Possible to manipulate the 180 ADR rule?

[bouncerdawg]

So we have reservations for mid-December at the Polynesian. Quick trip - just 4 nights and a party of 4. I'm the planner in the family and want to ensure that we get our advance ADR's for as close to the times that I want as possible. However, the problem that I see is that people arriving up to 10 days before us can begin making ADR's for the days we'll be there (at least for the first day - people arriving 9 days ahead of us can book our first and second days, etc). Is the following strategy allowed and if so what (if any) negative repercussions might it pose?

I'm considering calling Disney to change our arrival date to 6 days before we actually intend on arriving. That will allow me at 180+10 to make ADR's for the 4 days we'll be there (days 6-10 of the new reservation) 6 days before I otherwise would be able to make the ADR's. After securing the ADR's, I'd wait a couple weeks, call Disney back and cancel the 6 days that we're not going to be there, restoring our reservation to the original 4 nights.

This will allow me to make my ADR's at 190 days prior to our departure day rather than 184 days, thereby reducing the number of other people making ADR's for my days just because they're arriving earlier or staying longer than we are. But, are there details that I'm not considering? Would there be any adverse consequence to my ADR's when I cancel the first 6 days of the trip? When you adjust arrival and departure dates does it create a new reservation or simply modify the one you have, etc?

I know it would be a little bit of a hassle, but the ability to maximize my chances of getting my preferred ADR times is worth it to me . . . as long as it will work out the way I think it will. Help me think it through and let me know if that would work. What am I missing?

 

[jmkrat]

I am not following you exactly. What you do need to remember is that there will always somebody who has booked their vacation before you and will have access to the days you want. Even if you booked your trip earlier, someone somewhere will be making ADR's at the same time as you or before. I have never had a problem getting my ADR's at the times I wanted or pretty darn close.

 

[bouncerdawg]

I am not following you exactly. What you do need to remember is that there will always somebody who has booked their vacation before you and will have access to the days you want. Even if you booked your trip earlier, someone somewhere will be making ADR's at the same time as you or before. I have never had a problem getting my ADR's at the times I wanted or pretty darn close.

I understand that SOMEBODY will have prior access to the days I want, but I'm wondering if this is a successful strategy to MINIMIZE the number of somebodies.

I'll try to explain it a little better. If you follow the strategy I outlined for a 4 night stay, the only people who would have access to some or all of my days' ADR slots before me would be people who are arriving 7-10 days before my actual arrival date and staying 7-10 days at WDW. The people arriving 10 days before me would only have access to my first day but only if they were staying for 10 full days; people arriving 9 days ahead of us would have access to our first and second days if they were staying 9 or 10 days respectively; and so on.

I don't know the statistics, but I gotta think the number of people staying 7 days or more are a pretty small percentage. So while I can't completely eliminate other people from having access to my days before me, if I temporarily change my reservation so that Disney thinks I'm arriving 6 days earlier, I should drastically cut down on the number of people with access to my days before me.

 

[graceesmom]

I follow your thoughts and have considered the same thing in the past. I never did it, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. It's just the trouble of changing and rechanging your resort reservation. ADR's aren't tied to your reservation so changing or cancelling and rebooking would not affect your ADRs.

FWIW - I've always been able to get what we wanted without taking such measures. CRT, Le Cellier back when it was the most coveted 1 ts credit out there, Ohana etc. and all at the times we wanted.

 

[Halloweenluv03]

I think it would be too much of a hassle to even bother trying to do that. I had no problems with my ADRs except Crystal Palace at 8:05. We got 8:25. I'm not going to get bent out shape over 20 minutes, and I randomly check the website to see if anyone else has cancelled.

 

[Chelley00]

I think you might be over worrying a little. With the new credit card guarantee, and the website not letting you double book times, it's been easier to make ADRs at 180 days because people aren't over booking. Maybe I'd do it if I was going at Christmas or Spring Break, but mid-December shouldn't be that impossible.

 

[gert]

I've gone mid-December a few times - my birthday is in the middle of the month and my daughter's birthday is the very next day. I've never had a problem getting the ADRs we wanted. Not always the exact times I wanted, but very, very close. Nothing like celebrating your daughter's birthday at Cinderella's Royal Table =)

Now that she's older and we go in the summer months, I have more trouble getting the ADRs we want.

 

[PAcpl]

I think you might be over worrying a little. With the new credit card guarantee, and the website not letting you double book times, it's been easier to make ADRs at 180 days because people aren't over booking. Maybe I'd do it if I was going at Christmas or Spring Break, but mid-December shouldn't be that impossible.

I agree, you might be over-worrying for no reason. The days you are going aren't going to be too bad crowd wise. Unless you want a big ADR like Cinderellas Royal Table or something I wouldn't worry about it much. And even with a CRRT you should be ok.

 

[Cafeen]

There is nothing to stop you from doing this, it's perfectly acceptable in Disney's eyes. However, I would think that it's a bit of overkill, as you'll likely get just about everything you want for your dates in mid-Dec. Between the auto-cancel (or, at least auto-ask to cancel) when double booking and the CC hold for characters and sigs, it's far easier to get reservations than it has for quite awhile.

Just be wary of any special offers and such you may be using, if your temporary start date is outside of that offer, it won't work (you'd have to rebook the entire thing, twice, or add another stay to the start of it).

 

[npcougar]

manipulate=cheat Just do it the old fashion way. With the changes to the system, you aren't going to have any issues getting what you want.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

We are going in mid Oct for 3 nights. We were able to get Ohana dinner our arrival night (at a good time!), Ohana bkfst, CM bkfst (early) plus 2 other meals at the times we wanted.

We also have a trip booked for mid Dec, and I am hopeful it works out just as good with our ADRs next month.

Good luck!

 

[MrsLS]

There's nothing stopping you from doing that. People do that with DVC reservations for their hotel, or they do it every day really, its called walking the reservation or something like that to ensure they get the days/week they want. To me it would be a hassle.
Reservations I'm finding are A LOT easier to come by. 3 weeks ago we were able to book last minute reservations, same day, for places like Ohana when we were there. We just booked a last minute trip next month and I was able to get things I wanted. & I'm sure when it gets closer more people will cancel, esp with the cc hold.

 

[mccreel]

We have gone in December many times and we always stay at least 10 days. Even before the change we never had a problem getting the reservations we want. Our time is usually Dec 13 - 23 and had all the reservations we wanted. We even stayed 14 days through Christmas a coupe of years ago and were able to get Hoop De Do on Christmas eve, Narcoosee's Christmas day. We are going on October during food and wine this year and got all of our reservations. Even CRT at 8:05 A.M. Actually from 5 days out or so, half of the resturaunts were not even available. They were all showing booked up. Two or 3 days after my 180 day window started, they opened up and I was able to get what I wanted. I called Disney Dining about that and she said they had just not loaded yet and is sometimes happens that they are not loaded right at 180 days. So changing may not even help you anyway.
You are free to do whatever you want, but it's really not necessary.

 

[aubriee]

You are over thinking it. I usually go to WDW the first or second week of Dec every year. I have never had a problem getting any ADR I wanted (including Ohana, Le Cellier, or CRT), even before the cc guarantee requirement. Now with the cc guarantee requirement ADRs are even easier to get. I currently have ADRs for both my upcoming Sept and Oct/Nov trips. I did not have problems getting a single one of my ADRs at 180 days out.

 

[TDC Nala]

Nothing to stop you from doing that but I don't believe it is necessary.

 

[Masonmj84]

I'm thinking about doing the same thing (mostly for 'Ohana).

We like eating there on opening night but we absolutely need an early ADR time because late dinners just don't work with our kids.

At around 6:30 this morning, I checked 'Ohana for 180 days out and the earliest ADR available for our group's size was for 7:55 (too late for us). Based on this info, I'm starting to worry that even if I get on the system at 6 am sharp on my 180 day mark, there will be no 'Ohana seatings available before 6 pm on our opening night.

That leaves me with two choices:

(1) Do what the OP suggests, and book extra "ghost days" on the front end of my trip, effectively moving up my 180+10 date, booking 'Ohana (and other early trip ADR's) on that date, and then later canceling the extra "ghost days" to restore the reservation as originally booked.

(2) Keep the reservation and gamble that there will be early 'Ohana seatings on the 180 mark. However, if there are not, my only other option is to continually check the system to see if something opens up. To me, this seems like more of a pain and inconveninece than simply booking and later cancelling the "ghost days" as suggested by the OP.

In short, I can see where the OP is coming from and wonder if a lot of people are employing this strategy (especially for popular restaurants like 'Ohana, CRT, Le Cellier, and Chef Mickey's).

 

[MrsJD]

Just as a thought...if you do want to to this, why bother changing your whole reservation. WHy not just make a one nite ressie the 6 days prior, then just cancel that one night. Rather than move your whole vacation twice.

I have one night booked in November for me and DD, then we move to a time share with the rest of my family. It wasn't intentional but we are thinking that having that 180+10 is making ADR's much easier to book.

 

[TDC Nala]

Booking a new reservation requires a new deposit...sure you get that right back when you cancel it, but some might not want to tie up the money.