Missed reservation fee

[CaptainAmerica]

Does anyone know what you have to actually do in order to not be charged a fee for cancelling a dining reservation within 24 hours? If I have a reservation for four, can I check in as one person, say the rest of my party was unable to join me, order a coke, pay my bill, and leave? I'm not advocating for that or suggesting I would, just curious if there's any way "out" if the baby acts up, your plans change, or you're just plain not hungry.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

Does anyone know what you have to actually do in order to not be charged a fee for cancelling a dining reservation within 24 hours? If I have a reservation for four, can I check in as one person, say the rest of my party was unable to join me, order a coke, pay my bill, and leave? I'm not advocating for that or suggesting I would, just curious if there's any way "out" if the baby acts up, your plans change, or you're just plain not hungry.

I'm not sure what the actual rules of it are as in avoiding the fee besides canceling the 24 hours prior. I have called Disney dinning direct before and cancelled a few hours prior and was never charged. Not sure if that was a fluke or not though.

 

[Andrew C]

Does anyone know what you have to actually do in order to not be charged a fee for cancelling a dining reservation within 24 hours? If I have a reservation for four, can I check in as one person, say the rest of my party was unable to join me, order a coke, pay my bill, and leave? I'm not advocating for that or suggesting I would, just curious if there's any way "out" if the baby acts up, your plans change, or you're just plain not hungry.

On a trip last fall my wife cancelled just two hours before because someone in our party was not feeling well. They did not charge us. This is my only experience but I assume if you have a good reason they waive the fee.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm not sure what the actual rules of it are as in avoiding the fee besides canceling the 24 hours prior. I have called Disney dinning direct before and cancelled a few hours prior and was never charged. Not sure if that was a fluke or not though.

How recently? I think this is a fairly new rule.

I can also confirm that it's not 24 hours per se. "Officially" it is, but you can usually call until midnight the day before.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

How recently? I think this is a fairly new rule.

I can also confirm that it's not 24 hours per se. "Officially" it is, but you can usually call until midnight the day before.

That was back in October during F&W. We ate and drank to much at all the kiosk and had a reservation at Via. Called them direct and cancelled it.

Wasn't the cancellation fee started due to all the no shows they were having at the restaurants?

 

[Andrew C]

That was back in October during F&W. We ate and drank to much at all the kiosk and had a reservation at Via. Called them direct and cancelled it.

Wasn't the cancellation fee started due to all the no shoes they were having at the restaurants?

Haha. Yeah. If I'm doing F&W I never make ADRs on that day.

 

[wm49rs]

Does anyone know what you have to actually do in order to not be charged a fee for cancelling a dining reservation within 24 hours? If I have a reservation for four, can I check in as one person, say the rest of my party was unable to join me, order a coke, pay my bill, and leave? I'm not advocating for that or suggesting I would, just curious if there's any way "out" if the baby acts up, your plans change, or you're just plain not hungry.

We haven't had to cancel any reservation that weren't at least 12 hours out, so we've been lucky. But we were never seated for our ADR if the entire party was not present. So I'm not sure your idea would work....

 

[JasonDeyoung]

Haha. Yeah. If I'm doing F&W I never make ADRs on that day.

Well the friend I was with made it, she had never been to F&W and didn't realize all the food that was there lol

 

[PEPPER2029]

Call in, reschedule for a time a few days away then cancel ahead of time. A cast member told me about it. I've done it twice.

 

[NEL]

Call in, reschedule for a time a few days away then cancel ahead of time. A cast member told me about it. I've done it twice.[/QUOTE

This

 

[wdizneew]

On my recent trip down there, I had to cancel a reservation. The reservation was for dinner at 8pm on a Saturday and I cancelled it at about 8:30pm on Friday (day before and within the 24 hour window) and wasn't charged. I think there might be a grace period within the 24 hours before your reservation (just don't cancel it within an hour of the reservation). I think the system is pretty forgiving if you have to cancel within 24 hours for a valid reason. It would be best to talk to a cast member on the phone and not just do it on the My Disney Experience app.

I believe the charging fee was to stop people from overbooking reservations at various restaurants and then deciding on one while other restaurants were stuck with empty seats for guests who never showed up or bothered to cancel ahead of time. It's kind of like how the old fastpass system where guests wouldn't show up within their 1 hour time slot and instead showed up hours after their official fp return time.

 

[Kate Alan]

I've had friends cancel within only a couple hours of their reservation and not be charged (a member of the party was ill so they decided not to go). I don't think they will really penalize you if you have to cancel last minute for a legit reason - it's more to stop people from being outright no shows. And I've never had an issue adjusting a reservation for less people at the last minute - I've had illnesses and cancellations from friends that have sometimes dropped a 6 person reservation down to 2 people. We've never been charged for those who couldn't make it.

 

[TwistedPrincess]

I have canceled the same day many times and have never been charged as long as I call. I have also confused the time on an Ohana reservation, showed up an hour late, and they told me I wouldn't be charged. I've never attempted to cancel right before the reservation, but it seems to me that you won't be charged unless you just don't show up.

 

[LWB]

Definitely call if you don't plan to make it to your reservation. I've had friends that were charged with the fee when they didn't show up.

You won't be charged a fee if you show up for a lesser number of guests. Let's say you have a reservation for 6 and two of the adults decide they don't want to go, you can still show up with a party of 4 and avoid fees. If it's for something like CRT or HDDR where they expect pre-payment or hold with your dining credits, I would definitely call and adjust the size of the party because you might get charged a fee for those who didn't show up.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

I wonder if their system tracks who cancels.
i.e. if you make the odd cancellation within 24 hours but well ahead of the reservation, no charge. But a note is made so that if the person is doing it frequently across the resort then they get charged.

It's must be a huge annoyance to all the people that can't get reservations at a sensible timeframe ahead of when they want; I suppose it does open the door for a tiny amount of on the day or walk up availability though.

 

[aladdin2007]

I have canceled the same day many times and have never been charged as long as I call. I have also confused the time on an Ohana reservation, showed up an hour late, and they told me I wouldn't be charged. I've never attempted to cancel right before the reservation, but it seems to me that you won't be charged unless you just don't show up.

We tried this a couple months ago on the same day, we called that morning to say we needed to change locations because we were going somewhere different...well that blew up in our face. The woman said we couldnt and we would be charged a cancelation fee. I was irate and had to outright argue with this woman about it. She could have saved us both a lot of headache if she had just said at the beginning you cant cancel it but you can move it to a different date. But she didnt until things turned ugly. I dont much care for the way Disney treats their customers with this, its like having to call a school and explain why your absent with a good enough excuess that you hope passes with all the reasons and having to get an okay or clearance. Its horrible. I guess it boils down to who you get, but you shouldnt have to argue with them about like I did, for now on I guess I would ask to speak to a supervisor but then they probably dont even have such a thing via the phone.

 

[Miceberg]

We had a reservation at Ohana on our arrival day last year. The flight was seriously delayed and we arrived at the airport 8 hours late and an hour before we were supposed to sit down to dinner. Obviously one cannot get from MCO to Ohana via Magical express in an hour no matter how much pixie dust is sprinkled on the bus! I called and explained our predicament and was not charged for missing the reservation.

 

[Minthorne]

On our last trip we were booked for dinner at Tokyo dining but we're not hungry and just stopped by an hour before and asked. They let us cancel with no fee

 

[Tom P.]

We tried this a couple months ago on the same day, we called that morning to say we needed to change locations because we were going somewhere different...well that blew up in our face. The woman said we couldnt and we would be charged a cancelation fee. I was irate and had to outright argue with this woman about it. She could have saved us both a lot of headache if she had just said at the beginning you cant cancel it but you can move it to a different date. But she didnt until things turned ugly. I dont much care for the way Disney treats their customers with this, its like having to call a school and explain why your absent with a good enough excuess that you hope passes with all the reasons and having to get an okay or clearance. Its horrible. I guess it boils down to who you get, but you shouldnt have to argue with them about like I did, for now on I guess I would ask to speak to a supervisor but then they probably dont even have such a thing via the phone.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but I disagree with you. I don't think you were mistreated at all.

You made an ADR. ADR's are hard to get -- that's why people make them. If you don't show up, Disney has an empty spot that they could have given to another paying customer. You're told up front that you have to cancel 24 hours in advance to avoid a charge. But you called the morning of and were "irate" because you were told you would be charged a cancellation fee, just like you were told you would be when you booked the ADR.

 

[aladdin2007]

I don't mean to be argumentative, but I disagree with you. I don't think you were mistreated at all.

You made an ADR. ADR's are hard to get -- that's why people make them. If you don't show up, Disney has an empty spot that they could have given to another paying customer. You're told up front that you have to cancel 24 hours in advance to avoid a charge. But you called the morning of and were "irate" because you were told you would be charged a cancellation fee, just like you were told you would be when you booked the ADR.

No im sorry if you call and explain you had to change your plans and or need to change a location then Disney should not be that difficult, I know what the rules are, but in this day and age things arise and have to be altered sometimes. Especially when your local and cant always make the trip over the day of or need to change the schedule. After explaining to the woman she was most unhelpful and was not the least bit friendly about it. All she had to do was say your welcome to move the reservation but she didnt, until the very end after it got heated. As long as you call and explain there should be no questions asked. If you dont show up without calling then yes of course thats different.