Reservation Pilot Program

[DVC9218]

Were any other members contact about participating in a pilot program in assisting with dining, experience, and other reservations during your stay? We signed up to participate and was curious how other guests have found it to be if they already participated!

 

[E2ME2]

Were any other members contact about participating in a pilot program in assisting with dining, experience, and other reservations during your stay? We signed up to participate and was curious how other guests have found it to be if they already participated!

I have NOT been contacted regarding this - - Following.........

 

[drusba]

There are several threads started on this fairly recently created service, see https://www.disboards.com/search/5191543/?q=all-new+Member+Experience+Specialist+Team&t=post&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=89&o=relevance. I have not seen anything really mentioned yet as to whether it is in fact helpful in getting anything needed or desired.

 

[intamin]

Were any other members contact about participating in a pilot program in assisting with dining, experience, and other reservations during your stay? We signed up to participate and was curious how other guests have found it to be if they already participated!

I'm assuming you've booked either a grand villa or a cabin/bungalow. I've heard good things about this program and have heard they typically manage to get every reservation you request.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We received this. We have a split stay in a studio/treehouse villa. They did get our dining requests, but we didn’t have really hard to get ones. We also gave them room requests, but I’m guessing that’s no different than calling or using chat which is what we would normally do.

 

[mickeymom629]

I started another thread about this. We have a GV booked but have our tickets, park reservations and don't plan to do many extras, including TS dining, this trip. I already had a room request (that our GV be as close as possible to the studio booked). I responded to the email and they confirmed that my room request was already there and that I could reach out if I needed any other assistance. However, the number to call is only open 9-5, so I called the regular MS number one evening for assistance with setting up DH MDE (which we were told wasn't necessary for use of his AP except for discounts so we didn't do it because I already have him on my account) but this special service would have assisted. I was disappointed that the service # wasn't available for extended hours since DH is at work 9-5 M-F.

 

[DVC9218]

Update: this morning was our window. We provided member services with our dining requests ahead of time, but I still felt weird not trying to book reservations myself because of the uncertainty of the program, so I logged on at 6am as well to see what I could find

The pilot program was able to get a reservation for every request we had, and so was I at the 6am booking window. This included harder to get restaurants like roundup rodeo bbq, beaches and cream, le cellier, sci-fi, story book dining, and chef mickeys. There were some easier to get ones as well, like raglan road and liberty tree.

The pilot program had a time within the window I requested, and many times I was able to get a reservation at the same time they did. However there was one exception: for the beaches and cream reservation, I was able to get our entire party of 6 on one reservation. The pilot program provided me with a split reservation, making us into 2 groups of 3 with a reservation time 15 minutes apart. Not ideal, but better than nothing if you had trouble getting a reservation of your own.

In the end, I'm glad I logged on as well, since it seemed to be beneficial for at least the beaches and cream reservation. That said, everything else was reserved as requested and the program seemed to do its job!

 

[intamin]

Update: this morning was our window. We provided member services with our dining requests ahead of time, but I still felt weird not trying to book reservations myself because of the uncertainty of the program, so I logged on at 6am as well to see what I could find

The pilot program was able to get a reservation for every request we had, and so was I at the 6am booking window. This included harder to get restaurants like roundup rodeo bbq, beaches and cream, le cellier, sci-fi, story book dining, and chef mickeys. There were some easier to get ones as well, like raglan road and liberty tree.

The pilot program had a time within the window I requested, and many times I was able to get a reservation at the same time they did. However there was one exception: for the beaches and cream reservation, I was able to get our entire party of 6 on one reservation. The pilot program provided me with a split reservation, making us into 2 groups of 3 with a reservation time 15 minutes apart. Not ideal, but better than nothing if you had trouble getting a reservation of your own.

In the end, I'm glad I logged on as well, since it seemed to be beneficial for at least the beaches and cream reservation. That said, everything else was reserved as requested and the program seemed to do its job!

How did they communicate with you regarding getting your dining requests in advance? Email? Phone?

Overall seems like the program works great and hopefully is something they continue to offer to members staying in grand villas and cabins/bungalows.

 

[DVC9218]

They sent an email asking if we were interested in doing the program. You could either reply to that email, or I called and spoke with a CM who verified all the requests, as well as took care of some room requests, then around 7 am this morning we received an email with the selections and times they have on hold. We have 48 hours to call back and confirm we want them and give a credit card for guarantee

 

[J-Dog]

I gave a review of this program in the thread that I started about it in late 2022. We had a GV at RIV.

tl/dr: I used the program for ADRs, and they got me kinda close to what I requested on many of them, but many of them were a few hours off, and a number of them were split into 2 4-tops (we had 8 people). I ended-up modifying almost every ADR myself over the course of the next 60 days to single 8-top reservations and/or better times for us. So, in short, it was nice to not have to wake up at 3am, but in the end, the service didn't really do us much good.

Also, you have to call within 48 hours of them making the reservations to secure with a credit card. That was a huge PITA because you have to read your credit card number to them over-and-over for each individual ADR, then the CM has to process each one separately. Overall, the call took at least an hour for us (we had about 10 ADRs to go through). This part may have evolved/been improved since last year, though.

 

[Lorana]

I just got an email for this as well. We’re staying in a CCV Cabin during Thanksgiving week.

I’m curious if, like DCL, they’ll make reservations which include family members not in the cabins. We have 5 studios booked as well for DH’s family.

That said, this trip is one where we don’t need the service as much, as I’ve already booked MVMCP and Jollywood at the beginning of the trip, and we don’t plan to visit the parks for the remainder except to go to the Candlelight Processional but maybe they’ll be able to snag that for us. And I’m hoping they can fulfill our room request for us. That’s my biggest desire, as we like to joke that Disney looks at our room requests and then gives us the opposite of what we ask for. ;-)