I've stopped making ADRs because of the credit card policy, anyone else?

[Tigger in a kilt]

Here I am. I have been reading, just not responding.

Out of curiosity, and absolutely not meant as an attack: what do you find is the hassle? Is it that you don’t want to save your card details on Disney’s site and it’s a pain to retype it?

The fact that you have to book 6 months in advance is the biggest hassle for me, by far. I have just spend yet another full morning booking a batch of restaurants (we are in the UK, so a 2 or 3 week trip is common) and found it a giant pain. Guessing what we might want to eat for lunch one Tuesday in October is a far bigger hassle to me. Even moving it to 60 or 30 days would be better, in my opinion.

 

[Sparkly]

I must confess something—we always had trouble making ADRs on time. I’ve been to WDW with many different groups over the years, and no matter who I travel with, it’s always a hassle to arrive at a Disney restaurant at the designated ADR time.

So that is one big reason that I am not making many ADRs anymore. It’s too stressful to get there on time so that I don’t get whacked with a no-show fee.

That's why we stopped making ADRs for in a resort after a park day. Didn't like having to stop what we were doing and make it across WDW to dinner! We were often late and it was stressful. Now we book ADRs for where we actually are. So MK, we book a MK restaurant, we have a Boma breakfast booked for the morning of our stay at AKL etc.

 

[jodifla]

Out of curiosity, and absolutely not meant as an attack: what do you find is the hassle? Is it that you don’t want to save your card details on Disney’s site and it’s a pain to retype it?

The fact that you have to book 6 months in advance is the biggest hassle for me, by far. I have just spend yet another full morning booking a batch of restaurants (we are in the UK, so a 2 or 3 week trip is common) and found it a giant pain. Guessing what we might want to eat for lunch one Tuesday in October is a far bigger hassle to me. Even moving it to 60 or 30 days would be better, in my opinion.

Ah, thanks for asking so nicely!

For me, it's a number of very minor things that just add up. My credit card on file expired, so I have to stop and update. I now have a teen who likes to sleep until noon, even on vacation, so planning out our days/parks/fast passes has been much more difficult for this upcoming trip.

And the fact that the cancellation is the day before gives me pause. Typically our dining plans are changing the day of, not the day before, as we navigate the lines and crowds and our level of energy.

We are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and reservations tend to be more open there. I, like others have suggested, have also started using Open Table for reservations.

I agree that the cancellation policy has opened up the ADRs. which is nice. We never double booked ADRs, and kept every one but two over the time they started ADRS, and always canceled -- but it was 6 or 2 hours before, not the day before.

 

[JerseyJanice]

That's why we stopped making ADRs for in a resort after a park day. Didn't like having to stop what we were doing and make it across WDW to dinner! We were often late and it was stressful. Now we book ADRs for where we actually are. So MK, we book a MK restaurant, we have a Boma breakfast booked for the morning of our stay at AKL etc.

Exactly. I used to blame my immediate family, but I haven’t gone with them my last 3 trips. The extended family group I’ve been going with is even worse at getting any place on time.

Another reason for not making lots of ADRs is that after 4 trips with the DDP, there are few Disney restaurants in the parks and resorts where I haven’t been. It’s not like I have a list of places that I want to try.

BTW Josh on Easy WDW has a wonderful recent review of Boma breakfast that you’ll enjoy reading if you’re going there soon.

 

[Mazz519]

We still make ADRs only hassle is if you want to cancel less than 24 hrs... Dont like it but totally understand why they do it

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks for coming back to clarify your feelings.

My credit card on file expired, so I have to stop and update.

That one though isn't related to Disney's cancellation policy. You have to do that with literally everything at one point or another (Netflix, Amazon, etc).

And the fact that the cancellation is the day before gives me pause. Typically our dining plans are changing the day of, not the day before, as we navigate the lines and crowds and our level of energy.

I agree that the cancellation policy has opened up the ADRs. which is nice. We never double booked ADRs, and kept every one but two over the time they started ADRS, and always canceled -- but it was 6 or 2 hours before, not the day before.

From my limited Google search it says this 'new' policy was enacted to all restaurants back in end of October 2013. Have you had a trip since then?

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

Ah, thanks for asking so nicely!

For me, it's a number of very minor things that just add up. My credit card on file expired, so I have to stop and update. I now have a teen who likes to sleep until noon, even on vacation, so planning out our days/parks/fast passes has been much more difficult for this upcoming trip.

And the fact that the cancellation is the day before gives me pause. Typically our dining plans are changing the day of, not the day before, as we navigate the lines and crowds and our level of energy.

We are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and reservations tend to be more open there. I, like others have suggested, have also started using Open Table for reservations.

I agree that the cancellation policy has opened up the ADRs. which is nice. We never double booked ADRs, and kept every one but two over the time they started ADRS, and always canceled -- but it was 6 or 2 hours before, not the day before.

Thanks for replying! I can completely understand all of these reasons. The fact that you have such little flexibility is definitely annoying, as is the fact that you have to cancel the day before. Unless you adhere to a very strict timetable for the whole trip then it definitely does restrict you.

I guess my perspective is different as a first time visitor as, for me, this is just the way it is, and I either need to follow the “rules” or risk eating QS fries for our entire trip. However, for more regular visitors I imagine that this is further evidence of how things have changed, and not for the better.

I always say here that I’m a first time visitor, but I did actually go for 2 days has a child, when my dad attended a conference there. I barely remember it, so for practical purposes, I’m a newbie. However, the one thing I do remember is having dinner in Cinderella Castle with my dad. I am 99% certain that we were a walk-up, and 100% certain that he didn’t book it until we arrived in the park that evening. It’s possible that we were just extraordinarily lucky, but even so, that situation would be unheard of these days. The fact that planning our upcoming trip has become a part time job is astonishing to me!

 

[maxiesmom]

I guess my perspective is different as a first time visitor as, for me, this is just the way it is, and I either need to follow the “rules” or risk eating QS fries for our entire trip. However, for more regular visitors I imagine that this is further evidence of how things have changed, and not for the better.

I think the fee is a change for the better. It is much easier to get ADRs now. People are not so quick to book multiple ADRs, "just in case".

Fwiw, you don't have to plan every aspect of your trip. Some people don't. You have to know how your family likes to vacation, and what will make things go more smoothly, and what will be a pain. My family likes to have a rough plan of the day, what park we will go to and if we have an ADR that day. Some families like to hit the bus stop and get on whatever bus shows up! Neither way is "wrong".

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Ah, thanks for asking so nicely!

For me, it's a number of very minor things that just add up. My credit card on file expired, so I have to stop and update. I now have a teen who likes to sleep until noon, even on vacation, so planning out our days/parks/fast passes has been much more difficult for this upcoming trip.

And the fact that the cancellation is the day before gives me pause. Typically our dining plans are changing the day of, not the day before, as we navigate the lines and crowds and our level of energy.

We are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and reservations tend to be more open there. I, like others have suggested, have also started using Open Table for reservations.

I agree that the cancellation policy has opened up the ADRs. which is nice. We never double booked ADRs, and kept every one but two over the time they started ADRS, and always canceled -- but it was 6 or 2 hours before, not the day before.

Yes, my family dynamic has changed as well, that’s why I plan very little if it’s just us. We eat light breakfasts, and at different times, we don’t like TS lunches, so that’s why I’ve been quite successful making a few choice ADR’s for us to share good food, laughs and family time. Also key, we come often so if it’s busy, if it’s hot, we go back to the resort & chill, it will all still be there the next time. No point in stressing on vacation.

 

[HopperFan]

Has the credit card policy affected how you approach planning for your trips?

No.

I only book what I really want and plan to show up to.

I have never had an issue.

I also book day of, and do walk ups if I don't want to commit to plans.

Both ways work for me.

I only wish it actually stopped people from hoarding ADRS, but it doesn't.

 

[rhoshi]

It's not a problem for us but there is only 2 of us. I'm a planner and once it's planned out we don't usually make changes, unless it's to modify an ADR time to better fit our schedule.

I can understand why it can be more challenging with larger family groups who don't want to plan so far ahead.

 

[Horizons-1]

When we visit we generally have 1-3 places we already know we want to visit again or try for the first time. If we want to add something later, whether before or on our trip, we know there's a chance availability may be slim.

Having to cancel 24 hours prior to the reservation is something that I believe helps create more availability for others when they are on property. If someone cancels then it opens up that window for someone else.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Has the credit card policy affected how you approach planning for your trips?

1) No.
2) You have until midnight on the prior night to cancel without a No-Show-Penalty.
3) Only folks who can't plan or don't adequately manage their daily activities should have a problem.

 

[Bostonbeans99]

Ah, thanks for asking so nicely!

For me, it's a number of very minor things that just add up. My credit card on file expired, so I have to stop and update. I now have a teen who likes to sleep until noon, even on vacation, so planning out our days/parks/fast passes has been much more difficult for this upcoming trip.

Oh yes, I feel your pain I have a daughter and 2 teenage boys and the one college age son likes his sleep.
I'm totally using his excitement about Pandora to book early morning FP's
I know some days we may have to leave him behind because he isn't altering our vacation.

I don't mind the CC on file requirement but I don't like the few that ask for advance payment...but oh well...

 

[vinotinto]

In my very humble opinion, the credit card guarantee has helped tremendously with being able to get rseservations, *any* reservations, even last minute. So I really like it and endorse it. I know many still book ADRs 180 days out. I don't. It's not needed. We're coming in July on the DxDP, and I have a few ADRs. But we'll also make some later minute decisions. It's all good because the credit card guarantee wil open up spots as needed. It's great!

 

[brody-maddison]

I am more than happy to make ADRs using my credit card as a guarantee. Before, people used to make several reservations for the same day and rather than cancel them, just not show up. To me this is incredibly selfish especially as some restaurants are difficult to get a reservation.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

1) No.
2) You have until midnight on the prior night to cancel without a No-Show-Penalty.
3) Only folks who can't plan or don't adequately manage their daily activities should have a problem.

Aside from illnesses and emergencies, I would be more willing to agree with you if we weren't required to book 6 months in advance. I'm travelling with several kids (in different family groupings) and right now I have no idea whether the toddler from the West Coast or the teenager from the mid-West will be able to get up for an 8am BOG reservation without it ruining the rest of the day for all of us. When you are at the mercy of young children and time zone changes, it's no necessarily easy to predict, especially in my situation where I don't see these kids (my nieces) on a daily basis.

Your reply will be that we can cancel up to midnight the day before, which is true. However, that doesn't help me now, because if we cancel the 8am reservation at 11pm then we may not get to see BOG at all. and it leaves us struggling to find somewhere else to eat a sit down meal. So I am left with the option to make multiple bookings and release one of them the day before, which is frowned upon and selfish to others, or making the desired reservation time and hoping for the best.

I realise that our trip of 4 weeks with 4 different sets of friends/family is unusual, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only person who can't accurately imagine how toddlers will react to something 6 months in future, which is down to the nature of young children and their development, rather than poor planning. 60 or 30 days in advance would be much easier to predict, but if we wait until then to book our ADRs then we won't get reservations at places like BOG and CRT. It's very frustrating!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Aside from illnesses and emergencies, I would be more willing to agree with you if we weren't required to book 6 months in advance. I'm travelling with several kids (in different family groupings) and right now I have no idea whether the toddler from the West Coast or the teenager from the mid-West will be able to get up for an 8am BOG reservation without it ruining the rest of the day for all of us. When you are at the mercy of young children and time zone changes, it's no necessarily easy to predict, especially in my situation where I don't see these kids (my nieces) on a daily basis.

Your reply will be that we can cancel up to midnight the day before, which is true. However, that doesn't help me now, because if we cancel the 8am reservation at 11pm then we may not get to see BOG at all. and it leaves us struggling to find somewhere else to eat a sit down meal. So I am left with the option to make multiple bookings and release one of them the day before, which is frowned upon and selfish to others, or making the desired reservation time and hoping for the best.

I realise that our trip of 4 weeks with 4 different sets of friends/family is unusual, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only person who can't accurately imagine how toddlers will react to something 6 months in future, which is down to the nature of young children and their development, rather than poor planning. 60 or 30 days in advance would be much easier to predict, but if we wait until then to book our ADRs then we won't get reservations at places like BOG and CRT. It's very frustrating!

Here would be my suggestion though:

When in doubt don't go with that early of a time. You're already having doubts that the toddler and the teenager being able to get up that early to make it. I wouldn't be making a reservation that early to begin with. I'd be pushing it to lunch or later in the morning (if that was available and that was the meal you were wanting).

You can modify the time and see what else is available.

In other words, in the most non-judgmental way I can be, to me at least the solution to your issue isn't to book several days worth of BOG for the purpose of cancelling them one at a time right when you're there. Usually when people do what you're doing, at least from reading the Boards, it's because they are waiting for their FP dates in order to shore up their plans. You however are going to wait until 11:59pm the day before when you're actually there at WDW. Normally when people do that, from what I've seen, it's one or two BOG they have held (I don't know exactly how many BOG reservations you hold), and this is why people can find BOG reservation the day of or the day before as people have cancelled them.

 

[mckennarose]

........
3) Only folks who can't plan or don't adequately manage their daily activities should have a problem.

Agree. I've never felt pressure to keep a dining reservation or worried that we have to pick something to eat 180 days in advance. We're only picking a restaurant, not food. It's no different than keeping an appointment time or getting tickets for a concert 6 months in advance. We just got baseball tickets for July and tickets for Broadway in Oct. so Disney is not the only place you have to plan in advance.

Here would be my suggestion though:

When in doubt don't go with that early of a time. You're already having doubts that the toddler and the teenager being able to get up that early to make it. I wouldn't be making a reservation that early to begin with. I'd be pushing it to lunch or later in the morning (if that was available and that was the meal you were wanting).

You can modify the time and see what else is available.

In other words, in the most non-judgmental way I can be, to me at least the solution to your issue isn't to book several days worth of BOG for the purpose of cancelling them one at a time right when you're there. Usually when people do what you're doing, at least from reading the Boards, it's because they are waiting for their FP dates in order to shore up their plans. You however are going to wait until 11:59pm the day before when you're actually there at WDW. Normally when people do that, from what I've seen, it's one or two BOG they have held (I don't know exactly how many BOG reservations you hold), and this is why people can find BOG reservation the day of or the day before as people have cancelled them.

Agree 100%!
We frequently travel with anywhere from 4-12 people and I never make really early or really late ADRs. Brunch or lunch works best for us when trying to coordinate that many people and we definitely don't plan to eat every meal together. We don't even try to eat together every day, maybe once or twice in one week. I've learned over the years that you can't make everyone happy and everyone may have their own ideas about what they want to do or eat.

On the flip side, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect everyone to plan and make every effort possible to make to ONE dining reservation. Set one in stone and if they make it, they make it. If not then they miss out. As long as one person shows up for the ADR you won't be charged the no show fee.

I only wish it actually stopped people from hoarding ADRS, but it doesn't.

Me too. The credit card hold fixed the issue for Disney. I wish there was something to stop all the hoarding that would benefit visitors.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

Here would be my suggestion though:

When in doubt don't go with that early of a time. You're already having doubts that the toddler and the teenager being able to get up that early to make it. I wouldn't be making a reservation that early to begin with. I'd be pushing it to lunch or later in the morning (if that was available and that was the meal you were wanting).

You can modify the time and see what else is available.

In other words, in the most non-judgmental way I can be, to me at least the solution to your issue isn't to book several days worth of BOG for the purpose of cancelling them one at a time right when you're there. Usually when people do what you're doing, at least from reading the Boards, it's because they are waiting for their FP dates in order to shore up their plans. You however are going to wait until 11:59pm the day before when you're actually there at WDW. Normally when people do that, from what I've seen, it's one or two BOG they have held (I don't know exactly how many BOG reservations you hold), and this is why people can find BOG reservation the day of or the day before as people have cancelled them.

I appreciate your suggestion, and I have been coming to the same conclusion about our 8am reservations myself. I also appreciate your polite tone in the discussion about multiple reservations. I do want to clarify, though, that I am not sitting on multiple BOG reservations with the intention to cancel them at the last minute. I'm still far enough out that I have been able to move my BOG reservations (several, but with different groups, so I don't count them as hoarding reservations, since I'm taking different kids each time) between 8am and 9:30am a couple of times as I try to decide what will work best.

However, I do think that Disney's system encourages you to hoard reservations, particularly at the most popular restaurants, and that is reinforced by all the rhetoric in books, blogs and forums about how hard it is to get these reservations: it creates a scarcity and adversarial mentality, where if people are "luckily enough" to be able to grab multiple reservations 6 months out, they should book them all, because if they don't and their plans change, they will definitely not be able to reschedule nearer the time. I have read suggestions from other sources to do just that and, in all honesty, if I hadn't found this forum, I may well have hoarded reservations myself. When every other guest is being set us as your competitor for getting these highly-prized reservations, it really doesn't encourage anything but an "us vs. them" mentality.

Personally, the more hassle I have with making ADRs (which is a huge and ongoing job, as we are staying for 4 weeks on-property without a car), the more I'm taking the attitude of "this is the reservation, suck it up or don't come" with my own travelling party. However, none of these are my kids, so with the exception of the toddler, they will be on better behaviour with me than they would be with their parents. If the toddler doesn't cope then I will take her older sister and her mom can let the toddler sleep and meet us later. I'm no longer trying to please everyone, because there are just too many variables. My comment was more just to disagree with the suggestion that problems with ADRs were a result of poor planning, because while I think that is certainly a factor for some people, I feel that Disney has actually created the problem by deliberately creating a scarcity mentality in guests.