusual circumstances?

Last August we flew from JFK to MCO but our flight was supposed to leave at 2:00p.m and arrive at 4:00. Unfortunately, we never got to the resort till 10:00 p.m. due to our flight sitting on the runway for 3 hours!! I did not make any dinner reservations but am hesitating for our upcoming trip in December. We are supposed to arrive at 12:30 p.m. at MCO and will probably be at the resort by 2.

I would love to make a reservation for 6 p.m. but am nervous that if the flight is delayed, we wouldn't make to reservation and be charged.

Officially it does not appear there is any policy in place which would allow for the fee to be waived. But you may find a sympathetic Cast Member.

I think that's just the risk one assumes when booking an ADR for the arrival day. Really, that's true of making ANY plans for the arrival day (Halloween Party, Christmas Party, Candlelight Processional, etc.)

I realize that time is precious but (IMO) you have to just understand that the fee may be charged if you aren't there. Doesn't matter if the blame lies with airline maintenance, highway traffic, weather, etc.

As for the policy itself, I suppose it's a good one. At the most popular restaurants, it's pretty much a necessity. You can't have people walking up to Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace or California Grill, and being told the wait is 1-2 hours for a table.

At other locations, I would think walk-ups would fill a lot of the vacancies left by no-shows. But maybe folks don't walk-up like they used to. Again, I don't use the restaurants enough to really comment.

Overall, I don't have any problems with a system that gives preferential treatment to those willing to demonstrate their intention to dine with a CC guarantee. We aren't going to turn back the clocks to a time when all walk-ups yielded satisfying results for all. The same-day reservation kiosks at Epcot aren't the answer, either.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Does anyone know or have first hand knowledge of cancelling a reservation and being charged if there are unusual circumstances?
Last August we flew from JFK to MCO but our flight was supposed to leave at 2:00p.m and arrive at 4:00. Unfortunately, we never got to the resort till 10:00 p.m. due to our flight sitting on the runway for 3 hours!! I did not make any dinner reservations but am hesitating for our upcoming trip in December. We are supposed to arrive at 12:30 p.m. at MCO and will probably be at the resort by 2.

I would love to make a reservation for 6 p.m. but am nervous that if the flight is delayed, we wouldn't make to reservation and be charged.

There have been many reports of people having the fee waved for a good reason.

However, to my knowledge there is no known official policy to this effect.

AKK

 

[amberpi]

I have found in probably 30+ trips in the last 10 years, WDW to be very reasonable when we called day of to cancel. Once was a CG reservation and the other was a Bistro reservation. One was due to not too significant injury (but too much to trek to the Contemporary from the Swan even using a taxi - roomservice for the win) and the other was because of horrible rain to get to the Bistro. Both were super nice about it and thanked us for letting them know. Things do come up, I think WDW is just trying to keep people from hogging reservations with no real intent to use them.

 

[Mom2six]

I think this is a ridiculous policy. I never make more than one reservation, but we did choose to cancel a few reservations the same day this past trip. The second week of our trip it poured and poured. Twice we decided to leave the park early because we did what we could in the rain and wanted to dry out - plus the kids were not feeling well. With this policy we would have to either stick it out soaking wet at the park or pay a huge fee.

 

[newdeal]

Disneys website used to not be able to display my reservations so i couldnt cancel them without calling. Since i didnt want to call i would cancel by booking trails end at the same time which then would detect the overlap and let me cancel. Guess they didnt like that

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm not sure how to fix it but dining is a complete nightmare.

they've ruined any ability to just walk up and eat at a table service restaurant, you have to wait 3 days. Even having a ressie only means the wait is close to reasonable.

I haven't found that to be true. As a family of 6 we have been able to walk up to restaurants right when we wanted to eat. We didn't have our pick of every single restaurant in the park, but we had a few choices.

 

[OurBigTrip]

I'm thrilled to see this change - maybe we can start enjoying "walk up" TS meals now instead of having to make reservations months ahead of time.

My guess is that Disney will let it run with the 11:59 PM cancellation for a few months, and then change it to four hours prior. The initial tough stance will weed out a number of people that don't cancel at all, and then they'll be able to relax the rules a bit for everyone else.

 

[mikek]

I haven't found that to be true. As a family of 6 we have been able to walk up to restaurants right when we wanted to eat. We didn't have our pick of every single restaurant in the park, but we had a few choices.

could just be me, but from the others posting the same opinion I dont think I'm out in left field.

But we honeymooned in 1995 just over 2 weeks in august. We had a dining plan at the time so we ate table service all but a few nights and many breakfasts and lunches. And not some off the path place- pretty much every character meal we could find in the parks or at the resorts. The only reservations we had was for hoop dee doo and the luai (I'm not even sure if you could make advanced reservations back then- if so we certainly didn't know about it). And yes some days we wound up having to go to our second choices. But there was never a 3 hour wait. I dont at all think that's the case now- we haven't gotten a character walk up in years- they usually wont even quote a wait- they just say NO, no walkups.

Granted we've stopped asking as much since it seems hopeless so perhaps if we were more persistent we would have better luck.

 

[DaveeD]

Thank you, great information to keep in mind when doing a reservation.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I'm thrilled to see this change - maybe we can start enjoying "walk up" TS meals now instead of having to make reservations months ahead of time.

My guess is that Disney will let it run with the 11:59 PM cancellation for a few months, and then change it to four hours prior. The initial tough stance will weed out a number of people that don't cancel at all, and then they'll be able to relax the rules a bit for everyone else.

We'll see...definitely a downside here...potentially

 

[DisneyBill]

Here is a question. Several times in the past we have had reservations for, say 7:30, at a restaurant and happened to walk-up and inquire if tables were available at, say 5:30, and in fact were seated. (We've told them that we had prior reservations at, in this case 7:30, and I assumed the CM cancelled prior reservation. At any rate they didn't seem concerned.) What would happen now if space was available and we were seated?

I believe the upcoming policy is good overall, but I really feel any reasonable prior cancellation should suffice.

 

[Rumors Rocks]

Thank you, great information to keep in mind when doing a reservation.

 

[Mom2six]

This does sound fair, however I now expect to be seated at my reservation time not have to wait to be seated.

Exactly. And how about if your table is not ready and you have to stand outside in the pouring rain waiting for it, they pay you $10.00 a person. If they are going to charge you $10 per person for canceling, the time should be guaranteed. If you have to wait around for a couple of hours in the pouring rain to stay in the park for your reservation because it is too late to cancel, then you shouldn't have to wait around any longer.

 

[Tink1987]

I think this is awesome news - hopefully it will free up more reservations.

 

[maxiesmom]

Exactly. And how about if your table is not ready and you have to stand outside in the pouring rain waiting for it, they pay you $10.00 a person. If they are going to charge you $10 per person for canceling, the time should be guaranteed. If you have to wait around for a couple of hours in the pouring rain to stay in the park for your reservation because it is too late to cancel, then you shouldn't have to wait around any longer.

But it is not guaranteed. And expecting it to be, or wanting it to be, is not going to help make the fee, for some, easier to swallow.

It is what it is, and expecting it to be something it is not is just setting yourself up to be frustrated.

As far as walking up for character meals goes, don't give up. I had a friend who went to the parks a couple of months ago, and her family was able to score the walk up of all walk ups. The Castle. So it never hurts to ask.