I've stopped making ADRs because of the credit card policy, anyone else?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I appreciate your suggestion, and I have been coming to the same conclusion about our 8am reservations myself. I also appreciate your polite tone in the discussion about multiple reservations. I do want to clarify, though, that I am not sitting on multiple BOG reservations with the intention to cancel them at the last minute. I'm still far enough out that I have been able to move my BOG reservations (several, but with different groups, so I don't count them as hoarding reservations, since I'm taking different kids each time) between 8am and 9:30am a couple of times as I try to decide what will work best.

However, I do think that Disney's system encourages you to hoard reservations, particularly at the most popular restaurants, and that is reinforced by all the rhetoric in books, blogs and forums about how hard it is to get these reservations: it creates a scarcity and adversarial mentality, where if people are "luckily enough" to be able to grab multiple reservations 6 months out, they should book them all, because if they don't and their plans change, they will definitely not be able to reschedule nearer the time. I have read suggestions from other sources to do just that and, in all honesty, if I hadn't found this forum, I may well have hoarded reservations myself. When every other guest is being set us as your competitor for getting these highly-prized reservations, it really doesn't encourage anything but an "us vs. them" mentality.

Personally, the more hassle I have with making ADRs (which is a huge and ongoing job, as we are staying for 4 weeks on-property without a car), the more I'm taking the attitude of "this is the reservation, suck it up or don't come" with my own travelling party. However, none of these are my kids, so with the exception of the toddler, they will be on better behaviour with me than they would be with their parents. If the toddler doesn't cope then I will take her older sister and her mom can let the toddler sleep and meet us later. I'm no longer trying to please everyone, because there are just too many variables. My comment was more just to disagree with the suggestion that problems with ADRs were a result of poor planning, because while I think that is certainly a factor for some people, I feel that Disney has actually created the problem by deliberately creating a scarcity mentality in guests.

Ah sorry I may have misunderstood I was basing off your comment of

So I am left with the option to make multiple bookings and release one of them the day before

I didn't realize you meant you were taking several different groups to BOG separately.

My suggestion would still be a later time. Heck I'm still young enough (well if 30 is still considered young enough) and we barely made it to EMH at MK (we got in just after 8am) and it was just my husband and I--that's just us though lol.

On the hoarding aspect I'll respectfully disagree on the Disney encouraging part. I made 3 ADRs @ 180days out for my September trip last year. My 180 days started on 3/12/17. Then I modified on 6/12/17 one of my ADRs when I decided there wasn't enough time in between eating and our ToT FPs (which my FP date was 6/10/17). Originally my ADR was at 6:10pm and I modified it to 4:40pm. I didn't add another ADR reservation for the same place I modified my existing time.

People are the ones who created this. Yes Disney has a timeline that is hard to wrap our heads around since we'll be at a theme park (meaning the 180days) though as I understand it it used to be less I think it was 90 days before and less. At the same time when we want reservations for places at home we don't make multiple ones we make one reservation and work around it. Other vacation places we do this too. Want that tour? Ok we book it for X day. We don't book several tours for different hours or different days and then cancel as the travel dates get closer or even while we are on vacation.

At the very least Disney does make it relatively easy to modify your existing reservation-the time you want may or may not be available-but the process to modify is easy enough.

4 weeks is a long time that's awesome really--it should also allow you plenty of time to get in reservations you want. Most people are trying to cram what they want to do in a relatively short time (usually a 7 day and under time frame). I do agree with the PP and with your comment of getting to the point of pleasing everyone. All power to you for trying though .

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

Ah sorry I may have misunderstood I was basing off your comment of


I didn't realize you meant you were taking several different groups to BOG separately.

My suggestion would still be a later time. Heck I'm still young enough (well if 30 is still considered young enough) and we barely made it to EMH at MK (we got in just after 8am) and it was just my husband and I--that's just us though lol.

On the hoarding aspect I'll respectfully disagree on the Disney encouraging part. I made 3 ADRs @ 180days out for my September trip last year. My 180 days started on 3/12/17. Then I modified on 6/12/17 one of my ADRs when I decided there wasn't enough time in between eating and our ToT FPs (which my FP date was 6/10/17). Originally my ADR was at 6:10pm and I modified it to 4:40pm. I didn't add another ADR reservation for the same place I modified my existing time.

People are the ones who created this. Yes Disney has a timeline that is hard to wrap our heads around since we'll be at a theme park (meaning the 180days) though as I understand it it used to be less I think it was 90 days before and less. At the same time when we want reservations for places at home we don't make multiple ones we make one reservation and work around it. Other vacation places we do this too. Want that tour? Ok we book it for X day. We don't book several tours for different hours or different days and then cancel as the travel dates get closer or even while we are on vacation.

At the very least Disney does make it relatively easy to modify your existing reservation-the time you want may or may not be available-but the process to modify is easy enough.

4 weeks is a long time that's awesome really--it should also allow you plenty of time to get in reservations you want. Most people are trying to cram what they want to do in a relatively short time (usually a 7 day and under time frame). I do agree with the PP and with your comment of getting to the point of pleasing everyone. All power to you for trying though .

I don't think I was clear in my original post - I meant that the reservation hoarding was an option that is open to all of us, but that I didn't to do it because it was selfish and unfair to others also trying to get the same reservation.

The 4 weeks will be great, but I am definitely having to do several things multiple times with different groups, so in that respect I'm in the same boat as everyone else, as Group A is here for 4 days, Group B for 5, and so on. To be honest, this is my first trip and I'm having a hard time not getting swept along by the "worst case scenarios" that I hear about online as I do my research. It's great to know that you were able to modify your ADRs so close to the date you were eating, and I'm certainly hopeful that we will have the same experience as we get closer to our trip.

You make a fair point, as does another poster above, that at home and on other vacations, we are also required to buy tickets and make reservations far in advance. Perhaps the difference is the rhetoric of having certain places, such as BOG or CRT, that are seen as something you must do or your trip will be ruined, or perhaps it's the pressure for many people that this is a Once In A Lifetime trip. It may well be that, in order to get through to people who think they can just show up at BOG at lunchtime and get a table, books and blogs have overstated how crucial it is to make your ADRs so far in advance. As I said, this is my first trip so I have no experience to help me work out how much of the hype I need to buy into. However, I think the additional distinction is that we are always hearing about how busy WDW is, and given the volume of guests, I'm concerned that if I don't make ADRs, we will end up eating QS fries for 3 meals a day. "Busy" is subjective, of course - I live in the countryside in Scotland, albeit between the two biggest cities in Scotland, but my perspective is almost certainly different than someone from, say, NYC or Tokyo.

Again, it comes back to the scarcity factor: in MK, in particular, it sounds like there really aren't too many places to eat if you just show up, and I have read people talk about long waits to get QS food. If I don't book my ADRs at 180 days, am I really going to have no other meal option than to wait 40 minutes in a queue for a hot dog? I don't know the answer, but that's the impression I am getting from what I see online, so I dutifully took the morning off work to make my ADRs at the 180 days mark, so now I know we have somewhere to eat and take a break from the heat and the wall-to-wall crowds that I have been led to expect. It's more of a captive market than you find yourself in when in most cities, with fewer spur of the moment options, from what I have read.

My understanding is that seasoned WDW visitors overall feel that things have gone downhill. As a first time visitor, I have nothing to compare it to, so when I read/hear repeated complaints that it is so dreadfully busy, people are obnoxious, the food is bad and you need a second mortgage to buy a sandwich, it paints a pretty bleak picture of "every man for himself". As I said in my last post, it becomes a case of us vs. them, where every other guest is my competitor. Hopefully this is an overstatement, but since I have not been there yet, all I can do is manage my expectations and hope for the best. People love to complain, so hopefully the bad is not the norm, but since I have no idea what to expect, I have to be aware of the worst case scenarios, and ADRs are something that come up regularly as potential problems.

I do realise that I sound incredibly negative about our trip, and while I do feel like that at times, overall I'm still looking forward to it. There is just so much work and stress involved in the planning, and so many complaints about the crowds, that it's hard to stay positive.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Like so many others, I don't have a problem with it.

It cuts down on the hoarding, which in my opinion, is a good thing.

 

[Dis703]

Nope, it hasn't changed our use at all. But we've always intended on going to all reservations. We've had to make a couple cancellations when a child has been sick or it's pouring rain so we didn't go into the parks, but it hasn't been an issue to cancel under these situations. The only hassle about making reservations is finding exactly what I want since I never book as early as 180 days out. So I have to stalk the sites for a bit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't think I was clear in my original post - I meant that the reservation hoarding was an option that is open to all of us, but that I didn't to do it because it was selfish and unfair to others also trying to get the same reservation.

Ahh now I get it. Apologies for my misunderstanding.

The 4 weeks will be great, but I am definitely having to do several things multiple times with different groups, so in that respect I'm in the same boat as everyone else, as Group A is here for 4 days, Group B for 5, and so on. To be honest, this is my first trip and I'm having a hard time not getting swept along by the "worst case scenarios" that I hear about online as I do my research. It's great to know that you were able to modify your ADRs so close to the date you were eating, and I'm certainly hopeful that we will have the same experience as we get closer to our trip.

For me I take things with a grain of salt. Probably the best advice that I can give is be open to things changing. I'm a planner by nature but things always have the ability to change.

Modifying your ADRs or your FPs is always an option. You may not find the time you are looking for but it's something you can at least look into if need be.

I can see it being a stressful thing just by the fact of trying to accommodate all.

You make a fair point, as does another poster above, that at home and on other vacations, we are also required to buy tickets and make reservations far in advance. Perhaps the difference is the rhetoric of having certain places, such as BOG or CRT, that are seen as something you must do or your trip will be ruined, or perhaps it's the pressure for many people that this is a Once In A Lifetime trip. It may well be that, in order to get through to people who think they can just show up at BOG at lunchtime and get a table, books and blogs have overstated how crucial it is to make your ADRs so far in advance. As I said, this is my first trip so I have no experience to help me work out how much of the hype I need to buy into. However, I think the additional distinction is that we are always hearing about how busy WDW is, and given the volume of guests, I'm concerned that if I don't make ADRs, we will end up eating QS fries for 3 meals a day. "Busy" is subjective, of course - I live in the countryside in Scotland, albeit between the two biggest cities in Scotland, but my perspective is almost certainly different than someone from, say, NYC or Tokyo.

I think in your case what it is is you're seeing all the information out there that this place or that place is a must do. I totally understand once in a lifetime feeling. We never plan to go back to a place whenever we vacation. We don't typically do repeat trips to places-we have for some but we left the place with the thought of we'll never be coming back there. For WDW it was always a "we'll get back there" but when was always up in the air. My husband had only gone once in his then 22 years before he went with me in 2011 and then we went again together in 2017.

Again, it comes back to the scarcity factor: in MK, in particular, it sounds like there really aren't too many places to eat if you just show up, and I have read people talk about long waits to get QS food. If I don't book my ADRs at 180 days, am I really going to have no other meal option than to wait 40 minutes in a queue for a hot dog? I don't know the answer, but that's the impression I am getting from what I see online, so I dutifully took the morning off work to make my ADRs at the 180 days mark, so now I know we have somewhere to eat and take a break from the heat and the wall-to-wall crowds that I have been led to expect. It's more of a captive market than you find yourself in when in most cities, with fewer spur of the moment options, from what I have read.

QS places are totally fine though as a general comment.

I only made ADRs for this September 2017 trip because I wanted to try out ADRs but our trip wouldn't have been ruined by any means if we had done all QS like we did all the other trips I had been on. In many ways I'm thankful that for as much information the DIS gives me that I could experience WDW before finding the Boards.

Now I haven't checked out the menus on WDW's website since probably August 2017 but there are a variety of QS places that don't just have a hot dog (Casey's Corner is the main place I think of when people talk about hot dogs in MK). I went through a lot of work but when I was planning my trip I went through WDW's website and looked at every place and their menus and their ambience and saved it to my "Wish List" on my MDE account. I created a MS Word document with potential meal items that I may be interested in and kept up when Disney adjusted the menus and their pricing. This is just a snippet from what I did (keep in mind it's likely not accurate information on the screenshot since it hasn't been updated since August 2017):


QS gets a bad rap for whatever reason (we didn't find it bad at all not by a long shot) but if you've actually done what I did above you can see if none of the QS places hold any appeal to your particular traveling parties then at least you know versus looking towards what other people have talked about.

I do also want to mention Mobile Ordering is fantasic and is available at these QS dining locations:

Highlighted in yellow is the QS places located in MK.

My understanding is that seasoned WDW visitors overall feel that things have gone downhill. As a first time visitor, I have nothing to compare it to, so when I read/hear repeated complaints that it is so dreadfully busy, people are obnoxious, the food is bad and you need a second mortgage to buy a sandwich, it paints a pretty bleak picture of "every man for himself". As I said in my last post, it becomes a case of us vs. them, where every other guest is my competitor. Hopefully this is an overstatement, but since I have not been there yet, all I can do is manage my expectations and hope for the best. People love to complain, so hopefully the bad is not the norm, but since I have no idea what to expect, I have to be aware of the worst case scenarios, and ADRs are something that come up regularly as potential problems.

It all depends on your perspective. I mentioned in another thread that as an infrequent WDW traveler (about every 6 years) I don't notice the same things that people who go once a year or multiple times a year. I see mainly the number of attractions/shows/rides that we're interested in and the costs between trips. I don't notice CM behaviors, trash, bathroom, even food quality between trips. That is just me personally. I do take what other people have said but I haven't personally noticed them.

I do realise that I sound incredibly negative about our trip, and while I do feel like that at times, overall I'm still looking forward to it. There is just so much work and stress involved in the planning, and so many complaints about the crowds, that it's hard to stay positive.

I think you're just up against an even more daunting task than most because you have multiple traveling parties to account for. Try not to make yourself be the only person doing the heavy lifting. I did 95% of the planning for the September 2017 trip but I got my husband's input for food choices, for what rides he would be interested in for FP purposes, etc. This is me personally but I couldn't do the trip if I didn't have at least his input on those things because it wouldn't feel like a joint trip.

If I may my observation here may be that you've taken so much of what other people have said to heart. Try to look at it again as it's your trip with your traveling party. Not people on the Board's trip with your traveling party, or people on a blog's trip with your traveling party. Information is great but make that information tailored for your group rather than make your traveling group's plans tailored to the information you get.

 

[bumbershoot]

Even moving it to 60 or 30 days would be better, in my opinion.

They tried it. Didn’t work.

I guess my perspective is different as a first time visitor as, for me, this is just the way it is, and I either need to follow the “rules” or risk eating QS fries for our entire trip.

There are no rules.

And if a person ends up eating fries the whole trip that’s on them. The menus are out there. If you don’t make adrs and go QS, find the places with yummy stuff on the menus and go there.

A person who wings it and then only gets fries is obviously not planning at all.

2) You have until midnight on the prior night to cancel without a No-Show-Penalty.

Yep.

I have no idea whether the toddler from the West Coast or the teenager from the mid-West will be able to get up for an 8am BOG reservation without it ruining the rest of the day for all of us.

They will only ruin the day if the adults let it ruin the day. The parents either insist they get up and decide that the kid’s protestations won’t ruin anything, or their parent stays with them and, again, no one lets that ruin their day.

I'm guessing that I'm not the only person who can't accurately imagine how toddlers will react to something 6 months in future, which is down to the nature of young children and their development, rather than poor planning.

Doesn’t matter. Make the plans then as the day gets closer do what ya gotta do to make it happen.

Don’t have late nights before an early morning. Later nights will be better for the west coasters. But to do that then hit rope drop the next morning is evil.

We're only picking a restaurant, not food

Well, with limited diets you are. As a vegetarian I’m choosing the food I want when I make the adrs. But that actually makes it easier. And then I spend the rest of the time looking forward to that food and gearing my mind up towards it.

I do think that Disney's system encourages you to hoard reservations, particularly at the most popular restaurants, and that is reinforced by all the rhetoric in books, blogs and forums about how hard it is to get these reservations: it creates a scarcity and adversarial mentality

Not sure what you’re reading. Maybe stop reading those books threads or blogs.

There IS a scarcity issue. Each restaurant has so many tables and cannot expand itself infinitely.

If you want a food, try for that adr. Don’t go to a restaurant and pay a ton just because the interior is pretty or whatever.

though as I understand it it used to be less I think it was 90 days before and less.

They tried it once since I’ve been active on the Wdw forums and it didn’t go well.

I am definitely having to do several things multiple times with different groups, so in that respect I'm in the same boat as everyone else, as Group A is here for 4 days, Group B for 5, and so on. To be honest, this is my first trip

First trip and you’re doing that? I would go back to the drawing board...

Perhaps the difference is the rhetoric of having certain places, such as BOG or CRT, that are seen as something you must do or your trip will be ruined

Stop reading whatever it is that you’re reading.

And if you are doing that, my gosh don’t do breakfast. Talk about a boring meal to spend ALL that money on! And you’re making everyone get up earlier than needed just to go and sit back down again.

Waffles can be had at QS. Eggs can be had at your food court. Etc.

Hit crt and bog for lunch or dinner, when you need and want a break. Don’t lose those precious earlier hours in the parks just to sit down and eat while the ride lines fill up.

IMO.

 

[bumbershoot]

If I may my observation here may be that you've taken so much of what other people have said to heart. Try to look at it again as it's your trip with your traveling party. Not people on the Board's trip with your traveling party, or people on a blog's trip with your traveling party. Information is great but make that information tailored for your group rather than make your traveling group's plans tailored to the information you get.

Agreed.

And the kilted Tigger can even disagree with what I just said lol. If waking up then sitting down to an expensive sit down breakfast for eggs and waffles is exactly what your group wants, go for it. Just because I personally would rather go offsite to a Waffle House for that doesn’t mean that’s your opinion.

Just don’t do things simply because others said to (or not to) do it. Do things because you want to. IMO.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

They tried it once since I’ve been active on the Wdw forums and it didn’t go well.

I thought that's what I had read. They had it less advanced time and people still complained so they pushed it out (maybe multiple times?) before it sticking at 180 days as it currently is.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

teenager from the mid-West will be able to get up for an 8am BOG reservation without it ruining the rest of the day for all of us.

1) As long as ONE PERSON on the ressie shows at the ADR time, there is no penalty.
2) However, for prepaid meals (like CRT), they do lose the meal cost.

 

[MrsDuck]

Nope. I don't see it as a hassle at all and in fact, like the policy!

 

[GillianP1301]

I don't see any hassle here at all either. The cc is only on file to charge for a no show, so how is that invoncenient? Even without that policy, it's in pretty bad form to not call and cancel a reservation you don't plan on keeping, Disney World or otherwise. If anything, this policy helps with those who do have bad form and need a little nudge to do the right thing. It also helps to open up ADRs at the last minute for next day or same day bookings.

 

[jodifla]

I don't think I was clear in my original post - I meant that the reservation hoarding was an option that is open to all of us, but that I didn't to do it because it was selfish and unfair to others also trying to get the same reservation.

The 4 weeks will be great, but I am definitely having to do several things multiple times with different groups, so in that respect I'm in the same boat as everyone else, as Group A is here for 4 days, Group B for 5, and so on. To be honest, this is my first trip and I'm having a hard time not getting swept along by the "worst case scenarios" that I hear about online as I do my research. It's great to know that you were able to modify your ADRs so close to the date you were eating, and I'm certainly hopeful that we will have the same experience as we get closer to our trip.

You make a fair point, as does another poster above, that at home and on other vacations, we are also required to buy tickets and make reservations far in advance. Perhaps the difference is the rhetoric of having certain places, such as BOG or CRT, that are seen as something you must do or your trip will be ruined, or perhaps it's the pressure for many people that this is a Once In A Lifetime trip. It may well be that, in order to get through to people who think they can just show up at BOG at lunchtime and get a table, books and blogs have overstated how crucial it is to make your ADRs so far in advance. As I said, this is my first trip so I have no experience to help me work out how much of the hype I need to buy into. However, I think the additional distinction is that we are always hearing about how busy WDW is, and given the volume of guests, I'm concerned that if I don't make ADRs, we will end up eating QS fries for 3 meals a day. "Busy" is subjective, of course - I live in the countryside in Scotland, albeit between the two biggest cities in Scotland, but my perspective is almost certainly different than someone from, say, NYC or Tokyo.

Again, it comes back to the scarcity factor: in MK, in particular, it sounds like there really aren't too many places to eat if you just show up, and I have read people talk about long waits to get QS food. If I don't book my ADRs at 180 days, am I really going to have no other meal option than to wait 40 minutes in a queue for a hot dog? I don't know the answer, but that's the impression I am getting from what I see online, so I dutifully took the morning off work to make my ADRs at the 180 days mark, so now I know we have somewhere to eat and take a break from the heat and the wall-to-wall crowds that I have been led to expect. It's more of a captive market than you find yourself in when in most cities, with fewer spur of the moment options, from what I have read.

My understanding is that seasoned WDW visitors overall feel that things have gone downhill. As a first time visitor, I have nothing to compare it to, so when I read/hear repeated complaints that it is so dreadfully busy, people are obnoxious, the food is bad and you need a second mortgage to buy a sandwich, it paints a pretty bleak picture of "every man for himself". As I said in my last post, it becomes a case of us vs. them, where every other guest is my competitor. Hopefully this is an overstatement, but since I have not been there yet, all I can do is manage my expectations and hope for the best. People love to complain, so hopefully the bad is not the norm, but since I have no idea what to expect, I have to be aware of the worst case scenarios, and ADRs are something that come up regularly as potential problems.

I do realise that I sound incredibly negative about our trip, and while I do feel like that at times, overall I'm still looking forward to it. There is just so much work and stress involved in the planning, and so many complaints about the crowds, that it's hard to stay positive.

I grew up about 90 minutes to Disney, and it's so true it takes a lot more planning to do WDW these days. We haven't been back in a couple of years, but I feel like QS choices are pretty good.

The trick is often eating when everyone else isn't. So lunch for us tends to be about 2, dinner at 8, etc.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[jodifla]

I don't see any hassle here at all either. The cc is only on file to charge for a no show, so how is that invoncenient? Even without that policy, it's in pretty bad form to not call and cancel a reservation you don't plan on keeping, Disney World or otherwise. If anything, this policy helps with those who do have bad form and need a little nudge to do the right thing. It also helps to open up ADRs at the last minute for next day or same day bookings.

But why the night before? It seems to me a 2 hour or 4 hour window is more reasonable.

 

[GillianP1301]

But why the night before? It seems to me a 2 hour or 4 hour window is more reasonable.

I think you will know the night before if you're changing your plans the next day. A few hours ahead of time I can see if somebody is suddenly ill and can't make it and in a lot of cases, if you call and explain that to dining, you won't get charged the no show fee.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

But why the night before? It seems to me a 2 hour or 4 hour window is more reasonable.

I think 2 or 4 hours would be much better. What if you just don't feel like eating whatever type of food ADR you made 6 months ago? What if you get a last minute opening at BOG and you want to cancel the other ADR without having to jump through hoops (calling or rescheduling the other ADR) to not get charged? What if you just aren't hungry that evening? What if everyone is exhausted and just wants to head back to the room?

 

[BrookieM2001]

I think 2 or 4 hours would be much better. What if you just don't feel like eating whatever type of food ADR you made 6 months ago? What if you get a last minute opening at BOG and you want to cancel the other ADR without having to jump through hoops (calling or rescheduling the other ADR) to not get charged? What if you just aren't hungry that evening? What if everyone is exhausted and just wants to head back to the room?

I would think its a business choice between 2-4 hours ahead vs. 24 hours ahead. At 24 hours before, people know to look and if there is something they are looking for, that gives them a chance to book said ADR, and drop theirs, which gives another family that chance, etc. However, a couple of hours before doesn't really provide that possibility and would probably lead to empty tables. Which hits Disney in the pocketbook. I mean, obviously, we all know it wouldn't be enough to really impact them, but its a numbers game for Disney. They dont much care if it would be more convenient for guests to have a longer window before being charged, they dont want to take that hit in the pocketbook.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Leaving disney tomorrow.
I made no ADR’s and ate at Rainforest Cafe at AK ( called direct to reserve so no cc needed, dinner) , Diamond Horseshoe at MK/ dinner, Frontera Cantina Disney Springs/late lunch, Boatwrights at POR.

 

[maltdizzy]

The CC guarantee hasn't bothered me and hasn't stopped me from booking multiple ADRs even though I only plan to keep one (or none, honestly we only eat TS maybe very other day). I book backups to keep our schedule flexible because I really don't know what we are going to feel like months ahead of time. But it's not hard to make a decision the day before about which (if any) to keep and which to cancel.

The ADR crunch is a problem WDW created. Personally, if I had say, I would shorten the ADR period significantly and set aside a percentage for walk-ups just to stop this insanity.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I will go against the grain and say we have changed our plans some due to it, but only after a recent experience.

We rarely make reservations in advance (there is SO MUCH available day-of) but The Plaza is harder to snag so I recently made one with the plan to head to MK one evening after work (we live ~1 hour away). Unexpectedly, my DH got pulled into a last minute, late afternoon conference call that went 3 hours past his usual workday. Clearly, we weren't visiting MK that night or making our reservation (I had my bag packed, Mickey shirt on, and ears in hand - so bummed!).

Thankfully, I remembered the modify trick and just moved it to a later date but it was a lesson learned that because we aren't usually on vacation when we dine at WDW, and real life gets in the way, it's best for us to just make reservations on the fly. Too much can go wrong.

When vacationing at Disney, we have no issues making our reservation so the credit card thing isn't a big deal.

If I were to guess, most of those in the restaurants ARE there on vacation but I know we aren't the only local/semi-local who like to pop in for dinner. I wonder how many of those have cut back on making reservations for the same reasons we found them challenging?

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I would think its a business choice between 2-4 hours ahead vs. 24 hours ahead. At 24 hours before, people know to look and if there is something they are looking for, that gives them a chance to book said ADR, and drop theirs, which gives another family that chance, etc. However, a couple of hours before doesn't really provide that possibility and would probably lead to empty tables. Which hits Disney in the pocketbook. I mean, obviously, we all know it wouldn't be enough to really impact them, but its a numbers game for Disney. They dont much care if it would be more convenient for guests to have a longer window before being charged, they dont want to take that hit in the pocketbook.

I completely get it and understand that Disney is only worried about their pockets and not making life easier for their guests.

Next trip we are only doing 3 ADRs for 9 nights. Not because of the CC policy but because we would like to be more spontaneous and not tied down. I check ADRs here and there and during Easter week there were multiple openings (prime times too) for Ohana, BOG, Chef Mickey's and many many more. I think Disney would be okay switching it to 4 hours at least.