2 Part Question PPO and Reservation Finder

For realz they at least did in the beginning and I think they do now too.

Computer programs help.

And they make money on subscriptions and books. I would think not many people use it who are not subscribers (even tho you can get that piece for free)

In reading through the help articles, it sounds more like it is automated (but it could be open to interpretation).

For example, rather than saying we don’t do that because we are only human etc, it talks about things being too taxing on resources, or the tool not being able to process this-or-that. Which is language that could go either way, but I would think they would mention actual people, if only to make users more sympathetic to not getting more out of the tool (not saying I think it isn’t enough, I love it as is!!)

But holy moly, if it is human…bless the person(s) who are doing the work! Sweet jiminy!

@OBNurseNH reading your responses now, I wonder if the human element is putting the request into a program, then letting the program take over. I am so very curious about this!! LOL I don’t know why! And I was a person who used it as a non-subscriber for over a year before I finally subscribed…so maybe that’s the income stream for it, people hear about it, use it, then eventually subscribe.

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This sounds like a good topic for this week’s edition of

LET’S ASK @len !!

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Unless it’s changed it is 100% humans doing the searching. There was a newspaper article featuring @len that was definitely posted here on the forums somewhere a while back. I think there was an interruption due to a local holiday, I want to say Malaysia but somewhere in that region I think.

IIRC, it is one of the reasons it was allowed to remain in use when Disney started getting annoyed with the sites that were making a profit off the back of booking ADRs for people.

Because the searches are being done by actual people, not a bot, Disney allowed TP to continue. It’s also why searches are limited to two active ones per person.

And it’s also why the use of it is free. If TP required a subscription to use it, they would be profiting from it and Disney would likely close them down.

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Here’s a post from @Len about this very subject:

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Amazing!! Thank you so much for finding and posting this! Now I’ll be compelled to check for my own reservations even more often, dang it!

Is this time going to be actually slowing me down? Will we not get seated until our reservation time?

VERY likely.

ADRs are really more like “call ahead seating” - once you check in (usually restricted to no more than 10-15 minutes before your ADR time) you will be given the next available table for your party (after others who may be waiting but had ADRs before you).

I would also NOT want to rush through the experience of that breakfast.

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OMG this is a perfect description of the diff between ADR and a real-world reservation

Thank you for this analogy!

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image

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You can tell it involves people because there’s still the occasional time where searches are delayed, because there’s a national/regional/state holiday in Laos/Vietnam/India/Southeast Asia that we were not aware of, and that most people took off from work.

We try to make the human part of it as efficient as possible, with technology. We pre-populate the search data so it’s not keyed in, for example: all the keyer has to do is hit ‘return’ once the screen is populated.

Likewise, we automate the processing of the results. For example, if ten people are all looking for an 8 a.m. BOG reservation for 4 on November 21, we only run that query once, and send the results to all 10 people.

We also have built-in optimizations that take advantage of how Disney has structured its web page, and the results, to minimize the number of searches that are done.

The last time I checked, those optimizations enabled us to satisfy 100 requests with as few as 30 searches, on average. That, combined with just hitting ENTER over and over and over, is about as close to full automation as we could get.

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FWIW, the 2-request limit was meant to prevent abuse from travel agents.

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I have another late breakfast ADR for Akershus on another day that would not involve feeling like I was in a rush from the very beginning of my day. I also have a dinner ADR. This is being done for a 3.5 year old who can take forever to eat and will be most likely distracted by princesses.
However, I will not cancel the 8:40 so that Reservation Finder does not now notify me of this time.

Amazing! Thank you so much for the in-depth explanation, I love it!

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Apparently today was one such holiday. :blush:

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You shouldn’t need to worry with your 8:40 reservation. Just show up early. All the PPO ADRs at Akershus tend to be seated as they arrive so if you’re there at 8 or before, you’ll be seated well before your 8:40 unless Disney has changed how they do the PPO seating.

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Thank you. Because I am a worrier, I managed to get an 8:05 for 4 of us and an 8:10 for three of us, that took a few changes. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I found an 8:00 for the whole group of 7. Can’t wait to see my 3 year old granddaughter’s face when she sees the princesses. We leave in 2 days!

We did this today on our first morning with the 3 yrs. old and 13 month old DGD. The 3 year old joined in the princess processional. A little girl around 8 or 9 years old very kindly took her by the hand at some point, so very sweet. My granddaughter gazed at each princess with absolute adoration as they came to the table. Food was pretty good, not at the price, but the experience was worth it.

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:heart::heart::heart:

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