No shows to ADRs?

[styron]

Are there always a lot of no-shows to most of these reservations? They don't have cancellation penalties, is that right?

 

[freepixie]

I believe its only the ones that require a credit card to reserve such as Cinderella Castle would charge you a no-show fee. But if you call and cancel they won't charge you.

For the rest of the ADR's I do not think they charge a no-show fee but I feel its nicer to call and cancel so it opens up a spot for another family!

 

[rlovew]

There are some ADR's with cancellation fees- I know Cinderella Castle, the dinner shows, Californai Grill, some specail meals like Dine with an Imagineer.

On these they take a credit card at the time of booking and charge you $20 a person for a no show.

You have to cancel 48 hours ahead of time to keep from being charged.

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

We always try and cancel if we can't make an ADR.

 

[RMulieri]

yes there are alot of no shows. Only certain places charge for no shows, and it is common courtesy to cancel any adrs you don't want instead of pulling a no show.

 

[crisi]

Some CMs have said that Disney overbooks their restaurants to account for no-shows. They have a lot of statistical data to work from. I tend to believe it because if there were as many no-shows as I expect there are, there would be more tables available for walkups - which there aren't. Also, if you are on the Dining Plan, you've pre-paid your meal. If you don't eat it, they don't reimburse you for it - so the Dining Plan kind of has a built in show show penalty.

 

[abc999]

Akershus charges for no shows.

 

[kimysbug]

Please call if you are not going to make it
Thank you

 

[smiths02]

Some CMs have said that Disney overbooks their restaurants to account for no-shows. They have a lot of statistical data to work from. I tend to believe it because if there were as many no-shows as I expect there are, there would be more tables available for walkups - which there aren't. Also, if you are on the Dining Plan, you've pre-paid your meal. If you don't eat it, they don't reimburse you for it - so the Dining Plan kind of has a built in show show penalty.

Is that really true about the DDP though?

We are staying for a week on the DDP...so 7 TS per person, but the system will let me book 3 TS each day (and I am there 8 days)...so technically I could book 24 TS that don't have cancellation policies and show up to 7 and I am out no money...

Of course, I am not advocating doing that or exploiting any loophole...I intend to make all my ADRs as I only made 7 and I have 7 ADRs and don't want to waste my money

And I would urge people to call and cancel if they are not going to make it

 

[tkldisney]

I have WDW dining & CRO as contacts in my cell. If I can't make it I always call and cancel, even if its at the time of the adr. It opens the table for others that may be walkup.

 

[skier_pete]

Hopefully, the OP is asking from the perspective of doing a walk-up to get a table...are there a lot of free tables that way? If that's the question, the answer is...no. Since the DDP, most restaurants, especially the popular ones, are booked solid enough that it is very hard to walk up. PP have stated that there probably are some no-shows that don't cancel ADRs, and I would agree, there will always be inconsiderate people that do that. But Disney must know approx. what % of people do this, and overbook for that purpose. (This is probably why sometime you have extra-long waits for your table, and other times you sit right down...depends on what % of overbooks show up.)

I know I will get flamed for this, because I have before, but I have always initially book more ADRs than I intend to use. As our weekly plans settle out, then I cancel the ADRs I won't be using, usually even before the trip starts, but sometimes I will still have say 9 ADRs, even though we are only going to eat 7 TS meals. But, I DO always cancel my unused ADRs at least the day before.

SkierPete

 

[goofy67]

I know Hoop Dee Doo charges because we had ADR's for it the night we were suppose to arrive but had to plane delays and got put on a different flight route and was stuck in another state that we weren't even suppose to go through but luckily my sister who lives in FL was meeting us at POP was already there so I called her and had her to go to the desk and cancel our ADR. She called me back and said the CM first told her that we would be charged because it was less than 48 hours but when she told her we were stuck in another state due to plane delays and that if we did get there maybe an hour beforehand that our mom would have to eat ASAP because she was a diabetic and had not eaten since that morning because we had been shuttling between airplanes all day. After explaining she said there would be no charge because it wasn't our fault we couldn't make it.

 

[crisi]

Is that really true about the DDP though?

We are staying for a week on the DDP...so 7 TS per person, but the system will let me book 3 TS each day (and I am there 8 days)...so technically I could book 24 TS that don't have cancellation policies and show up to 7 and I am out no money...

Of course, I am not advocating doing that or exploiting any loophole...I intend to make all my ADRs as I only made 7 and I have 7 ADRs and don't want to waste my money

And I would urge people to call and cancel if they are not going to make it

As long as you show to seven meals, there wouldn't be a penalty. But I suspect that DDPers don't book three tables service meals a day planning on not going to two (and we know from posts some don't get ADRs for any meals and then are really mad that they bought the dining plan that they couldn't use!) - that most of them book the meals they intend to go to, and once they know that they might not get another table service meal if they miss their ADR, they make bigger efforts to get to them than someone who is paying cash.

ETA: I'd actually be really tempted, if I did the DDP again, to book a final character breakfast on the last day that could be cancelled - just in case we missed an earlier meal. We tend to do signature dining and no DDP - when we did the DDP we ran out of credits long before the trip was over....