Sorry for the string of replies all in a row from me…
I made the leading reservation booking. Now the “My Plans” page looks really wacky… it shows me at one resort for the leading dates that don’t overlap with the ‘real’ dates, and then it shows me staying at both resorts for all the dates that do overlap. This would not be a difficult scenario for a Disney programmer to code for, in an attempt to root out people doing this for the ADR advantage. Hopefully they won’t get interested in doing this any time soon.
I think that’s being very generous towards Disney’s IT capabilities. They are notorious for being pretty sucky. Plenty of people keep multiple reservations, overlapping reservations, etc. I almost always have at least two resort reservations at a time - nothing to do with leading reservations, I just have a hard time making up my mind and don’t want to risk what I want not being available when I do. The only way I can ever see it becoming a problem is if they would somehow make dining reservations tied to resort reservation, but anyone can make dining reservations, you don’t need a resort stay or even tickets.
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Well, you do need a resort reservation to qualify for the 60+10 ADR booking window, so the ADRs must actually be tied to your room reservation somehow. Otherwise you’d just get the 60 day booking window, without the +10, like somebody staying off-site or a local who likes to dine at Disney restaurants.
Your on-site reservation just opens your booking window. They are not tied to your resort reservation.
ETA, they are not at this time. Is there a chance they would/could figure out a way to do it? Probably. I think it’s very unlikely. And if they do, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a nice hack to use if someone wants to.
Booked my dining today and got everything I wanted! My leading reservation is allowing me to book 4 days in advance. Starting at 60+4, things are very limited, so I am glad I did it. I got everything we wanted (and then some, which we’ll probably drop).
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I just wanted to add to this. I currently have 4 reservations for 3 people all around the same time.
I have the lead, my main, and then 2 additional rooms that I was trying to Tetrus into a two bedroom.
I called DVC directly, she looked at my reservations and until I told her about my separate cash rooms, she didn’t appear to have noticed they were even there. She was completely nonplussed about them and didn’t even mention the one Animation reservation that was 10 days before the other 3 BLT rooms.
I don’t know if they are back in the call center or still working from home. But due to the extended waits and the lack if information, or lack of ease of getting information, it feels as if they don’t have all the tools they normally have to be able to “catch” someone cheating.
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Thank you for this topic. I wasn’t interested in a Leading Reservation. In fact, I hadn’t heard of a Leading Reservation. But I was irritated that my onsite split stay was not “bridged” the way onsite split stays bridged FPs in the past. ADRs are hard to come by and Disney is making $1000s from me. I am going to make a second reservation over the dates of my stay in order to make my ADRs for my total length of stay. The only thing that worries me is would it be possible to loose my Park Reservations. But my actual reservation is a package. I have 9 day tickets linked to both of my split stays. So, hopefully all will be well. I made the Park Reservations based on my onsite split stay.
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I did not lose my ADRs or Park passes after I canceled. I had the park passes based on existing tickets for an off-site stay before I booked the on-site hotel-only reservation, so not sure if that made the difference.
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Thank you so much for your reply. I am sure I will be fine. I am just being a chicken. Everything is so fragile at the moment.
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I am not much of a forum user because I don’t really know how to use it, but I just want to thank everyone here for all this precious information about leading reservations and ADRs. Going (hopefully) next Christmas, and was really worried about those hard-to-get ADRs during the holiday season, I’m definitely going to try this (even if I’m a chicken too!). Thx!!
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I suspect you followed a link? If you ever want help on learning some easy ways to organize and follow the forum (you can set it up so that the threads are in order of “latest” like chat, I can help. I can even share some screen shots if you need. Just tag me here or tell me when I pop up in chat.
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So nice of you to offer PTinker!
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But I don’t even know how to tag you!!
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To tag you just say @Canadianminnie. Once you start typing liner names start appearing (after the @). The Forum thinks it knows who you want…
Ok, i’ll try that! Thanks!
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Thanks to this thread and the worries about reservations. I made a mental note to wait until maybe 75 days before the trip to make the leading reservation. That way all reservations should be in place and where I will most likely want them to be during the time that I have a leading reservation. Although I hope by Jan 2022 reservations won’t be a thing anymore.
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Welp, I made my Leading Reservation and my ADRs. Right after I made the Leading Reservation, I went into my MDE to check on it. I clicked on a link - I think it was “Details” for a Park Reservation. Oh boy, I got a “forbidden” error message and I could not get back into my MDE. Of course, I had to panic. I am a rule follower by nature b/c I hate to get in trouble. Well I cleared my cookies and everything worked again. I am sure this issue was unrelated to my two hotel reservations.
It never crossed my mind until last week that my split stay would result in two ADR windows. IMHO it is just not fair of Disney not to link the ADRs for split stays the way they were able to link the for FPs (after they ended the Throw Away Night work around). So, I am glad that I took the plunge. I just keep checking my MDE constantly to be sure everything is still there.
Thank everyone so much for helping me solve my problem! I justified no fireworks by being thankful I could avoid the closing time back up. I justified no character meets b/c I rarely meet any more. I justified no Epcot monorail by a split stay which would enable me to walk to three parks. But missing out on my favorite ADRs??? That was the last straw. I am appreciative of everyone here.
When is it safe to cancel my Leading Reservation? My 60 day ADR is tomorrow morning on my 1st stay and the 60 day on my 2nd stay is Saturday. I would like to get the pretend hotel off my account as soon as I can safely do it.
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I’d do it on Saturday. I did my exactly 58 days from my stay as I had 12 nights. All my ADR’s are still standing. I cancelled mine that day so I could call and book the polar patio at BB and was worried too that they’d know the overlapping reservations. I got every ADR I wanted and even before 60 days many of them were gone.
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Thank you! You have been so helpful on this thread. I think you had mentioned this “up thread”. I appreciate you helping me with my specific dates. Things are taking a while to soak into my brain lately. I’ll just blame it on Covid!
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Thanks to all of you that have tested the system. I have a party of 9, ugh, two families. What would be the best way to go about it without having to use 2 accounts for 2 leading reservations? Should I just make reservations for 8 people? For Beaches & cream and Sci-fi I was planning to make 2 reservations, since those 2 places aren’t good for large parties. Any suggestions?