Someone is Selling Restaurant Reservations....

[Allym146]

Sounds like the StubHub of Disney, and I hate StubHub...with a passion. What can be done?

 

[DaisyDoesDisney]

I'm not totally understanding. Don't you need a resort reservation to be able to get ADRs 180 days out? Don't you need an actual ticket AND a resort reservation linked to your MDE account to book a FP 60 days in advance? Or are we just talking about someone hoarding last minute reservations?- which aren't very plentiful anyway at the hot spots. I'm not saying this is right either way, just trying to understand why I seem to need a resort reservation with paid deposit but others don't (if that's the case).

BTW- In the process of tweeking our itinerary for our upcoming trip,I just cancelled a BOG, a Coral Reef, and a Crystal Palace for before park opening. (I also let go of two mid-day FastPasses for 7DMT) Should I have just thrown those back out there or should I have mentioned that I was doing so beforehand here on the board so that other posters could have had a shot at them? I can't decide what's more fair- giving fellow posters the first shot while also publicly advertising the fact and possibly giving the advantage to someone unscrupulous who's just monitoring the board OR throwing these reserved spots back out to the generally clueless population overwhelmed by trying to eat at Disney. I've noticed that the "other" forum has a thread where posters warn each other before they make a cancellation but since there is no such thing here I'm assuming it's frowned upon or controversial.

 

[Nemo14]

I'm not totally understanding. Don't you need a resort reservation to be able to get ADRs 180 days out? Don't you need an actual ticket AND a resort reservation linked to your MDE account to book a FP 60 days in advance? Or are we just talking about someone hoarding last minute reservations?- which aren't very plentiful anyway at the hot spots. I'm not saying this is right either way, just trying to understand why I seem to need a resort reservation with paid deposit but others don't (if that's the case).

BTW- In the process of tweeking our itinerary for our upcoming trip,I just cancelled a BOG, a Coral Reef, and a Crystal Palace for before park opening. (I also let go of two mid-day FastPasses for 7DMT) Should I have just thrown those back out there or should I have mentioned that I was doing so beforehand here on the board so that other posters could have had a shot at them? I can't decide what's more fair- giving fellow posters the first shot while also publicly advertising the fact and possibly giving the advantage to someone unscrupulous who's just monitoring the board OR throwing these reserved spots back out to the generally clueless population overwhelmed by trying to eat at Disney. I've noticed that the "other" forum has a thread where posters warn each other before they make a cancellation but since there is no such thing here I'm assuming it's frowned upon or controversial.

I'm not sure that it's frowned upon, but basically it doesn't really help anyone since whenever you cancel there are still lots of people already making reservations, so the probability of one member here being on line just at the right time is pretty low. Nice try though.

 

[Master Yoda]

I'm not totally understanding. Don't you need a resort reservation to be able to get ADRs 180 days out? Don't you need an actual ticket AND a resort reservation linked to your MDE account to book a FP 60 days in advance? Or are we just talking about someone hoarding last minute reservations?- which aren't very plentiful anyway at the hot spots. I'm not saying this is right either way, just trying to understand why I seem to need a resort reservation with paid deposit but others don't (if that's the case).

BTW- In the process of tweeking our itinerary for our upcoming trip,I just cancelled a BOG, a Coral Reef, and a Crystal Palace for before park opening. (I also let go of two mid-day FastPasses for 7DMT) Should I have just thrown those back out there or should I have mentioned that I was doing so beforehand here on the board so that other posters could have had a shot at them? I can't decide what's more fair- giving fellow posters the first shot while also publicly advertising the fact and possibly giving the advantage to someone unscrupulous who's just monitoring the board OR throwing these reserved spots back out to the generally clueless population overwhelmed by trying to eat at Disney. I've noticed that the "other" forum has a thread where posters warn each other before they make a cancellation but since there is no such thing here I'm assuming it's frowned upon or controversial.

No. Anyone can book a dining reservation 180 days out. Resort guests get the added benefit of being able to book for their entire trip for up to 10 days at the 180 day mark.

 

[DaisyDoesDisney]

No. Anyone can book a dining reservation 180 days out. Resort guests get the added benefit of being able to book for their entire trip for up to 10 days at the 180 day mark.

I really thought that anyone staying off site or just taking a day trip could only book ADRs 90 days out. I was under the impression that the 180 day time frame was touted as a major perk of staying onsite. Thank you for setting me straight.

 

[Master Yoda]

I really thought that anyone staying off site or just taking a day trip could only book ADRs 90 days out. I was under the impression that the 180 day time frame was touted as a major perk of staying onsite. Thank you for setting me straight.

I wish it was that way, but sadly it is not. They will still need to use a credit card to secure the reservation though. It would be interesting to see what kind of protection they put in place for themselves to deal with no shows.

 

[Jon81uk]

I'm not totally understanding. Don't you need a resort reservation to be able to get ADRs 180 days out? Don't you need an actual ticket AND a resort reservation linked to your MDE account to book a FP 60 days in advance? Or are we just talking about someone hoarding last minute reservations?- which aren't very plentiful anyway at the hot spots. I'm not saying this is right either way, just trying to understand why I seem to need a resort reservation with paid deposit but others don't (if that's the case).

At present, anyone can make any ADR. But I agree they should make it the same as FP+, and only allow booking if you have a valid park ticket for the park you want to dine in. Obviously anyone can still then book at restaurants outside the parks, but at least this should stop people holding too many reservations too early.

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

Theme Park Insider have a blog post on this today http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201508/4686/

I agree with some of Roberts ideas, such as forcing you to have a park ticket to book a restaurant reservation inside the park.

If they did that, I would love to see the window for in-park restaurants narrow to 60 or 90 days. Not everyone can be committed enough to their plans at 180 days to purchase park tickets. My family is planning a trip this fall, but we didn't get park tickets until we were 100% sure it was going to happen (school/work schedules), which wasn't until just before our FP+ window. I'm sure we aren't the only ones in that situation.

I don't see how they are legally gaining access to dining system. Kind of like how someone else is "legally" accessing that AND the ride timing system.

This was already answered, but you don't need a resort reservation to make ADRs. Plus, if they wanted the extra 10 day advantage you get with a longer resort stay, they could easily book a 10-day resort stay and then cancel it. Not that I condone the behavior, but it's not hard to pull off at all.

 

[Bairstow]

So how long until we have a booming secondary market for Midway Mania fastpasses?

 

[Master Yoda]

If they did that, I would love to see the window for in-park restaurants narrow to 60 or 90 days. Not everyone can be committed enough to their plans at 180 days to purchase park tickets. My family is planning a trip this fall, but we didn't get park tickets until we were 100% sure it was going to happen (school/work schedules), which wasn't until just before our FP+ window. I'm sure we aren't the only ones in that situation.

Wile not everyone can commit to 180 days more than enough can and want to. It is also worth mentioning that when Disney dropped the ADR limit from 180 to 90 days a few years ago during a software switch both the phones and the online system crashed due to the volume.

180 days is here to stay.

 

[Horizons1]

People like this have become a plague on WDW. They're just as bad as the people who resell merchandise, such as Trader Sam's cups, on EBay at 10 times the price.

 

[Mawg]

Most of these restaurants require a credit card to hold them, seems like they could crack down on them if they wanted too.
Seems like the credit card number would have to be updated to the party that bought the reservation if not the company that initially reserved the reservation could be out of some money if the party does not show up.
So how, is this company getting the reservations? If all they are doing is checking for cancelations on a regular bases to try and get their paying customers a reservation, then I don't have a lot of problem with this. If they are booking blocks of times ahead of time and selling them, then this is problematic but could be stopped.

 

[The Tuna]

I got on the website at 1am and thought i would check to see if BOG breakfast had been made permanent. they said they would open up August 5. i was on Aug 4 at 1am and they were there. I quickly booked them. I told a friend about it the next day. at 2pm she couldnt get a table for 2 for the entire week they are there and that is the week after Food and Wine ends and before Thanksgiving week starts. a dead week, well kinda, they dont have many anymore.

My suggestion would be when you reserve you give a list of restaurants you want to dine at during your week stay and a time, breakfast lunch or dinner and they give you a time in that window for your trip on a day they choose.

They could do the same with FP+. Give everyone 1 FP for all of the tough rides to get on or even one for every ride during your trip if it is 7 days or more...just throwing a number out. They make sure your ADR's and FP+ are in the same park or park close to the hotel your ADR is in and boom, all done. Would save a lot of time and cut out these kind of companies.

During busy times of the year this would probably be very hard to do and i dont claim to know how all of this would work, but there is no way people should have to take a day off work 6 months before their vacation to make sure they can dine in a restaurant, or be up in the middle of the night to get a FP+ to see Anna and Elsa or ride a ride.

 

[emcclay]

Well, I hope Disney investigates and nips this one in the butt.

 

[danyoung56]

Theme Park Insider have a blog post on this today http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201508/4686/

I was with this article right up to this part - "and guests who do so will forfeit their ADRs and their tickets and be banned from park property permanently." There's just no way Disney is going to take a chance that they'll lose a sizeable chunk of their future revenue by permanently banning anyone, unless they're doing something that's actually criminal.

 

[danyoung56]

Well, I hope Disney investigates and nips this one in the butt.

Or in the bud. . . . .

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

It is also worth mentioning that when Disney dropped the ADR limit from 180 to 90 days a few years ago during a software switch both the phones and the online system crashed due to the volume.

Interesting, did not know that happened.

I got on the website at 1am and thought i would check to see if BOG breakfast had been made permanent. they said they would open up August 5. i was on Aug 4 at 1am and they were there. I quickly booked them. I told a friend about it the next day. at 2pm she couldnt get a table for 2 for the entire week they are there and that is the week after Food and Wine ends and before Thanksgiving week starts. a dead week, well kinda, they dont have many anymore.

That's also because reservations opened early. They started taking reservations on August 3rd, even though they announced August 5th. They went fast.

My suggestion would be when you reserve you give a list of restaurants you want to dine at during your week stay and a time, breakfast lunch or dinner and they give you a time in that window for your trip on a day they choose.

They could do the same with FP+. Give everyone 1 FP for all of the tough rides to get on or even one for every ride during your trip if it is 7 days or more...just throwing a number out. They make sure your ADR's and FP+ are in the same park or park close to the hotel your ADR is in and boom, all done. Would save a lot of time and cut out these kind of companies.

No. People complain about lack of flexibility now, how do you think people will react if Disney dictates every moment of your trip?

 

[Innkeeper's Club]

I agree with some of Roberts ideas, such as forcing you to have a park ticket to book a restaurant reservation inside the park (in the same way as FastPass+).

I disagree about forcing someone to have a park ticket when making reservations for restaurants inside the parks. My Annual Pass expires this coming Monday, however that same day I'm arriving at WDW and getting it renewed. Although under that scenario I would not have been allowed to make ADR's I have next week at some restaurants like Via Napoli and 50's Prime Time Café.

 

[MickeyMomV]

I know I brought this up on one of the restaurant and dining forums a couple of weeks ago. These 3rd party sites are basically ticket scalpers selling dining reservations for a profit. It seems like Disney would require either an active reservation # or active ticket to make reservations and limit the number of reservations you make per day. And if you don't have this information then you can call into the dining number and explain why you need a dining reservation with out having the other information.

I know there are those that argue that these places fill a need and that you can't get a reservation without using them but have you ever stopped to think that maybe the reason you can't get a reservation is because of them?

 

[asianway]

Okay kids, Strap in because this is a good. Corporate lurkers, pay attention too. This affects us all.

So its come to my attention that some opportunist out there is charging money to make reservations for you for the hard-to-get dining reservations like Be Our Guest. Ohana's, and reservations on party nights. For $15 a reservation, they'll guarantee you can get in.

They claim:

Does *** sell dining reservations?

No. A small fee is charged for the service provided in booking hard to get reservations.

This is some straight up BS. Reservations are difficult enough to get at some of these places but now there's someone reselling reservations? Just some repugnant crap right here.

Naturally their domain is registered anonymously - I will not give these people free advertising nor drive their site traffic, but it seems pretty "small time."

Clearly someone found a way to game the system and this needs to be stopped.

Same goes for selling character schedules. They should all be shut down