Reservation Switcharoo

After going through a lot of difficulties over the last few years getting reservations to some of the more rare restaurants, I thought up a workaround and would like input on if anyone has ever tried this before. Note that this is somewhat dubious, but this year I have a decent sized party going and want to make sure I have the best chance possible of getting those reservations…

So dining plans for people staying on property can be made 180 days in a advance, plus the first 10 days of your trip. We are planning on our arrival to Disney to be on Nov. 15. Can I make my trip reservations to start on the 5th instead, then after making all the reservations, one day at a time using the 180+10, go back and change my arrival date to the 15th?

Like I said, somewhat underhanded way of getting the full +10, but I’m just wondering if anyone has tried it before. If you have tried this before, were you successful? Did you get any fees assessed?

Don’t risk fooling around with your main room reservation. What you can do is make a second room-only reservation to accomplish what you want to do - make it direct through WDW and you will only have to pay a 1-day deposit, which will be refunded once you finish the process and cancel it. Your ADRs will stay associated with your MDE account as long as you cancel inside the true 180-day mark.

3 Likes

@brklinck is correct. They are now enforcing length of stay policies. What this means is that if you book using a promotional discount and it’s for, say, 10 days, and then you shorten it to be only 7, you MAY lose the discount.

You’re best bet is to book the extra reservation and make your ADR’s. Then once you are 170/160 days from your “real” check in, you can cancel it.

3 Likes

It occurred to me after the fact that I could have done this. Ah well, live & learn.

I did this for our trip in April. I booked an extra room only stay starting about 8 days before we planned to arrive. I did it to get BOG and TTDP for Easter, which I may not have been able to get when my first WDW day was only supposed to be the day before. Easy to do, and then cancel the extra reservation at a later date.

Insert soapbox here >>

I’m may be in the minority, but I don’t think I could book an extra room reservation in good conscience, as it would tie up a room from being booked by someone else - maybe even a fellow Liner. But I certainly understand the challenge of booking those ADRs.

:see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :speak_no_evil:

3 Likes

Completely understand your reasoning here, which is one of the reasons this tactic is not often discussed - too many soapboxes start springing up. :slight_smile: But, I really don’t think that it affects anyone in that it is usually done using one of the readily available All-Star Rooms and the room reservation is held for a very short period of time. Unlike booking a scarce Ft Wilderness campsite and checking in to it (but not actually using it) in order to get on-site privileges for off-site guests.

2 Likes

That’s a good idea. If one is going to do it, he should make sure to book the second reservation at one of hotels that typically has an abundance of rooms. I’m sure most would do that anyway, but it’s good to mention nonetheless.

I booked an all-star standard room which I can assure you was not in high demand. In fact there were tons of rooms available for many months after I had cancelled, at all resorts. In other news, I just helped my friend plan a trip that starts in 5 weeks. She could have chosen any resort, and many room types (they booked yesterday) for a trip that is during the busy summer (and the last Star Wars weekend). I really don’t believe that rooms booked and cancelled 6 months out causes much issue. That would be like saying no one should book any trip before 180 days and make ADR’s if they aren’t 100% sure they are going.

1 Like

That would be like saying no one should book any trip before 180 days and make ADR’s if they aren’t 100% sure they are going.

Nothing is 100%, but most people that book a room are at least intending to use it, whereas those who book a second room solely for the purpose of getting ADRs have absolutely no intention to keep that reservation.

At any rate, after seeing @brklinck’s and your replies about choosing rooms that are not in high demand, I don’t see a problem with it now either – especially, as you mentioned, if someone cancels the reservation around six months before the date.

Consider me off of my soapbox. :wink:

2 Likes

And I shall get off mine :wink:.

Thanks for all the replies. To be clear, the only reason I’m even considering this is because it will be the first time many of my family members are going to WDW. Had it just been me and my wife like normal, then I’d just try to get whatever was available.

We are going to be there starting the 15th of November, through the week. This is normally a pretty slow part of the month being the week before Thanksgiving week. It think the current crowd levels are expected to be around a 2-3 everywhere except MGM (don’t you Hollywood Studios me…)

We normally Pop Century up on the hotel. I know this hotel always has plenty of space at this time of year. The first year we went was oddly cold for any time of the year in Florida and we literally had an entire building floor to ourselves for the second, third, and fourth nights :smile:

Would you have to wait until 170/160 days out from real reservation? Wouldnt your ADRs stay once you hit 180 days with your real reservation? Just curious

you make your ADR’s at 180 days from Check in for your length of stay.

If you cancel during that “plus 10” time frame, you could lose your adrs

Wait until that time has passed (170 days prior to check in) and then cancel.

Hypothetically speaking of course, one might wait until 160 days prior to check in to cancel to be on the safe side.

The safest thing is to wait until all ADRs are within 180 days, and then cancel. Anyone can make an ADR within 180 days, even without a resort reservation, so your ADRs will stay on your MDE account.

I just saw on another site that disney will cancel reservations if there are two booked for same party and same dates, is this true?

they will not. only the customer or their TA can cancel reservations.

Thank you, I thought that seemed odd!

If that’s the case, would it even be necessary to book a second resort reservation? Is the original question irrelevant?

no because if you have a resort reservation you can book at 180 days for your entire stay up to 10 days.

otherwise, you are logging in/calling every day for each 180 day for your stay. Also, if you’re looking to get a hard to get adr like BOG, you can create a reservation that ends on or near the start of your actual stay and use it to book that ADR for the beginning of your stay (which the ADR might be booked up if you had waited until your actual reservation opens up)

2 Likes