Oh, and for the second MDE account if needed due to party size, just make sure to include them on the same leading room reservation.
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Thanks only 4 of us so should well!
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You book it thru the end of your real trip so 10/21-11/6 and I used the same MDE account
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Do I book just room or package prob doesn’t matter right?
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At what restaurants were you forced to split your party? We have a party of 8 in December…just curious what I should be watching out for!
Yak & Yeti is tables up to 6 only. I made a quick-and-dirty list…let me find it…
ETA: It’s on this post:
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Just a room as it’s got a better cancellation policy.
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Room. It’ll be cheaper deposit too if you get a campsite or all star reservation and you can cancel later
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Thanks for explaining! Was trying to figure out how it works. By the time I get back might be back to 180! 
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Was 180 easier to get ADR’s. There is limited capacity for restaurants, but then there are also more people that know they are going at the 60 day mark than the 180 day mark. Not sure which has the bigger impact.
Good question I think once restaurants are at full capacity we will be able to tell. I think most people know they are going at 60. At 180 I got everything I wanted and when I wanted last trip in 2018.
I think a lot more people made cancellations and changes when they were 180 days out, too. So stuff was always opening up.
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This has been an extremely helpful thread of information. I bow to all those that have figured this all out for the rest of us!!
Trip Dates: 10/1-10/5
Leading Reservation Dates: 9/21-10/5 (or 6??)
Two People for all Reservations
I am thinking of deep sixing our park reservation for EPCOT on 10/1 and going to AK instead. We won’t be able to rope drop, but we can deal with that for significantly lower crowds. Currently we have:
10/1 - EPCOT
10/2 - MK
10/3 - DHS
10/4 - AK
10/5 - MK
If I swap EPCOT and AK, the predicted CL for EPCOT drops from a 10 to a 5 (AK will be a 3 instead of 6). We will only have one full day at each park so I am worried that we won’t be able to do much on the anniversary day at EPCOT with a CL of 10.
Also, if I swap out those days, we could think about trying to grab a dinner ADR on 10/1 for California Grill and we could watch the new fireworks from there.
At first I wasn’t considering using a leading reservation…but if I want to swing an ADR for CG…I don’t see any other way to be able to get one.
So our new plan would be
10/1 - AK
10/2 - MK
10/3 - DHS
10/4 - EPCOT
10/5 - MK (or DHS for a second RotR chance).
The two “must have” ADRs for us right now are CG on the first day and Olga’s on the third …but I am sure that I can find a few others that I would be happy to have a solid chance of landing. 
Hmm, maybe a dinner seating for somewhere in EPCOT for fireworks on the fourth day?
I just took a look at what I could book from 9/21 to 10/5 and I have a choice between GF, AK, or BC (AK is the least expensive)…nothing else is available.
2 Questions:
I would guess I would need to snag the leading reservation soon before everything is booked up on property for the anniversary, correct? Even though it means carrying the deposit for a couple of months.
Do I book the leading reservation until the 5th (check out day) or the 6th (I have seen some recommendations to do one day longer?)?
Do they fuss about really really long reservations? We will be there for two weeks starting 1/23. Our last park day is 2/4, so I assume a leading reservation would end 2/4. 10 days before would be 1/12. So almost 3.5 weeks. Would they fuss about that?
I did 19 days without an issue.
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I did 22 day reservation for my leading.
I made my reservation through checkout day with no problems. I’m not sure what having the extra day would accomplish other than giving you a buffer if something went wrong or if you changed your plans? I dunno.
Yes, I would recommend doing so soon. You never know with those dates.
Also, a shame you are giving up your 10/1 EP since it is so coveted, but I think it’s the right decision. I wouldn’t want to be caught up in that mess, especially with Remy opening. Better to give it at least a few days, though it will still probably be madness on the 4th.
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Yeah I’d definitely snag one soon if you can - the only room available for ours in December was AKL.
We’re a party of 9 with a split stay across 8 days booked using our DVC points. First time doing this, but hoping it’ll help given all those complications and the 60-day madness.
That is amazing! The resorts are that booked? I know it is the 50th and all, but that is a lot of rooms booked.
I booked a leading res for late September thru early October recently and interestingly, there were more resorts available for the 15-night stay at that time than for my actual trip in early October even though it includes the entirety of my trip. In other words, my actual dates were available as part of a 15-night stay at some resorts but not for just the 6 nights I wanted. Led me to wonder, if I tried to shorten my leading res later to my actual dates would they hassle me about that, since it’s probably obvious what I was doing?
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