**October 27 2009, 180 Day Reservation Thread**

[deebits]

I have been up since 5 am EST trying to book my ADRs. My husband can not believe what I am going through trying to book our trip, but he will be the first one to say how great it is that we have such good dining locations. He said you are such an idiot for calling back constantly. Well after redial after redial after sorry our systems are down, here I am 5 hours later and still no dining. Well the definition of an idiot is doing the same task over and over and expecting something different, but getting the same results. Well then I guess he is right Good Luck everyone is getting your ADRS. I have not given up yet

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

So I totally forgot about ADRs today I just saw this thread (my goodness, 78 pages in less than 30 hours???) I thought I'd be totally cool and book online. AH, now I see why everyone is calling That's what I get for totally forgetting about this. Oh well, I'm going to try later on. If I don't get what I want, I'm not going to fret. There are lots of places that are yummy so I'll have a second, third, and fourth choice. Good luck to everyone!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Since I had to make a resort reservation change...I called the normal Disney number and got through after about 20 tries of just hitting redial. Got through all the resort changes and then the CM transfered me right to a dining CM. No hold at all and was able to get the ADRs I needed.

 

[smcdaniel4688]

on th phone now with a wonderfully patient cm who said that she hasnt had any problems booking, but of course her system freezes up halfway through booking my meals. she is working on it now and has spent alot of time trying to help me and has been very apologetic even though i dont think this is at all the cm's faults! i am keeping my fingers crossed that she is able to make it work!! i am hoping for the best for EVERYONE!!!

 

[Tricia's mom]

UGH !! Can't get thru...I've been trying and I'm at work. I work retail, it is the ONLY time i'm glad there are no customers .
I keep trying then it "RINGS" and I think OMG its my turn...then "all circuits are busy...." UGHHHHH

I just need 5 ressies okay maybe 6....

 

[lindseyry]

OMMMMGGGGG!!!!

Here's my story -- So, I have a very badly infected ear that is swollen shut. The entire left side of my face is blown up like the elephant man. Yet I still get up at 2 am in the flipping morning to work the online system. Nope. Nada. Up again at 5 am to work it again. Nope. Nothin.

So, on to the phones. I hit redial for 10 minutes and get through YEA!! On hold for about 20 then *bloop* my phone looses signal! WHAT?!?!? Back to square one. Hit redial for another 20 minutes and get through - I take off running outside to get a good signal, when *bloop* signal lost! ***!?!? Seriously, this is not a problem - ever. Why today? **sigh** Another hour and 20 minutes of redial and I get through. I hold for 35 minutes.
By God, at this point I am tearing through the house like a mad woman trying to get outside. I would have shoved down my grandmother if she were in my way!

All of my ressies are spot on PERFECT, for the exception of CRT, which just isnt happening my cm says. My little ones are hungry, but Im busy I tell them. So, I throw ding dongs at them and say Have fun! No joke. I cant believe Im even admitting this!

Ok, time for cc number to be given to hold certain ressies - no good. WHAT?!?!? Your joking!! "NO maam, Im sorry. Do you have another card?" Uhhh no. This is my debit card.

I have in my hand Mickey's Backyard BBQ and -the perfect. 9pm dinner. with Wishes at 10pm during dessert. ADR that I had to let go. It was seriously like sand slipping through my finders. CRAP!

I get off the phone with the cm and call the bank - their visa debit system is down for the morning.

After I get off of the phone with the bank, I walk out into my living room and its FULL of smoke. I guess some wood was still smoldering from last nights fire....

Im going back to bed..........

 

[Cafeen]

My guess is that this was a massive IT undertaking anyway. In order to move it to 100 then 110 then 120 days, it would have required IT to rewrite the same code on numerous ocassions. Somebody at WDW just decided to go ahead and take all their lumps at once, which saves them alot of time rewriting the same code over and over again.

It depends.

Honestly, I know a thing or two about development (maybe three, but that's my limit!), and any developer worth his/her salt would not have coded this type of value into the application itself. This should be a single entry in some table in the database that can be updated with a very simple query string that I could even write (well, assuming it's a language I know, or I can google it). This process can even be automated (depending on their setup) to fire off the different update queries over time, thus allowing for the staggered rollout with no (or little) further IT/Development interaction.

Of course, they don't have the track record of strong IT or development resources, so anything goes.

 

[dvcdisney]

I'm just wondering why they continue to open the phone lines if the system is unable to book any dining reservations. It does seem like some people are getting CMs who can book while others are getting ones who say they can't. Does it depend on the ability of the CM? I don't blame them for this mess, but it makes you wonder why some are able to get into the system and others cannot. Does it depend on the location of the different call centres?

When I got off the phone with the CMs who told me that I cannot book, I thanked them and said goodbye. I know they're having a bad day as some of us are. I am very frustrated, but the only ones to blame are not easily reachable. I think it's taking a toll on these CMs. The last one I spoke to sounded so flustered and rather abrupt. She didn't even give me a chance to say Hello before she told me that I cannot book. This is just a mess.

I'm reminded of the time a few months ago that they decided to change the system to 90 days.

 

[ajseagles3]

Since I had to make a resort reservation change...I called the normal Disney number and got through after about 20 tries of just hitting redial. Got through all the resort changes and then the CM transfered me right to a dining CM. No hold at all and was able to get the ADRs I needed.

That sounds like a neat trick. Others may want to take notice. Just wait to try it until I've confirmed that I have everything I want. Thanks!

 

[figmentgirl]

No joy in Muddville

October 27, 2009.... A dark day indeed

 

[snookiedoodles]

Back again.....all circuits are still busy now....disney online still down....

still no Pixie Dust for me!!!!

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Is it sad that I am excited to be on hold, despite being told that the wait time would be over 30 minutes?

LOL no, not really. I'm not sure I'm excited...I'm still skeptical because my last three calls went like this

#1 Hold for 15 mins, dead air for 5 mins, "We appreciate your feedback, please complete the survey"

#2 Hold for 20 mins, dead air for 1 min, ""We appreciate your feedback, please complete the survey"

#3 Hold for 25 mins, "Thank you for calling Disney Dining, how can I assist you?" "I'd like to make dining reservations for March" "I'll be happy to help you with that, however our dining reservation system is currently down, please call back in 1 hour, ""We appreciate your feedback, please complete the survey"

#4 Hold for...20 mins so far, with a 25 min estimated wait...

At the same time, I've had the online system up about half a dozen times in the past 2 hours. Was able to get ADRs into my cart, but the system crashed before I could check-out

 

[I_heart_Walt]

I was annoyed with getting a busy signal from the WDW-DINE number so I decided to go ahead and try to make ressies for Pirates' League for the kids. This is a different # - 407-939-2739. Was on hold for only a few minutes when a super nice CM answered. She was looking in the system for PL times and I was just chatting saying "I bet you're glad you're not working dining today." And she says, 'well actually, I am." So I asked if she could make my dining ressies once she'd finished the Pirates' League. So she did. A total of 9 dining ADRs. I'm still pinching myself.

 

[ajseagles3]

It depends.

Honestly, I know a thing or two about development (maybe three, but that's my limit!), and any developer worth his/her salt would not have coded this type of value into the application itself. This should be a single entry in some table in the database that can be updated with a very simple query string that I could even write (well, assuming it's a language I know, or I can google it). This process can even be automated (depending on their setup) to fire off the different update queries over time, thus allowing for the staggered rollout with no (or little) further IT/Development interaction.

Of course, they don't have the track record of strong IT or development resources, so anything goes.

Based on my experiences with the website and other I/T-backed pieces of Disney customer service, I would have to agree. They simply do not have a very good team.

Maybe I should see if they have any jobs opening up in the next few weeks. I actually know two (or maybe three) things about executing large I/T projects.

 

[Pumbaa_]

if you recall in the last year they started changing the window to 90 days and they staggered in the change. It was a mess for months

this time it is a mess and hopefully will be fixed soon rather than months

and i agree, any time of date window should be a table based change

 

[aanderson5]

Yeah!!! Done. It's been a long morning and I have a sneeking suspicion I would have been able to get my ADR's if I had waited a few days based on the fact that we are going the end of Jan and got every thing at almost the exact time I requested. Well at least I am done.

 

[snookiedoodles]

GOT THRU!!!!

GOT PIXIE DUST!!!!

 

[jessica29]

Yes trex was available in march I was surprised the day I choose only had two res times! I wasn't going to make one their ( I figured I would do it when I got their) but with all the wait I went to town on the phone. This is inregard to a question on page 78

 

[ZanyToes]

after realizing that I've called the dining line over 100 times and the regular line over 100 times (need to change my dining plan) I realize that we are all a bit crazy LOL

 

[korie]

I can't believe I got through. I hit redial about 50 times, was on hold for about 15 minutes, and then someone actually picked up. I was SHOCKED!

I got everything I wanted except CRT, she said there was no availability but it sounds like everyone is having trouble with that one this morning. I'll try it again another day! My CM was great and it only took us about 5-10 minutes to make my 5 ADR's even though the system was slow at times. Here's what I got:

Chef Mickey's for dinner - 2/28
Tusker House for breakfast - 3/2
Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner - 3/3
Ohana for dinner - 3/4
Cape May breakfast - 3/5

Good luck everyone! I never expected to get through!!