TDR Hotel Booking Tips! How to win the room you want!
I had been asked to post these tips from several people who had been following our Disney Parks Around the World 12 parks in 16 days trip report so here it is.
So after practicing literally over 100+ times to get hotel rooms since March 2024, I managed to book my trip 12/31/24-1/4/25. I’m gonna share what I’ve discovered about the TDR booking system to help everyone else out there so you can hopefully get the room you wanted. I was shooting for the moon, a Grand Chateau Room on 12/31 and TDL 1/1 Cinderella Room and managed to get it. This is applicable to HOTELS ONLY and NOT VPs. VPs are an entirely DIFFERENT ballgame.
This can always be YMMV. I am located in the US on the East Coast on a Fiber optic internet connection, as a reference point, but with these tips I was batting 100% for weekdays and slower weekends. For busier weekends and holidays I was batting about 85-90%, so the results are highly reproducible.
The BIGGEST KEY ABOVE ALL is to make absolutely certain you clear the queue to access the website BEFORE 1100AM Japan time. IF YOU DO NOT, your chances drop exponentially of getting the room you want as all the super competitive rooms (i.e. Fantasy Springs, MiraCosta, Toy Story Hotel) are all gone by 1.5 minutes almost EVERY TIME. If you haven’t gotten through by 1.5 minutes, there is a very low chance you are getting one of those rooms. Sometimes they last to 2 min. but those are only on the super slow days. However, if you don’t get a room initially, there is still a chance, and we’ll discuss that.
To make things easier, this next step is optional, but it definitely simplifies the booking process. Prior to the date your room goes live set up a bookmark for the exact page you need to go to. You want to bookmark the screen where it shows all the hotels and rooms that are available. In order to do this for a FUTURE DATE go to your address bar, and find the date. It looks something like this “Date=20250101” and change the date MANUALLY to YOUR date. You then go ahead and try and go to that page. It will tell you it’s not a valid date. That’s OK. Bookmark that page. That page is the page you want to go straight to come the day you need to make the reservation. This saves time when seconds can matter. The next step is entering the queue. Since you already bookmarked this page, you can just click this link when you are ready to hit the queue. No need to go to the website. Just click the link.
Getting a feel for when to enter the queue, is very important as it can change DRASTICALLY based on the night. For super slow days, you can enter the queue as late as 1050 and still clear it in time, and on the busiest of days you may need to enter at 1025 to make it in time, so it’s highly variable. This is something that you will need to experiment with, and then come the day you need to make a reservation, have multiple different browsers open and start entering the queue super early to make sure you have at least one browser at minimum clearing the queue with less than 5-10 minutes remaining. Not clearing too early is critical because if you clear with more than 15 minutes you will get kicked from the site before the rooms go live. Also if you don’t click around the site and show activity, you will get kicked due to inactivity.
Bottom line, ideally, you need to clear the queue with about 5 min. remaining.
I personally ran a two device setup as I could not keep track of refreshing more than that. I had an iPad and my iPhone that I would be using. I used to use a PC and phone, but that wasn’t that good and we’ll get to that.
Now you just need to refresh every now and then to let the website know you haven’t gone away and it kicks you. With about 1-2 min. remaining stop refreshing and get ready to refresh. For me coming from the US, the sweet spot for me to hit refresh was about .5-.3 seconds prior to 1100. That’s what worked best for me. Sometimes I could get in immediately, sometimes it will take several tries. Sometimes potentially a minute of trying. You may get an error message. If you get the red japanese text screen immediately refresh. If you get the spinning stars hold tight. Give it some time. If the prices don’t load in 5-10 seconds try again. They may load, but from experience you’re better refreshing, than waiting for it to load at that point. The “when to refresh” part is a real art, and something you get a feel and instinct for when trying many times.
There IS a difference between being on a computer, tablet or phone. NOT ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Hands down the worst is the computer. I figured it’d be faster, as less would be on a computer, but I can tell you over time I realized the computer was just not that good. I was winning on my phone way more often than my computer. I can get 2-3 refreshes in on my phone well before one set of price ever pop up on my computer. Then computer consistently gets hung up as it tries to display the prices. You think you’re almost there, but then it just gets stuck. Avoid the computer if you can and use a tablet and phone, or even better two phones if you can.
Next worst was the iPad. The iPad is better than the computer, but still not as good as the phone. I don’t know why, as they are both mobile devices, but I found the refreshing and getting through was still not as reliable as a phone. Also the mobile site is much more reliable than the desktop site. Sometimes tablets default to a desktop site, but make sure your browser is set to mobile site.
The phone was without a doubt the best. It was the quickest to load, and I had the highest success over the last several months on the phone hands down. For whatever reason, it refreshes faster.
In terms of browsers. To maximize the number of queue entries so I could make sure I had two browsers exiting the queue on time, I was using Chrome and Safari, plus incognito mode on two devices. So that gives you 8 browsers to play with to clear the queue at the desired time. I felt that I had slightly better success with Chrome on the refresh, but not significantly so like PC vs phone.
If you aren’t able to get a room before they are all gone, all is not lost. Between 1130-1138 rooms that were clicked on but not booked and accounts that timed out while booking will be redumped into the system. I never found a consistent time for this, other than it was after 30 min. There may be a random room here and there that pops up, but there consistently a bigger dump anywhere between 1130-1138. This happens every 30-40 minutes along with some random rooms that sometimes pop up. With persistence and quick clicking you can often get a room on the rebound. Sometimes you’ll click and it’ll say it’s not available after waiting a bit to go to the checkout screen. This happens quite a bit with rebounds. So rebounds can be VERY frustrating. I was successful on the rebound with persistence 98 percent of the time, but it takes EXTREME persistence.
If you still don’t get one after all that, it just comes down to stalking the cancellations. People cancel ALL the time, you just have to luck out and be at the right place at the right time to pick up the reservation.
The peak times for cancellations is 15 to 17 days out and the cancellations get fast and furious. This is because within 15 days you get hit with a cancellation fee. Almost every room type becomes available during this time especially Grand Chateau likely due to buyers remorse. Harbor view rooms and Cinderella rooms are still very hard to come by during this time though and don’t always pop up. If you are fine not booking till 15-17 days out there is a decent chance you can get what you want then. Prior to this time there are sporadic cancellations that tend to disappear in 10-15 minutes and for very undesirable rooms can even sit for a couple hours. During slow times they can sit much longer but during peak times the rooms do not last long.
Hope this helps everyone. This worked for me consistently over the last several months and I got what I wanted. This is easily more painful than anything I've ever booked at DL or WDW. Good luck! Feel free to post any questions below.
I have a trip report going in the TR board that hit up all 12 parks in 16 days and just got done with my TDR section for those interested.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/1...s-around-the-world-trip-report.3960562/page-4
I had been asked to post these tips from several people who had been following our Disney Parks Around the World 12 parks in 16 days trip report so here it is.
So after practicing literally over 100+ times to get hotel rooms since March 2024, I managed to book my trip 12/31/24-1/4/25. I’m gonna share what I’ve discovered about the TDR booking system to help everyone else out there so you can hopefully get the room you wanted. I was shooting for the moon, a Grand Chateau Room on 12/31 and TDL 1/1 Cinderella Room and managed to get it. This is applicable to HOTELS ONLY and NOT VPs. VPs are an entirely DIFFERENT ballgame.
This can always be YMMV. I am located in the US on the East Coast on a Fiber optic internet connection, as a reference point, but with these tips I was batting 100% for weekdays and slower weekends. For busier weekends and holidays I was batting about 85-90%, so the results are highly reproducible.
The BIGGEST KEY ABOVE ALL is to make absolutely certain you clear the queue to access the website BEFORE 1100AM Japan time. IF YOU DO NOT, your chances drop exponentially of getting the room you want as all the super competitive rooms (i.e. Fantasy Springs, MiraCosta, Toy Story Hotel) are all gone by 1.5 minutes almost EVERY TIME. If you haven’t gotten through by 1.5 minutes, there is a very low chance you are getting one of those rooms. Sometimes they last to 2 min. but those are only on the super slow days. However, if you don’t get a room initially, there is still a chance, and we’ll discuss that.
To make things easier, this next step is optional, but it definitely simplifies the booking process. Prior to the date your room goes live set up a bookmark for the exact page you need to go to. You want to bookmark the screen where it shows all the hotels and rooms that are available. In order to do this for a FUTURE DATE go to your address bar, and find the date. It looks something like this “Date=20250101” and change the date MANUALLY to YOUR date. You then go ahead and try and go to that page. It will tell you it’s not a valid date. That’s OK. Bookmark that page. That page is the page you want to go straight to come the day you need to make the reservation. This saves time when seconds can matter. The next step is entering the queue. Since you already bookmarked this page, you can just click this link when you are ready to hit the queue. No need to go to the website. Just click the link.
Getting a feel for when to enter the queue, is very important as it can change DRASTICALLY based on the night. For super slow days, you can enter the queue as late as 1050 and still clear it in time, and on the busiest of days you may need to enter at 1025 to make it in time, so it’s highly variable. This is something that you will need to experiment with, and then come the day you need to make a reservation, have multiple different browsers open and start entering the queue super early to make sure you have at least one browser at minimum clearing the queue with less than 5-10 minutes remaining. Not clearing too early is critical because if you clear with more than 15 minutes you will get kicked from the site before the rooms go live. Also if you don’t click around the site and show activity, you will get kicked due to inactivity.
Bottom line, ideally, you need to clear the queue with about 5 min. remaining.
I personally ran a two device setup as I could not keep track of refreshing more than that. I had an iPad and my iPhone that I would be using. I used to use a PC and phone, but that wasn’t that good and we’ll get to that.
Now you just need to refresh every now and then to let the website know you haven’t gone away and it kicks you. With about 1-2 min. remaining stop refreshing and get ready to refresh. For me coming from the US, the sweet spot for me to hit refresh was about .5-.3 seconds prior to 1100. That’s what worked best for me. Sometimes I could get in immediately, sometimes it will take several tries. Sometimes potentially a minute of trying. You may get an error message. If you get the red japanese text screen immediately refresh. If you get the spinning stars hold tight. Give it some time. If the prices don’t load in 5-10 seconds try again. They may load, but from experience you’re better refreshing, than waiting for it to load at that point. The “when to refresh” part is a real art, and something you get a feel and instinct for when trying many times.
There IS a difference between being on a computer, tablet or phone. NOT ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Hands down the worst is the computer. I figured it’d be faster, as less would be on a computer, but I can tell you over time I realized the computer was just not that good. I was winning on my phone way more often than my computer. I can get 2-3 refreshes in on my phone well before one set of price ever pop up on my computer. Then computer consistently gets hung up as it tries to display the prices. You think you’re almost there, but then it just gets stuck. Avoid the computer if you can and use a tablet and phone, or even better two phones if you can.
Next worst was the iPad. The iPad is better than the computer, but still not as good as the phone. I don’t know why, as they are both mobile devices, but I found the refreshing and getting through was still not as reliable as a phone. Also the mobile site is much more reliable than the desktop site. Sometimes tablets default to a desktop site, but make sure your browser is set to mobile site.
The phone was without a doubt the best. It was the quickest to load, and I had the highest success over the last several months on the phone hands down. For whatever reason, it refreshes faster.
In terms of browsers. To maximize the number of queue entries so I could make sure I had two browsers exiting the queue on time, I was using Chrome and Safari, plus incognito mode on two devices. So that gives you 8 browsers to play with to clear the queue at the desired time. I felt that I had slightly better success with Chrome on the refresh, but not significantly so like PC vs phone.
If you aren’t able to get a room before they are all gone, all is not lost. Between 1130-1138 rooms that were clicked on but not booked and accounts that timed out while booking will be redumped into the system. I never found a consistent time for this, other than it was after 30 min. There may be a random room here and there that pops up, but there consistently a bigger dump anywhere between 1130-1138. This happens every 30-40 minutes along with some random rooms that sometimes pop up. With persistence and quick clicking you can often get a room on the rebound. Sometimes you’ll click and it’ll say it’s not available after waiting a bit to go to the checkout screen. This happens quite a bit with rebounds. So rebounds can be VERY frustrating. I was successful on the rebound with persistence 98 percent of the time, but it takes EXTREME persistence.
If you still don’t get one after all that, it just comes down to stalking the cancellations. People cancel ALL the time, you just have to luck out and be at the right place at the right time to pick up the reservation.
The peak times for cancellations is 15 to 17 days out and the cancellations get fast and furious. This is because within 15 days you get hit with a cancellation fee. Almost every room type becomes available during this time especially Grand Chateau likely due to buyers remorse. Harbor view rooms and Cinderella rooms are still very hard to come by during this time though and don’t always pop up. If you are fine not booking till 15-17 days out there is a decent chance you can get what you want then. Prior to this time there are sporadic cancellations that tend to disappear in 10-15 minutes and for very undesirable rooms can even sit for a couple hours. During slow times they can sit much longer but during peak times the rooms do not last long.
Hope this helps everyone. This worked for me consistently over the last several months and I got what I wanted. This is easily more painful than anything I've ever booked at DL or WDW. Good luck! Feel free to post any questions below.
I have a trip report going in the TR board that hit up all 12 parks in 16 days and just got done with my TDR section for those interested.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/1...s-around-the-world-trip-report.3960562/page-4
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