WDW Dining...I want to cry

[DunkinNut]

It's been a year since our last trip and I do not remember running in to (on the phone) so many unhappy, boring, lackluster Dining Reservationists! Ever for that matter. We have been to Disney more times than I can count and I do not EVER remember having a phone interaction with anyone that was so - ummm - well - miserable sounding. Has this become the norm? Are the Dining people actual Disney employees - or are they contracted through some other company? Good grief. I had to make ressies for 8+ days - and the first guy was VOID of all personality - and the 2nd gal sounded like someone had just run over her kitty! I just want to cry and never call back - but I have 3 days to go! GRRRR. Was it poor "form" to try to do so many days at once? And I have to say I was completely understanding and nice/kind when told restaurants were booked - so it can't be they were reacting to me! Waaaaa. Thoughts? Ok, I'll quit whining now! :cool:

[IloveDisney71]

I have always made my ADR's during one phone call. I've made ADR's for 7 different places during one call. I don't think making multiple reservations is a bad thing. It sounds as if you just had bad luck with the CM's you dealt with. :(

[Hair_Razor]

I think the answer is in your question. It doesn't seem to be par for the course. I haven't had any problems thus far. I have had very pleasant experiences even when I had to call back last minute to add 1 more person to ALL the reservations we had. I agree that it seems you had an unlucky day. Sorry to hear that you had a poor experience.

[Hayden's Dad]

For the most part I have had good experiences, and I have been calling about once or twice a day trying to get CRT (which I did get :D) But I have had the runin with the "robot" no personality she even repeated "checking, checking" while she was waiting for her computer to tell her if anything was available. Then I had one that when I wanted to confirm my ADRs actually sighed on the phone with me. She got a very ugly survey. But for the most part I have had good service and even some really great ones going above and beyond to try and help us. Hopefully they will weed out the unmagical ones.

[thatkindofday]

I made my ADRs last week and the woman that I talked to was one of the nicest 'Customer service reps' I've ever talked to!! She was so helpful and answered so many of my questions.

[T-Belle]

I never had a problem, but my sister did. She was making ressies for her last trip and when she came across,as you put it, a person who sounded as if someone had ran over her kitty,:funny: she hung up and called back and got a much happier person. After all, the Disney experience begins at home!

[Followthatmouse]

I don't think we have come across this problem. The last time we booked ADRs we had a sweet and helpful cast member.

If you are unhappy with the service, you could always hang up and try again.

[kaerbear178]

I made my ADRs last week and the woman that I talked to was one of the nicest 'Customer service reps' I've ever talked to!! She was so helpful and answered so many of my questions.

I had the same experience with the guy that did my ressies on Sat. He told me he was glad I was making ressies so early, complimented me on my choices and chatted with me a bit. I would try calling back again and hopefully you will have better luck.

[cal5755]

I have to say that I had a no personality cm when I called to start my ADR's. I said goodbye after the second reservation then called back and got a much nicer, friendlier and happier cm. Then I called again to re-arrange a few ADR's to put us in MK for MNSSHP. That cm was not only void of personality during the first part of the conversation but I started to ask if she could recommend a good place for breakfast on a certain day and she snottily replied "There are over 126 restaurants and MOST of them serve breakfast." My thought was out of all those restaurants you can't name one good one!! I just said thanks then I am done then.

Of course then I came on here ... looked at the dining section... checked the menu and called back and booked the Kona Cafe.

In my opinion I am encountering more and more cm's on the phone who just don't want to be doing what they are doing... they act like they are bothered by the questions. I am not saying there are not great enthusiastic nuts about disney cm's out there who make you more excited about the trip when you hang up then you were before..... but this time I have dealt with 3 cms who were less than "disney" when making ADR's.

[WishesFan13]

I had problems when i called to make our adr's when we went down in Dec.* I called and spoke to someone who was nice but not very knowledgable, called back and had a nasty women on the phone, called a third time and had a great women who tried her best to help.* The one major problem i had was all three of them told me i couldn't book cinderella's royal table for breakfast but i could make all the other adrs and i would have to call back for breakfast and each one told me a different day to call back. When my mother in law called that night she was told it could be booked but they didn't have anything for the day we wanted because we didn't call early enough. Which killed me because i was on the phone at 7am. i called and asked to speak with a supervisor to let them know what happened so hopefully it wouldn't happen to someone else and she kept talking in circles and wouldn't answer my questions so i asked if there was a manager i could speak to, she put me on hold for ten minutes got back on the phone and still couldn't answer my question as to when the officially start booking the breakfast. Thank god we got in for breakfast or my mil would have freaked out. She's not very understanding. I don't know maybe their policy had just changed, i work in a call center and know it's hard to get info out to everyone, but with something like crt that so many people book they should have known what was going on. ok that's my rant.:mickey:

[pianobabe]

When I was making an ADR for September, the CM asked me what our room number was going to be. I repeated to her we were coming in September and I didn't have a room number, but I did have our reservation number. I then gave her that number. She then asked for the room number again. I was going to make several other ADR's, but I decided I was lucky to get that one done. I ended up calling back later to make my other ADR's, and didn't have a bit of trouble.

[KEYONNAH]

When I made my ADRs the person wasn't rude, but wasn't overly friendly either. I had to call and change the number of people on my ressie for CRT and the person wasn't helpful, but when I called back the next person went out of her way to help.

[thejens]

When I made my ADRs both times the person was very pleasant. No excuse for rudeness, but it does sound like a pretty tiresome job. Sounds like Disney needs to sprinkle some pixie dust in the reservationists call center, and yes, weed out the bad ones.

[mook3y]

hmmm, I can't help but wonder, how did you approach the call?

I had a great experience just a little over a week ago.

I made 12 days worth of reservations and both me and the CM were laughing most of the time.

She went through her Spiel the first time and I commented... do I have to listen to this "EVERY" time (kidding and it was obvious). She laughed and said well, "I can say "what i said before"".

Then before she would give me the reservation number, I would make a guess at what the number was based on what the previous one was. I was within a couple of numbers most times and hit it a couple of times.

lol she asked me for the lotto numbers beacause i was so close. :D

Anyways, my point is....

Sometimes how you approach a CM greatly influences how the experience goes.

They spend all day making dining reservations for people. When i call... i try to make it a little fun for them.

I have always had great experiences!

[auntfrannie]

I've had really good luck with the ADR CMs (reservations CMs are another story, which is why I now go through MJ). For my trip next month I made 12 ADRs then I had to call back and switch a few around. Both times I got friendly CMs although the first one offered his opinions on my selections which I thought was very nice. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience!

[dumbo_buddy]

i find it's a bit of **** shoot. i definitely have been known to get off the phone with a CM within a minute of being on b/c they aren't being all that friendly or helpful. i just call right back and hope to get a nicer person.

i figure, if i'm paying all this $$ to go to disney, i want to speak to a nice CM!

i just make my ADRs for September this week and i got a GREAT CM on the first try. she was really sweet.

and, i agree with a pp, you have to approach them with the same attitude with which you would like to be approached!:mickey:

[mudpuppysmom]

I can say that I've never had a totally bad experience, but I have had CM's who just make the ADR and that is it -- robotic as someone else put it. On the other hand I HAVE had CM's who will go out of there way to find answers to questions I ask and also for info that they did not know off the top of their heads (yeah, I've been on hold a few times, but I have gotten answers to questions). Also, most, if not all of the CM's I've asked have given suggestions for various things as far as timing and tours for DS and also party info (which is a little sparse, but there is some to be had). I have had CM's who ask if I can juggle around our schedule on certain days to get certain ADR's that I have asked for and in order to get them juggle around where we are that particular day -- I think that was a bit helpful knowing that I wanted to eat somewhere and they made it happen for us. Finally I will say that the only time I had any trouble booking a place was LeCellier and I called back three times before I got a lunch time......we have never eaten at CRT as we have a boy, so there really are not any highly sought after boy meals if you know what I mean.

Like others have said.......make your current ADR, say you are finished and call back and hopefully you get someone with a much better outlook on their job, but know that there are good CM's out there who enjoy their jobs.

[chicklittlemom]

I'll start this by saying, I've called the ADR alot of times :blush: Last trip, I was trying to get in to CRT and kept calling...

This time around, on my 1st call, I got a great CM. He answered alot of questions and complemented all my choices. He was even happy to hear which resort we were staying in and was telling me things to do at the resort!

Well, I called a 2nd time to make a change, and I got the same CM! I don't think I've ever, ever talked to the same CM twice on any DIsney line! I told him he had helped me the 1st time and how happy I was to talk to him again. Of course, he didn't remember me but still another great conversation!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

:( What a bummer, I hope that doesn't happen to me next time....on my last trip, still being a novice as it was the first one I planned myself, I didn't even know about advance ADR's, when I called and added the dining plan three months before my trip a helpful CM told me about ADRs and suggested I make mine as I was coming during the Christmas holidays...its a good thing, every single TS in every single park was booked up during our entire stay. Like one intercotee stated I got a very helpful CM when I was booking who offered opinions and when I couldn't get the CRT for when I wanted searched the entire length of my stay to find an acceptable time for me. We enjoyed our dining experience very much too.

[TBY2225]

I personally have been very lucky to always get very nice personable CM's when making, changing, and checking on my ADR's. My DH even snagged a last minute ADR at Le Cellier in Jan after talking with a great CM! I hope the same is true when I have to call Monday to make my ADR's for this years trip! That being said, I have heard from a good friend that the past few times she and her DH have called they have gotten rude and not very knowlegable CM's, so I guess it is just luck of the draw! Keep your fingers crossed for me on Monday!

[DisneyGrrrl]

The Disney Dining Reservation call center is here in Tampa - but I don't know if it's owned by Disney or a third party that Disney has a contract with.

One of my current employees used to work at the call center during high volume times and she really enjoyed it, but she mentioned that you have all kinds of callers. Some are nice, and some are not. There are people who take out their frustration at not being able to book an ADR on the CM.

While it doesn't excuse the CM's behavior, it's hard to work in a call center. I've never done it personally because you have to deal with all kinds that call in. Maybe the CM you had was having a bad day.

Also, some of them have never even been to any or most of the restaurants so they may not be able to provide feedback.

Anyway, I'm rambling on, but bottom line is that I would have probably called back and talked to someone else. I've only had one bad experience with the dining hotline and I just called and talked to someone else. :number1:

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

Last year when I made our reservations for Sept I called several times trying to get a reservation for Le Cellier and a couple others. I found it was 50/50 - some didn't seem to care and others were very helpful.

My DH had the best experience. He called for me and got a guy that was very knowledgable. He told my DH about MNSSHP and about POR carriage ride.

But I know what you mean.

[Seasonscraps]

that's too bad.


I don't recall ever having a rude or unhappy rep when making ADRs but I can certainly see how they wouldn't be exhuberant. I am not even exhuberant going through the ADR making process. I am polite and a little friendly but I find it a tedious and repetitive process. :blush:

[sleepingbooty]

I encountered a rude CM this week as well. I called to make my ressies, and after I made the first one - she asked for my reservation confirmation number, since only those staying on property could make ressies for 180+10 (I knew this of course). I thought this was why I gave me phone number? I've never been asked this before and I've done this several times! So I rooted around for the confirmation sheet that my agent at MJ emailed me - NOWHERE on there is a reservation confirm number! I gave the CM the "client file" number - but that was the only thing I could come up with. She was very skeptical of that, and then pretty short with me for the balance of the phone call. I was very disappointed. Usually after making my adr's I get off the phone all jazzed up. Not this time!

[bleukarma]

There are actually 2 reservation call centers, one in Orlando and one in Tampa. They are both owned by Disney directly. It makes me mad to hear about all these un-magical CM’s that work there when I know how to be excited about Disney and I know my stuff, yet they wouldn’t hire me because I didn’t have sales experience. Which is crazy because I’ve worked tons of part time retail jobs, including the Disney Store. The manager that I interviewed with just didn’t like me, and she was one of the worst people I have ever met in my entire life! I actually wrote a letter to Disney about her. I felt like I was being interrogated and she would berate me for not knowing something. I have never walked out of an interview feeling so bad about myself, until I interviewed with Disney. In the end I didn’t want to work there if I had to work under her, so the rude CM’s that you talk to probably have this woman as their manager! I can imagine her making her employee’s miserable!

On a happier note, the last time I called to book my trip I got a CM that was more excited about the trip then me!! I told her that I have a friend coming along that has never been and I thought she jumped out of her chair! She was nice enough to go through everything that needed to done and ask if I needed to make dining ADR’s while I was on the phone with her. She was very personable! I have been meaning to write Disney about what a wonderful experience I had with her.

[Friend of Figment]

When I called to make the ADRs for our upcoming trip (August) I had a CM who was ok, but had no personality. She did make me laugh when we got to the Hoop De Do reservation and she read to me "At this time advise guest of the best way to reach Ft. Wilderness from their hotel." She never missed a beat or acted like there was anything unusual about having read that word for word.

[PEA_Swe]

When we planned our three weeks stay back in 2005 we had many calls, both for resort and dining reservations. Totally maybe 50 calls. (We did a lot of planning, I know....)
Not a single time we had any bad experience with the CM. They were really nice and did everything to help us in the very best way possible. :mickey:

I think that one thing that helped us was that my BF that made all the calls started every call in a very nice and positive way. He established a positive tone in the conversation already from the start, instead of just saying "I want this or that". :thumbsup: