A Reservation With Foresight

Hotel rooms in Times Square are booked up for New Year's celebrations now, just as Edward Woodyard predicted they would be over a decade ago when he reserved a room for the millennium.

In 1983, Woodyard and his wife, Nancy, were expecting a new baby. Calculating the future with his pregnant spouse, Edward realized the child would graduate from high school in 2002.

"We figured, holy cow, in the year 2000 there's going to be a hell of a party going on in Times Square!" Edward recalls. "I better make my reservations now."

Woodyard then called up the Marriott Marquis, which was building a hotel. Lacking a reservation number for a nonexisting structure, the company connected him to their corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"They said, 'Sure, we'll take the reservations,'" he says.

The Woodyards, with their now-grown son Christopher and their daughter Laura will enjoy the holiday weekend in a luxury suite on the hotel's 44th floor.

When her husband first booked the room, Nancy thought he had gone overboard.

"I thought he was crazy. I was pregnant at the time so I really did think it was crazy. But it's thrilling to be here - absolutely thrilling."

As the first guests to reserve a room for the 21st century, the hotel has given the Armonk, N.Y. family their room free of charge.