ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
I don't care if I'm spending $20,000 for a trip for my family of 4...if they tried to smack me with a $40 no-show fee after they were the reason I was late, I'd put up a huge stink.
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News My Disney Experience and website to become the only way to make dining reservations
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Creathir
Premium Member
So where this sucks IMO is the phone reservations were an opportunity for the CM taking the reservation to sprinkle in some additional magic.
They would casually discuss the restaurant and help you decide where you wanted to eat, and in the process would ask if you were celebrating anything special or what the purpose of your trip was. Just in the course of natural conversation.
Then when you would check into the restaurant, you’d be seated and sometimes there would be little extras on the table, like congratulation decorations, or maybe just small little phrases from the host CMs.
All driven from the notes in the reservation. It wasn’t every time, but it certainly made the trip just a little more magical.
For our honeymoon, we had 2 separate occasions where extra magic was waiting for us at our dining reservation.
MDE will fail to capture the surprise this offered.
They would casually discuss the restaurant and help you decide where you wanted to eat, and in the process would ask if you were celebrating anything special or what the purpose of your trip was. Just in the course of natural conversation.
Then when you would check into the restaurant, you’d be seated and sometimes there would be little extras on the table, like congratulation decorations, or maybe just small little phrases from the host CMs.
All driven from the notes in the reservation. It wasn’t every time, but it certainly made the trip just a little more magical.
For our honeymoon, we had 2 separate occasions where extra magic was waiting for us at our dining reservation.
MDE will fail to capture the surprise this offered.
Jenny72
Well-Known Member
The last time I went, it was my young daughter's birthday. I plastered her from head to foot in birthday stuff so that she'd get a lot of attention from the CMs, but to my surprise, almost no one said anything. I found myself prodding people -- hey, it's her birthday today! -- and then they'd often say, 'happy birthday, princess' (although she hates being called 'princess,' but anyway). I wonder if the special attention thing is dying out. I was really disappointed. Didn't really inspire me to do it again.
mdcpr
Well-Known Member
If you are paying $20K, you wouldn't care about $40. And if you put up a huge stink, you'll get a few FPs which is free to WDW.
mdcpr
Well-Known Member
Sign of the times. I read once that about 20-30% of WDW visitors are repeat customers, due to this their service might lag since catering to repeat visitors is not a focus.
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
Way to assume you know what I would/wouldn't care about.
mdcpr
Well-Known Member
No assumptions, just a statement before I get coffee and start my day. This thread was entertaining.Way to assume you know what I would/wouldn't care about.
Whoa. The quick “sky is falling” assumptions here are crazy. Disney will still have chat and phone CUSTOMER SERVICE available. I used the chat feature on our last trip and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. So much nicer than calling.
10 WDW trips in the last 11 years. Two of those with large groups (9 and 10 people). I’ve never called for dining. I’ve called for the quick issue resolution which they will still offer, but not sure why I’d ever call to make reservations. The process of talking to someone sounds so much more tedious than having multiple comparison browser windows open and looking at times myself.
And again, if you NEED to call because of a fringe case, call customer service. They’ll help you. How many retailers have a fully staffed catalog ordering phone center? No, it has moved to shop online and call us if you have an issue.
10 WDW trips in the last 11 years. Two of those with large groups (9 and 10 people). I’ve never called for dining. I’ve called for the quick issue resolution which they will still offer, but not sure why I’d ever call to make reservations. The process of talking to someone sounds so much more tedious than having multiple comparison browser windows open and looking at times myself.
And again, if you NEED to call because of a fringe case, call customer service. They’ll help you. How many retailers have a fully staffed catalog ordering phone center? No, it has moved to shop online and call us if you have an issue.
Humm. Plenty of times, I have tried over and over to get a dining reservation on-line only to be denied..but I call and *poof* there is is.
My Disney Experience and website to become the only way to make most Disney World dining reservations
Walt Disney World is moving to online only for regular dining reservations.www.wdwmagic.com
MAGIC!!!
UKDisney Dave
Well-Known Member
I’ve never called for a dining reservation, being quite happy with online booking.
I will however lament the lack of “WDW DINE” as a phrase.
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As a Brit where spelling out words from numbers hasn’t caught on it’s always fun to see these on my US travels.
I will however lament the lack of “WDW DINE” as a phrase.
. As a Brit where spelling out words from numbers hasn’t caught on it’s always fun to see these on my US travels.
carolina_yankee
Well-Known Member
The app would never allow me to modify a reservation within 24 hours, but I could always call and push it out a few days before canceling if something happened that I needed to cancel. I wonder if the app will continue to direct me to call when I can't modify?
Dirk
Dirk
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
Saying you know how someone else would react to something = assumption.
Captain Barbossa
Well-Known Member
I’m fine with this. Anytime that we’ve had problems with our ADRs, it was when we booked them over the phone. (human error) So far we haven’t had any problems with booking ADRs via MDE or the website. (knock on wood)
Vacationeer
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
As long as there is a call center, it'll be fine. Maybe they're just trying to coax people into using the automated first and only calling when there's an issue.
flynnibus
Premium Member
The phone agents offered many things the online version did not
- the ability to get around conflict rules
- the easy ability to lookup and modify multiple dimensions at once
- the ability to deal with cancellation fee issues “up front” verse after
- a good person to ask questions to as part of your decision process. I was always impressed with the level of insight the reservation agents had... way more than just reading from scripts. There was experience and training there
- more efficient searching
I can understand Disney trying to funnel activity to online.... but lets call it what it really is. Self service verse full service.
Yes you can walk into mcdonalds and order from a kiosk now verse talking to someone... or go into a grocery store and scan your own items verse using a cashier. Yes there are situations where that has advantages.. but we all have times were it fails us... or we’d rather just have someone else deal with it. Thats the SERVICE we are paying for.
My biggest concern is a concerted effort like this means there will be actual changes to how the reservation agents are handled. Will they be morphed into just “tech support” and just deal with people failing to use the site correctly? Will it impact what training they get? Will it impact staffing levels and wait times?
- the ability to get around conflict rules
- the easy ability to lookup and modify multiple dimensions at once
- the ability to deal with cancellation fee issues “up front” verse after
- a good person to ask questions to as part of your decision process. I was always impressed with the level of insight the reservation agents had... way more than just reading from scripts. There was experience and training there
- more efficient searching
I can understand Disney trying to funnel activity to online.... but lets call it what it really is. Self service verse full service.
Yes you can walk into mcdonalds and order from a kiosk now verse talking to someone... or go into a grocery store and scan your own items verse using a cashier. Yes there are situations where that has advantages.. but we all have times were it fails us... or we’d rather just have someone else deal with it. Thats the SERVICE we are paying for.
My biggest concern is a concerted effort like this means there will be actual changes to how the reservation agents are handled. Will they be morphed into just “tech support” and just deal with people failing to use the site correctly? Will it impact what training they get? Will it impact staffing levels and wait times?
Tony the Tigger
Well-Known Member
OvertheHorizon
Well-Known Member
Maybe it depends on the type of modification. On my last trip (a month ago), I had a 7:30 p.m. dinner reservation at the German pavilion. It was 5 p.m., I'd already had a long day, and didn't just want to sit around waiting. I was able to change the time - using the app - to 5:30 p.m.