Padding reservations

[kellietony]

The $10 cancellation fee doesn't prevent padding, but it has significantly reduced the problem. ADRs have been much easier to obtain since the $10 cancellation policy was implemented.



You can get reservations at good restaurants at 90 days out, but not the most popular restaurants like Ohana. Be flexible with times and locations and you'll be able to find plenty of decent meals. I just did a search for Epcot restaurants on November 29th, which I believe is during your trip based on your ticker. It's 40 days out from that date and I found lots of restaurants with dinner ADRs available. I chose a party of 4 and got La Hacienda de San Angel, San Angel Inn, Biergarten, Le Chefs de France, Rose and Crown, Tutto Italia, and Via Napoli. All of those are very popular restaurants. I also got the less popular Epcot restaurants like Marrakesh but those are easier to get. So there are ADRs available at places plenty of people enjoy.

I find that when people are releasing 30+ reservations when they cancel a 10 day trip, and the majority are the Populars with the $10 fee, it isn't that curbed. Several of my friends who go often think the same. But that is their right since it meets the Disney rules. And they will get released, it just makes planning the trip much more arduous for the rest of us.

And I was referring to the most popular, when I wrote good. They are popular for a reason, the food is decent and our kids love them! There are restaurants who have better food who still have availability (The Wave), but it is all based on which days we are going where and what food we are willing to eat. For instance, on the 29th, we are planning MVMCP, so the EPCOT restaurants are of no use to us. All MK rest. were booked of course at the 90+ point. I managed to snag one of our top choices at LTT by hounding the ADR system for a couple Weeks, though.

I happen to be one of those people who has a more picky husband. While I loved Boma and others rave about it, my DH doesn't want to ever eat there again. I have read tons of reviews and printed all the menus and he will not touch some of them based on the food, nor will I, based on reviews. Garden Grill, San Angel, and Coral Reef being some of my "no's". My reservations are all set, except for 'Ohana dinner which has yet to show any availability during my trip whenever I have tried. But I've read great things about Kona's dinner, and may just stick with that res.

I was relating my personal experiece to show how padding by others makes the process difficult for the late bookers, but diligence has gotten me where I am happy with our ADRs. I have been on my tablet nonstop since we decided to go again. I appreciate your taking the time to look on my behalf though. That was really nice.

 

[Nancyg56]

I don't understand padding/ I just do not. We make our ADR's because we know where we like to eat and we have a good idea when we like our meals. How fickle must one be to book so many extra ADR's? I admit I have some breakfast ADR's booked, but they are not extras. DD and I are tweaking our schedule and may let one or two go if we think there are too many character meals but no way would I double and triple book because I cannot make up my mind. That would make me insane!

 

[dvcterry]

I think it is totally crazy and very selfish.

to book a popular restaurant on the same day 3 times staggering the times is just insane. To have the " I got mine, screw you attitude" we are seeing is just awful.

The CC hold was a step in the right direction in curbing overbooking but it is a shame they could not find a way to program the current ADR system to to require the cancellation of ADRs at the same place for the same meal period making it impossible to book dinner at 'Ohana @ 5, 6, 7 on the same night for example

Agreed. People should not hoard reservations. It's just wrong.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I then suggested that since people could still book the free dining plan they were offering for the next month, they should put an asterisk by the Free dining with a note "but only at places no one else wants to eat or unless you are willing to devote every waking hour to haunting our ADR system for the next 3 months"

I find that when people are releasing 30+ reservations when they cancel a 10 day trip, and the majority are the Populars with the $10 fee, it isn't that curbed. Several of my friends who go often think the same. But that is their right since it meets the Disney rules. And they will get released, it just makes planning the trip much more arduous for the rest of us.

And I was referring to the most popular, when I wrote good. They are popular for a reason, the food is decent and our kids love them! There are restaurants who have better food who still have availability (The Wave), but it is all based on which days we are going where and what food we are willing to eat. For instance, on the 29th, we are planning MVMCP, so the EPCOT restaurants are of no use to us. All MK rest. were booked of course at the 90+ point. I managed to snag one of our top choices at LTT by hounding the ADR system for a couple Weeks, though.

I happen to be one of those people who has a more picky husband. While I loved Boma and others rave about it, my DH doesn't want to ever eat there again. I have read tons of reviews and printed all the menus and he will not touch some of them based on the food, nor will I, based on reviews. Garden Grill, San Angel, and Coral Reef being some of my "no's". My reservations are all set, except for 'Ohana dinner which has yet to show any availability during my trip whenever I have tried. But I've read great things about Kona's dinner, and may just stick with that res.

I was relating my personal experiece to show how padding by others makes the process difficult for the late bookers, but diligence has gotten me where I am happy with our ADRs. I have been on my tablet nonstop since we decided to go again. I appreciate your taking the time to look on my behalf though. That was really nice.

There is a big difference between "only at places no one else wants to eat" and not being able to book an ADR at the MK on a MVMCP night or at Ohana at 90 days out. I understand your frustration led you to a bit of hyperbole. I just felt yours was a very misleading comment. There are plenty of WDW veterans that go with no ADRs scheduled and find places to eat because they are flexible and know good restaurants which usually have availability.

I was basing my comments regarding improvement since the new cancellation policy was implemented on my own experience booking ADRs before and subsequent to the new policy, and also on other people's comments here on the Disboards. It has been noted by many people, myself included, that ADRs are more available since the $10 fee was put in place. For my last trip in May, I saw multiple reservations available at LeCellier available in the weeks leading up to our trip. Those used to be almost impossible to find. I did find a few Ohana ADRs in that time period as well, just not as many and they were at less desirable times (i.e. 9:00pm). I already had my ADRs made at 180 days out but was considering a few alterations. Ultimately, I chose to stick with what I had because the times were better, but there was more availability than I'd ever seen before that close to a trip.

I wasn't saying that the new policy guarantees anyone can book Ohana at 90 days out and I also didn't say it completely stops people from making multiple ADRs that they have no intention of using. But it was a good step towards improving the problem. If people are hellbent on padding their reservations, they will find a way around whatever WDW puts in place short of making all ADRs pre-paid with a non-refundable policy, which WDW will never do. It would impact everyone, not just the hoarders. I think I'd stop making any ADRs if WDW put that policy in place .

There are always jerks in this world that have a "me first" attitude towards everything. It's unfortunate that their actions impact other people, but I would say that considerate people outnumber the jerks. And I can't let the jerks make me not enjoy my vacation.

 

[WSLover]

I didn't actually decide to come this fall until just before 90 days out. Nothing we really wanted was available. I called to get sometime to check in one glance and they couldn't see anything more than I could. The CM commented that "This close, it can be difficult." I went off a little! This close?!? I said, I didn't know we were going at 180 days, what would he suggest I do, start making random reservations throughout the year on the off-chance that I might go to Disney?

I then suggested that since people could still book the free dining plan they were offering for the next month, they should put an asterisk by the Free dining with a note "but only at places no one else wants to eat or unless you are willing to devote every waking hour to haunting our ADR system for the next 3 months"

I agree that 180 days out is way too much time. We had a room only res with just a few ADRs. When free dining was released well within the 180 day point we switched over to a package. I was surprised that I was able to get almost everything I wanted except for 'Ohana and Le Cellier but I was able to get those in the last few weeks. It was very frustrating and time consuming.

I would not worry about finding a place last minute because just to see what kind of chance we would have getting same day ADRs for hard to get places I have been checking each day to see what places were available that night and at least 50 - 60 rastaurants would come up each day. I even saw an occasional 'Ohana and Le Cellier.

 

[kellietony]

There is a big difference between "only at places no one else wants to eat" and not being able to book an ADR at the MK on a MVMCP night or at Ohana at 90 days out. I understand your frustration led you to a bit of hyperbole. I just felt yours was a very misleading comment. There are plenty of WDW veterans that go with no ADRs scheduled and find places to eat because they are flexible and know good restaurants which usually have availability.

Wow. I would like to point you back to my original story of my experience where I threw that SARCASTIC comment back at the CM after he commented "This close to your trip" when I was over 90 days out. It was 106 days to be exact. And that means that people were still able to buy a trip that contained the free dining plan for almost 50 more days. So if I was close and could get only 1 of our choices on ANY day at that point, what luck would they have? The CM even laughed. Of course, he could hear the humor in my voice, something typing on boards can't convey.

And really, no, I don't believe I had a bit of exaggeration when I made my comment. Every time I check availability for my stay, each day has the same 20+ restaurants with no availability. Why? Because everyone wants to eat there. Therefore, on the flip side, that means that everyone doesn't want to eat at the others, or to eliminate the double-negative, no one wants to eat at the others. That's how logic statements work unfortunately.

Apparently what I thought was a funny little sarcastic view, greatly bothers you. You have honed in on small pieces of my story, ie. that I have yet to get 'Ohana, and that on the day where you found some availability at EPCOT, that I was planning to be at MVMCP that day and was hoping to find impossible MK restaurants. There is always more availability at EPCOT than any other park by virtue of its sheer number, but that is only useful if you have PH or AP. I have neither, so I plan to either eat in park the day I visit it, or at a resort location. Even with that flexibility, every other day of my stay I still had no luck originally booking my choices. Like I said, persistence in hounding the ADR system does pay off, but as opposed to an hour of my time at 180 days out, it has consumed days of my time to get what I now have and am happy with. In the meantime, I see others releasing 4 'Ohana, 3 CP, 3 PF at a time, and I know why I had trouble - padding.

Perhaps, you would understand my comment more if I told you that I was on the phone with the CM that day for over 1-1/2 hours, and that one of his "helpful alternatives" for the day of the MVMCP (knowing full well that I planned to attend it that day) after we looked over all the MK and the monorail resort options, was that he could book me into Artist Point at 7:30 pm. Really??? Not only is it a Signature restaurant that takes 2 TS credits, but it's at the Wilderness Lodge smack at the middle of the time you want to be at MVMCP? Yes, please. I spend over $200 to go to MVMCP, but let's leave it for 3 hours to go to dinner. Now, if they would give me Artist Point for 1 TS, I would have gone to dinner and moved my MVMCP day! But other than that, he was less than helpful. I got off the phone with no reservations, as the Wave was wide open and I planned to take that as my last reservation after I booked everything else wherever I could get it that reasonably worked for us.

 

[cigar95]

And really, no, I don't believe I had a bit of exaggeration when I made my comment. Every time I check availability for my stay, each day has the same 20+ restaurants with no availability. Why? Because everyone wants to eat there. Therefore, on the flip side, that means that everyone doesn't want to eat at the others, or to eliminate the double-negative, no one wants to eat at the others. That's how logic statements work unfortunately.

the logical negation that you're looking for is "fewer guests want to eat there", rather than "no one wants to eat there". Locations like Olivia's and Kona Cafe are places where many guests *do* want to eat, just not as many as the top-of-the-line handful that fill the quickest.

Other than maybe Shutters and Cap'n Jacks, I can't think of anyplace where almost no one wants to eat. (And yes, I realize that I will probably rile a few fans of those two places - there just aren't many of them.)

 

[kellietony]

My story relation was not meant to get into any debate on the specifics of words. It was a sarcastic joke. I'm sorry it has gone so wild. It was not meant to be a black and white everybody/nobody, gray be damned.

Padding with multiple times on multiple days isn't necessary. Noone I personally know does it, but those who do will justify it somehow in their minds. It is "i have what I have because I got there first, it is what I need, and I will keep them until I see fit to release them. Until that point, you will have to waste your time checking to see if anything has opened. And I always release them, it just might not be until after you've given up!" And they will continue to do so unless Disney puts more cross-checks in place.