clanmcculloch
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2009
I'm not a fan of this policy and I resent the implication that only those who are habitual cancelers/no-shows and/or those who book multiple ADRs for the same time or same restaurant dislike it.
I've never, not once, double booked a time. The only time I book at the same restaurant multiple times in a trip is because I want to eat at that restaurant multiple times and I do always show up for those ADRs.
In all of my trips I've only had to miss 3 ADRs and each of those was directly a result of something done by a CM. We've never not shown up. We average one ADR per day of our trips and our trips are never less than 7 nights, usually they're longer.
We've had plenty of ADRs where our wait time was over an hour. If it's never happened to you then you've been lucky. Last February our ADR for 'Ohana was at 10:55am. We arrived at 10:40am. We were seated at 12:05pm. A couple years ago at HBD our ADR was at 4:00pm. We arrived at 3:50. We were seated at 5:20pm. I have plenty more examples but I'm sure you don't want to hear them. I don't think we've gotten into Sci-Fi less than 40 minutes past our ADR time and that's with arriving 10-20 minutes before our ADR time. I think we've only once gotten into 50s PTC less than 70 minutes past our ADR time with arriving 10-20 minutes before our ADR time. We're always a party of 4-6 so it's not like we're even talking about huge groups that can be difficult to seat. With this policy, if we decided we didn't want to stick around that long (IMO it's completely reasonable to find that kind of wait unacceptable) then we'd be out $40-$60 depending on who's with us that trip. How is it ok for us to be charged when Disney isn't holding up their end of our agreement to have us seated at a reasonable time relative to our ADR (no reasonable person is going to consider these kinds of waits to be reasonable).
We do have an autistic DD. Our touring plans revolve around her needs. We don't spend a lot of time in the parks and our ADRs are schedule at times that fit her schedule. The thing is, you never know what will happen to upset an autistic child. I still remember a trip where the first hour of our morning was sidelined because somebody barreled into her trying to run to TSMM (we stayed at the back of the crowd so it wouldn't happen but somebody was running late and shoved her out of the way even though there was plenty of sidewalk around her). We almost had to leave the park but we did manage to calm her down in a quiet area so that we could proceed with our day. Some things can't be planned for when you have a special needs child. We do the best we can but we simply don't have the gift of seeing the future.
I wouldn't object to the policy being a fee for no-shows but I have a problem with a fee when I do cancel (again, almost never happens that we can't make it and the rare time has always been the result of some kind of action of a CM).
Since the implementation of the CC guarantee policy at hard to get into restaurants we've begun limiting how many ADRs we book at these restaurants as a precaution. I wouldn't book an arrival day ADR at a restaurant with a cc guarantee in case of travel delays and really only book them at restaurants where I know we could get walk-up anyway. Now, I'm not sure what we'll do. We have to have ADRs. We have lots of allergies among the group of us. Chefs want a heads up that we're coming. I guess we won't be eating TS on our arrival days but unfortunately that means we're stuck with significantly fewer options for dining depending on where we're staying. We can't get food at the airport before heading to DME (there's nothing there we can safely eat) and not all resorts have many CS options.
Please stop painting everybody who dislikes the policy as-is as being inconsiderate, selfish, entitled, or any of the other negative brushes some of you have been painting us with. Having a different opinion than you doesn't make us any of these negative things. We just feel differently than you do.
I've never, not once, double booked a time. The only time I book at the same restaurant multiple times in a trip is because I want to eat at that restaurant multiple times and I do always show up for those ADRs.
In all of my trips I've only had to miss 3 ADRs and each of those was directly a result of something done by a CM. We've never not shown up. We average one ADR per day of our trips and our trips are never less than 7 nights, usually they're longer.
We've had plenty of ADRs where our wait time was over an hour. If it's never happened to you then you've been lucky. Last February our ADR for 'Ohana was at 10:55am. We arrived at 10:40am. We were seated at 12:05pm. A couple years ago at HBD our ADR was at 4:00pm. We arrived at 3:50. We were seated at 5:20pm. I have plenty more examples but I'm sure you don't want to hear them. I don't think we've gotten into Sci-Fi less than 40 minutes past our ADR time and that's with arriving 10-20 minutes before our ADR time. I think we've only once gotten into 50s PTC less than 70 minutes past our ADR time with arriving 10-20 minutes before our ADR time. We're always a party of 4-6 so it's not like we're even talking about huge groups that can be difficult to seat. With this policy, if we decided we didn't want to stick around that long (IMO it's completely reasonable to find that kind of wait unacceptable) then we'd be out $40-$60 depending on who's with us that trip. How is it ok for us to be charged when Disney isn't holding up their end of our agreement to have us seated at a reasonable time relative to our ADR (no reasonable person is going to consider these kinds of waits to be reasonable).
We do have an autistic DD. Our touring plans revolve around her needs. We don't spend a lot of time in the parks and our ADRs are schedule at times that fit her schedule. The thing is, you never know what will happen to upset an autistic child. I still remember a trip where the first hour of our morning was sidelined because somebody barreled into her trying to run to TSMM (we stayed at the back of the crowd so it wouldn't happen but somebody was running late and shoved her out of the way even though there was plenty of sidewalk around her). We almost had to leave the park but we did manage to calm her down in a quiet area so that we could proceed with our day. Some things can't be planned for when you have a special needs child. We do the best we can but we simply don't have the gift of seeing the future.
I wouldn't object to the policy being a fee for no-shows but I have a problem with a fee when I do cancel (again, almost never happens that we can't make it and the rare time has always been the result of some kind of action of a CM).
Since the implementation of the CC guarantee policy at hard to get into restaurants we've begun limiting how many ADRs we book at these restaurants as a precaution. I wouldn't book an arrival day ADR at a restaurant with a cc guarantee in case of travel delays and really only book them at restaurants where I know we could get walk-up anyway. Now, I'm not sure what we'll do. We have to have ADRs. We have lots of allergies among the group of us. Chefs want a heads up that we're coming. I guess we won't be eating TS on our arrival days but unfortunately that means we're stuck with significantly fewer options for dining depending on where we're staying. We can't get food at the airport before heading to DME (there's nothing there we can safely eat) and not all resorts have many CS options.
Please stop painting everybody who dislikes the policy as-is as being inconsiderate, selfish, entitled, or any of the other negative brushes some of you have been painting us with. Having a different opinion than you doesn't make us any of these negative things. We just feel differently than you do.
