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

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
You'll have to explain to me what happened in your own experience and maybe it will make me change my opinion. I for one think it is disrespectful and downright wrong of people to make dozens of reservations and then just forget or not care about cancelling them. If they could somehow stop people from making multiple reservations then I'm all for not having a cancellation penalty. I think in MOST (not all, but the majority) cases, cancelling the night before is not a lot to ask. I make a lot of reservations but usually cancel them even before my trip begins. I do the same with cars. NEVER once had I left for a trip with multiple car or dining reservations made.
Do you have young children?
 

jklakeview

Well-Known Member
Do you have young children?
Yes I do, a 3 year old and a 4 month old. I have been there 3 times with my 3 year old (he was 4 months, 1 1/2, and 2) and had free dining all three times. I ate at a restaurant every night for dinner. This is the first time we are going to be there with both. I am very excited. Eating out is nothing new for them though. We go out to dinner in some form or another almost every night. Not something too fancy all the time, but we do eat out each night.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I hope they do not charge you much for changing the hour of the reservation now. We once had to change our reservation on the Italian restaurant at Magic Kingdom.
They didn't charged us thanks god (we got there earlier, by 2 hours but we had to wait 30 minutes to be seated )
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Yes I do, a 3 year old and a 4 month old. I have been there 3 times with my 3 year old (he was 4 months, 1 1/2, and 2) and had free dining all three times. I ate at a restaurant every night for dinner. This is the first time we are going to be there with both. I am very excited. Eating out is nothing new for them though. We go out to dinner in some form or another almost every night. Not something too fancy all the time, but we do eat out each night.
I find it hard to believe, then, that someone with young children might not understand the need to cancel a RSVP day-of. Have you never had to cancel your plans day-of due to your kids? I know I have.
 

SteveAZee

Premium Member
If all reservations end up getting made through MDE (or one centralized system) then the system itself could stop multiple bookings... correct? No need for the punitive fee, and last minute cancellations would be filled by walk-ups.
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
You'll have to explain to me what happened in your own experience and maybe it will make me change my opinion. I for one think it is disrespectful and downright wrong of people to make dozens of reservations and then just forget or not care about cancelling them. If they could somehow stop people from making multiple reservations then I'm all for not having a cancellation penalty. I think in MOST (not all, but the majority) cases, cancelling the night before is not a lot to ask. I make a lot of reservations but usually cancel them even before my trip begins. I do the same with cars. NEVER once had I left for a trip with multiple car or dining reservations made.

I bolded the part where you said you make a lot of reservations only to cancel them later. In a lot of people's opinion, that would make you part of the problem.

You're really illustrating my point. People will still make a bunch of reservations. Now they just have to remember to cancel them the day before. The people abusing the system won't be hit with this penalty. And they won't let it change their behavior either except to be sure to cancel the day before.

Upside for guests: A few people will get lucky with same-day reservations. But then, that table would have been available to someone anyway even if no one had cancelled. So, not really a big advantage to guests.

Advantage to Disney: There's a chance they make some money without serving a guest. If the ressie is cancelled, they have a full day to fill it plus the possibility of a walk-up. But more importantly, they can predict very accurately how many patrons will be at each restaurant every minute of every day and staff accordingly. Extra revenue + lower costs = huge benefits to Disney.

I think people who are in favor of this policy are under a few misconceptions:

1. They over-estimate its effectiveness. It really won't make reservations easier to get. And it will not help walk-ups at all.

2. They think the reason they can't get reservations for their favorite restaurant is that a few people are abusing the system. They want those people stopped and/or punished. But in reality, the fault lies with Disney for creating such a ridiculous reservation system.

3. They can't imagine it will ever have a downside to them. Either they have never had to cancel a reservation in 24 hours or they assume Disney will be understanding when they explain their situation.

Anyway, here's my personal experience. In 2010, we were visiting Epcot. We had dinner reservations at Akershus. It was a miserable, rainy day. My kids at the time were nearly 5 and not quite 1. While we were in one of the pavilions, our stroller was soaked with rain. We got indoors and tried to wait it out. But the rain wasn't letting up. After about an hour, we decided we were going to call it a day.

I called the reservation center and asked if it would be possible to move our reservations up at all. If we could get them any earlier, we would have kept them. But that was not possible. It was about four hours till our reservation, so I told them that we weren't going to wait around. Sadly, we had to cancel.

I was prepared to pay the $30 cancelation fee for myself, my wife and the almost 5 year old. I wasn't happy about it, but I had agreed to it. Sure, I hoped Disney would be understanding of the situation and waive the fee. We were paying quite a bit of money for a Disney vacation and having a miserable day. No fault of Disney's, but no fault of our own either. Had Disney waived the fee, I would be telling the story of their tremendous customer service to this day.

Obviously, they didn't waive the fee. Had they charged me the $30 I was prepared to pay, I would have grumbled and gotten over it. But they didn't do that either. They told me the fee would be $40. They were charging me for the baby who would not have eaten dinner anyway.

I told them I understood about the cancelation fee and I was willing to pay for the three of us. But I asked them to please waive the $10 for the baby. The cast member I spoke to put me on hold several times and apologized profusely. I genuinely think he wanted to help me. But for whatever reason, he told me he could not. After about 20 minutes of being put on hold, I gave up and accepted the fee.

I have shared that story several times over the years. I have gotten some good feedback that would have been helpful. In retrospect, I should have hung up the phone and called back until I got the answer I wanted. But not all guests are going to think of that. I didn't.

So now, 3 1/2 years later, I'm telling a story about how Disney screwed me out of $10 for canceling a reservation for a baby who wasn't going to eat anyway.

It's just one story. And I'm sure 90-something percent of the time, Disney will handle this right. But some guests are going to have experiences like mine or worse. Don't assume that you will never have to cancel and don't assume Disney will be understanding. Unexpected things happen and Disney doesn't always take care of their guests when they do.
 
Last edited:

lebeau

Well-Known Member
I have seen this basic scenario over and over on these boards. SO WDW doesn't have a policy to let a reservation go to a walk up after, say 15 or 20 minutes? That seems insane. After 20 minutes, they should let it go. If that party shows up after that, they could try to accommodate them (such as with another no show table), but otherwise SOL. The comment I saw somewhere on this forums which stated that they got into Ohana b/c a party of 26 did not show up was shocking to me.

The problem is likely that Disney cut the staff down to the bare minimum because there weren't enough ressies. Not that the entire place was booked and no one showed.
 

Hot Lava

Well-Known Member
The problem is likely that Disney cut the staff down to the bare minimum because there weren't enough ressies. Not that the entire place was booked and no one showed.

I do not remember who posted that story about Ohana, but that is what they said - they were told a party of 26 booked and then was a no show.
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
I do not remember who posted that story about Ohana, but that is what they said - they were told a party of 26 booked and then was a no show.

I was actually responding more to The Plaza story about the place being empty but they wouldn't take walk-ups. I'm guessing that's because the staffing was cut down to nothing.

I can totally see the O'Hana story being true. Disney collected $260 of pure profit for a cancellation fee and then filled the tables anyway.
 

ExtinctJenn

Well-Known Member
If all reservations end up getting made through MDE (or one centralized system) then the system itself could stop multiple bookings... correct? No need for the punitive fee, and last minute cancellations would be filled by walk-ups.
The issue being that today, the system does allow for multiple bookings. I have always assumed this is because someone may have an ADR scheduled and then find an alternative one they'd like to book instead. The system should prompt you to say "if you book this we'll automatically cancel the other one" but it doesn't. If you call and do it over the phone very often the CM will catch it but even then they rarely will force you to cancel the duplicate.

That said however, I think ultimately this is to stop no-shows for any reason, multiple reservations or otherwise. Fixing the system to no longer allow multiples would just resolve half the issue.
 

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
I hope they are nixing the whole horrible idea and got flooded with complaints
The issue being that today, the system does allow for multiple bookings. I have always assumed this is because someone may have an ADR scheduled and then find an alternative one they'd like to book instead. The system should prompt you to say "if you book this we'll automatically cancel the other one" but it doesn't. If you call and do it over the phone very often the CM will catch it but even then they rarely will force you to cancel the duplicate.

That said however, I think ultimately this is to stop no-shows for any reason, multiple reservations or otherwise. Fixing the system to no longer allow multiples would just resolve half the issue.

It doesnt though, a pop up online says you already have a reservation for this time period, do you want to cancel it and make the new one instead.
 

prberk

Well-Known Member
I have seen this basic scenario over and over on these boards. SO WDW doesn't have a policy to let a reservation go to a walk up after, say 15 or 20 minutes? That seems insane. After 20 minutes, they should let it go. If that party shows up after that, they could try to accommodate them (such as with another no show table), but otherwise SOL. The comment I saw somewhere on this forums which stated that they got into Ohana b/c a party of 26 did not show up was shocking to me.

They used to have that policy. In fact for most years after starting the system of booking restaurants, they specifically avoided calling them "reservations." They called them "priority seating" or something like that (name escapes me now). You were even told that it was not a reservation, but priority over walk-ins. When you showed up, starting at your priority seating time, you were given priority. It was like a reservation, only not guaranteed. It worked wonderfully. If you did not show up, others got your place. And, for walk-ups, it allowed the restaurant to say whether they were booked or not, but also offer that they might be able to fit someone in if others cancel or do not make it.

That system was well-thought-out in a theme-park environment (especially one with theme parks miles from each other where management has encouraged people to fly in and rely totally on Disney for unpredictable transportation); but was probably overridden by some MBAs in Strategic Planning that sat in a cubicle somewhere and wanted more surety... and eventually to nickel and dime (no, $10 and $100) people to death with "no-show" charges that leave a sour taste.

They need to go back to priority seating.
 
Last edited:

ExtinctJenn

Well-Known Member
It doesnt though, a pop up online says you already have a reservation for this time period, do you want to cancel it and make the new one instead.
I've never seen that and have booked multiple reservations for the same time period many times. The difference is I did it because I changed where I wanted to eat and then went in and immediately cancelled the duplicate. If it's doing that now, maybe that was a change they implemented and the reason behind putting this idea on hold!
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
I've never seen that and have booked multiple reservations for the same time period many times. The difference is I did it because I changed where I wanted to eat and then went in and immediately cancelled the duplicate. If it's doing that now, maybe that was a change they implemented and the reason behind putting this idea on hold!

They've been doing it for years. Not sure why you haven't seen it. Could you have missed the pop-up?

Of course it's extremely easy to get around the system. All you have to do is use more than one e-mail address. Most people have at least two. Odds are a family of four has several among them.

The credit card hold would make it harder if they restricted you to one reservation per credit card. But they aren't going to do that because some people book multiple trips per credit card. So realistically, this won't put a dent in multiple bookings. That's not the intent of the policy, despite what a lot of people around here want to believe.

This policy has already been in effect for two years for the restaurants that arguably needed it. Over those two years, reservations have not gotten objectively easier to get. And walk-ups are still non-existent. There has been virtually no benefit at all to guests from the existing penalties at the most sought-after restaurants.

So why expand it to restaurants like The Plaza which frequently do take walk-ups today? Because the policy has been a boon to Disney's bottom line. They cut their expenses and create a revenue stream that is pure profit. Win, win, win for them. Who cares if it creates a bad customer experience?

I know I'm not going to change anyone's mind. I've been having this conversation for a couple years now. People see this how they want to see it. Supporters are just going to carry on in their belief that this is a blow against the people they perceive are cheating the system. They will go on thinking the policy will never harm them... until it does. Hopefully you never find yourself so unfortunate.

But ask yourself, how does this policy prevent people from continuing to do exactly what they are doing right now? It doesn't. People who cheat the system will continue to do so without ever feeling the sting of being charged a fee. The only people who will get charged are the people who played by the rules and were legitimately unlucky.

Is that something to cheer?
 

ExtinctJenn

Well-Known Member
They've been doing it for years. Not sure why you haven't seen it. Could you have missed the pop-up?
All I ever remember seeing is the thing that shows me my existing plans for the day. I'm nearly positive I never saw a pop-up but either way, the way it's described, it's not truly preventing you, it's just nicely telling you. :D
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
All I ever remember seeing is the thing that shows me my existing plans for the day. I'm nearly positive I never saw a pop-up but either way, the way it's described, it's not truly preventing you, it's just nicely telling you. :D

Any time I have changed reservations, it told me I had an existing reservation for that time and politely asked if I wanted to give it up for the new one. Keeping both wasn't an option. It was polite, but it wasn't a reminder. If you clicked "yes" your old reservations were cancelled by the system. There was no way around it other than using multiple accounts.

It's been this way for quite a while now. Can't remember exactly when it started but I want to say it went along with the 2011 policy changes. Really not sure why your experience would be different. Mine has been consistent.
 

ExtinctJenn

Well-Known Member
Any time I have changed reservations, it told me I had an existing reservation for that time and politely asked if I wanted to give it up for the new one. Keeping both wasn't an option. It was polite, but it wasn't a reminder. If you clicked "yes" your old reservations were cancelled by the system. There was no way around it other than using multiple accounts.

It's been this way for quite a while now. Can't remember exactly when it started but I want to say it went along with the 2011 policy changes. Really not sure why your experience would be different. Mine has been consistent.
Throughout this thread quite a few people have admitted to making multiple reservations for the same meal time so it doesn't appear to be just me. The difference was mine were temporary and I cancelled the duplicates. Others have said they make them so they can chose from different options for the meal. Glad to hear they have something in place that is supposed to prevent it but I'm telling you, for our December trip, which I booked just a few months ago, I was able to make duplicate ADRs for the same time slot. I also don't get why it'd be one way for some people and another for others but I've got nothing to gain in simply making this up obviously. ;)
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
Throughout this thread quite a few people have admitted to making multiple reservations for the same meal time so it doesn't appear to be just me. The difference was mine were temporary and I cancelled the duplicates. Others have said they make them so they can chose from different options for the meal. Glad to hear they have something in place that is supposed to prevent it but I'm telling you, for our December trip, which I booked just a few months ago, I was able to make duplicate ADRs for the same time slot. I also don't get why it'd be one way for some people and another for others but I've got nothing to gain in simply making this up obviously. ;)

Obviously, I don't either. But in 2012, I was forced to switch reservations unless I used multiple e-mails. If you were doing that, you would not have gotten the pop-up. If you used the same e-mail or the reservations were tied into a hotel reservation, you would have gotten the pop-up.

People who are making multiple reservations - whether they later cancel them or not - are circumventing the system. That's going to continue.

Just to test the theory, I went to the website to book some reservations. The interface has obviously changed to tie into MM+. The system crashed on me twice while I tried to set up a lunch reservation. Just sayin'.

Under the new system, there is no pop-up. The system ties the reservations to your MM+ account. Once you have a lunch reservation, it won't let you search availability for another one for that day. The obvious workaround is to open another account. But then, that has always been the work around back when they had the pop-up. So really, not much of a change.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom