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

[JerseyJanice]

I must confess something—we always had trouble making ADRs on time. I’ve been to WDW with many different groups over the years, and no matter who I travel with, it’s always a hassle to arrive at a Disney restaurant at the designated ADR time.

So that is one big reason that I am not making many ADRs anymore. It’s too stressful to get there on time so that I don’t get whacked with a no-show fee.

 

[MonorailNate]

Don’t find it a hassle at all.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Hassle factor? Hmmmm.

 

[Hopefully]

No. I am in the overwhelming majority. Not a hassle to at all

 

[bumbershoot]

I’m ok with it, with one minor caveat: we are going for 4 weeks, so lots of ADRs, all of which are showing as £1 pending charges on my credit card.

Maybe it works differently in England, but if that were happening on my card (with $ of course) I would call my credit card company and have them look at it.

So that is one big reason that I am not making many ADRs anymore. It’s too stressful to get there on time so that I don’t get whacked with a no-show fee.

If just one person is hungry enough to make it a priority, they can go to the reservation and you won’t be charged the fees.

 

[DisneyArkie]

I don’t think this thread went the way you wanted.

No hassle for me either...

 

[arminnie]

I honestly don't care. But it does affect my actions. Right now I would make a reservation for Turf Club at SSR for next week - but there may be some changes due to a friend's arrival and our time at the Flower and Garden Show. As our plans may be fluid I won't make a reservation - but I really don't need to as it's pretty available. We would 90% make the reservation if I made it so it would give the restaurant a heads up about how many people might be there. But since I don't really need a reservation there I won't bother.

I'm not enthralled with Disney dining so I do not care if I hit the "major restaurants". We have a home in New Orleans. Galatoire's and Commander's Palace are two of my favorite places. The food is superb as is the service. The prices at Disney are approximately 50% higher. The food is no better (even at V&A) nor is the service. Not knocking the food and service at Disney - but I just don't feel a need to pay more for what I can have at home for less.

 

[loves to dive]

Doesn't bother me at all, we rarely make our ADRs in advance, usually day of but it has nothing to do with the CC policy. We just don't know where we want to eat or when we want to eat until we are actually ready to eat. We have never had any problems making same day ADRs and other than character meals, which we don't do any way we have never had any problem getting what we want. We tend to not eat at the must do places, we've done BOG for both breakfast and lunch and weren't impressed either time so it's not even on our radar.

 

[SaintsManiac]

No

 

[BrookieM2001]

I guess I don’t know why this would inconvenience anyone...? I mean, you make a res, you decide you can’t make it at some point prior to 24hrs and so you cancel, and someone else gets to eat there. What’s the issue? It’s not like 99% of the time you don’t know which park you be in on any given day of a trip because you make your FPs ahead of time anyway so what’s the issue? Many have said they make allowances for illness or other accidents so it seems like a win all the way around to me......?

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I stopped making so many ADRs because I'm tired of being tied down on vacation. Not because of the credit card policy.

I too like a little spontanuety, we don’t travel with little kids now, all 16 to 22 so I make a few joint ADR’s for all of us and then the rest is, “we eat where, when and what we want” on the fly! We are not happy tied down to too many reservations. But the ones I do make, we go and we enjoy!

 

[MouseMolly]

I prefer having the guarantee of eating at the restaurant at some point in our vacation, versus same-day or walking up. A lot of the popular and/or expensive restaurants in our city require a credit card to make reservations, anyway. Too many empty seats with no-show reservations can sink a restaurant or theater. (Not WDW, obviously, but I imagine it makes the CMs' lives easier.)

 

[midnightlouise]

Hasn't changed a thing for us. If we book it, we're going to it, so I've never worried about getting charged. As others have said, though, if something did come up, we'd just modify it.

 

[3Gsandme]

Hasn’t deterred me in the slightest.

 

[Calee]

Nope

 

[Shanti]

We have a trip coming up, but I haven not made one dining reservation. On our last trip, I used Open Table or did same-day reservations. Every time I go to make a ressie, I remember about the credit guard guarantee, and I stop. I just don't want the hassle factor.

So we don't get the "prime" reservations, and we take what's available. Or we eat in our DVC villa or go offsite.

Has the credit card policy affected how you approach planning for your trips?

No. I like the policy as it cuts down on the number of guests abusing the system via intentional overbooking. There's more availability now.

 

[mamamelody2]

The policy has not changed my ADR approach at all. I have no problem with it.

 

[cobright]

We have a trip coming up, but I haven not made one dining reservation. On our last trip, I used Open Table or did same-day reservations. Every time I go to make a ressie, I remember about the credit guard guarantee, and I stop. I just don't want the hassle factor.

So we don't get the "prime" reservations, and we take what's available. Or we eat in our DVC villa or go offsite.

Has the credit card policy affected how you approach planning for your trips?

We generally keep our ADRs but on the few occasions where we just could not, we have always called as soon as possible and asked the person to take care of it for us. We've never paid the cancellation penalty. Even one time when we just forgot what time it was and missed California grill. I called 20 minutes after our reservation time and flat out told them to charge us the penalty because we earned it, but could they find us a table there so rtime later that night or the next day. Girl just laughed and found us a table at 9pm that day.

The penalty is a tool they use to encourage better behavior, but in the end they would rather have happy guests than $25 fees.

 

[nkereina]

I must confess something—we always had trouble making ADRs on time. I’ve been to WDW with many different groups over the years, and no matter who I travel with, it’s always a hassle to arrive at a Disney restaurant at the designated ADR time.

We have the opposite problem - we are sometimes too early. I generally overestimate how long things take, be it FP returns, ride queues, bus commutes, walking, etc. So we typically show up early to our ADRs. I'd rather have time for something unforeseen like stopping for a bathroom break or stopping to buy something, and not be rushed. I'd say about 75-80% of the time, we wait less than 10 minutes to be seated at our ADR even when showing up early.

 

[SouthJersey]

We have a trip coming up, but I haven not made one dining reservation. On our last trip, I used Open Table or did same-day reservations. Every time I go to make a ressie, I remember about the credit guard guarantee, and I stop. I just don't want the hassle factor.

So we don't get the "prime" reservations, and we take what's available. Or we eat in our DVC villa or go offsite.

Has the credit card policy affected how you approach planning for your trips?

It hasn't effected us at all, as we cancel and finalize any open ADR's we won't make and we can cancel the day before without charge. With the apps today, it's so easy to do there's not really anything to even remember.

I found that the policy definitely slimmed down the amount of people hoarding dozens of ADR's, so that was a nice plus. Besides that, we know a lot of people who visit annually or more, and we've all continued making the ADR's and welcomed the CC policy as it appears much easier to find availability a few days before the trip as people are committed to cancelling now to avoid penalty.