Rumor on Restaurant board: ADR priority for DVC members?

[gk90]

There's a poster saying that there's a new dining system with "tiers for availability depending on if you are TIW, DVC, concierge, cast member, etc."--she says she trained on this new system. See posts #53 and #58 on this page and #61 on the following page
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2193916&page=4

Anyone else hear anything about this? And I have to say that when I made ADRs 2 weeks ago it definitely didn't feel like we were getting any advantage for being DVCers!

 

[DISNEY FIX]

Wow that is really interesting. When I call for ressies I am not going to mention the TIW card we have. Just belt out several times that we are DVC. A great perk.

 

[jimmytammy]

That is interesting.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

 

[PSC]

If we are getting premier treatment, I'd hate to experience the lowest tier treatment. I booked reservations 90 days before my trip last week and felt like a lot of things were being held back. Sure enough I called back a few weeks later and was able to trade my least desirable reservation for a different one that wasn't available at 90 days.

 

[wulfekamp]

The free dinners seem a little upset about it.

 

[DebbieB]

I haven't made any ADR's under the new system, are they asking for your name and reservation # up front? When I've made them in the past, you tell them what you want, they find it and then take your name. Sounds like this cm is trying to stir the pot.

I doubt WDW would ever give DVC members an official ADR priority (like 100 days) because it would cause a huge uproar like it has in this thread.

 

[tecodis]

I haven't made any ADR's under the new system, are they asking for your name and reservation # up front? When I've made them in the past, you tell them what you want, they find it and then take your name. Sounds like this cm is trying to stir the pot.

I doubt WDW would ever give DVC members an official ADR priority (like 100 days) because it would cause a huge uproar like it has in this thread.

When I tried to book an ADR the other day, the CM did indeed take my reservation information first. I didn't know the conf # so she had to look it up first. Then she checked for the dining availability.

The other thing I realized is that the CM has to put in a "range" of time to search. She had to change the range a couple times.

 

[oakmanner]

 

[tchrrx]

Hmmm...I called 90 days out and was not able to get some of the places that I wanted. I also got stuck with some crummy times. Even after calling back several times, I didn't get anything different.

 

[momx2]

The thing about the TIW card bothers me the most. We paid for the discount and actually probably spend more with it than we would without it. I put the TIW card in my DH's name and the DVC ressie in my name, maybe they won't notice???

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

If this new tier system is true, then I'm sure happy I'm DVC, but I do think it stinks for just about everyone else.

 

[deej696]

I have used the new travel agent system, and I can tell you there is a place for "client affiliation" where you can check off DVC or Annual Passholder, but not TIW. Not sure how that factors into the booking availability/priority, but there is a place to identify it when you input your desired time....

 

[sgtdisney]

I made some ADRs recently, and honestly, I was a little surprised I got the times I wanted for a party of 6. This was for early August. I know it is controverial, but in a way, but I think it is OK that Disney is doing this. I can see why they would want to give their concierge level guests a higher priority, they are paying a premium for the product. DVC members should be rewarded more for their loyalty if you ask me.

To me this is similar to how airlines treat their first class and elite frequent fliers. They are paying more for the same experience, so to speak, so they get little perks, like first on and off, priority baggage handling, etc. It isn't necessarily a caste system, but just a way of rewarding the customers who pay a premium for the product.

 

[emlutz23]

Maybe they need our reservation number to make sure we are staying on property, since resort guests can call 90 +10 days in advance?

Even though I am a DVC member (and sometimes an AP holder) and would benefit from these rumored priority ADR's, I'd rather have better shopping discounts!

 

[Tara]

Color me skeptical...the two people who said they were trained on the system have different stories about the tiers (one says DVC, VIP, concierge and CM; the other includes level of resort and free dining). A third person with "access to the system" says there are only selection boxes for DVC and AP holder and that TIW was there but removed and indicated this was to show appropriate dining discounts.

Add in the fact that too many DVCers have been complaining about not getting ADRs and it doesn't seem like there's any prioritization going on.

I don't quite believe it.

 

[n2mm]

I've also read this and the bottom tier is offsite guest. What I've read is that there is a wider table selection for the top tier. If they are gone for the top tier, they are gone for all. I doubt we ever see any "official" word on this.

 

[DebbieB]

I question this cm's motivation. CM's sign a confidentiality agreement and here she comes posting all these details that she had to know would cause an uproar.

 

[Doug7856]

It may be too early to determine if all of the features are fully functional. I don't see much difference between Disney identifying it's most loyal customers in order to provide special offers or a higher level of service and airlines or grocery stores doing the same. Frequent flyer and grocery store loyalty programs are commonly used and provide effective ways for their respective industries to reward loyalty. Marriott and Starwood offer loyalty programs. It would not surprise me that Disney would offer similar programs at some point. In reality they already do with PIN related email/postcard offers.

 

[JimMIA]

Interesting. CM's have usually been bottom-tier, so their position in this system should surprise noone. In fact, they are normally not even allowed to make ADRs at all during certain peak periods (not long periods, but dates like Thanksgiving and Mother's Day).