Welp, the days of skipping your Disney dining reservations when you’re stuck in line for Soarin’ may be over!
Remember when Disney started requiring a credit card guarantee — and subsequently charged for no-shows — on signature and character meals back in 2011? We’re hearing that starting on October 31, 2013, that policy will apply to all Disney World table-service reservations.
What are the details of the cancellation policy?
If guests fail to cancel their reservations within one day of the reservation time and then don’t show up at the restaurant, they’ll be charged $10 per person on the credit card used to hold the reservation.
For dinner shows and some character meals, guests will continue to be required to pre-pay for the meal and will forfeit the entire cost should they not cancel within the required window and fail to show up for the event.
Guests planning to visit Cinderella's Royal Table could lose their entire payment should they fail to cancel
What does “within one day” mean?
Well, this is usually defined as a 24-hour window, but many guests have had luck with cancelling by 11:59pm the night before the reservation.
How do I cancel a reservation when I’m in Disney World?
Disney’s tried to make it easy to cancel reservations. You can use the My Disney Experience app on your mobile device (if you have already set up a username and password and your reservations are linked up to your account), use the Disney World website, call 407-WDW-CNCL, or head to guest relations in any park or resort. You can also theoretically cancel reservations at any restaurant podium, but we’ve had sketchy results with that in the past.
Luckily, Disney will send you a little reminder email for your reservation with enough advance notice that you’ll be able to cancel in time if needed.
Reservation Reminder Email
Why is Disney doing this?
Well, since Disney opens the booking window 180 days in advance — and many Disney restaurants are SO popular that you really do have to book 6 months ahead of time to get a reservation — guests often book multiple reservations during similar time slots since they (understandably) have no idea half a year ahead of time what they’ll want to eat when they’re in Disney World.
Once they arrive in Disney World and choose which reservations to keep, the others just get skipped. This means Disney’s holding tables that could go to other guests.
We have no idea if the policy is working to accomplish Disney’s goals of fewer no-shows or not, but we’d love to hear your thoughts.
What do you think of extended cancellation policy? Let us know in the comments below!
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I hope they will consider making exceptions to the fees for illness and other emergency situations. It’s not always possible to anticipate last-minute cancellations of this nature, and $30 for our family of three is pretty high penalty to pay because of a sick child, a flat tire, etc.
I understand their need to keep people from squatting on multiple reservations, but I feel like this is just one more policy that is making the parks feel less friendly to locals.
I’ve ALWAYS had reservations for table service (never just a walk-up) and I have NEVER had the impression that they were “holding a table” for me. Ever. If the restaurant was packed we had to wait. Sometimes a half hour. If the restaurant was empty we were seated right away… but that’s not because they were “holding a table” for us — the restaurant was just empty.
This is a good thing. No shows can be around 30% and can really screw up dining for the evening. As an ex cast member who worked good and Bev, I had a night where two large tables were no shows and that meant an empty section for upwards of an hour or more. For servers, that’s us losing money and is just not fair on the cast who are trying to make a living and it is really easy to cancel by phone or online etc and always has been. It’s a courtesy to let someone know you won’t be showing up! Rumors of this policy have been around for two years so it’s not a sudden decision, we knew it was coming! And with it already in place for higher end restaurants it isn’t hard to implement and a lot of guests are already used to it. It’s especially useful during free dining since guest take advantage of the fact that since it’s free dining they can load up loads of reservations and just not show up. That was always the worst times for it. Penalties make sense. It isn’t a good look to have loads of free tables when people are hungry and then have the reservations not show up.
Also, a reservation at Disney does not guarantee you a table, it guarantees you get in ahead of potential walk ins. Plenty of people are turned away of a night. The aim is to sit you within 15minutes of your reservation time, but dice they ditched the two hour dining limit, it is very difficult to judge when people will eat up and leave, hence why you may still have to wait, because it isn’t an exact science.
What do you think will happen for changing a time of a reservation the day of the reservation. Lets say you are a few hours prior to the reservation and you would like to see if there is something earlier or later available… will they charge you?
Okay, but what about those times when you, y’know, get stuck in the line for Soarin’? Can you call and explain and have the fee revoked? I don’t see anything wrong with the fee and cancellation policies as a general principle, but I think Disney will have to be judicious and flexible with how they apply the new policies.
This does seem a bit extreme, but I guess if they believed there was a need for it, then it’s something from which we’ll all benefit in the long-term. After all, Disney restaurants are rarely less than full, so it can’t really be all about revenue.
On a similar topic, how would this work with partial no-shows? We’re travelling with my mum and stepdad and I’d like to know if we’d be penalised for only bringing 4 people to an ADR for 6 should they resist the scheduling.
If you cancel your reservation in a timely manner, this will not be an issue!!! It will open up tables for those of us that have been locked out of reserving a table by those who are being inconsiderate.
The only problem I have with this is that you can’t cancel a reservation on the day off. On one occasion we decided not to leave DHS for an ADR at Wilderness Lodge and so we cancelled our reservation a few hours ahead of time and were able to secure another reservation in the park. I don’t see how it’s fair that now, according to these rules, they would have then been able to charge me $10pp. Charging no-shows I agree with 100%, but there should be more leeway than 24 hours advance notice.
Lots of legitimate arguments here. I hope the Disney folks read these thoughtful comments. Clearly, in the name of good customer service, there will need to be some exceptions made for guests in difficult or emergency circumstances.
And what about my existing reservations? Am I going to need to update those for Jan/Feb with a CC?
I love that this has been expanded. Hopefully this will cut down on no shows and encourage to put more thought into reservations. Maybe even open some more tables for reservation online since people will be more likely to plan it out instead of just setting a reservation since they might be in a park.
Not cool.. I have visited disney 4 times and only 1 missed a ADR and that was 2 weeks ago when my 2year old daughter didnt get to nap till 3 and our ADR was at 4:30.. so i cancelled it and booked Chef Mickeys for the morning instead.. so for those with little ones it sux.. i agree with it for the more exclusive ones but not all
Will this work the ‘other way’ also; if you show up at your time and you still have to wait 1 hour or more, does that mean they (Disney) breached the contract and you can say “Well, Bye”?
I understand being charged for no shows but according to Linsey there is no guarantee I would get a table anyway. Disney needs my credit card in order to reserve a spot in the vestibule for the off chance I may get a table? So I should be charged if I decide the wait is ridiculously long and decide to leave without 24 hours notice. Absolutely maddening!
It’s obviously been working for the signature and character meals if they’ve decided to roll it out to everyone else. Honestly? I’m all for it! Just helps them deter people from abusing the system.
You would get a table where walk in won’t. But in restaurants where you have already paid the full price in advance those are regimented for timings. Other mid level restaurants like world showcase ones are harder to know when people will get up and leave and until they do guests have to wait. If you were not happy with the wait they won’t penalise you if you decide to go elsewhere because when you check in you are counted. Only if your name isn’t taken off that original list would you have to pay. But this is disney so if you argue the point , say you did show up or did cancel and were still charged, they would fix it.
The regular aim is to seat you within 15 minutes of your reservation time. If it would be longer, they would tell you on arrival. So log as you how up, I doubt you would have a problem
They will be flexible, but if you are late, or early you would be fine in most restaurants because your name is still on he reservation list and can be put back into the wait list queue. Even if cleared it is okay because they can pull from that list too
It seems that the overall consensus is positive for this change – and I agree. Reservations are a free service. No shows cost them money (especially the servers). Show up for your reservation or pay a small fee! If I hop in line for Soarin 30 prior to an ADR, then I get what I deserve; if the baby gets sick, then add the fee to overall unpleasantness – it’s the chance you take for this free service. I have a dinner reservation next week for four including an elderly mother, who”s prone to cancelling. Our 4-top may end up being a 3-top, plus a $10 fine and I’m OK with that. What I don’t like is the new fastpass+ system that some day will require the whole dang vacation be planned out 6 months out!! Spontaneity is magical…
I am really excited about this new policy. While it will discourage people from making multiple ADRs, it won’t stop it entirely. You have until 24 hours prior to the reserved time to cancel. So you make the ADRs at the 180 day mark. Most people have all their vacation plans ironed out maybe 4 weeks, or more before they leave. So that still leaves plenty of time to cancel those duplicate ADRs.
If Disney wants to cut out duplicate ADRs, they need to implement a policy that states you cannot book more than 1 ADR for the same restaurant during the same meal time. (So you could book a breakfast ADR, and a dinner ADR for Boma on the same day, but you can’t book two dinner ADRs for Boma on the same night.) Hope that makes sense!
Disney is only requiring a hold on your credit card, (for regular restaurants). That means your CC won’t be charged up front, so I still think people will make duplicate ADRs. Hopefully this activity will be discouraged though. I get tired of reading on forum boards how some people get like 3 dinner ADRs for the same restaurant/same night because they don’t know what time they’d like to eat.
Neither the MyDisneyExperience app nor the web site allows you to reserve more than one table service meal within a given time window so I would suspect that calling in would result the same. I don’t know how peeps are making multiple ADRS within the same window.
David, if you have more than one email you can create more than one account which allows you to get more than one reservation at the same time.
While I don’t like that people will be charged because so much can happen after 11:59 the day you are in the parks especially if you have a child with you. I do like that there may be more availability at the restaurants. We’ve never bothered eating on the in demand restaurants because I’m not able to plan my life to a tee 6 months in advance. I liked the old days when you went to the podium the day you went to the park to see what reservations were available that day.
We WERE a party of 8 going to WDW in November. One of the couples has had to cancel. I don’t want to cancel our ADRs for a party of 8 and try to reschudule them for a party of 6 because I don’t want to lose the hard-to-get ones (BOG, ‘Ohana). Does this mean my CC will be charged $20 per meal for the two who don’t show?
Years ago (and before my time) it was “Priority Seating” meaning once you showed up for your “reservation” you would be seated before walk-ins. This seemed like a great system. If the Prority Seating customers didn’t show, the restaurant was no worse for wear. Plus if there was a bit of a wait, customers wouldn’t be as peeved as they would if they had a “hard reservation” time. A cash grab by Disney perhaps? P.S. sorry for all the “quotes”.
From what I have read the policy has always been if at least someone from your party shows up, you don’t pay a cancellation fee. I assume that this policy will continue. I think 24hrs or even night before is a good enough time to cancel and it is Disney so if something were to come up (sick child) I’m sure you would be able to dispute it. They’re good about stuff like that.
Interesting. I’ve got 10 ADRs for post marathon meals in Jan. Most did not require a cc when booked. I’m sure we will do everything we can to eat our way thru the world, but since they don’t have a card on this rather rezzies I’m not sure they could charge me. I’m also usually very good,about canceling 24 hrs in advance bc I don’t have little doodles. I do hope they’ll be accommodating to those who have issues.
I do agree with this policy. I think it will limit the booking frenzy that takes place at that 180-day mark, as many people will not want to put a CC on hold for reservations they may never use. It will not eliminate multiple booking completely, but it will make folks more thoughtful about making the reservation in the first place.
My husband and I have reservations at California Grill on the evening we fly into Orlando, as this was the only night we could get a reservation, but we have had issues in the past where plane delays have gotten us to the World late. I would think that if I am stuck in an airport earlier that day and call the reservation line, they will not enforce the fee. Disney is known for their customer service, and not making exceptions in exceptional circumstances would be bad business.
This is a great new policy. We just got back last month from WDW and noticed many people walking up to podiums and could get no reservation. However, there were empty tables in the restaurant. I felt bad for them. This particularly happened at the “Be Our Guest” restaurant. Our reservation was at 5:l5 and while we were waiting, tons of people were turned away. However, when we were seated there were hardly any people in the dining room until we left at around 6:l5. And then, it was not packed. We always cancel any reservations that we decide not to go to. People know within a few hours window if they will be at that particular location. They should be charged something if they don’t show. The fee is nominal so I don’t that will deter some.
My only concern is the option for flexibility. I was there last month and one day we had a dinner reservation at Biergarten, but decided to change it to lunch. I went online booked the lunch reservation and cancelled dinner. It was the morning of the reservation. I loved being able to change our plans on the fly providing a reservation was open.
Like someone else said, a little spontaneity is magical!
There was a post on this on the disboards, and regarding existing reservations, it says:
Reservations booked on or after October 31 will be required to adhere to the cancellation policy. Guests who booked reservations before Oct. 31 were not informed of the policy or asked for their credit card information; therefore, these Guests will not be charged if they do not honor their reservations or cancel outside of the cancellation window. However, if the Guest makes modifications to the reservation on or after October 31, he or she will be informed of the cancellation policy, asked for credit card information, and must adhere to the cancellation policy.
I hate the 180 day grab for tables – its awful. I don’t like having to figure out my dining plans that far in advance and I hate that it can be near impossible getting a table at some of the more popular places.
That being said I think this is a terrible way to fix it.
I love going to disney world because its family friendly. I think that this is the LEAST family friendly policy ever. Temper tantrums, sleep problems, bad ‘reactions’ to rides, sudden onset of sickness, etc. are a big part of travelling with children. These can ALL interfere with the best laid plans and only 10 minutes before your meal. No restaurants outside of Disney World have such an absurd policy and the fact of the matter is – there are almost always people hoping to get in as a walk up. I just don’t get the point and it does seem to be a money grab. Also, this policy along the magic bands makes it seem like every hour of every day needs to be planned. Again – this is extremely difficult with small children and limits the amount of spontaniety when on vacation.
Same day challenge?
Worried about not canceling and getting charged the $10 per person…why not just call and ask to be rescheduled for another day in the future. Then, call back and cancel that reservation with no penalty?
Won’t a byproduct of this policy will mean that a credit card will be required for ALL dining reservations at The World? I’m really surprise that THAT’s not getting a lot of protests.
I’m still stuck on the fact that some people are so self-absorbed that they load up on multiple ADRs for the same time: ‘It’s all about me and I could give a flying flip about anyone else’s experience.’ Always the few bad apples that spoil it for everyone else.
Personally, I’m a control-freak so advanced planning is positive thing for me. But I can see how this would be a problem if you enjoy spontaneity. I enjoy being spontaneous too – I just have to plan for it…
I think everyone here has good points. That being said, Diane does bring up a valid issue. What about those times when things happen, such as an illness. As an avid Disney-goer, I know the restaurants are not going to be left empty for the meal. Lines are usually out the door waiting to get in, so a cancellation last minute will easily be filled with waiting guests. The problem, I believe, lies with making reservations. It’s true that most of us don’t know when or where we want to eat months in advance, but isn’t that part of the spontaneity of vacationing? Disney needs to implement a system where a guest cannot make reservations multiple nights. This could mean that guests are given an ID number that must be entered when making reservations so that multiple on same days cannot be entered. Or have they done this already? They are cracking down on everything it seems, from shorter extra magic hours to charging no shows. Yet they continue to increase prices throughout.
This is a tough one, because I see both sides of it. Maybe I’m naive, but I would hope that the people who triple/quadruple book ADRs are outnumbered by people who had every intention of using their ADR until something came up. This wasn’t a big issue until we had kids, and now having been to the parks with little ones, I see how quickly your plans can go off track sometimes: they miss a nap, they’re tired and cranky, they have trouble falling asleep one night and you’re reluctant to wake them at 6:00 the next morning in order to make an 8:00 ADR, etc. I’m not saying that people should be cavalier about their ADRs, and I do think it’s inconsiderate to book multiples knowing you’ll blow off all but one. But sometimes life happens, and some of the best advice I’ve read about doing Disney with little ones is to be prepared to ditch your plans and go with the flow when needed. This policy makes it hard to do that.
I actually have an issue with this new policy.
More than once I’ve showed up a restaurant only to find that my ‘reservation’ was a mere suggestion that I might, sometime that evening, get a table. The worst was a 2 hour wait, which I responded to by walking out. This was in the days before a credit card guarantee, and this was a SIGNATURE restaurant.
If Disney feels they need such a policy, I’d like to see some flexibility and reciprocity on the part of Disney.
By flexibility, I’d like to be able to change the time of my reservation, or the restaurant, the same day (if I can find an open reservation elsewhere, of course). I’d also like to see Disney give me a set time period for being late without incurring the penalty. I understand today that this is variable, based upon each restaurant’s own policy. Some restaurants give you 30 minutes, some 45 minutes, some more, and some less. One report on disboards has a guy not getting hit with the penalty even though he was stuck on a (broken) ride and was 90+ minutes late, while others report being charged, even though they eventually ate there, because they were more than 15 minutes late (the penalty was eventually reversed in that case). A standardized policy of what constitutes a “missed reservation” would be welcome.
By reciprocity, I mean that Disney should allow me to walk away without penalty if the restaurant cannot seat me within 30 minutes of my reservation, or provide me with free drinks or appetizers until they can seat me if they’re running more than 15 minutes beyond.
We were at Disney last week. (horrible experience and not wanting to ever go back!)
Anyway, we were out one night and had to walk to The Boardwalk to get a bus to Downtown Disney, it was there we realized our Dinner Table Service Reservations were there the following day. My wife looked up other available restaurants on the App. Made a new reservation and then over the course of the next 24 hours tried to cancel the reservation via the App (as she had booked and cancelled before with the App). She finally gave up (not sure if there was a phone number issue since she never tried calling) and told me there was no cancellation fee like there was with the character meals, so we should be fine.
Maybe Karma got us the following night as we were eating at the resort (ate the Table Service for lunch in Epcot that day) and our son busted his chin open in the kiddie pool (EMTs said stitches were not needed but could be used if it stayed bad).
I can honestly understand the idea of the cancellation fee and could almost see it as not too huge an issue if pressed but to help get people to cancel rather than just have too many cueing up to fill their books for a no-show.
If this policy is rolled out, I’m going to make far less reservations. Right now, I usually only do one or two (at the most) reservations at restaurants that charge a cancellation fee and the rest of my reservations are at the no fee locations.
In the future, this approach will continue but instead of 7 reservations (and assuming everything goes well) and 7 sit down meals…. I will likely end up with two sit-down meals. I suppose there will be someone there to ‘take my place’. But I’m someone that is going to Disney annually and has been considering a DVC membership. I’m totally not going to do DVC and maybe the annual trip will be every other year. Yeah – thats an extreme stance but I just feel like this new policy really doesn’t appreciate the challenges of trying to parent a small child in Disney. And that turns me off to Disney as a whole.
I think a much smarter approach would be a fee for no shows and you should be able to call the dining line upto the time of your reservation to cancel. If they are worried about not getting enough diners start posting the wait times in a main area for sit-down meals similar to the postings for ride waits. I’m sure a lot of people avoid going to sit down restaurants without a researvation because they think there is an insane wait. On a related note, I think this is another step in ensuring that people stay at WDW as much as possible.
Maybe the problem lies in the fact that the ADR window is so many months in advance. Hard to really know what you want to eat on a particular night 6 months out, for a lot of people. They book for the sake of booking just to get a table, and then life gets in the way. If the booking window was, say 2 months out, then people would probably have a better idea of what their plans are. There still needs to be some flexibility for last minute unforseen circumstances. I’m sure Disney has considered these. Just a thought!
I’m mostly with Kara on this one. It seems especially burdensome if I’m taking a trip with my parents, both of whom are older and one of whom is disabled. They can’t eat the pick up and go food and they especially need to sit and eat in A/C. They also can’t manage several of the parks on hot & humid days, especially Animal Kingdom with its many outside attractions. Florida weather is variable enough that even 24 hours advance notice isn’t always enough.
I also wonder whether people won’t start treating this as a $10 double-booking fee. That’s what it amounts to. If I’m paying $5000 for a holiday, an extra $50 to double-book restaurants doesn’t sound that bad.
Why not simply link their reservation system to patron ticket numbers, for all inside-the-parks restaurants? That makes double-booking with a second e-mail impossible, and most people making hotel restaurant reservations in the same system will use the same account to do so. And add a “change reservation” feature so that even on the day of, I can log in, select a different restaurant with an open table for the same meal and switch my reservation from one to another. That offers flexibility and increases the odds of accurately knowing how many walk-ins you can seat at each restaurant.
Read what Kara says above. She is dead-on! This is a very unreasonable and a family unfriendly policy and a shameful money grab. To boot, I have two toddlers and two other children who are on the autism spectrum. You just don’t know what is going to happen 24 hours in advance. This policy makes me very nervous, to say the least. The only other option I can think of is to stay at FW or a DVC villa and cook our own meals.
We have gone to Disney for years. Made many ADR’s, kept many and cancelled many.There is nothing more upsetting for a family who loves Disney to have a reservation for one of your favorite restaurants but wake up the next morning to see your entire day turned upside down. See when you have a child with Aspergers this is what can and sometimes does happen. Do I want to see some improvement?, of course I do. But you can’t punish everyone because of people that just don’t care. Disney will need to tweek it a little bit and I think it will be great.
I can understand the need for this policy since I, too, book a few “extra” ADRs months in advance since I’m not sure where I will eat. However, once final plans are made, I do canx unneeded ADRs. I also use the Disney Experience app to canx when in the parks. Only once did I have to canx at a signature restaurant with less than 24 hours notice, but the CM worked with our group and we were not charged any extra fees. (We were at a deluxe resort in the concierge/club level.) I believe Disney will work with guests who need to canx or change ADRs whenever possible, but they need to know in advance. . .
the new rule is fine with me. I already paid my Cinderella royal table reservation for December! I have everything planned out, and so I think it’s fair because empty tables could go to other people who are trying to get in!
I just made ADR’s for Disneyland for this Nov and this policy is already in place there. They asked for my CC# for all of my ADR’s and said I would be charged for not cancelling my reservations. I like the policy and like a lot of people have said, they will be flexible. I mean, it’s Disney. No need to get worked up over it.
Quite honestly, I will just make less reservations. Maybe one or two for special occasions.
I stay in a DVC villa, so cooking in the room is no big deal, cheaper and better food.
I, literally, just returned from a 10 trip to WDW (6 hours ago)….all I can say about the food is “underwhelmed and overpriced”. Seriously. The quality is questionable and it is apparent that they are cooking for the masses. Which is fine… I get it… but I rather grocery shop and make decent, quality meals in the villa for my family, at half the price. This new policy is just the the “push” we need. And I have ALWAYS cancelled any reservation we haven’t used and have never double booked.
After reading the entire article, I can understand the reason why. There are a lot of individuals who book multiple reservations for the same time frame. We go to WDW 3 – 4 times a year and I always book ahead. We have all confirmation numbers and reservation phone # with us if things happen. There was only one time we had to cancel a reservation in less than the 24hr period….we called from the ER. I don’t believe that WDW is insensitive, they just don’t want to see multiple reservations and I understand.
I thought this was already in effect. I have no problem with this policy and think it is a great idea. I spend days searching again and again for the resteraunts I want for the time frames I want them, and many times what is open one day is not the next and vise versa. I book many reservations 6 months in advance and usually keep them. I am happy this will be implemented, I think it will keep people from booking more than they really want or need and I can find what I want sooner. I have no problem paying fees if I can not (or choose not) to make it. Understandably if someone is ill and the reservation can not be held, perhaps Disney would waive the fees, but I am not sure how they could avoid this being abused. Bottom line is, if you don’t think you can make the reservation, don’t book it. Hopefully it will go well for everyone!
I agree with what many others have already said. I am glad that Disney is doing something about the ADR situation ( I HATE the 180 day scramble), however I feel that the 24hr advance policy is going to be one more strike against any spontaneity at the World. I travel with my parents and sister, husband and a toddler. We have had to cancel with hours notice before because of the needs of a family member. Things happen, plans change. Last spring we got soaked in a heavy rainstorm. Going back to our room and drying off was a much larger priority than waiting a couple hours till our next ADR in park. My daughter especially, is young enough to always require flexibility of plans. I’ve always called to cancel, we have never been just a “no show”. I’d rather see Disney institute some type of same day cancellation flexibility.