Someone is Selling Restaurant Reservations....

[CP_alum08]

I haven't looked in to it, but from what you're saying aren't they just charging you for the service of making the reservation for you? They aren't selling actual reservations. And if this is true how is it different than paying for a travel agent?

If I'm wrong and they somehow found a way to sell real reservations then it is wrong. If they are just charging people to wake up early and make reservations for them so they don't have to...I don't see the big deal.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

The ones that I know of like the dining buddy are not selling reservations just their services for searching for the opening I real don't see problem with that, it's not taking adrs away from anyone it just notify you when one becomes available.

 

[Chef Mickey]

These kinds of things only prove how dire the capacity problem is at WDW.

Iger, are you listening? There needs to be more restaurants, more restrooms, more attractions, and more of everything to not only improve the physical space, but also to improve the experience.

I get the planning thing, but the difficulty in getting reservations for restaurants and now even attractions might make Disney a beating if they aren't careful.

This is proof positive that the lack of expansion is starting to meaningfully affect the experience and it didn't have to be this way. The lack of expansion is simply inexcusable.

 

[CaptainJackNO]

I think the simple, yet unpopular, solution here is to require a WDW reservation number connected to a vacation to make dining reservations, making it exclusive to Disney resort guests for ADRs via the Internet. Anyone not on Disney property may be required to make ADRs via telephone providing address and phone number.

 

[POLY LOVER]

Have you reported this to wdw?

 

[mousehockey37]

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.

You missed what I said, I believe. I'm well aware that you don't need a resort reservation to make ADRs. To me, it's how is it legal for these 3rd parties to access the Disney Dining system and pull its data, in real time, to be able to list these available reservations? Are they paying a fee? If not, why not? They're making a profit off of the system by getting followers and sending text and email blasts when openings occur. I'd think Disney would want a piece of that cash flow, no?

 

[mousehockey37]

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.

With the new app coming out, is this a shot by Disney to try and squash those resale sites? I mean, if you can now get your IN PARK merchandise directly from Disney at their price... why the need to go elsewhere?

 

[asianway]

Have you reported this to wdw?

Do you think they care? Between all the sites selling copyright infringing merchandise and running scripts against their sites for their lifestyler businesses, it has to be a billion dollar industry-they would have done it bynow

 

[flynnibus]

No different really than what travel agents do... Just sold al a carte

 

[mousehockey37]

Do you think they care? Between all the sites selling copyright infringing merchandise and running scripts against their sites for their lifestyler businesses, it has to be a billion dollar industry-they would have done it bynow

They've shut down other things that infringed upon their product and/or services.

 

[asianway]

They've shut down other things that infringed upon their product and/or services.

The daycare center ten years ago? The only one I'm aware of is the bandit lady In recent years

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

You missed what I said, I believe. I'm well aware that you don't need a resort reservation to make ADRs. To me, it's how is it legal for these 3rd parties to access the Disney Dining system and pull its data, in real time, to be able to list these available reservations? Are they paying a fee? If not, why not? They're making a profit off of the system by getting followers and sending text and email blasts when openings occur. I'd think Disney would want a piece of that cash flow, no?

From what I understand, they're booking these reservations just like anyone else. They go in (legally), make the reservation for themselves, and then (questionably legally) transfer those reservations for a fee. They aren't using actual data from Disney.

 

[Jon81uk]

You missed what I said, I believe. I'm well aware that you don't need a resort reservation to make ADRs. To me, it's how is it legal for these 3rd parties to access the Disney Dining system and pull its data, in real time, to be able to list these available reservations? Are they paying a fee? If not, why not? They're making a profit off of the system by getting followers and sending text and email blasts when openings occur. I'd think Disney would want a piece of that cash flow, no?

They are accessing the site in the same way anyone else is. Log on to the website and make reservation after reservation. Then charge people to have your reservations.

Well actually I think there are two or three ways different sites are doing this.

• Making multiple reservations and then selling them.
• charging a fee to alert you to an opening and then you make the reservation yourself.
• A travel agent just booking what you ask them to book for you (basic concierge service).

The first one feels wrong, the are denying people getting a reservation as they are taking away capacity.
Second is OK, you are just getting an alert when a space is available, someone can still get the slot before you if you don't respond quick enough.
and having a travel agent book for you is no different to booking for yourself really.

 

[matt9112]

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

Since these are locked in to a magic band isn't this not possible?

 

[matt9112]

Five years ago when I was going to be out of pocket on an African safari, I was forced to give up control and ask Kingdom Konsultants to try to make my ADRs at the 180 mark. They did great for me, and charged nothing extra.

But I agree that this will be hard to stop, much like concert ticket resellers. In fact, this past July we went to Paris. 60 days out we were able to go online at midnight local time to try to get advance tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower. If you don't buy them in advance, you risk a 6 hour wait on line, so this was crucial for us since our time in Paris was limited. Unfortunately, the tickets sold out in seconds and we were not lucky enough to get any. We wound up having to pay 4x as much to a company that essentially does the same thing as the dining reservation site described above - they buy blocks of tickets and resell them for a premium. It was worth it in the end but sure p*ssed me off. If that reseller hadn't bought up so many tickets, I would have been able to buy them myself for a fraction of the cost.

This is exactly what stub hub and similar sites do. They use capital to buy huge lots of tickets using computer programs quickly and than resell the (sold out) tickets at a premium so they create the problem and than up charge you to fix it. But alas people pay. It raises the barriers of entry for normal people but if your wealthy getting tickets ect is easy and care free.

 

[WDW_Jon]

Not read all of this thread but i have a BOG reservation for 8.25 on 12th oct I'm thinking of getting rid of but not sure yet if anyone wants to buy it It may sway my decision

I'm joking before someone gets angry, but we are thinking of cancelling and it goes to show if you keep checking all the time you can land these things as I only got that about 60 days out... Party of 6

 

[Bairstow]

Since these are locked in to a magic band isn't this not possible?

I'm sure there are ways around it.
The first that comes to mind is making reservations on the business' magic band(s), arranging to un-reserve them at a particular time, preferably very late in the night, and then having the customers' magic bands move into the recently-opened slots before anyone else tries to claim them.

 

[dreamfinder]

Curious, so I dug up their site. They offer two types of booking. What they call guaranteed, are the $15 fee, and they setup a "throwaway" MDE account for the booking. (Basically create a new MDE account just for the ADR.) The others that they have listed are really no different than some of the trading type threads on some boards. They have the ADR, and for $6, they will schedule a time where they will drop it, and HOPEFULLY you can snag it. Not sure if they give you a refund if you don't, but it's definitely someone trying to profit off of what people do on the boards trying to help each other out. Not a huge fan of the concept, but unless WDW tracks a bunch of different MDE accounts being created from the same IP address and goes after them that way, kinda tough for them to stop it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

They are accessing the site in the same way anyone else is. Log on to the website and make reservation after reservation. Then charge people to have your reservations.

Well actually I think there are two or three ways different sites are doing this.

• Making multiple reservations and then selling them.
• charging a fee to alert you to an opening and then you make the reservation yourself.
• A travel agent just booking what you ask them to book for you (basic concierge service).

The first one feels wrong, the are denying people getting a reservation as they are taking away capacity.
Second is OK, you are just getting an alert when a space is available, someone can still get the slot before you if you don't respond quick enough.
and having a travel agent book for you is no different to booking for yourself really.

Exactly. Travel agents don't get commission on restaurant reservations (or party tickets, tours and other things outside of MYW tickets, hotel bookings and packages), so it makes sense to charge a service fee to book something extra for you. Would you really want to spend hours of your day reserving meals for someone else without any incentive?

But taking space away from someone else (who probably wants to use it) on the off chance you can sell it to the highest bidder? That's just tacky. Much like the ebay scalpers who buy LE merch in bulk for resale online.

 

[MickeyMomV]

OK, either my understanding is off or some people are missing a step. I did quick research on the "buddy" and how I understand it working is you pay $8 for them to "find/alert" you of a reservation opening. All the "buddy" has to do is send you an alert when an opening in your time window opens up and they collect their $8. It does not matter if you get the reservation or not, their job was just to alert you of the opening.

On the back end the "buddy" is reserving tons of reservations at the 180 day mark with their credit card. When somebody contacts them wanting restaurant "A" at dinner time for a party of #, they go online cancel a reservation (canceling their deposit - because they canceled in the time window they are not charged the $10/person) they email the interested party that a reservation just "opened up" and they collect their $8 or $15 or what ever it is. These people are out nothing but time.

Not to give anybody ideas but if you have 2 people doing this. Each one handling 25 requests a day at $8 a request that comes out to just under $150,000 a year. Personally I think they are taking way more than 50 requests a day! These people are smart because they thought of it and very unethical for the same reason.