Online vs. Phone Rezzies?

[wcw57]

I found out that phone reservations start 7 am est....what about online reservations? Same time frame for the 180 day mark?

also, why do people seem to use phone over online? haven't made reservations (no dining plan here) since BEFORE there was the world wide interweb thingy you young whippersnappers like so much........

any and all input is appreciated......

THANX!!

 

[aladams2]

I believe you can get on-line at 6 AM est. I call b/c my DD has allergies and I like the interaction w/ a person and it is just easier for me.

 

[minnie mum]

Well, I'm about as far away from a young whippersnapper as you can get, so I do both on my 180 day. Start out with the simple ADRs at 0600 on the world wide web thingy. Then at 0700 I call to make any ADR requiring a credit card hold (still don't trust having my cc details online-yeah I'm that old and paranoid). I also like to be able to actually talk to a real person if there is any difficulty with availability: the CM can check alternate dates and times a lot faster than I can!

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

We did all of ours online, the window opens at 6 am vs 7 am for ressies. However, for each ressie that requires the CC guarantee, you have to enter in all your information. If you did it online, you would only need to provide it one time. That's the biggest difference to me. That and the Fantasmic Dinner Packages were allowing booking online for our dates, but were allowing via the phone.

 

[wcw57]

We did all of ours online, the window opens at 6 am vs 7 am for ressies. However, for each ressie that requires the CC guarantee, you have to enter in all your information. If you did it online, you would only need to provide it one time. That's the biggest difference to me. That and the Fantasmic Dinner Packages were allowing booking online for our dates, but were allowing via the phone.

sorry....i'm confused by this post

you state you have to give cc info each time online and one time online
(that's the way i read it anyhow)
AND that Fantasmic was allowing booking online but were allowing via phone....both? one or the other?
i must be getting REALLY old 'cause i just plain don't get it...

clarification, please

 

[Kakikomori]

I can't speak for PP, but I did nearly all of my ADRs online. For the restaurants that required a CC, I did have to enter my CC information each time. I'm guessing that you wouldn't have to do that if you called since they'd have the information entered on their system after the first time.

In one way, I'm the opposite of Minnie Mum. I kind of found a method for changing days and times quickly after playing around with the dining website. However, even being just a semi-whippersnapper I share her good healthy paranoia--I set aside one CC for all my trip preparation costs so I can easily double-check my charges online through the CC website. (It's also a good budgeting method for me.) My CC company's fraud folks even called me when they started seeing charges from "some place called WDW in Florida."

 

[nkereina]

sorry....i'm confused by this post

you state you have to give cc info each time online and one time online
(that's the way i read it anyhow)
AND that Fantasmic was allowing booking online but were allowing via phone....both? one or the other?
i must be getting REALLY old 'cause i just plain don't get it...

clarification, please

I think the poster meant the F! packages WEREN'T booking online but they could get it by phone. The online system has a lot of bugs and can be touchy, so sometimes the phone agents are better for this reason. And I haven't done any ADRs since the new CC hold was implemented but before, online, you would have to enter your CC info for each reservation that required a CC hold/payment and with the phone agent, you only need to do it once.

I prefer to do it myself online so that if the time I want isn't available, I can play around with other restaurants and times and see all of whats available right in front of me. I would bug the heck out of a phone agent saying "well check this... how about this... ok, now look at this..."... better just to do it myself

 

[creativeamanda]

Here's the issue with the new CC situation now. Even though you only have to give the number one time to a phone operator, they put the $1 hold multiple times--one for each of the cc hold reservations. They used to not do this, but they do it now.

 

[minnie mum]

Here's the issue with the new CC situation now. Even though you only have to give the number one time to a phone operator, they put the $1 hold multiple times--one for each of the cc hold reservations. They used to not do this, but they do it now.

Is this really a big deal?? For our family anyway, even if we had a cc hold on all our TS ADRs it wouldn't be that much money.

 

[Kakikomori]

Is this really a big deal?? For our family anyway, even if we had a cc hold on all our TS ADRs it wouldn't be that much money.

The only reason I can think of is that so many $1 cc holds from FL on the same card would probably put a fraud-type flag on the cc account. Normally a call to the cc company would handle everything as it did in my case, but the card could be cancelled and a new card with a different number issued. Admittedly that would only be a problem if you were less than 7-10 days out from your trip. Also usually you can contact your cc company and let them know you're going on vacation as well.

 

[Pugmalion1]

When it comes to reserving a room, or even checking in to the room upon our arrival, I will always choose the live interaction over the automated online service. But, I find the online dining service to be insanely efficient and hassle-free.

Now, we don't make reservations for character meals or buffets, and tend to lean more towards the signature dining experiences, so perhaps in our case the online service fits our needs better than the phone service, but I've gotten great use out of the online service even on day-of reservations using the mobile site on my phone. It's really a remarkably intuitive system.

Even if you decide to use the phone reservation system to make your initial choices, it pays to bookmark the mobile site on your phone for those spur of the moment decisions.

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

sorry....i'm confused by this post

you state you have to give cc info each time online and one time online
(that's the way i read it anyhow)
AND that Fantasmic was allowing booking online but were allowing via phone....both? one or the other?
i must be getting REALLY old 'cause i just plain don't get it...

clarification, please

I think the poster meant the F! packages WEREN'T booking online but they could get it by phone. The online system has a lot of bugs and can be touchy, so sometimes the phone agents are better for this reason. And I haven't done any ADRs since the new CC hold was implemented but before, online, you would have to enter your CC info for each reservation that required a CC hold/payment and with the phone agent, you only need to do it once.

I prefer to do it myself online so that if the time I want isn't available, I can play around with other restaurants and times and see all of whats available right in front of me. I would bug the heck out of a phone agent saying "well check this... how about this... ok, now look at this..."... better just to do it myself

wow..I really need to learn to proof read. sorry for the confusion.

here is my corrected comment:

We did all of ours online, the window opens at 6 am vs 7 am for ressies. However, if making them online, for each ressie that requires the CC guarantee, you have to enter in all your information. If you did it on the phone, you would only need to provide it one time. That's the biggest difference to me. That and the Fantasmic Dinner Packages weren't allowing booking online for our dates, but were allowing via the phone.

 

[bellanotte10]

i dunno i do both. I wasn't able to get anything online for Akershus, but called, was super nice, and got a super nice lady who went out of her way to find me a reservation because while we were waiting i told her I was getting my masters degree and she was so impressed and proud of me, she wanted me to get that reservation. She made my day, and also made me a reservation. Try having a conversation with a computer to find a hard reservation. It will probably involve a LOT of swearing haha or it does in my case.

So if i know its for a restaurant thats not THAT popular i do it online. Signature or character i do over the phone.