New Resort Guest Benefit: 90+ days Dine Itinerary Planning

[JPVonDrake]

Starting today 7/18/05, Disney Resort Guests can book their entire vacation’s dinning (up to a 10 day stay) at 90 days prior to their Resort arrival date. You must be staying at a Disney owned and operated Resort hotel with an active reservation. If you cancel your room reservation, all of your dine reservations will also be automatically cancelled.

As the auto-cancel feature is new, it is still advised that if you booked a Dine reservation that required a credit card deposit or credit card guarantee to verify that they get cancelled if you cancel your room reservation. If a modification results in a change of your reservation number, again have the agent verify all of your dining to ensure your room reservation is updated. In time, this step will no longer be needed.

If you booked with a travel agent, your travel agent will need to call in your dinning reservations to take advantage of this new enhancement. If you booked with a wholesaler, (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) they will provide you with a special number to call.

Any Guest will still be able to book their own dine reservations at 90 days or less prior to the date they wish to dine, based on availability, same as now.

How it works:

*Guest should take advantage of the Dine Finder function at www.Disneyworld.com to aid in deciding their itinerary before they call.
*Guest calls 1-407-WDW-DINE at 90 days prior to their resort arrival.
*When prompted by the auto attendant, the Guest will need to enter their room reservation number AND home phone number. If your room reservation starts with an “R” simply enter in just the 7 digit number following the “R” and advice your Dine agent.
*The Disney Dine Agent will validate your room reservation in the system and note your reservation number on your dine reservations.
* The Disney Agent will proactively encourage the Guest to book not only for their arrival date, but also for the length of their stay, up to 10 days, allowing the guest to book their full vacation in one call instead of needing to call back daily.

Note: This is not changing the booking window. Disney will still continue to promote dining reservations 90 days in advance. Resort Guest cannot call 91+ days in advance to book for their arrival date.

Enjoy your meals! :sohappy:

 

[scorp111]

Good Idea....

Save on the need to call 5 -6 times per trip.... :sohappy:

 

[DMDK]

If you book with a TA, why do they have to call in? As long as you have your reservation number from them, can't you do it yourself? They may not know your touring schedule to make any time adjustments if what you want isn't available.

 

[mickeysaver]

More from MousePlanet....

Disney resort guests get easier dining reservations
Dining reservations just got a new twist. As of this morning, when guests staying at Disney-owned and -operated resorts (the Swan, Dolphin and Shades of Green are not included) reach their 90-day booking window for the beginning of their trip, they may now make reservations for ten days' worth of Advance Dining Reservations. The dining agent will confirm your hotel reservation before making the dining reservations. Those not staying at Disney resorts will need to continue making reservations on a rolling 90-day basis. This policy also extends to other experiences reserved through WDW Dining, 407-WDW-DINE (407-939-3463), such as the Pirate Cruise and Wonderland Tea Party at the Grand Floridian.

Apparently, the new policy will not be opening all reservations for a given restaurant for early booking, however. A sliding percentage of seats will be made available for early booking, with fewer seats opening up for the more popular restaurants. This means that very few seats will be opened up for the Princess character meals at Cinderella's Royal Table and Restaurant Akershus. However, it will give resort guests an additional chance to snag a reservation, first at their 90-day-plus-ten window, then again when the rest of the reservations open up at 90 days out.

While the tough-to-get seats will remain difficult, what the policy does is allow resort guests to make all of their reservations with one call (with the possible exception of high-demand seats), lowering the number of required long-distance calls. While not quite back to the old days of "only resort guests can make advance reservations," Disney has given guests one more incentive to stay on-property.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

So does this mean that someone staying off site is now at a disadvantage when it comes to getting dining reservations ??
For example - if two parties are visiting WDW for the same 10 day period, the party staying on site can make ALL their reservations in one phone call at the 90 marker and the party staying off site must ring on a daily basis as each 90 day marker comes

 

[mickeysaver]

Yes the offsite guest now is definately at a disadvantage. For hard to come by ressies like CRT, the onsite guests will definately have the upper hand. I would be willing to say that most likely 90% or more of the people that get those ressies will be onsite guests. Maggie

 

[PhilharMagician]

Thanks JP. This is great news! No more calling every day.

 

[wannab@dis]

Yes the offsite guest now is definately at a disadvantage. For hard to come by ressies like CRT, the onsite guests will definately have the upper hand. I would be willing to say that most likely 90% or more of the people that get those ressies will be onsite guests. Maggie

There's no way to know that unless you know the percentage of seats that are opened up at the 90 + 10 time. If they only open up a few seats a day and then the remainder is opened up at the 90 day mark, then the percentage would probably be fairly similar to what it would be now.

I don't believe this new policy was instigated to "help" on property guests get more those hard to book priority seatings as much as it was to give them the capability to make their reservations in one call instead of several. In fact, I would say that Disney has figured out that they actually save their workers time by allowing the guest to book for all 10 days. That's less calls they receive. But, they disguised it as an on-property benefit for obvious reasons.

 

[JPVonDrake]

If you book with a TA, why do they have to call in? As long as you have your reservation number from them, can't you do it yourself? They may not know your touring schedule to make any time adjustments if what you want isn't available.

When you book with a travel agent your reservation is stored under the Travel Agency number, not the guest name. We cannot locate or validate your reservation to see where you are staying or when you are comming.

This is a new system, so changes will happen. I will keep everyone updated as these changes happen.

 

[JPVonDrake]

Apparently, the new policy will not be opening all reservations for a given restaurant for early booking, however. A sliding percentage of seats will be made available for early booking, with fewer seats opening up for the more popular restaurants. This means that very few seats will be opened up for the Princess character meals at Cinderella's Royal Table and Restaurant Akershus. However, it will give resort guests an additional chance to snag a reservation, first at their 90-day-plus-ten window, then again when the rest of the reservations open up at 90 days out.

I will double check this, but I don't believe this to be true...

 

[PixyDust]

Question -

We are staying 3 nights at AKL on cash, and then moving to OKW on DVC points for 7 more days. Can you see my OKW ressy so that I can make all of my ADRs at once, or am I going to need to do the AKL ressy on one call, and then use MS at DVC when the 90 day window opens on that part of our stay?

 

[mickeysaver]

Originally Posted by mickeysaver
Apparently, the new policy will not be opening all reservations for a given restaurant for early booking, however. A sliding percentage of seats will be made available for early booking, with fewer seats opening up for the more popular restaurants. This means that very few seats will be opened up for the Princess character meals at Cinderella's Royal Table and Restaurant Akershus. However, it will give resort guests an additional chance to snag a reservation, first at their 90-day-plus-ten window, then again when the rest of the reservations open up at 90 days out.

I will double check this, but I don't believe this to be true...

Well, I have found this information on MousePlanet and I heard Scott, the PS Calculator guy both refer to this as being true. Not to say that 2 wrongs make a right, but it does seem to give the idea a bit more validity. Maggie

 

[Computer Magic]

If you cancel your room reservation, all of your dine reservations will also be automatically cancelled.

If a modification results in a change of your reservation number, again have the agent verify all of your dining to ensure your room reservation is updated. In time, this step will no longer be needed.

Can someone clarify these two points. What happens if you book and make reservations because a great offer was announced. Will you lose your reservations by trying to take advantage of an offer?

 

[shari71]

Sorry, I am slow tonight (Monday's ) So if I have made my reservations now and want to make reservations for several restaurants, I just call 90 days before the first day and I can book my reservations for the entire trip up to 10 days? Or am I out because I have already made my reservations.

Bad day, but this may well brighten it.

 

[DMDK]

I talked to Disney and they told me that guests do not need to have their TA's call to make the dining reservations. They said they could search by reservation number, which is actually faster than searching by the agency number, and as long as I wasn't trying to modify the reservation I could do the dining reservations part.

 

[maxime29]

Is it just me, or is this something that isn't really that new? We've been able to book all of our Priority Seating times at all of our restaurants the first day of the 90 day window. This includes bookings back in 2003 and twice in 2004 when we stayed on property at the GF.

 

[vacationmadness]

There are three questions that I have, and I hope someone here can answer them.

1) Like someone else posted earlier, if you move from one resort to another, such as cash stay then to a DVC resort on points, will that be treated as one stay, or two separate reservations?

2) Are seatings added to each date each day, or once at the 100 day mark, and then the remainder at the 90 day mark?

3) Will holidays be treated the same way, or will they be treated differently as special circumstances?

Thanks for any insight on this.

Mike

 

[wannabeBelle]

WOW!!!!!!!! Belle

 

[JPVonDrake]

New Updates and Questions Answered....

If a modification results in a change of your reservation number, again have the agent verify all of your dining to ensure your room reservation is updated.

This is no longer needed. (Thanks IT department! :wave: )

If you booked with a travel agent, your travel agent will need to call in your dinning reservations to take advantage of this new enhancement.

I talked to Disney and they told me that guests do not need to have their TA's call to make the dining reservations. They said they could search by reservation number, which is actually faster than searching by the agency number, and as long as I wasn't trying to modify the reservation I could do the dining reservations part.

If you have your Disney reservation number from your travel agent you can now book your own dinning if you prefer. (Thanks again IT department! :wave: )

A sliding percentage of seats will be made available for early booking, with fewer seats opening up for the more popular restaurants. This means that very few seats will be opened up for the Princess character meals at Cinderella's Royal Table and Restaurant Akershus. However, it will give resort guests an additional chance to snag a reservation, first at their 90-day-plus-ten window, then again when the rest of the reservations open up at 90 days out.

Found out this is not exactly true. Some tables will be held out for concierge guest at select restaurants, but not a significate number. The number of available tables will change only as dine reservations are booked and cancelled, just as before.

Can someone clarify these two points. What happens if you book and make reservations because a great offer was announced. Will you lose your reservations by trying to take advantage of an offer?

If you modify your room reservations, your dine reservations will remain even if your reservation number changes. If you cancel your room reservation all together, all of your dine reservations booked 90+ days in advance will auto-cancel. If you book any other dinning reservations within 90 days of arrival, we will not enter your room reservation number on your dine reservation so you will still need to cancel these dine reservations.

So if I have made my reservations now and want to make reservations for several restaurants, I just call 90 days before the first day and I can book my reservations for the entire trip up to 10 days? Or am I out because I have already made my reservations.

As long as you have an active room reservation at a Disney owned and operated resort, you can now make all your dine reservations 90 days prior to your ARRIVAL date now. It doesn't matter when the room reservation is made.

1) Like someone else posted earlier, if you move from one resort to another, such as cash stay then to a DVC resort on points, will that be treated as one stay, or two separate reservations?

Technically, we do not look at your departure date. If you have a split reservation, you can book 90 days prior to your earliest arrival date, up to 10 days.

2) Are seatings added to each date each day, or once at the 100 day mark, and then the remainder at the 90 day mark?

All guest availiable tables are loaded into the system 100 days out.

3) Will holidays be treated the same way, or will they be treated differently as special circumstances?

Normal holidays dinning for resort guest will not be affected. Special Dinning events (Food and Wine Festival Events, Candlelight Dinner Packages) will still be loaded all at once for the length of the event. For example all Food and Wine Special Dinning events can be booked on July 25th regardless of the date of the event.

Hope this answers everyone's questions! :sohappy:

 

[Kadee]

Thanks, JP, for the info. It is so nice having someone like you on these boards. And my husband will be very glad that I can get the ressies over with in one call. I drive him crazy trying to decide where to eat and even crazier on the phone making them every day.