Adding Guest to an ADR

Wow, I just had the craziest afternoon. After reading in the other thread that park reservations were added for May, I was inspired to invite my wife’s brother (age 24) to come with us on our trip next month. Their sister is already coming, and I’ve had the thought for the long time that maybe we’d add him, but things were preventing him for coming until very recently. But now I needed to pounce on it.

Anyway, I was able to buy him WDW, UOR, and plane tickets, and got him the correct park reservation for all but two days (plus placeholders for the other two). I requested he be added to our DVC rentals. Now all that’s left is to get him on our ADRs.

I tried doing this manually, but literally none of them have any availability online. So my question:

Has anyone had success adding one guest by calling Disney? Our party will go from 7 to 8. I’m not looking forward to another 90 minutes on hold! But I will do it if there’s a chance.

If we can’t get him added, no big deal. He can eat bologna sandwiches for all he cares. He’s a college student after all, and he will just be glad to be there.

3 Likes

Sounds great!

Will your ADR party go from 6 to 7 now? (Getting details so others can chime in)

1 Like

Oh yeah I meant to mention. Our party will go from 7 to 8.

1 Like

Thinking of table configurations- MOST tables that fit 7 can easily fit 8 and may already have an 8th seat anyway. But I don’t how close they are on Covid capacity restrictions that that one extra person will make a difference.
It’s my instinct to say that if you can bear the annoying wait time, it’s probably worth the call to try and get them changed, because it feels like this should be an easy modification.

3 Likes

Also, how awesome of you to invite BIL along! I hope you have a great trip!

1 Like

Someone on another thread had the brilliant idea to try get just a reservation for 1 at a similar time. I would think most table configurations would allow 7+1 to merge easily.

3 Likes

I would try to get additional reservations for 1 or 2 at the same time. And keep looking for ADR’s for 8. We had to do split reservations several times on our recent trip where we added 2 people late. Every restaurant put the party all together except one and they were willing, we just were in a hurry and would have had to wait a bit so we ate that meal in two groups.

1 Like

Ever since covid and the online check in for ADRs, every time I’ve checked in on the app for an adr, it asks me if the party size is the same, and will let me add 1 person. You can take away as many as you want, but you can only add one.
I realize it’s risky, but something to consider.

3 Likes

Another option that may work is to show up a bit early (15-20 mins or so) for your reservation and when you check in to ask the host if they are able to accommodate an additional guest. I think going from 7 to 8 makes this a much easier request to fulfill than going from 2 to 3 or 4 to 5 given that most tables that seat 7 can easily fit 8.

4 Likes

Ooh this is excellent intel! I really hope this happens for me, too!

I’ve tried looking for parties of 8 as well as parties of 1, and so far nothing has come up. I did go for hard-to-get ADRs after all!

We will have a contingency plan just in case - have one adult eat quick service or take-out, maybe watching any unruly children, if necessary, while the rest of us dine.

Going from 7 to 8 shouldn’t be a problem because it should be the same size table.

1 Like

Any other reports of this? I accidentally booked a CM for 2 instead of 3 at 6 am on my original dining day. I’m sure there were ADRs for 3 available as it was 60+9 or something. But by the time I realized when I was putting my ADRs times into my spreadsheet, it was too late to change. I’ve had TP and Mouse Dining alerts set for weeks but no luck. I wonder if this will work for me on the day. The problem is I won’t know until we trek over there and check in, right?

1 Like

I’ve heard multiple reports of asking about party size during check in. I can confirm and report back on Friday!

2 Likes

That would be excellent! So your trip is this week? Yay!!

YES! leaving thursday night, park days Friday through Monday. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

We made a last minute change to the trip we just came back from to add my college age son. We were a large party (18 with him) and had multiple tables for each reservation and we were able to add him to all of them easily. Call and they can do it for you without releasing your current ADR.

1 Like

What number did you call to do this? I tried calling last night but the automated message kept saying, “remember, the cast members have access to the same inventory that is available on the website” or something like that. Made me worry that they wouldn’t be able to help on that line.

1 Like

Update: After over 2 hours on hold (:flushed:), I was unable to add anyone to my reservations. Indeed, the CM had access only to the same availability I was seeing online. He said that I should check within 24 hours of my ADR to see if anyone cancels last minute. He also said it’s possible, but not guaranteed, that they can accomodate me at the door. I’m still hoping that @ninjasherrie’s experience holds true for me!

Thankfully I was able to get a lot of work done while on hold (and make a poll :wink:) so not too much lost.

4 Likes

That sucks. It sounds like you had a CM that does not know the strength of their power. You’re not looking for a new table, you want to add a person to your existing table. It’s a different way of modifying. I would be really surprised if you had trouble day of honestly because as others have stated, the table you’ll be at typically holds 8. If anything it will be a total restaurant capacity issue. If the restaurants are all Disney owned, you can try calling them directly to modify. I had really good luck with Sanaa where they took my 4 tables and combined them into 2.

2 Likes

Hi all,
I was able to add a guest at check in to both LTT and 50s prime time. Now, it might have helped that my actual party size was 5, so going to 6 really didn’t matter in terms of most table configurations, but when I checked in to each reservation it asked how many people were in my party, their ages, and if we needed any special accommodations (high chair, wheel chair accessible table, etc).
I just told the host I accidentally put 6 instead of 5 after I checked in and it wasn’t an issue.

3 Likes