Online ADRs Thread (Updated FAQ 9/9/9)

[bubblycoconut]

If you are on the dining plan they just take your credit card information to hold the reservation. If you are not on the dining plan the full payment is due at the time of booking the meal.

 

[pilferk]

Just wanted to let everyone know: I just talked to Web Tech Support. They are fully aware that some people are able to pull up their 90+10 by linking to there reservation #, and some people can't (they get an error message that says "the reservation can not be found). They said the problem is in the link between the 2 databases. They don't know why it works for some, and not for others. To sum it up: They are working on it, but have no idea where the problem lies, or how soon it will be fixed.

I also asked if they planned to make the times the same (on-line vs phone). She said there is no plan to switch on-line to 7 am. She told me she thinks they are keeping it at 6 to be an incentive to use on-line (and I said, Yeah, if it lets you!)

Anyway, I am hopeing it is fixed for me by July 5. Otherwise I will be bummed

If you have direct access to Web Support, tell them to check the phone number matching in the database. It sure seems like it's the issue, from everything I've found, seen, heard, and read.

If you

 

[onelilspark]

Anyone have problems viewing their current reservations that they made? I wanted to check on it. Entered the confirmation # from the reservation and my phone number and it didn't find anything Do I need to call and make sure everything is still there?

 

[pilferk]

I'm simply stating the obvious here. You said previously, that you hope the bugs are worked out before July 5. WHY? Is that when you can officially book your adr's? If so, then it makes sense that your error message is because your reservation with CRO and the "adr" policy don't agree, so you should get an error message as I did. Now if you are leaving on July 5, then absolutely, it makes no sense.

Doesn't work that way.

If you have a valid ressie number FROM Disney, it's supposed to work..doesnt' matter when your booking window opens. If your window is in the future, it doesn't open up the 90+10 til 90 days from your arrival date.

I've had that confirmed to me directly.

 

[JJZMgailey]

I just got off the phone with Disney because we have rented points from a DVC member & she pulled up the reservation by the number & verified that my cell phone number is the one linked to the reservation. Tomorrow is our ADR day & I can't get the ADR system to recognize the reservation either so I think it has more issues than just matching the phone number because ours matches!

 

[DisneyMom5]

I'm feeling really stupid, but where is everyone inputting their ADRs to double check them online???
I can't find a place to input.

I made all mine on the phone, but wanted to play around with the system to verify them.

I cannot book any online, because we are a Grand Gathering (and seating over 10 each meal). But I thought it might confirm it for me.

I'm usually pretty good at finding hidden things, but this has me stumped!

 

[pilferk]

I just got off the phone with Disney because we have rented points from a DVC member & she pulled up the reservation by the number & verified that my cell phone number is the one linked to the reservation. Tomorrow is our ADR day & I can't get the ADR system to recognize the reservation either so I think it has more issues than just matching the phone number because ours matches!

Who did you speak with at Disney?

DVC member services? They showed a phone number attached to my ressie, too. So does the member site, and our printed confirmation.

Disney Dining? When I spoke to them last night, they had NO phone number attached to the ressie in their system.

You can tell by the error messages given out by the system that it recognizes the ressie # as valid. It's erroring out "for some other reason". We've tested it with the few DVC ressies that DO work (check DVC planning section for more on this), and a bogus phone number, and we get the same error message. But get something completely different when using a bogus ressie number.

Investigation so far has pointed directly to the "matchup validation" on phone number. Why (whether it's because of a "bad" phone number stored in the ADR system or because the web control is passing a "bad" format of the phone numbe)r...that I don't know.

Edit: The other question is...how is the ressie SUPPOSED to be populated downstream from the MS ressie system to the ADR system. There are a couple of different ways they could do it: One directly from the ressie, one from the member demographics....so while one system could show one number, the other could have something completely different.

It's a bit of an odd duck...

 

[onelilspark]

I'm feeling really stupid, but where is everyone inputting their ADRs to double check them online???
I can't find a place to input.

I made all mine on the phone, but wanted to play around with the system to verify them.

I cannot book any online, because we are a Grand Gathering (and seating over 10 each meal). But I thought it might confirm it for me.

I'm usually pretty good at finding hidden things, but this has me stumped!

Top right hand of the screen is My Vacation, last thing under the drop down is dining reservations. They ask for the reservation number & phone number...though it's not working for me

 

[winnapooh]

Who did you speak with at Disney?

DVC member services? They showed a phone number attached to my ressie, too. So does the member site, and our printed confirmation.

Disney Dining? When I spoke to them last night, they had NO phone number attached to the ressie in their system.

You can tell by the error messages given out by the system that it recognizes the ressie # as valid. It's erroring out "for some other reason". We've tested it with the few DVC ressies that DO work (check DVC planning section for more on this), and a bogus phone number, and we get the same error message. But get something completely different when using a bogus ressie number.

Investigation so far has pointed directly to the "matchup validation" on phone number. Why (whether it's because of a "bad" phone number stored in the ADR system or because the web control is passing a "bad" format of the phone numbe)r...that I don't know.

Edit: The other question is...how is the ressie SUPPOSED to be populated downstream from the MS ressie system to the ADR system. There are a couple of different ways they could do it: One directly from the ressie, one from the member demographics....so while one system could show one number, the other could have something completely different.

It's a bit of an odd duck...

This all makes me wonder why they even have to have a phone number, along with the reservation number. I know they want to doubly-verify you have a reservation and it's really you, but when you call, they just ask for your reservation number. They do ask for other verifying information, but it seems like this could be a second step, rather than asking for both reservation and phone number at the same time. This might help with the matching issues, because then they are only matching one piece of information at a time.


They quite obviously have issues with their system as a whole, because every time I call dining or CRO, I have to get them to change the phone number in their system (we have moved twice in the past year). They always seem to default back to old numbers, and the new numbers don't seem to stick. This is the case with our online account as well (I've added my husbands AP number about 10 times now to the My Reservation...still doesn't show him as an AP holder!) They need to narrow down to one central database! I've done some programming, and one of the things that I was always told is to not have duplicate data...have it stored in one place, one time. I think that's what they need to do, since when I call MS, they have the right info, but dining and CRO always have the wrong info.

It's all so frustrating!!!

 

[wendy1974]

How is this going to work for Hoop de Doo during free dining? I know when you call you have to give them a credit card to hold. Also, I was playing around and checked on a date in December and it lists prices by all of the categories??? Can't figure out how to get this one during free dining?

 

[DisneyMom5]

Top right hand of the screen is My Vacation, last thing under the drop down is dining reservations. They ask for the reservation number & phone number...though it's not working for me

That worked! Thanks!
[And, they're showing up! double ]

 

[pilferk]

This all makes me wonder why they even have to have a phone number, along with the reservation number. I know they want to doubly-verify you have a reservation and it's really you, but when you call, they just ask for your reservation number. They do ask for other verifying information, but it seems like this could be a second step, rather than asking for both reservation and phone number at the same time. This might help with the matching issues, because then they are only matching one piece of information at a time.


They quite obviously have issues with their system as a whole, because every time I call dining or CRO, I have to get them to change the phone number in their system (we have moved twice in the past year). They always seem to default back to old numbers, and the new numbers don't seem to stick. This is the case with our online account as well (I've added my husbands AP number about 10 times now to the My Reservation...still doesn't show him as an AP holder!) They need to narrow down to one central database! I've done some programming, and one of the things that I was always told is to not have duplicate data...have it stored in one place, one time. I think that's what they need to do, since when I call MS, they have the right info, but dining and CRO always have the wrong info.

It's all so frustrating!!!

I think you hit the nail on the head in verification. It's a security step to ensure someone doesn't just sit there and run numbers to get access to the system, or abuse it. However, you could do what many systems do and add 2 pieces of verification info, and let you choose which to use. For example: phone number OR address/zip code.

On the fact the ADR system keeps "losing" your phone number, I SUSPECT there are mutliple "refreshes" of the data from the ressie systems every day...I think when the refresh goes through, it updates existing records and adds new ones. What that ultimately means is that any changes made in the ADR system probably get overwritten by the refresh.

I don't know that...but it's my suspicion, given the way I've seen system traffic flow in my professional life. The CRO/DVC/TA system is the "system of record" for their particular "fiefdom", so in the data hierarchy, it's data overwrites the downstream systems.

I agree...it IS frustrating.

 

[MountNittany]

After making all of my adrs this morning... I kind of played with the sytem a little. It looks as though when you request a time it is searching 1/2 hour on either side of your time.

For example, when I put in 5:30 for 1900 park fare, it gave me 5:10 and 5:35. I then put in ohanas for 9:10am, and it gave me just 9:15. When I moved the time to 10am, it gave me 9:45 and 10:20. The first time I plugged in (9:10am) was 5 minutes short of giving me the 9:45 time, because 30 minutes prior would have been 9:15.

Of course this has not been confirmed, but curiosity got the best of me and after several attempts, it looks like this is the window it's using.

If you are looking for dinner around 5-6pm, just try putting in 5:30 and it will search a little on each side for you. I have yet to have it come up with more than two choices (not including all the alternative restaurant choices listed below your main choice).

I too am disappointed that you can search all ten days at a certain time, but you can't search just one specific day for any time. Hopefully they will fix that. All in all, the system is awesome! I love it!

Now, just dreading getting up the next 3 morning to do the same thing (14 night trip... urgh!). I'm in Ohio, so I am just waking up early... but I can't help but wonder... everyone out West- are you staying up until 3am and making your ADRs, or are you waking up at 3am to make them

Wait, what's the whole deal with 3 AM? I think I missed something somewhere.

ETA: I read the first post, and what does it mean that it "rolls" at 6 AM. Is that when it updates with new times that are available?

I don't think that it would be very hard for them to adjust it so that it lets you look for a wider window of dates, or even times. I wish they would put that in soon.

 

[Meriweather]

So...DVC ressies are basically not going to work going online
Guess there is no use for me getting up on Monday at 3:00 am then and just go with what I can get calling in
Waaa....oh well.

 

[DisneyMom5]

My online ADR files are showing an extra person on several of them. Should I be concerned? Easy enough to correct when we get there, but would hate to mess up their seating because of a fictitious person. Not to mention, I thought they had it right when I made them, so where this extra person is coming from??? It's saying 11 total instead of the 10 we have.

 

[pilferk]

So...DVC ressies are basically not going to work going online
Guess there is no use for me getting up on Monday at 3:00 am then and just go with what I can get calling in
Waaa....oh well.

As of now, correct. Hopefully, they'll fix it "soon".

Instead of 3 AM, you're looking at sleeping an extra hour til 4 AM.

 

[Meriweather]

As of now, correct. Hopefully, they'll fix it "soon".

Instead of 3 AM, you're looking at sleeping an extra hour til 4 AM.

Gee, I am so lucky
Can't wait for Monday
Guess we get what we get....back to look at menus again and find some back ups.

 

[Margaritah]

I am booked with a TA will this work for me?

 

[bcrook]

Wow! This is amazing! So much flexibility. I had booked 6 ADRs for the first week of July. I went online added 4 more (all at restaurants and the times I needed for party of 9!), and cancelled a few that I replaced. Everything was easy to access, book, and verify. Also, it is very cool that they give other possible suggestions for dining.

Not bad for two weeks out. Of course it is not free dining. I have never been involved in that game, I am sure it is much more challenging to get reservations that you need.

 

[jenfur]

I just have a few questions. If you are on the dining plan, does the system recognize that and not charge your card for CRT, ect.? Are they holding any ressies for the 7am phone-in people so that it I don't get it online, it would be a good idea to call anyway? Do you still need to call for V&A?