Question about adding celebrations to ADR's

[loralie]

When I made my ADRs, last week, I mentioned that my DH and I are celebrating our Anniversary and the CM said that she noted it on all of our ADR's. I realized when I got off the phone that I forgot to mention that we are also celebrating one of my son's graduation. I called back to make my final payment (yeah!!!) today and I asked them to put on the ADR's my son's graduation and I mentioned that I felt bad for my younger son because he was not really celebrating anything so I asked if they can note on the ADR's that he was celebrating getting good grades this year. The CM told me that she can only put the graduation on one ADR and the good grades on another ADR but not all of them. I thought that was a little weird being that they put our Anniversary on all of our ADR's. She said that they usually just put birthdays and anniversaries on the ADR's and not really anything else but that she would put one for each kid if I wanted. I had her do it but I don't see what the big deal is if she noted it on all of them. I know you don't always get special things and I am not expecting anything but I figured if we did them all maybe we would get a better chance.

Does this sound right to you and have you heard anything like this? This is the year of celebrations...right?

TIA,

Loralie

 

[loralie]

I am bumping this up to see if anyone has had this same experience. Anyone?


The question is basically this...have you ever been told you can only put a celebration on 1 ADR and not all of them? It just sounded weird to me. Should I call back and talk to another CM? If this is common for celebrations other than birthday's and anniversaries than that is alright but I have never heard about the limitations so I wanted to check it out.

Thanks,

Loralie

 

[MrsJ Henry]

hmmm I don't know but I think I would call again and ask another cast member.
When I called they asked if we were celebrating anything and i told them our anniversary and she said she would note it but didn't say if she was doing it on all of them.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

personally I think that it is nice that they are willing to add comment about getting good grades. Normally that would not be counted as a special celebration.

I guess i just think that Disney does quite a bit when it comes to things like special touches, and imo, if they did it for everyone for everything, then it makes it not as special.

They have to draw the line somewhere, if they don't then they will have people saying "hey my kid finally cleaned up his room on his own, we are celebrating" LOL!

Take the 1 request, and hope that the restaurant makes it a celebration for everyone.

Besides, a trip to Disney is a pretty good reward on its own!

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I totally agree with a lil bit goofy.

 

[LetsSee1970]

I think folks should stop looking at a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

do they DO something special at the restaurant? I thought it was just them making comment to it or something.
I wouldn't see this as looking a gift horse in the mouth.....
I think it is a simple question and the Op just wanted some clarification since she was hearing two different things from cast members. totally understandable.
In this case I usually call again to get more clarification and also ask my question on here.

 

[allison443]

When I made my ADRs, last week, I mentioned that my DH and I are celebrating our Anniversary and the CM said that she noted it on all of our ADR's. I realized when I got off the phone that I forgot to mention that we are also celebrating one of my son's graduation. I called back to make my final payment (yeah!!!) today and I asked them to put on the ADR's my son's graduation and I mentioned that I felt bad for my younger son because he was not really celebrating anything so I asked if they can note on the ADR's that he was celebrating getting good grades this year. The CM told me that she can only put the graduation on one ADR and the good grades on another ADR but not all of them. I thought that was a little weird being that they put our Anniversary on all of our ADR's. She said that they usually just put birthdays and anniversaries on the ADR's and not really anything else but that she would put one for each kid if I wanted. I had her do it but I don't see what the big deal is if she noted it on all of them. I know you don't always get special things and I am not expecting anything but I figured if we did them all maybe we would get a better chance.

Does this sound right to you and have you heard anything like this? This is the year of celebrations...right?

TIA,

Loralie

I guess I don't understand what you're looking for from Disney. Do you want them to acknowledge all three things at the same time at one meal? And that's why you wanted to make sure you included a "good grades celebration" for your other son? What if one of your meals only includes an anniversary celebration for you? Will your kids feel bad? Or if only one of the meals acknowledges the graduation, then the other child will feel bad? Like you said, nothing is really guaranteed in terms of these celebrations. I guess since you aren't counting on Disney doing anything, maybe you could arrange your own celebration, maybe have one meal to celebrate the anniversary, one for son #1, one for son #2.
It seems like this is important to you so you are better off making your own arrangements.

 

[dipin]

If it is important to you, by all means call them back. But I think it is too much effort for almost nothing. If you want your server to comment/congratulate your kids on it, you'd be better off informing them of that when checking in at the restaurant. In any case, if you really want something nice for your son, you should prepare it and organize it yourself, just to make sure and not let it up to chance.

Now, I do have a comment regarding a part of your original post:

I know you don't always get special things and I am not expecting anything but I figured if we did them all maybe we would get a better chance.

So just to clarify, your idea to add other celebrations is motivated at least in part by a desire to get something free out of it? Maybe I misunderstood this passage, but if this is indeed your motivation, I think it is just sad. First of all, because it wont work. The places that do something special for celebrations only do for certain celebrations. "Good grades" wont get you any extra freebies on top of whatever you would get for your anniversary celebration. And second of all, why set yourself and your son up for disappointment for expecting something like that anyways? Again, I might have misunderstood you (although I think that sentence is pretty clear), but so many people get so caught up on the special freebie stuff that they end up letting the fact that they might not have gotten a bottom or cake that is worth less than 5 bucks ruin the vacation they spent thousands for.

 

[leighe]

Are you serious?

 

[loralie]

I am the OP...Do I need to get the fire extinguisher for all the flames?

I think people are getting way too serious. I have only been to WDW twice before and we never went at a time when we were celebrating anything. It has been 4 years since we have been there. We had to cancel a vacation that was booked 2 years ago so I am super excited to go. This is the year of celebrations and when I booked the trip they asked what we are celebrating. I told them. When I booked the ADR's I forgot about the graduation. I am not looking for anything...I just figured that if this was the year of celebrations and they keep asking me on the phone what we are celebrating that I should tell them. I read on some other boards about kids celebrating their "unbirthday" to have something to celebrate. I thought that was what the whole year of celebrations thing was about. I just did not want my younger son to feel left out if they gave us the pins you wear saying what you are celebrating. I read on another post that someone brought a sharpie and wrote on the pin with the sharpie what they were celebrating because they did not have a pin for it.

I am not expecting anything at the resturants. I just thought it was weird that they put the anniversary on every ADR without me asking for it to be put on every ADR but when I asked about the graduation they said they could only put it on one. I only asked about the good grades celebration for my younger son because of the other posts I read about the "unbirthday". If they happen to spread a little pixie dust in our way for the celebrations...than great. If not...no big deal.

Hope this clears it up.

 

[Mom2Nick]

I think people need to make their own magic not celebrate every thing they can think of in the hopes that Disney will give some magic for free. JMO.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

I am the OP...Do I need to get the fire extinguisher for all the flames?

I think people are getting way too serious. I have only been to WDW twice before and we never went at a time when we were celebrating anything. It has been 4 years since we have been there. We had to cancel a vacation that was booked 2 years ago so I am super excited to go. This is the year of celebrations and when I booked the trip they asked what we are celebrating. I told them. When I booked the ADR's I forgot about the graduation. I am not looking for anything...I just figured that if this was the year of celebrations and they keep asking me on the phone what we are celebrating that I should tell them. I read on some other boards about kids celebrating their "unbirthday" to have something to celebrate. I thought that was what the whole year of celebrations thing was about. I just did not want my younger son to feel left out if they gave us the pins you wear saying what you are celebrating. I read on another post that someone brought a sharpie and wrote on the pin with the sharpie what they were celebrating because they did not have a pin for it.

I am not expecting anything at the resturants. I just thought it was weird that they put the anniversary on every ADR without me asking for it to be put on every ADR but when I asked about the graduation they said they could only put it on one. I only asked about the good grades celebration for my younger son because of the other posts I read about the "unbirthday". If they happen to spread a little pixie dust in our way for the celebrations...than great. If not...no big deal.

Hope this clears it up.

No flames here at all. I understand that you are just asking a question and hoping some kind Disboard folks will help answer.
I hope you all have a magical trip and wonderful celebrations!!!!

 

[Bektasmic]

Sorry for the semi-hijaak, but:

What is the result of alerting them to a celebration? I just made ADR's today and when asked responded that we are celebrating two birthdays (mine and DH). She asked if i wanted that noted on all reservations, and I said sure. What happens?

We also alerted the birthday at our resort. It's just the three of us, and would much rather any "fuss" be directed at our DS rather than us. Is it unethical to say I made a mistake and we're actually celebrating DS's b-day instead?

 

[crashbb]

We also alerted the birthday at our resort. It's just the three of us, and would much rather any "fuss" be directed at our DS rather than us. Is it unethical to say I made a mistake and we're actually celebrating DS's b-day instead?

Since it isn't his birthday, yes it would be wrong. Whether or not it is "too wrong" for you to do, is up to you.

 

[akhenaten]

I think people need to make their own magic not celebrate every thing they can think of in the hopes that Disney will give some magic for free. JMO.

I totally agree!!!

When we went a few years ago , it happened to be my DD birthday.... they did something for her at whispering canyon and it was fun! We did not even mention it at any other place ....
I have a son and another DD and we did not feel the need to make up a reason to celebrate so they would not "feel left out"
they will have and have had special things done for them at other times and places when it was truly a celebration.....

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I am not expecting anything at the resturants. I just thought it was weird that they put the anniversary on every ADR without me asking for it to be put on every ADR but when I asked about the graduation they said they could only put it on one. I only asked about the good grades celebration for my younger son because of the other posts I read about the "unbirthday". If they happen to spread a little pixie dust in our way for the celebrations...than great. If not...no big deal.

Hope this clears it up.

It sounds like you got an exceptional CM the 1st time. IME, the other calls are more common. I've made 11 ADRs this year. Plus I've changed a few. This has been done over several calls. I've only been asked once, if we were celebrating anything. We were there for our DS's birthday, & I had to ask her to document it on the ADR. She didn't volunteer to do so. We preordered him a cake. I'm glad we did. The restaurant didn't acknowledge it, other than our server bringing out the cake, after we asked for it. We go to WDW often, & it's much more common to not be asked if we're celebrating than it is to have a CM ask.