What should I do about ADR's and changing number of people?

[glitzybabes]

Ok here is the story. I have a family of 9 going to WDW for Free dining. I have made all of the ADRs but I have a problem. I made 8 different ADRs for 9 people, well now Only 4 people will be going to 3 of the ADRs. One of the 3, I really don't see being a problem because I have 2 tables booked. Will I have a problem if I call and change the number of people? Should I call or just wait until we get there and tell them when we're seated. Please help! I don't want to lose my ADRs. What should I do?
Thanks for any help!

 

[dburg30]

heh.. that's a good one . I think usually they use 2 tables for 9 (would make sense) so technically, once you cancel, they should have 2 tables available, which would cover you. BUT, if there is nothing available before you cancel, I dont think they can just drop the numbers, they have to cancel then rebook the ADR, so there would be a CHANCE that someone could call just as you cancelled, and snag it from you before you got booked.. Hmmmmmmmmm..

 

[Destination Disney]

Sometimes they can modify an ADR, while other times they have to cancel it all together and re-submit the request. If this happens you may lose the ADR all together. I would hold off and do it at the hostess stand.
I know some poeple would frown upon that saying that you will be holding up an ADR for them, but then again there may be people waiting at the resturant for a walk up reservation and this can be an opportunity for them. Either wy Dinsey will not be at a loss. They will fill the table in no time.

 

[vllygrrl]

This is related to the first poster's question....after redoing my ADR's 3 times so far because my husband's family is all deciding that they would like to join us on our trip my father-in-law announced last night that he would like to come too! I am assuming that it will be a nightmare to try and rebook the reservations I currently have for 11 and change them to 12 people, but my two thoughts were A) I could attempt to book him tables for 1 at the restaurants at similar dining times to our ADR's and ask nicely at the podium if they could seat us together, and B) if that doesn't work, bring him along to the reservations with us and ask if we could add an additional seat to our table (since we had an odd number of guests, I'm hoping that this would be a fairly easy request.... )

Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Nikki_Mouse]

If you change the number of people in the ADR they do have to cancel and make a new ADR- you may not get anything depending on what time of the year you are going- if it is during free dining it will be difficult. I had to change my ADRs from a party of 9 to 10- thought it would be easy--just add another chair! Boy was I wrong. I was on the phone for 30 minutes and COULD NOT get a change at the Coral Reef, which is of course the place that all of the kids want to eat! I thought about getting my dad a table for 1 just like you but none were available. I called everyday, sometimes twice a day to check for cancellations. I finally got the ADR changed, along with the time but it will be well worth it. Good luck! Start calling member services. We are going during free dining.

 

[PoLy4LiFe!]

It's never a problem to show up with fewer people than you originally planned - sometimes it's a relief for the staff to be honest! The only time it inconveniences them if it's a really big party, like 25+, and they've already set up the table in advance. But 12 isn't usually a huge deal - in that situation, you should be fine to just show up. Increasing the number of people in your party can be tricky though - I would leave WDW-DINE out of it altogether, and call the restaurant directly, probably half an hour to an hour before your scheduled time - if you speak to the CM who is checking people in, he/she can put a note on your reservation and communicate the change to the assigner, and there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[GrumpysGal]

I have a similar situation with our trip this year. It was possible that our family of four would have two additional family members joining us, but weren't sure at the time we needed to book our ADRs. I knew it would probably be easier to reduce the number on our ressies, but wasn't sure if it would require a cancellation and rebooking or not, thus risking losing our ADRs. I called to ask a few days prior to our 180 day window and asked the same question when calling to make our ressies. Both times I was given the same response...I was told that while it would require a cancellation and rebooking, I would not lose my reservation. They did say that since we were initially a party of 6 that they would check to see if we were assigned a table for 6 or two tables together. If we had been assigned a 6 seat table, they would check for availability for a table for 4 around our original ADR time so that it could open up a table for another party of 6. We would not be forced to take the new time, but it sounded perfectly fair to me as long as my ADR time didn't change by much. If no other openings were available, however, they said we could keep our original reservation (and table for 6) which would just be reduced to 4. If we were assigned two tables "pushed together", obviously that would simply open up another table for someone else. Clear as mud? Since CM information seems to vary a LOT sometimes, I can't guarantee the accuracy of the info, but I was told that twice on two different days by two different CMs. If that makes it any more reliable...who knows! I should know for sure, though, in the next day or two as I just found out our other two family members will not be coming with us...so we'll see what happens.

 

[StrollPatrolMom]

We have a similiar issue....we rebooked several of our ADR's to accomodate the correct #, but some of them we aren't able to rebook...so we're showing up with who we have and calling it a day (on the advice of the CM who made the ressies for us..)