Never did this, don't plan to, but am wondering....
Suppose I make a resort reservation and pay the deposit. Then I make my dining reservations for the 180 + 10 timeframe. Then I cancel my resort reservation. Do I get to keep all my dining reservations? Even those made in the +10 timeframe that I wouldn't have been able to make without the resort reservation?
If you knew you were not going to use that resort reservation then it would not be a very nice thing to do, but yes you could do it. After they are made, it does not matter what you do with your resort reservation. You can cancel if you want and still keep your ADRs.
Saying that, I unintentionally did it for our trip this past May. I hada resort reservation for our upcoming Oct/Nov trip at CBR, when just a few weeks out from our trip a coworker offered me a fantastic deal for her time share, which was just a mile off property. We had never had any interest in staying offsite, but $400.00 for a week in a one bedroom condo was too good a deal to pass up. I called WDW and had them just transfer the money we had paid for our Oct/Nov trip to a trip we knew we were going to be making in May. About a week after we got back, it was already time to make ADRs for our May trip. I did so, with every intention of keeping that reservation. However, a week or so later, my husband and I were talking about how much we enjoyed all the extra room we had in that offsite condo and we decided to check into options for other condos. We round up getting a really good quote for Wyndham Bonnet Creek that was cheaper than even a WDW Value resort would be, (much less the Moderates that we prefer). It was a no brainer to cancel the WDW ressie and rebook for Bonnet Creek. We canceled the resort reservation, but kept the ADRs we had made. By that time, we were well within the 180 day range to make all ADRs anyway. Should I have felt guilty? I don't think so. At the time I made that resort reservation and at the time I made those ADRs I had every intention of keeping them. Saying that, it would not have mattered anyway, because we later decided to eat most of our meals offsite and did not want to be tied down with ADRs, so canceled all those ADRs, except for one for BoG.
I would never intentionally make a resort reservation with plans to cancel it later, just to be able to utilize the 180+10. That would just seem wrong. However, if I had made a resort reservation with every intention of keeping it and then something came up and we changed our minds and decided to stay offsite, I would not feel guilty about keeping any ADRs we had previously made.
