Disney to expand cancellation fees to all table service restaurants at Walt Disney World

[lebeau]

That darn Disney, always trying to run their business like a business.

I stopped reading right here. Nothing good follows that old excuse.

 

[lebeau]

It was also the philosophy of instituting irrational and illogical fees and consequences, lack of response or indifference to customer feedback, and blatantly treating customers like profit generators by nickeling and diming them that was the ultimate crash of such companies as Blockbuster and Sears. It is not worth the internal strategic planning benefits or profit margins to make your customer feel less valued and used. Big, huge companies have fallen under this type of corporate culture.

Can I like this a few more times?

 

[englanddg]

Yet AT&T does this on a daily basis (has for years) and is still in business.

Yes. And I pulled a ~50k a year contract from them and didn't even gat a call from my account manager. Comcast, Charter, Sprint and Clear now get my money.

That being said, a utility company like AT&T is not a valid comparison to restaurant management ( though it may be to Disney ).

 

[G00fyDad]

So that makes it right? I dare say AT&T gets away with this due to lack of alternatives - or the alternatives have the same policies. If Universal makes vacationing on their property less of a hassle for a family of 5 - with more flexibility, great options, and an environment that makes the guest feel valued (the way Disney used to be), we will be seeing huge changes in the coming years. Will people always go to Disney? Yes. Will Disney always beat Universal numbers-wise? Naturally. Will Universal cut massively into Central Florida tourism? Absolutely. Will this hurt Disney? Without a doubt.

Never said that it made it right.

 

[G00fyDad]

The world will never run out of sheep.

Who's a sheep?

So why can't Disney simply make it so that you must create an MDE account and every reservation made must be tied to a package number. Hopefully this would take care of any scheming by resort guests.

What about those without a package?

 

[G00fyDad]

Yes. And I pulled a ~50k a year contract from them and didn't even gat a call from my account manager. Comcast, Charter, Sprint and Clear now get my money.

That being said, a utility company like AT&T is not a valid comparison to restaurant management ( though it may be to Disney ).

I'm not saying this makes it right. I am just making a comparison to the statement that doing things like nickel and diming people causes a company to go under.

 

[englanddg]

fngoofy said: ↑
It's about scheduling. If you don't have a booked room then why would you staff for it. Bringing in the wait and kitchen staff to accommodate some walk ups doesn't make sense, or they would do it.
There is a profitability line and the walk up demand isn't strong enough.
.


Because I used to be a cast member at Walt Disney World.

This is so silly. Have you ever run a restaurant?

 

[englanddg]

I'm sorry, but I can't go up to a good restaurant in our town ANY night of the week at dinner time and expect to get seated in anything less that an hour.

Really? Where the heck do you live? I want to open a restaurant there!

 

[lebeau]

However Disney is not the usual Corporation and they live or die by giving the best service and product as possible. The very fact that they are going out of their way to not charge guests with reasonable reasons for late cancelling (which has been reported many times here and on other boards) proves the $10.00 is not what Disney is looking for.

The opposite scenerio has also been reported many times. But people seem to want to overlook the times when Disney refused to waive the fee. I suspect that is because they want to believe they will never find themselves in this position. Surely, Disney will be understanding when YOU have a perfectly valid reason.

Well, hopefully that will be the case when your vacation hits a snag. But I can tell you from experience it is not always the way things play out.

In this case by making the reservation system fairer and more available, they are making it better for everyone, stopping the abuse by some and still filling the restaurants. The occasional $10.00 per person doesn't amount to much in Disney's pocket, but it does stop the abuse as much as possible.

Its in my opinion very easy and naïve to just attack Disney and say its only to make more money, where the facts do not support your position.

AKK

The argument in favor of this stems from the notion that this is going to cut down on double booking. If I want to, I can book a reservation for every e-mail address I can think of. And I can think of quite a few e-mail addresses. All I have to do is make my mind the day before and remember to cancel the reservations I don't want.

Is that a lot of work? Not really. Not for people who were already double booking. If you were already gaming the system, this is at best a mild inconvenience.

So really, the facts do not support your opinion.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I am not sure how to respond to this. It's the same argument I commented on, just stated differently. However, I think you are misguided on a couple things - there have been several people on these boards who have NOT been waived fees due to a conflict or emergency. Apparently, Disney is leaving this to the sole discretion of the call center and it's minimum wage call operators (not even on Disney property - btw - they hardly have any connection to Disney at all - they just take your call and deal with you). You can't hear a couple happy, no-problems cancelling stories and ASSUME that is the rule. They just got a good "cast member" who didn't want to argue. In addition, there is HUGE potential profit in this. $10 per reservation. Disney is COUNTING on these fees. Make no mistake, this is a new profit stream for the resort...

couple?..........there have been many, many reports of how the $10.00 fee has been cancelled. In fact I had one cancelled to my wife being sick one day last May. I explained her sugar was way up that morning and we would be limiting our meals that day.

As to who does the cancelling , it seems the CM's doing so have guidelines they go by and just because they may be making minimum wage is not the issue and frankly is just a cheap shot by you trying to insult them and their abilities.

If Disney was making a *HUGE profit or wanted to maximize the profit* they would simply my no exceptions, end of story.

Sorry you points do not stand up to the facts, but of course you are entitled to your opinion.


AKK

 

[WDWmazprty]

While I can certainly understand this move from a business point of view, as an honest guest of WDW, this can be a potential pain-in-the-bum...picture a morning, and this has happened once or twice in our many visits, that we've awoken and felt that the long trek from the GF to, say, the Cape May Cafe for an 8 am breakfast just seems like too much trouble this time around. It's 6:30 am, way too late to cancel without a $30 penalty...we're screwed. We, the honest folk, are the ones who will be stuck paying the penalty, or just make that ADR anymore - the schemers and scammers will be just fine, I'll bet...

I see what you're saying, it just means the honest people like us will have to commit to the choice we've made ahead of time with our ADR's. I guess its a preference thing.
Personally I'd rather have all my plans done and know exactly where we're eating on a certain day. That way we don't have to worry about choosing a place last minute and we can concentrate on having fun in the parks more

But it's not better for everyone, as I posted above. I am an honest person, and if my family awakens too tired to trek from my resort to a faraway resort for the early breakfast we had planned 6 months before, we are screwed out of $30...how is that better for everyone?

91508"]But it's not better for everyone, as I posted above. I am an honest person, and if my family awakens too tired to trek from my resort to a faraway resort for the early breakfast we had planned 6 months before, we are screwed out of $30...how is that better for everyone?[/quote]

Are your kids real young? Frankly,

Our family vacations at
WDW the same way...I make all
ADR's at 180 + 10 days out because I enjoy doing it and we have certain favorites and new places at which to dine for every trip. Sometimes, though, life happens and my husband and/or daughter just won't feel like eating at the planned location...it happens rarely, but it does happen. Like I said before...SCREWED.

From now on, except for our Boma breakfast on AK day, I won't make breakfast ADR's at any faraway resorts because I'm not willing to shell out $30 if someone wakes up too tired to hoof it all that way.

Bummer.

Are your kids real young? Again, to each his own, but I'd need a better reason to switch a restaurant thats been planned for six months and everyone knew ahead of time what the plan was.
Lol! Too tired? Sorry, you gotta get up, you'll survive. You're on vacation at DisneyWorld, you can sleep at home! LOL!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The opposite scenerio has also been reported many times. But people seem to want to overlook the times when Disney refused to waive the fee. I suspect that is because they want to believe they will never find themselves in this position. Surely, Disney will be understanding when YOU have a perfectly valid reason.

Well, heopefully that will be the case when your vacation hits a snag. But I can tell you from experience it is not always the way things play out.

I suggest you go back over the last year and do some reading........there have been very few people saying they called with good reasons and were still charged.


The argument in favor of this stems from the notion that this is going to cut down on double booking. If I want to, I can book a reservation for every e-mail address I can think of. And I can think of quite a few e-mail addresses. All I have to do is make my mind the day before and remember to cancel the reservations I don't want.

Is that a lot of work? Not really. Not for people who were already double booking. If you were already gaming the system, this is at best a mild inconvenience.

So really, the facts do not support your opinion.

And why would any one go to that extreme unless its just to be silly and rude to other guests? No one would want to be worried about making all those cancellations!

No one would go to that extreme and even if they did, the fact is that with the 24 hour cancellation, all those over bookings would open up (ibet late). Without the $10.00 cancellation fee,they would not have been available as these people who by their actions of double booking in the first place, would likely have not bothered to cancelled them and just let them hang in the system and prevent others from getting the reservation. The new system is working and will be better by expanding it.

No.............with all do respect................the facts do support my opinion.

AKK

 

[G00fyDad]

The opposite scenerio has also been reported many times. But people seem to want to overlook the times when Disney refused to waive the fee. I suspect that is because they want to believe they will never find themselves in this position. Surely, Disney will be understanding when YOU have a perfectly valid reason.

Well, heopefully that will be the case when your vacation hits a snag. But I can tell you from experience it is not always the way things play out.




The argument in favor of this stems from the notion that this is going to cut down on double booking. If I want to, I can book a reservation for every e-mail address I can think of. And I can think of quite a few e-mail addresses. All I have to do is make my mind the day before and remember to cancel the reservations I don't want.

Is that a lot of work? Not really. Not for people who were already double booking. If you were already gaming the system, this is at best a mild inconvenience.

So really, the facts do not support your opinion.

This will allow people to get a table ADR within that 24 hour window. The facts support that.

Yes, you can book an ADR from multiple emails, but do you have that many credit cards/debit cards to make those ADR's? Do you want to risk forgetting and getting hit with that many cancellation fees?

 

[flynnibus]

We have also abandoned reservations because of menu changes.

Jiko used to be my favorite stop on site.

One visit, they dumped the Filet and Tanglewood Chicken.

When spenfing over $100 for two on dinner, it better damn well bww what we want. After it took 15+ minutes to be seated (yes, at Jiko?) we bailed because of the menu change that happened days before our visit.

Now the guest gets punished?

In such a condition - would you just not speak with management to resolve the issue?

My god people we know Disney folds over backwards to apease guest compliants... here you obviously showed up and obviously intended to eat (why else blow your dinner window?)... but for whatever reason no longer want to eat there. I'm sure the manager would accommodate not marking you as a no-show. If no, you better be escalating after the fact.

 

[flynnibus]

But it's not better for everyone, as I posted above. I am an honest person, and if my family awakens too tired to trek from my resort to a faraway resort for the early breakfast we had planned 6 months before, we are screwed out of $30...how is that better for everyone?

If you think that's a risk - don't commit to something you have such a low level of commitment to that you'd skip it because you were tired.

How is it better for anyone when you promise to be somewhere, people made plans for you, and you don't show up.

 

[flynnibus]

All this 'greed' talk and evil mud slinging...

Has anyone considered maybe it's as simple as Disney has found the $10 fee effective in reducing no-shows so now they simply expand the program to other locations.. to again.. reduce no-shows?

I'm sure people with legit reasons, who can demostrate good faith would be accommodated. If you've been rejected, less we forget maybe Disney was looking at your past no-shows they DIDN'T charge you for?

 

[lebeau]

And why would any one go to that extreme unless its just to be silly and rude to other guests? No one would want to be worried about making all those cancellations!

If you would go to the trouble of making multiple reservations, how much more work is it to cancel the ones you don't want? Practically none at all.

Why would people do it? The same reason they make multiple reservations in the first place. To keep their options open. Disney added an extra hoop for people to jump through. But people who are keeping track of multiple reservations anyway aren't going to think twice about it.

No one would go to that extreme and even if they did, the fact is that with the 24 hour cancellation, all those over bookings would open up (ibet late). Without the $10.00 cancellation fee,they would not have been available as these people who by their actions of double booking in the first place, would likely have not bothered to cancelled them and just let them hang in the system and prevent others from getting the reservation. The new system is working and will be better by expanding it.

No.............with all do respect................the facts do support my opinion.

AKK

People DO go to those extremes. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a double booking issue at all. And they will continue to do so.

True, those tables will become available 24 hours in advance. That's helpful to Disney who now has a chance to rebook the table. It may be helpful to locals looking for last minute reservations. But to most people, it's not helpful at all.

What Disney really wants is to be able to hit people for the $10 fee ($40 for a family of four which is pure profit - no product or service delivered). And maybe they get lucky and fill the table anyway.

So with all due respect, no they don't.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

If you think that's a risk - don't commit to something you have such a low level of commitment to that you'd skip it because you were tired.

How is it better for anyone when you promise to be somewhere, people made plans for you, and you don't show up.

All this 'greed' talk and evil mud slinging...

Has anyone considered maybe it's as simple as Disney has found the $10 fee effective in reducing no-shows so now they simply expand the program to other locations.. to again.. reduce no-shows?

I'm sure people with legit reasons, who can demostrate good faith would be accommodated. If you've been rejected, less we forget maybe Disney was looking at your past no-shows they DIDN'T charge you for?

Y'know flynnibus it's a rare thing you and I are on the same page (and the nice thing is we're each ok with that and respect that everyone has opinions right) but man I couldn't agree more with these two posts. I've literally just been dumbfounded at how everyone is so upset about this. It just, at least to me, doesn't feel like something Disney is doing for profit. I can see why folks would think that I guess... I mean they get $10 when you don't show now... but I truly believe (maybe naively) that they too can't stand seeing their restaurants booked solid and then sitting empty and the associated logistical nightmares that can be associated with that. Still, like I said before (and not to ruffle feathers but quite honestly) if folks stop making ADRs or go extreme and stop going because of small things like this then I have no qualms with that as maybe I won't continue to have such a hard time making my own ADRs for my family.

 

[G00fyDad]

If you would go to the trouble of making multiple reservations, how much more work is it to cancel the ones you don't want? Practically none at all.

Why would people do it? The same reason they make multiple reservations in the first place. To keep their options open. Disney added an extra hoop for people to jump through. But people who are keeping track of multiple reservations anyway aren't going to think twice about it.




People DO go to those extremes. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a double booking issue at all. And they will continue to do so.

True, those tables will become available 24 hours in advance. That's helpful to Disney who now has a chance to rebook the table. It may be helpful to locals looking for last minute reservations. But to most people, it's not helpful at all.

What Disney really wants is to be able to hit people for the $10 fee ($40 for a family of four which is pure profit - no product or service delivered). And maybe they get lucky and fill the table anyway.

So with all due respect, no they don't.

Yes. They do. The people that would go to the extreme you are talking about are idiots, and far and few between. These people will need multiple cards to book these ADR's and then run the risk of forgetting some and getting nailed for it. Your scenario isn't going to happen but maybe once in a blue moon, and you know it. You're still bitter because Disney found a reason to not give you a pass on the cancellation fee. Again, you're in the minority there as well since apparently many others have had the cancellation fees dropped.

 

[lebeau]

This will allow people to get a table ADR within that 24 hour window. The facts support that.

This is a very, very small advantage for a few guests (mostly locals I would think) and a very, very large advantage for Disney.

But yes, some guests will be able to get last minute reservations they wouldn't have been able to get. In theory, they also could have gotten a walk-up if there really was a table available.

Yes, you can book an ADR from multiple emails, but do you have that many credit cards/debit cards to make those ADR's? Do you want to risk forgetting and getting hit with that many cancellation fees?

First, I would be very surprised if you need multiple credit cards to book multiple reservations. What if I am booking several trips on a corporate card? Someone correct me if that is not possible.

How big of a risk is it. If I forget, I just tell a CM a sob story and they will waive the fee, right?