WARNING: few minutes late to ADR where they charge a no-show fee you may be charged

[starousse]

That's unfortunate what happened. I have to say, I just came back last Friday, and within the week, I had a few reservations in which we were late to. One was to the Tusker House breakfast, which was an hour late (due to mechanical problem someone had with their wheelchair on the bus), and Flying Fish which we checked in on time but asked if we could come back an hour later. I was nervous about getting charged a no show fee, but we weren't. The hostess at Tusker House said that they wouldn't charge the fee until the next day.

 

[bloodonthesaddle]

I am not paying for a taxi when I should have reliable transportation provided by disney, the same company that is providing my meal. Now, I agree that this is a good idea to keep people from double booking or just not coming to ADR but if you are a little (10-20mins) late because of the wonderful transportation system that is too much. If they will cancel the charge then ok but really sometimes people are late just like sometimes they can't sit you at a table at a reasonable time... just saying.

The majority of restaurants on property are NOT Disney owned and operated. These vendors are for profit corporations. Clearly Disney needed a means to persuade these vendors to participate in the DDP, this system clearly has its flaws but something needed to be done to get the vendors to participate!

 

[Denamac]

Wanted to let you know that my refund was credited this week; so it took approximately 5 business days. Thankfully not too long!!

 

[clanmcculloch]

The majority of restaurants on property are NOT Disney owned and operated. These vendors are for profit corporations. Clearly Disney needed a means to persuade these vendors to participate in the DDP, this system clearly has its flaws but something needed to be done to get the vendors to participate!

This is simply not true. All MK and DHS restaurants are Disney owned and operated. Tusker House at AK is Disney owned and operated (Y&Y, RFC aren't). At EP almost half are Disney owned and operated (CR, GG, England, Canada, Germany, Norway are vs 2*France, 2*Japan, Morocco, Italy, China, Mexico aren't). All resort restaurants with the exception of Mara and some BW restaurants are Disney owned and operated. DTD is the big exception.

In addition, not a single one of these restaurants that is not owned and operated by Disney requires a credit card guarantee. How does this rule help these vendors? They are not subjecting their guests to it.

 

[LilGMom]

Given that Mama Melrose made us wait and hour because they were backed up, I would be furious if WDW charged me for any ADR I was late for.

This policy is totally ridiculous.

So I wonder, if I check in on time and then Disney makes me wait for 30 minutes before I am shown to my table, do I get to charge them $40 bucks for my valuable time?

I completely agree with this!!

 

[miprender]

That's unfortunate what happened. I have to say, I just came back last Friday, and within the week, I had a few reservations in which we were late to. One was to the Tusker House breakfast, which was an hour late (due to mechanical problem someone had with their wheelchair on the bus), and Flying Fish which we checked in on time but asked if we could come back an hour later. I was nervous about getting charged a no show fee, but we weren't. The hostess at Tusker House said that they wouldn't charge the fee until the next day.

I would keep checking your statement. Some "supposed" no show fees are appearing a week later.

 

[Liz Z]

Hi,
Happy New Year!
We leave tomorrow for Disney and I have a quick question about the CC quarantee.
We made a few ADRS before the new CC guarantee went into effect.

Well since then, I also made a few ADRS with the new cc guarantee. So my ? is for the ADRS that I made before the change, if by chance we're a no show will we be charged seeing as they have our CC info for the new ADRS.

We always try to cancel but maybe not so in advance of 24hrs

And if we have a 9am ressie on Wednesday with the new policy am I understanding that we have to call by 8:59am on Tuesday so we're not charged?

Sorry.... I just keep hearing conflicting reports.

TIA

 

[Missyrose]

Hi,
Happy New Year!
We leave tomorrow for Disney and I have a quick question about the CC quarantee.
We made a few ADRS before the new CC guarantee went into effect.

Well since then, I also made a few ADRS with the new cc guarantee. So my ? is for the ADRS that I made before the change, if by chance we're a no show will we be charged seeing as they have our CC info for the new ADRS.

They should NOT charge you for any ADRs made before Oct. 26. But make sure you're hypervigilant about checking your credit card bill to ensure no mistakes are made.

We always try to cancel but maybe not so in advance of 24hrs

And if we have a 9am ressie on Wednesday with the new policy am I understanding that we have to call by 8:59am on Tuesday so we're not charged?

Sorry.... I just keep hearing conflicting reports.

TIA

All we're gotten are conflicting reports. Some CMs say you must cancel 24 hours prior to the ADR (Tuesday 8:59 a.m.), but others said there must be a full day before the ADR, so to be safe you might want to cancel by Monday at 8:59 a.m.

It's confusing for all of us.

 

[Liz Z]

They should NOT charge you for any ADRs made before Oct. 26. But make sure you're hypervigilant about checking your credit card bill to ensure no mistakes are made.


All we're gotten are conflicting reports. Some CMs say you must cancel 24 hours prior to the ADR (Tuesday 8:59 a.m.), but others said there must be a full day before the ADR, so to be safe you might want to cancel by Monday at 8:59 a.m.

It's confusing for all of us.

Thank you so much for your quick reply.
I really hope they get this straightened out soon.
So many are people being charged for simply being late to their ressie
I will definitely be checking my CC's when we get home.

 

[chainkid]

1) If you are in line, then tell the podium you are there.
2) They have no way to know if you just stand around.
3) CHECK-IN AT PODIUM at/before ADR time, you are in good shape.

NOTE: I am glad they started the penalty. Too many people do not
have enough courtesy to be on time. Or cancel if they won't make it.
It seems money is the only way to reach some folks.

Perhaps people would be on time if the transportation system allowed them to but if you rely on disney and not your own car..good luck. It's easy to be on time if you are staying at an Epcot resort and eating in the area but try eating at another resort and have to rely on Disney' buses..better give yourself a min of two hours to get there and then you still might be late..it has happened.

 

[dismommom]

1) If you are in line, then tell the podium you are there.
2) They have no way to know if you just stand around.
3) CHECK-IN AT PODIUM at/before ADR time, you are in good shape.

NOTE: I am glad they started the penalty. Too many people do not
have enough courtesy to be on time. Or cancel if they won't make it.
It seems money is the only way to reach some folks.

Well Guess what we arrived at O'Hana 20 minutes before our ADR and it took 25 minutes to get to the podium. there must have been 30 people trying to check in or get a table. We then waited an hour for a table. So much for empty tables.

 

[dismommom]

So I wonder, if I check in on time and then Disney makes me wait for 30 minutes before I am shown to my table, do I get to charge them $40 bucks for my valuable time?

And for my 1 hour wait $40 bucks and a free drink. I wouldn't mind the new plan if the cancellations time was shorter and you actually got seated in 15-20 minutes

 

[dismommom]

I've been stuck in a 30 minute line to check in at Ohana. We had an ADR for the first dinner seating in 2010. We got there 20 minutes before 5:00 and by the time we got to the front of the line, it was already 5:10.

Part of the problem is people who don't have ADRs that want to argue with the CMs at the podium about getting seated. I know that was happening the night we were at Ohana. It also happened to me at LTT in 2008 during free dining. When I got to LTT, there were about 5 groups in line ahead of me to check in. It took 15 minutes to check in because every one of the 5 parties ahead of me didn't have ADRs and were arguing about why they couldn't get seated without an ADR and wanting the CMs to tell them where they could go and get seated for a TS dinner in the MK at 6pm on a Sunday evening during free dining. The CMs looked immensely relieved when I stepped up and told them I had an ADR.

On our December visit we stopped at LLT before they were open and asked if they could find out if CM was seving lunch - we had so many table sevice left we needed to use. WE waited over a half hour for the girl to try to find out in their system and finally we just thanked her and left. So if people are asking about other restaurants it relly slows things up. Disney needs to put service areas through the parks if they don't want you making advance ADR. WE just booked for August and they asked if i wanted the dining plan as usual. I said no not unless it's free. I'm not booking ards I get charged for and walk ups seem almost impossible even with the new plan. WE will have a car (which we need to make ADRS) so chain restaurants off property are looking real good

 

[BLTLDZ]

1) If you are in line, then tell the podium you are there.
2) They have no way to know if you just stand around.
3) CHECK-IN AT PODIUM at/before ADR time, you are in good shape.

NOTE: I am glad they started the penalty. Too many people do not
have enough courtesy to be on time. Or cancel if they won't make it.
It seems money is the only way to reach some folks.

I couldn't agree more!

 

[mom2rtk]

And for my 1 hour wait $40 bucks and a free drink. I wouldn't mind the new plan if the cancellations time was shorter and you actually got seated in 15-20 minutes

Did you guys miss all the "one way" street signs? Cuz that's how it is.

WE just booked for August and they asked if i wanted the dining plan as usual. I said no not unless it's free. I'm not booking ards I get charged for and walk ups seem almost impossible even with the new plan. WE will have a car (which we need to make ADRS) so chain restaurants off property are looking real good

Disney needs to be careful. With the ME and the dining plan they had done an outstanding job of capturing all the vacation dollars and giving people no reason to step off Disney property. Once people start checking out that big blue world out there, they are likely to take even more $$$ off-property.

 

[My sister's princess]

I like that they are doing something about the multiple reservation issues.
The $10 fee won't scare me off from making reservations, especially with the luck that people are having getting it credited if they were simply late.

 

[gilsan]

Did you guys miss all the "one way" street signs? Cuz that's how it is.



Disney needs to be careful. With the ME and the dining plan they had done an outstanding job of capturing all the vacation dollars and giving people no reason to step off Disney property. Once people start checking out that big blue world out there, they are likely to take even more $$$ off-property.

I agree. We are going in February and I made reservations prior to Oct 26. I was going to change some of them, but now I think I will leave them as is or cancel the one I am iffy about and just try walk ups. We normally have the dining plan but we thought we would try TIW for flexibility, but with the ADR issues maybe the flexibility will take us off site.

I am not against the idea, in principal, to prevent multiple ADR's but a 4 hour cancelation window would make more sense and charging no shows after midnight.

What a headache.

 

[Swmhc]

So I wonder, if I check in on time and then Disney makes me wait for 30 minutes before I am shown to my table, do I get to charge them $40 bucks for my valuable time?

And do you charge your doctor for making you wait to be seen ?

Really ?

They are trying to make people more responsible and free up tables for people who really want to eat at a restuarant. Sometimes diners ahead of you take longer than usual.

 

[cmurray234]

If Disney programmed their computers purposely to get guests to pay no-show fees for restaurants even if they do show up and purchase the meal, then I'm going to stop patronizing them. Which I hope they didn't and it's just their usual incompetence, since I just renewed my AP.

Nala, I hope it's incompetence as well. And though I'm not one to suspect Disney of hatching a nefarious plot every time they make a mistake, this one makes me skeptical.

1. I hope we find out that the computer system is assessing that fee IMMEDIATELY upon a reservation time expiring...not because it makes a lick of sense to charge a customer FORTY DOLLARS for being a minute late, but because that at least is a mistake a rookie software engineer might make. If it's programmed for 5 minutes, we can do nothing but assume that it was deliberate.

2. This "glitch" could be solved one of two ways - either by extending the fee assessment time to 20 or 30 minutes after the actual reservation time or by automatically reversing the charge once the guests check in. Unless Disney has the worst development environment on the planet or they've hired completely incompetent programmers, this kind of fix should be fairly straight-forward. And it makes me think that unfortunately, Disney is in no hurry to fix the issue.

3. The proper way for Disney to handle this would be to reverse the charges for all guests that actually checked in. Because if they don't then they will have knowingly charged some guests both the fee AND for their meal. This is unpalatable to me.

 

[cluvsdisney]

Nala, I hope it's incompetence as well. And though I'm not one to suspect Disney of hatching a nefarious plot every time they make a mistake, this one makes me skeptical.

1. I hope we find out that the computer system is assessing that fee IMMEDIATELY upon a reservation time expiring...not because it makes a lick of sense to charge a customer FORTY DOLLARS for being a minute late, but because that at least is a mistake a rookie software engineer might make. If it's programmed for 5 minutes, we can do nothing but assume that it was deliberate.

2. This "glitch" could be solved one of two ways - either by extending the fee assessment time to 20 or 30 minutes after the actual reservation time or by automatically reversing the charge once the guests check in. Unless Disney has the worst development environment on the planet or they've hired completely incompetent programmers, this kind of fix should be fairly straight-forward. And it makes me think that unfortunately, Disney is in no hurry to fix the issue.
3. The proper way for Disney to handle this would be to reverse the charges for all guests that actually checked in. Because if they don't then they will have knowingly charged some guests both the fee AND for their meal. This is unpalatable to me.

Of course they aren't in a hurry to fix the problem. They know about the problem and are not fixing it based on reports on the Dis. They have no incentive to do so. They get to hold onto someone's money for a couple of weeks by the time it is noticed, reported and reversed. I think this is bordering on fraudulent behaviour.