Disney dining buddy shut down

[Beckers 1,136]

Disney asked them to stop their services.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

I was just coming to share that.

[Beckers 1,136]

I'm interested to see if Disney dining scout is next (that's what I used).

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

I'm guessing they may just be the first to go.  Given the Orlando Sentinel called out a bunch of them by name, I wouldn't be surprised if they all got similar letters and these guys are just the first to decide to go quietly and not piss Disney off...

 

 

Walt Disney World going after 3rd Party Dining Services Reservation and Reservation Alert Services targeted.

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Jamey C in Around The Net, Walt Disney World /

 

Walt Disney World is apparently going after the 3rd Party Dining Reservation Websites and Apps. These Pay for Reservations, or Pay for Reservations alerts have been growing in popularity over the past few months, and Disney has had enough.

 

Earlier this month, it was reported by the Orlando Sentinel that Walt Disney World was investigating the restaurant reservations services that have begun popping up online and selling reservations to theme park guests.

 

Several of the services, including Disney Dining Buddy, Disney Dining Scout, wdwTools and WDW Table Finder, all charge between $1-$10 to search for hard to get reservations and alert you when they become available. The users of these sites must then call and make their own reservations or visit MDE to make the Reservation.

One website, DiS Dining Agent, actually makes reservations under false names for hard-to-get restaurants at Walt Disney World and sells these reservations to their customers for $15.

 

Disney Dining Buddy has just posted on their Facebook page that Disney has asked them to shut down.

 

No word from the other services whether they are discontinuing services or not.

 

http://orlpassholder.com/2015/09/walt-disney-world-going-after-3rd-party-dining-services/

[keith_h 420]

I'm happy to see they did something.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

So far Dis Dining Agent is still up.  They're the ones that are saying right up front that they're booking the "guaranteed" ADRs under false names setup through fake MDE accounts - and then reselling them. That's a bit surprising, as they were one of the ones called out by name in the Orlando Sentinel article.

 

This is from their site...

 

 

Regular ADR ($6/$8/$10 service fee) - These ADRs are prebooked under a specified name. When you pay the service fee, we agree on a meeting time and meet with you in a real time chat window. We provide a link with a screenshot of the ADR so you can verify to us it is correct. At that time we ask you a few questions to make sure you are ready. Then, we let you know the exact moment we release the ADR so that you can book it on your end (though we cannot guarantee it will be available to you due to the sheer amount of bookings being made). We stay in the chat with you and wait for you to fully secure the ADR then report back to us. To date, we have had 100% success in transferring ADRs. 

 

Guaranteed ADR's ($15) - These ADRs are booked under their own email/MDE account under a specified name. When you pay the fee for this service, we will go in and set up the MDE account to reflect your name and address. This will not change the contact name the ADR was booked under (it cannot be changed, even by Disney). We provide you with the name the ADR was booked under, for example, John Doe (we generally use gender neutral names). When you check in at the restaurant, you will check in under the name John Doe since that is the name the ADR is booked under. John Doe is not required to be present to dine. Being that you will have full access to the email account and MDE account associated with the ADR, you can go in and update the Guest Names to your parties names. We do not suggest linking this MDE account to any other MDE accounts you have. This MDE account should be considered a spare or throw away account.

 

Once you have updated your guest list to reflect your parties names, just be sure to check in under the name we provide you. 

 

**See notes at the end of this paragraph** Changing a Regular ADR to a Guaranteed ADR - We like to provide our clients with options and that is why some ADR's for the same dining experience are listed as both Regular release and recapture or the Guaranteed ADR. If you see an ADR listed under the release/recapture method but would like to guarantee it, let us know in the Comments section upon checkout and we can invoice you for the difference.

 

**IMPORTANT** When changing a regular ADR to a Guaranteed ADR, you will be given the name to check in under. You will NOT have access to the separate email account or MDE account associated with it. You will be forwarded a copy of the confirmation email for safe keeping. All you will need to do is check in under the name we give you.**Service is currently not available as we are undergoing a system upgrade.**

 

Your guest names will not be added to this ADR but it isn't necessary to do that. Remember, it is not even necessary to have an MDE account to book a dining reservation. Remember, people call everyday to book ADR's over the phone and they do not have an MDE account. On top of that, people in your party could get sick or otherwise decide not to go. Perhaps Billy decides to stay at the resort and relax so Sarah goes to dinner in his place. All Disney needs for you to check in to dine is the name the ADR is listed under and how many is in your party (always carry your confirmation # just in case).

 

http://www.disdiningagent.com/pages/adr-info

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Here's the original Orlando Sentinel article where they got into major specifics about how these operations work - in particular with Dis Dining Agent...

 

 

Can't book a Disney dining reservation? Websites offer help, for price

By Sandra Pedicini Orlando Sentinelcontact the reporter

 

Trying to book a table at Be Our Guest and other popular Walt Disney World restaurants can be a beastly experience.

 

Reservations go fast, so snagging one requires heavy doses of persistence and planning.

 

Some frustrated visitors have begun turning to online middlemen for help. One site is even selling the dining reservations — making them, then transferring them for a fee.

 

Services such as Disney Dining Buddy, Disney Dining Scout and WDW Table Finder notify visitors of slots that become available. They charge anywhere from $1 to $8 apiece for a search.

 

A plate of pastries accompanies the entree selections.

 

The alert systems have attracted many happy customers. But Disney fans are less charmed by a new site called DiS Dining Agent that goes even further. It makes restaurant reservations under assumed identities, then transfers them to customers for $15.

 

Guests who have had trouble finding reservations are angry that someone would hoard them to sell.

 

"It just infuriates me," said Anna Skamarakas, a New Jersey teacher and a "Disney Parks Moms" panelist chosen by the resort to give other tourists advice on a Disney-sponsored site. "They are doing something to circumnavigate the system, which isn't fair to the rest of us who are trying to play by the rules."

 

Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said in an email that "we are currently reviewing the situation involving third party website dining services.

Disney has no affiliation with these third-party services which can interfere with the guest experience we strive to create."

 

DiS Dining Agent went live a few weeks ago, according to its Twitter feed. The system works like this:

 

Specific reservations are listed on the site — say, a table for five at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for 8:20 p.m. Dec. 11.

 

Diners select a guaranteed reservation, add it to a cart and check out. In return, they receive a confirmation number and the fictional name that was used to book the table — information used to check in at the restaurant. They also get access to an email account used to book the reservation.

 

For a smaller fee, between $6 and $10, DiS Dining Agent will simply cancel its reservation in exchange for letting you know exactly when that happens, to give you a better chance of grabbing it before someone else.

 

The site's owner would not comment for this article.

 

Unlike DiS Dining Agent, other services such as Disney Dining Buddy simply perform computer searches for specific openings and alert diners to them. Customers then quickly go online or call to lock in their times.

 

"We have no interest in abusing the system," said Disney Dining Buddy founder Mark Downs, who started his site last year.

 

Happy customers include Susan Hollis of Callaway, Md. She tried the service after buying tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, then discovered she couldn't get into a sit-down restaurant in the Magic Kingdom that night. Using Disney Dining Buddy, she found a table for five at The Plaza Restaurant.

 

"It worked great for us," said Hollis, 57, The $8 she paid was worth it, she said, "just to know we can go in with peace of mind and have something reserved."

 

Some Disney restaurants are so much in demand that people are at their computer keyboards at 6 a.m. exactly 180 days in advance, ready to pounce when seats first become available. The most sought-after eateries include Be Our Guest, the "Beauty and the Beast"-themed French restaurant that opened as part of the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland expansion.

 

Kristy Ouellette, a Disney-focused travel agency owner who uses the alert services, said she discovered the sites during the past year as it has become more difficult to find openings.

 

"It's been this fever pitch," she said.

 

Ouellette said it appears visitors have begun making multiple reservations months before so they can have options, then canceling unused ones just a few days before. Disney charges $10 per person for no-shows who give less than a day's notice.

 

Industry watchers say other factors have contributed, too. The Disney Dining Plan package for hotel guests, for example, commits them to a certain number of sit-down meals. So visitors lock in choices early to make sure they get what they paid for, said Robert Niles, editor and publisher of ThemeParkInsider.com.

 

The new businesses are "essentially exploiting an overly complex system," Niles said.

 

Disney already generally forbids guests to make reservations within two hours of each other. Niles suggested Disney could also limit the number of reservations per person and require valid tickets to book restaurants inside the theme parks. The resort could also simply maintain a waiting list, giving people available spots on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.

 

"Disney created a market here of a lot of very frustrated guests who are trying to get into restaurants and are not able to do it," he said. "Good entrepreneurs have found a way to serve that market."

 

[email protected] or 407-420-5240

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-dining-reservations-scalping-20150908-story.html

[Santa ... Shannon 160]

Glad to hear it. Maybe one of these years we'll get to try BOG!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Looks the like the rest are coming down too...

 

 

Disney Cracks Down on More Dining Reservation Services

October 13, 2015 by Disney News

 

Disney has been coming down hard on these dining reservation assistance sites. They are being shut down one by one. Disney Dining Scout is one of the last ones to recently get shut down. Other companies have had issues with similar sites. QVC, Ticketmaster, Facebook, Craigslist and eBay have all had their share of issues with what they call “web scraping”.

 

Disney Dining Scout was not the only one. There have been quite a few others popping up recently. What these sites do is they charge customers a small fee for them to conduct constant computerized scans of Disney Dining reservations and those hard to get reservations. Some sites would then book the reservation and sell them. These sites have attracted a lot of fans and loyal users as well as Travel Agents, no need to worry World of Magic Travel Services has not and will not utilize these sites.

 

Some of the other sites that have been shut down are, DisDining Agent, Disney Dining Buddy, WDWTableFinder, and WDW Tools.

 

One of the owners of these sites offered to work with Disney through a licensing agreement and Disney declined.

 

http://www.chipandco.com/disney-cracks-dining-reservation-services-220736/

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Web scraping.

 

I didn't know there was a name for it.

 

It would be nice if this somehow made it easier to get dining reservations.

 

Sadly, I think it will just make it easier for guests to hoard reservations.

 

TCD

[Beckers 1,136]

I think Disney is just mad they didn't think of it first.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Glad to hear it. Maybe one of these years we'll get to try BOG!

 

I know you book your site WAY in advance, so why not do the same with BOG?

[Santa ... Shannon 160]

I know you book your site WAY in advance, so why not do the same with BOG?

I tried last year and never got anything. Crossed a personal ethical line and went to the hostess stand while we were there and turned on the ol' Santa charm and tried to schmooze my way into a table. Nope, even Santa doesn't get a walk up at BOG. IIRC, the problem was party dates were not announced until we were within the ADR window... the party is the only time we go to MK.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I tried last year and never got anything. Crossed a personal ethical line and went to the hostess stand while we were there and turned on the ol' Santa charm and tried to schmooze my way into a table. Nope, even Santa doesn't get a walk up at BOG. IIRC, the problem was party dates were not announced until we were within the ADR window... the party is the only time we go to MK.

Gotcha