POLICY CHANGE (? 100 day ADR ?'s)

[zulaya]

This still sucks for all, especially with the hard to get ressies like Cindy's (well everything seems a bit harder with this dining plan)

I mean, I will have 10 days where people who arrive before me can get the date that I want for Cindy's and then there is a possibility that by the time I actually can call, the date I need will be all booked up or there will be times left that are not what I want.

Impatiently waiting for confirmation...

 

[BCV23]

This still sucks for all, especially with the hard to get ressies like Cindy's (well everything seems a bit harder with this dining plan)

I mean, I will have 10 days where people who arrive before me can get the date that I want for Cindy's and then there is a possibility that by the time I actually can call, the date I need will be all booked up or there will be times left that are not what I want.

Impatiently waiting for confirmation...

But it will all even out. Just think about it. If everyone calls on their first day, how is it different than everyone calling on the 90th day.

In fact, for CRT it seems easier. If you call 90 days out for a seven day trip starting on say 1/1 and can't get CRT for 1/1, you can ask for availability for every other day of your trip.

And those who started 10 days before you, won't be competing with you for any day but the first.

 

[Kaycee]

But it will all even out. Just think about it. If everyone calls on their first day, how is it different than everyone calling on the 90th day.

In fact, for CRT it seems easier. If you call 90 days out for a seven day trip starting on say 1/1 and can't get CRT for 1/1, you can ask for availability for every other day of your trip.

And those who started 10 days before you, won't be competing with you for any day but the first.

Exactly!

 

[experiment626mom]

I would like if they did this. This last trip I got tired of having to call every other day to make ressie's.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I am still a little confused. I am VERY confused about the on-site vs. offsite thing, but maybe I just need to think more about it.

Sunday is 89 days out from arrival for us, so I can call Sunday for my first day of ADR's. Monday (theoretically) starts the new policy and I will be 88 days out from arrival. So I call Monday and can book for days 2-8 of my trip all in one call. Which means since I want CRT on Day 7 if I blurt it out REALLY FAST I might have a chance of getting it. BUT I will be slowed by the stupid ressie number!

AND let's don't forget that my ressies are through AAA. I don't even KNOW the ressie #, which means I will absolutely have to get ahold of my absentee AAA agent and GET THE NUMBER. OK. I have Thursday and Friday to call her relentlessly to get my ressie. There is a number on my AAA paperwork but it is THEIR number, not Disney's. Crap. This could be bad.

This will also be bad if the CM I get has no clue and everyone else is getting CM's who DO know what they are doing.

Well, this could go one of two ways for me. Since my day is the first day of the policy I could ALMOST have a chance at booking CRT even if it is past 6:57 AM. Not everyone who is calling that morning will know to ask for things past 90 days, right? On the other hand, the phones may be so clogged with people that I won't be able to get through to book anything and we'll be sucking down 8 days worth of counter service!

I will definitely ask about it when I call on Sunday, and I will have my "hard to get" stuff written down on a piece of paper so I can say it FAST on Monday morning. If they AREN'T booking farther than 90 days it won't matter if I say "CRT on 10/21" and they can't access it. They'll just say to call back on Saturday. Nothing else will be that hard to book, I hope!

 

[pjupton]

AND let's don't forget that my ressies are through AAA. I don't even KNOW the ressie #, which means I will absolutely have to get ahold of my absentee AAA agent and GET THE NUMBER. OK. I have Thursday and Friday to call her relentlessly to get my ressie. There is a number on my AAA paperwork but it is THEIR number, not Disney's. Crap. This could be bad.

It's not a big deal. You can just use your phone number.

Or you can just push 1 and 1 or whatever and skip entering all that info.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I used 1, 1 when I called this morning to ask about the policy change and it worked fine. I am worried that they may be changing the prompts to require a ressie # if this is only going to be a perk for on-site. And of course none of us will know that until Monday morning! YIKES!

So I'll try to be armed with the number in case they really do ask for it. I don't want to be caught off guard and miss out on booking.

 

[WANNABE@WDW]

Does anyone know if they will change the reservation policy for specialty cruises, too? Boy, that would be great to knock everthing out with one phone call!

 

[PatsGirl]

I think this makes perfect sense and tried to post a question last week about whether this was possible (something went bad, said I had posted twice but never had, anyways I finally gave up, ).

Hopefully, this will lighten up the phones and allow people to make ressies in one or two calls rather than ten calls in ten days, etc. Someone else can crunch the numbers but I'll be making one call vs. ten so that's a 90% decrease in calls for this family . Can you multiply this by the rooms at Disney resorts?

 

[DisOrBust]

No offense but this isn't good. You could always make all your PS at once if you WAITED until your dayswere past the 90 day mark. Which we always did unles it was CRT or Thanksgiving. what is to prevent me from being an "offsite guest" arriving 3 days earlier then my onsite ressie and making 7 days of PS on a "ghost" offsite reservation. Don't think people aren't going to try to beat the system remember someone sold a PS for CRT for 70.oo on ebay.

I know they way it is now is not ideal but this is freightening. The holidays could get ugly......

 

[calie_j]

But it will all even out. Just think about it. If everyone calls on their first day, how is it different than everyone calling on the 90th day.

In fact, for CRT it seems easier. If you call 90 days out for a seven day trip starting on say 1/1 and can't get CRT for 1/1, you can ask for availability for every other day of your trip.

And those who started 10 days before you, won't be competing with you for any day but the first.

Yes but those who started 1-9 days before you already took all the best spots for your whole week

I really hope this is just a rumor because it's sure playing favorites to those who have longer trips and making it harder for those who stay off site. And what about those who do split stays? Will they take the confirmation # for the 2nd resort and look to see that it's following the 1st resort or would they make you wait til it's 90 days out from your 2nd resort. Many people split their stays between mod/deluxe or value/mod because they can't affort the higher end resort for a whole week, we're already punished with 2 deposits and buying tickets for each ressie to get a package, are they going to punish us again with this?

Disney if you're listening STOP MAKING ALL THESE CHANGES

Calie

 

[kimbac3]

Wow. I'm going to have to monitor this - hit that subscribe to thread button.
I hope they don't do this. I'm new to WDW (it's our first trip) and I was just getting all this calling at 6:00am stuff straight in my head. Plus I'm staying offsite ..... Everybody make sure they post when they know for sure!
Kimba

 

[zulaya]

<quote>Yes but those who started 1-9 days before you already took all the best spots for your whole week </quote>

EXACTLY! There will be 10 days of people before me who can look at my date before I even have a chance to. I am sure the phones will be lighter, but for the crucial ADRs, like Cindy's, it really takes the random chance out of the picture.

I hate this! I have to go out of town and won't be back until late Sunday afternoon. I hope that we get some clarification by then!

 

[kizmac]

Thank goodness this change is coming after I had to do my ADR's. I don't like the sounds of it. I actually enjoyed calling every morning (call me strange) and this is definitely going to tie up lines just for the amount of time it will take someone to make up to 10 ressies at once.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I feel for you guys that have to call on the first day. You can bet that all CM's aren't going to be on the same page too.

 

[beattyfamily]

bumping

Should be an interesting week next week...can't wait to see how this plays out.

I'm holding my judgement until all the facts are in and it's been in place for a couple of weeks.

 

[AUTUMN SUN]

But it will all even out. Just think about it. If everyone calls on their first day, how is it different than everyone calling on the 90th day.

In fact, for CRT it seems easier. If you call 90 days out for a seven day trip starting on say 1/1 and can't get CRT for 1/1, you can ask for availability for every other day of your trip.

And those who started 10 days before you, won't be competing with you for any day but the first.

Although this concept may sound easier, its certainly not fair. Case in point:THE HOLIDAYS! Im arriving 12/27. How many more people are going to get there well before x-mas or plan the whole week from x-mas to New years? By the time im able to make my PS, I guarantee there will be little to possibly nothing left! I am going to cry, for real!! I really hope this is inaccurate.

 

[lvloopingbag]

Ugh!
I can understand Disney giving onsite guests the first shot at reservations, but why didn't they just do it like they have it for golf? Onsite guests can book before the offsite guests. This 10 day window will be nuts.....Imagine the hold times now to speak to Dining!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. If you cancel your ROOM reservation, your ADRs are cancelled.

You were very clear. But given Disney's track record of it's CM's actually enforcing the rules it sets up, particularly when someone squaks and it's not a safety issue, I'm not at all confident that this will actually take place for very long. And once people learn of the ways around it (I have two or 3 already but lets face it, they'll be more), it's going to degenerate into what we have now. People will find a way around the system and once they do, in the long run we're all going to be calling 100 days out instead of 90. And if we really want something, we're going to be calling every morning just like now.

More on how I think people are going to get right around the rules here.

Let's say you booked the split stay room ressie. You simply ask to have the ressies remaining for the second half of the split ressie transferred to the other ressie PRIOR to cancelling. You may not even have to do that. You simply have to ask the right way. "Hi there Mr. CM. I noticed I made a mistake a month ago and gave you the wrong ressie #, can you put it under the right one for me? Do you think a CM is going to back check when the ressie was made and say Ah Ah Ah cheater? I'll actually believe that all the CM's will consistantly do that when I see it.
They're simply going to say yes and if they say no, you simply hang up and get another one. If after 3 or 4 tries, you can't get em to do it, you simply call for the manager, Mr. Manager, I'm definitely coming, I made ressies a month ago but I've inadvertently had to change my plans. Now I'm told you're going to delete all my ressies and not just the ones where I won't be there any more? Mr. Manager, look at the 3 grand I'm paying for my stay. I had adverse circumstances that caused me to have to cancel the other portion of the trip and not spend 6 grand. Are you now telling me you don't want my other 3 grand either?? Because really, If I can't eat where I want, well I'm not the threatening type Mr. Manager, I'm sure I don't have to remind you I can take my money elsewhere. Bamm.
About 30 of these and the manager will simply tell the cm's to say yes. Or the CM's will quickly learn their immediate supervisors will look the other way.
They aren't going to be saying, I'm sorry Mr. Custormer. You booked that CRT 10 days earlier than you were technically supposed to. You're going to have to cancel it. Go ahead and take your 3g's elsewhere.
Oh the new system will run smoothly till word gets around, then soon after, everyone that want's cindy's or Akershus, or a before the park in CP or a prime time CM is gonna have to do it.

Another way to cheat it.
If you're going October 11th through the 20th for example, you just book the first through the 20th make your ressies for the 11th 90 days out from october first (ie 100 days out from the 11th along with a dummy reservation for October first the first day of your supposed trip. (100 days out from your actual trip). Then if you're on a package 46 days out you simply modify your reservation back to october 11th thorugh 20th and if you're not on a package (hotel only) you have up to 6 days out or so to modify your trip without penalty. If you run into problems again sweet talk the manager.

I'm not saying doing all this is right mind you. Just that people will do it, And if these don't work they'll find a way. and every indication I've seen so far on disney actually being able to get its CM's to follow the letter of the law so to speak indicates they aren't going to be able to.

 

[DonaldsGrl103]

what if your staying at the dolphin or the swan? Will that be included in this ridiculous idea? Im really nervous now about our Xmas trip

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Originally Posted by BCV23
But it will all even out. Just think about it. If everyone calls on their first day, how is it different than everyone calling on the 90th day.

Actually, it evens out only assuming an equal number of people come in each day and everyone's length of stay is equal.

Some arrival days are bigger than others. Saturday, Sunday, Friday, those are biggies. I don't know how many actually stay a week or more, but it's certainly enough to fill CRT many times over.
Imagine if you are coming on a monday and staying 4 days.
Well all those people coming in on Friday through Sunday and staying a week get access to all of your days 24, 48, or 72 hours before you do. confident in CRT under those conditions?