[Mystic]

Just thought I'd post and let everyone know about my experience with the new ADR booking system yesterday. Having tried multiple times throughout the day to get through, I finally decided to bite the bullet and just sit on hold until I got through to someone. I spent 35 minutes on hold last night before I finally got on the line with a CM, who was very apologetic about the long wait and gave me a rough idea of how the new system works.

Under the new system, the ADRs go into a 'shopping cart', which can hold up to 12 ADRs at a time (although they are having issues with the cart dropping some ADRs if they get more than 6 in the cart at one time). Once the cart is filled, they then process the shopping cart to get your confirmation numbers. Confirmation numbers are no longer given out as you make each individual ADR, they are only given out after the shopping cart is processed. Once the cart is processed, the CM will then reconfirm dates, times and locations of each ADR and give you a 12 digit confirmation number. Tour reservations will now work in same manner as dining ADRs.

Another reason for the super long waits on hold, has to do with the fact that travel agents do not have a separate number to call for dining reservations. They call Disney dining on the exact same phone number as everyone else. Which means when a travel agent calls to make reservations for every one of their clients who have reached their 90 day window, they are spending so much time on the phone with Disney that it's making everyone else wait that much longer to get through.

Hopefully Disney will work out the kinks in the new system and get the rest of the CMs trained on it soon and wait times on hold will go down.

[Dawn]

Once the ADR goes into the cart does that secure your ressie? For example, what happens if you want CRT do you have to make that ADR then hang up and call back to get the ones that are in high demand?

[lovemysons]

Wow, thanks for the information.

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Once the ADR goes into the cart does that secure your ressie? For example, what happens if you want CRT do you have to make that ADR then hang up and call back to get the ones that are in high demand?

I'm not 100% sure about this as I made my CRT ressie back at the 170 day mark but as far as I can tell, once it's in your cart, it's taken out of availability. I don't believe you will need to hang up and call back. You can always ask them to do CRT on it's own and then do the rest of your ressies. I spent over an hour on the phone last night, the last thing I wanted to have to do was to call back and go through it all over again.

[b1wife]

Originally Posted by Mystic

I'm not 100% sure about this as I made my CRT ressie back at the 170 day mark but as far as I can tell, once it's in your cart, it's taken out of availability. I don't believe you will need to hang up and call back. You can always ask them to do CRT on it's own and then do the rest of your ressies. I spent over an hour on the phone last night, the last thing I wanted to have to do was to call back and go through it all over again.

I don't think it does confirm your reservation until they are all processed. Today, it took me 95 minutes to makes 7 ADRs. When we were trying to make one of them, the CM told me, "okay I've got it, can you hold please?" He put me on hold for 15 minutes. When he came back, he said he couldn't find the reservation, he must have lost it and there wasn't anything else available. He said it was "unfortunate" that he lost it. Can you say, FURIOUS! I explained to him that was for my husband's birthday dinner and it was more than "unfortunate" to me.

He ended up going back in and making all my ADRs separately and gave me a confirmation number after each one. He also had to leave the Dining Plan off the reservation in order for the system to accept it.

He kept telling me they were having "system issues," and I swear if I had been taking a shot for every time he said it, I'd have been layed out on the floor drunk by the end of the phone call!

All in all, it took a long time, but we eventually got all of the ADRs I wanted, for the meals and restaurants I wanted. I was happy with the end result, but the process was incredibly painful!

[vthokiegirl]

Oh this makes me dread having to make mine for September!

[Dawn]

I hope they get this all worked out soon. I would make sure I have all of those confirmation numbers with me on my trip :)

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by vthokiegirl

Oh this makes me dread having to make mine for September!

I'm sure they'll have most of the kinks worked out before you have to make your reservations. You got another 3 months or so to wait so things should be fine by then.

[b1wife]

Originally Posted by Dawn

I hope they get this all worked out soon. I would make sure I have all of those confirmation numbers with me on my trip :)

They are going in my phone! I'm not going without them.

Another change is that confirmation numbers are now 12 digits instead 8.

[hanwill]

they have less than a week to fix this... I am calling on Saturday... I'll let everyone know what happens...

[timkelmom]

So, is the 90 day permanent or will they be going back to 180 at any point?

Also, does anyone know anything about an on-line ressie system? I thought I read something about that.

I hope they work this out or, like vthokiegir, I will be very frustrated trying to make them for Sept. for free dining.

[LittleMissMagic]

Uggg... this sounds annoying. What was wrong with the old system??? (If it ain't broke, don't fix it!)

Luckily, I have quite a while before I begin making ADRs. Hopefully they have the kinks worked out by then.

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by timkelmom

So, is the 90 day permanent or will they be going back to 180 at any point?

Also, does anyone know anything about an on-line ressie system? I thought I read something about that.

I hope they work this out or, like vthokiegir, I will be very frustrated trying to make them for Sept. for free dining.

From what I understand the 90 day window will be permanent (it was 90 days prior to 2005 when they switched it to 180 days).

According to a CM in the know on another board (he works for Central Reservations) the tentative release for the online version is Spring/Summer 09 but there is no guarantee.

[dixie]

Originally Posted by LittleMissMagic

Uggg... this sounds annoying. What was wrong with the old system??? (If it ain't broke, don't fix it!)

Luckily, I have quite a while before I begin making ADRs. Hopefully they have the kinks worked out by then.

Hmm thats what I was thinking too- reading this makes me kind of nervous about making any especially if they go wrong- lets hope these are just early teething troubles and it will be sorted very soon.

[hanwill]

Update! I made my ADR's for our trip. It took an hour and a half total... I was on hold for that first hour- sort of...
I called right at 7am (on a Saturday) and was on hold for about 3-5 minutes when I was picked up and asked if I was making dining reservations for Cinderella (and something else, but I wasn't listening to that part). I said yes, so I proceeded to make my ADR for that. Then she said that she could not make any other ADRs, but she could transfer me to someone else that could. I then sat on hold for approximately 55 minutes. Once the lady picked up, I made my ADrs.

She said what took so long now is that they have to make their ADRs blind. In other words, she cannot see all of the tables and the times like she used to. She said that the system pops looks for the place and time that we ask for, and then searches for alternatives as well.
Also, she said that now the dining reservations are tied to the hotel reservations. She said that before that people called and said that they were staying at a Disney hotel and they had to take their word on it... Now, she said that if you are staying off site, then you have to call back everyday to make reservations, but on site you can make your 90+10 all in one phone call. So now I guess there is proof.

All in all, I would say it was better. I made a ton of ADRs (13) for a large family, and mostly got the exact time that I asked for. She also added in my celebration, and told me that now they can help with the resort information and that the resort people can help with dining... So it sounds like more people to man the phones...

The only negative was the music while I was on hold... It was a loop advertising a cd- which I already own... no more random music- it was trying to sell me something... still if was happy disney music, which I will listen to happily.