Dining Reservations Audit?!?

[BrookieM2001]

So, we added the dining plan to our DVC reservation late and we had several CRT ADRs on our reservation. Due to our having started planning after the 180 day mark, we have several less than ideal times for CRT on various days. However, today the FP window opened for people traveling whose vacations overlap with ours and they started dropping ADRs today and so i picked up 2 new ones and wanted to make sure that the new ones applied to the dining plan and i wasn't charged the pre-pay fee for them. Then, in 9ish days, when I get to make my FP selections, i plan to release the unused ones once our days are nailed down. Now, its not as if we have one for each hour or anything, or 5 BOG for each day. We just cant nail down plans until i know several things, least of which is whether we get the FP we want. So, we called dining to make sure we weren't going to be charged the the 2 reservations and that we would be reimbursed when we dropped the extra ones in a few days.

However, the CM was suuuuuuuper rude. He kept saying we were gaming the system and taking away from the enjoyment of other guests, and that they do a nightly audit and if we are found to be misusing the dining system, they might just cancel all our ADRs. Is this really a thing?!? I mean, its not as if we have hundreds of ADRs, and we told him several times that we will be canceling next week when we nail down our FPs, but until then we dont have the ability to know what time we will be where, especially in the MK with CRT. Its not as if we plan to not show up, and even if we did its prepay, so they're still not losing money. Has anyone ever heard of people getting their ADRs canceled without notice?? Im all freaked out now, because i have been working so hard to get the places and times we want and still have our bases covered in case we have to switch parks because of a TSL soft opening, or a lack of FOP FPs or a change in EMH or park hours!

How is it that Disney cant make up its mind about any of these things and yet we get threatened for trying to live in their craziness? I just cant imagine they would do that, but before today i couldn't imagine a Disney CM talking and acting the way this one did so I dont know.

 

[Pumbaa_]

What a fun cm, spreading magic everywhere

He was a jerk

I can honestly tell you, in all the years moderating here I have heard the threat of canceling adrs, but never heard it happen.

You are gaming the system. The one that disney set up. Making you pick dining 6 months in advance. Then fast passes at 60 or 30 days. Then changing park opening so your ppo adr is now prime park time

Ignore that jerk. You are fine. You are only charged upon consumption or no show.

Good luck on your fast passes!

 

[Pumbaa_]

He really was a jerk

 

[Gehrig1B]

I too use the system as it allows and have never had ADR's cancelled.

 

[rpb718]

If the CRT reservations were made for different days, there's just no way any one at Disney would cancel. For all they know you just really like to go to CRT every day.

For example, I had ADRs for Tusker House breakfast for 2 separate days and planned to cancel one once we hit our 60 day mark when I knew which day we could get FP+ for FoP. I imagine a lot of folks doing this.

Now I have heard of folks making multiple dinner ADRs for a single day at different restaurants for different times so that they could decide at the last minute which one they felt like going to. Now that was "gaming the system" and eventually what lead Disney to implement the no-show fees.

 

[pattyw]

Wow! That CM is rude! We've actually dined at the same restaurant two separate times in the past when we had longer trips as have many others! The ADR system will let you make a reservation one hour or so later than another so if people are doing a reservation every hour and 15 minutes it's absolutely allowed.

 

[FCDub]

I will rock the boat, but just a little bit. Are you doing anything "wrong" by making multiple reservations for the same day? No.

Is it frustrating for others to not be able to get available tables because someone is holding a handful "just in case"? Undoubtedly.

I personally would never do that, but everyone has a different level of tolerance.

So again, if Disney lets you do it, that's up to them and you're fine. Would I personally do it? No. (I also don't think there's a single restaurant in the entire resort that's better than what I can eat in my current city, but that's a different story.)

 

[BrookieM2001]

Thanks guys! No cancellations this morning of our ADRs so that’s reassuring! I had never even heard people were threatened with getting their dinners cancelled so it definitely took me by surprise, and I was shocked at how that CM acted!

I just feel like if Disney doesn’t want people trying to make multiple plans before FP day and then cancelling once they girl ip their plans, then don’t make us book dining in parks that don’t have finalized hours or fireworks schedules or EMH at 180 days! If they would give us all the info at ADR Time this wouldn’t be an issue...

 

[motherof5]

I made a dining reservation same day both at Tusker not sure if I want to do the dining with the reservation for light show, so did one with and one without. Figured I would figure it out with our FP and our dining plan to see if it made sense. Did it over the phone with CM who was extremely nice and suggested this. Feel bad that you had a different experience.

 

[Monimcmi]

We’ve had CM’ers suggest making the multiple reservations, and plenty of Cm’ers Who are aware that this happens and encourage us to call back when trying to find a closely dated special dinning!! Don’t let 1 bad Apple ruin it for you

 

[supersnoop]

I don’tnow how many days the OP is staying, which dining plan they have booked, or how many CRT reservations they were holding. The post says ty had “several” and added two more. Since CRT is a 2-credit, prepaid meal, it may have appeared that they were holding more reservations than they had credits for, and without prepaying. If that were the case, I can understand why the CM would be stern about gaming the system.

Imagine they were on the regular dining plan for six nights and holding five CRT reservations, all using credits to hold them instead of prepaying. That’s 10 credits worth of dining, but they only have 6 credits available. That seems like it crosses a line to me.

 

[Euby]

Please tell me that you stayed on the line long enough to answer the survey about your call with that CM. His leadership needs to know about his attitude and get him more training or something.

 

[TeresaWen]

For any "must do" restaurants I do the same thing. Not for fast pass selection but for food & wine events. My 180 mark is today. Food & wine information will not be available for months!

Enjoy your trip.

 

[KenHutch]

While I have never done this a LOT of people do it. My person who posts here frequently explained to me that unlike me she does not know what park she will be at 180 days out so she makes 8 ADR's for every meal she is planning on eating and when the post the hours she figures out when and where and cancels everything else. I know I am preaching to the choir but if they poster hours at 190 days out everyone could get their plans done quickly.