Will we be charged $10 for one person not showing?

[stitch34]

Have read conflicting info on this... anything definite known about this yet?

Have a friend wanting to join us on our November trip - but not sure she'll be commited yet by time comes to make our ADRs. If I make for 5 and ends up we are only party of 4 for our ADRs... will we be charged for her?

Same thing goes with we have local relatives that will be joining us on our summer trip.... but not sure yet which meals to include them on as am not sure which days they will be down with us yet - Right now have party of 4 booked for my family and hoping when we check in they will seat us as 6. In the past would book party of 6 - and if they didn't show, we'd just tell them at check in.... but now would I get charged?

 

[jemmouse]

This happened to us just 2 weeks ago at Ohanas for breakfast. One of the adult members in the group was having stomach issues the night before for most of the night. So when I was told in the morning oh about a half hour before resizes, because we made them early. The dining reservations person let me reschedule for the next day. Thankfully they had an opening and thankfully she did this 15 minutes before our reservation.

I can understand why Disney did this, BUT on the flip side, traveling with children or heck in my case an adult. Anyone can become sick at any given time, even vacation. So not sure how I like this. I feel if majority of group is there, then they should waive the fee...

 

[AnastasiaF]

I had to book 2 dinners for 7 people in case my sister and her daughter are with us. The CM I spoke to said that as long as I cancel the extra 2 seats at least 24 hours in advance there will be no $10 charge for them not showing.

I figure she will know her plans at least a month before we go so I have it marked on my calendar to call and change the reservations then if necessary.

 

[figment_jii]

Have read conflicting info on this... anything definite known about this yet?

Have a friend wanting to join us on our November trip - but not sure she'll be commited yet by time comes to make our ADRs. If I make for 5 and ends up we are only party of 4 for our ADRs... will we be charged for her?

Same thing goes with we have local relatives that will be joining us on our summer trip.... but not sure yet which meals to include them on as am not sure which days they will be down with us yet - Right now have party of 4 booked for my family and hoping when we check in they will seat us as 6. In the past would book party of 6 - and if they didn't show, we'd just tell them at check in.... but now would I get charged?

According to the Disney Dining FAQ, you will NOT be charged a no show fee for the 2 people that cannot join you. See the second from the last question:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/dining/

Regarding the ADR party size, I would make it for six. Then if you know that your friends cannot join you, try reducing it. It is usually easier to go from 6 to 4 than it is to go from 4 to 6. There is always the potential that the resturant won't be able to accommodate 2 more people or you may have to wait longer if you just try to walk-up with them. I've read posts where people say this has happened at some of the most popular resturants.

 

[mommymeg]

This was my concern as well. Several of our ADR's required CC to hold. We have a party of 11. I'm afraid that some of our teenagers might go missing in action or show up late and one of the first things on my mind was if we were going to be charged if they didn't show up when we told them to.

The cast member assured me that there would be NO CHARGE as long as at least one person from the party shows up. I will be calling again before the 24 hour mark of our first day ressie, and also confirming upon check in that this is accurate... 11 people makes for alot of charges for one missed reservation!

 

[cigar95]

The cast member assured me that there would be NO CHARGE as long as at least one person from the party shows up. I will be calling again before the 24 hour mark of our first day ressie, and also confirming upon check in that this is accurate... 11 people makes for alot of charges for one missed reservation!

I wouldn't worry about calling to confirm this policy for two reasons - first, because a verbal confirmation is worth the paper it's written on, and our experience is that the phone staff is woefully misinformed on details of this sort. (Just a for-instance, the deadline isn't 24 hours, it's CoB the night before the reservation.) They can tell you anything they (or you) want on the phone, but unless you can prove what they said, it won't help if you have to appeal to a higher authority.

And the second reason is that WDW has already put this policy in writing on their site - if you check the web site the night before and it's still up there, just print the page and store it away. (No need to bring it to the front desk at the restaurant, since they aren't the ones who apply cancellation charges anyway.)

Once they put it in writing on an official site, they're pretty much bound to apply nothing more strict than those terms.

 

[tzeitel]

We had a couple of ppl drop out at the last minute for several adrs and we never had any problem - did not get any penalties at HDDR, California Grill, O'hana, LeCellier and Brown Derby on the F! package.

We added one person to CRT with no trouble - but we went from 11 to 12 which would be easier than 4 to 6.

 

[maryj11]

We went to Disney last September and my daughter who wasnt feeling well did not go to 1900 Park Fare dinner and we were not charged anything. We just told them when we got to the restaurant she wasnt coming.

 

[stitch34]

Thanks, guys! I'm going to go with 6 instead of 4 for the couple meals I need for June trip..... and for November still unsure 4 or 5... but guess will go with 5. Thanksgiving time I always have the toughest time getting my ADRs and find once I book it that's it - I like to tweak my ADRs a lot - but November trip I never can due to availability, so want to get it right the first shot out!

 

[stitch34]

We went to Disney last September and my daughter who wasnt feeling well did not go to 1900 Park Fare dinner and we were not charged anything. We just told them when we got to the restaurant she wasnt coming.

I just reread this... seems you went September. Cancellation policy wasn't in effect for then yet... well, it was for any ADRs booked by Oct 25th the policy took effect for.

Tzeitel - when was your trip?

 

[nkereina]

We went to Disney last September and my daughter who wasnt feeling well did not go to 1900 Park Fare dinner and we were not charged anything. We just told them when we got to the restaurant she wasnt coming.

Agree with PP. We were also there last September and the new cancellation policy was not in effect for September ADRs.

 

[bluejasmine]

You will not be charged it saysyou wont when you read tge rules on credit ard holds

 

[TDC Nala]

It says on the website that you won't be charged.

Unfortunately, at Disney, that doesn't mean that in practice you won't be charged. You've read conflicting info because they are not consistent.

Print the website page and keep it with you in case you have issues with them charging.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I don't believe you will be charged because you will still be showing up and using a table. Just because your party is now one smaller, you wouldn't have prevented someone else from getting an ADR during that time.

 

[Cafeen]

I don't believe you will be charged because you will still be showing up and using a table. Just because your party is now one smaller, you wouldn't have prevented someone else from getting an ADR during that time.

As a point of reference, before 10/26 changes (when they added all sorts of restaurants to the CC-hold list), CG and Akershus already were on this list. CG typically did not charge the no-show fee for partial parties. Akershus often did charge this same fee for partial parties.

Consistency on policies (or food for that matter) is not a Disney strongpoint and will likely depend on who happens to be there that day.

(I do get that the site says one thing, and that it's easily used to dispute any attempts at charging for partial parties since that's the guest-facing written information. Just know that it's not the way it's always worked, and that there are always inconsistencies with applying Disney's various policies)

 

[catne]

We had several restaurants on both our Feb. 2012 and March 2012 trips that had the $10 per person credit card hold when we got the reservations.

Twice I backed out at the last minute (health issues) and just Hubby & son went to the restaurant. Both times, I told him to expect to pay $10 charge for me not showing up...both times, they told hubby they only charge the no-show fee if no one shows up for the reservation. If part of the party shows up on time, they will not charge for the others. Crystal Palace was one of the restaurants that did not charge the fee for only 2 out of 3 showing up...they just got charged for the 2 meals, no extra fees. He checked the credit card later, and no $10 random charges from Disney showed up.