Dining policy not enforced pre-Covid but being enforced now

[SnowWhitee]

BEWARE and FYI - In case this applies to you...

We are staying onsite Nov 19-24. The first night we are at Boulder Ridge. Then we transfer to ASMU. I got up at 4:45 am CST to make dining reservations. At first the calendar would not advance past 11/19, then eventually went to 11/20 around 5:10 or 5:15 am. So I get one dining reservation. Not my 1st choice of days, but figured I better try and get it so I have one period.

I try the app, my laptop, different browsers, log in/out, clear history, etc. Nothing works. I am online for 1 hour 15 minutes and just one ressie - the calendar won't open up.

I call at 6 am to get assistance setting up my reservations. I was told that, because we are staying at one hotel the first night and then transferring, we have two ADR booking windows. So in order for me to book the rest of my trip, I have to do this all over again tomorrow am. UGH. I work full-time and getting up at the crack of dawn to jump through Disney hoops is not easy one weekday, let alone two. Plus I am not a morning girl.

The agent says this has always been the rule and that it wasn't enforced pre-Covid but is now. We have been gong to WDW since 2005. Why would they feel the need to suddenly enforce this? I never even heard of the rule until now. We were always able to book for total length of stay with multiple hotel ressies onsite.

I asked where I can see this policy in writing. After waiting on hold for over 10 minutes, the agent comes back and says both he and the escalations team can't find it in writing. There is some wording about 'per hotel reservation', but not mentioning split stays specifically. He got permission to help me book for the rest of my week. Not stellar times, but so glad I got something. Now I can keep looking to adjust as time goes on.

Shout out to Casper in Disney dining reservations for being so nice and a huge help this morning.

 

[jvalic33]

BEWARE and FYI - In case this applies to you...

We are staying onsite Nov 19-24. The first night we are at Boulder Ridge. Then we transfer to ASMU. I got up at 4:45 am CST to make dining reservations. At first the calendar would not advance past 11/19, then eventually went to 11/20 around 5:10 or 5:15 am. So I get one dining reservation. Not my 1st choice of days, but figured I better try and get it so I have one period.

I try the app, my laptop, different browsers, log in/out, clear history, etc. Nothing works. I am online for 1 hour 15 minutes and just one ressie - the calendar won't open up.

I call at 6 am to get assistance setting up my reservations. I was told that, because we are staying at one hotel the first night and then transferring, we have two ADR booking windows. So in order for me to book the rest of my trip, I have to do this all over again tomorrow am. UGH. I work full-time and getting up at the crack of dawn to jump through Disney hoops is not easy one weekday, let alone two. Plus I am not a morning girl.

The agent says this has always been the rule and that it wasn't enforced pre-Covid but is now. We have been gong to WDW since 2005. Why would they feel the need to suddenly enforce this? I never even heard of the rule until now. We were always able to book for total length of stay with multiple hotel ressies onsite.

I asked where I can see this policy in writing. After waiting on hold for over 10 minutes, the agent comes back and says both he and the escalations team can't find it in writing. There is some wording about 'per hotel reservation', but not mentioning split stays specifically. He got permission to help me book for the rest of my week. Not stellar times, but so glad I got something. Now I can keep looking to adjust as time goes on.

Shout out to Casper in Disney dining reservations for being so nice and a huge help this morning.

I got burned by this last year too, however, they did also eventually book for me over the phone, however, I continued to have issues booking from one of my profiles for the rest of the stay, even once on property so I'm not sure what the issue was but I was told it was due to my split stay.

In the past they advised they were able to override it but one CM I got said they were no longer able to do it.

They need to come up with a way to not penalize use with split stays, it's really not fair that the system can't identify how long we are actually staying. I'm glad you got some ressies. For what its worth, we had the best trip with what we got and I was able to move things around a bit later. We ended up trying some new places and loved them.

 

[tigerlilly]

Gosh I didn't know they were allowing this post-covid! I just assumed they kept it old way our last two trips. I just got up three separate mornings at 2:50 AM (west coast), as we are doing a triple split stay over 11 nights.

Super happy you were able to get it done on the phone with an CM. I completely agree this should be something they can fix in their system. Online, app and with an agent.

Have a wonderful trip.

 

[SnowWhitee]

Gosh I didn't know they were allowing this post-covid! I just assumed they kept it old way our last two trips. I just got up three separate mornings at 2:50 AM (west coast), as we are doing a triple split stay over 11 nights.

Super happy you were able to get it done on the phone with an CM. I completely agree this should be something they can fix in their system. Online, app and with an agent.

Have a wonderful trip.

Thank you - I hope you have a wonderful trip too!

I was told they noted on my account that I had been provided with the policy. This was probably a one-time courtesy since I had not run into the issue before. I don't foresee being able to call over and over in the future and have them make the ressies for me. I just wanted to note in case anyone else had this happen.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

I called beforehand to check on the policy. I was told not to worry, they had a way to combine them. When I called back at the start of my first stays booking window, and mentioned the previous conversation, they quickly did their magic and booked the remaining days ADRs for me.

I think it is official policy, since the guidelines are clear it’s “length of stay” for hotel guests. Each new hotel has a new length of stay. It’s never mentioned it’s length of stay for WDW guests.

As is often the case though, Disney will make exceptions to keep guests happy. At least until the “hack” goes viral on to TikTok or something.