Has anyone else been told this???

[Babsy]

This is essentially what has happened to me. I still haven't gotten my flight information and time off set, so I can't cancel even yet. I booked max days with the option of cancelling the nights we wouldn't need/trying for availability on extra nights if needed.

This is bad. I am looking at the Waldorf Bonnet Creek as a back up. When the time comes to solidify dates, I will have to cancel if I can't adjust the trip.

Is this for the BB or AP ? I have a military discount for Sept. I booked for the full amount of days allowed as I was sure when DH would be able to take off. I was told when I booked to do this.

I made a payment on Wed and said I would be dropping some days but wasn't sure until my husband would know. They said it would be fine that I had 5 days before check in to cancel the days I didn't need.

I did ask about this and they assured me it wasn't so. She even transfer me to a supervisor and told me the same.


With the BB they told me when I booked one this past Dec for this Dec I was told to book the full days and cancel what ones I didn't want.

Disney will be running into trouble with this. If true they should tell you ahead of time or when you book. Not on my email. Just my two cents

 

[mullysisters]

I wonder if Disney is finally trying to deal with people changing reservations many times. If you cancel an 8 day ressie for 4 days then they have a room available at that resort for less than a week. I understand that a room discount is for a specified number of days at a specified resort. Why shouldn' t they fill rooms?

 

[Babsy]

I can totally see this as a way to deter booking prior dates for ADR advantage. However, I plan to book this coming Monday (if the rumors about Visa FD hold true) and my issue is that we fly Southwest on points, and the flight schedules are not yet out for those dates. I planned to book a Saturday arrival, not fulling knowing for certain if we would really be able to check in Saturday or Sunday, but now what do I do? This policy therefore is inadvertently shortening my trip because I feel it's only safe to book for a Sunday arrival, instead of trying to delete Saturday if the schedule doesn't work for us.

It's really a terrible policy! I would much rather that they stopped the 180 + 10 policy, if they have to do this to stop people taking advantage of it. Seriously, it is punishing people with a legitimate need to adjust dates because a perk may be abused. If everyone just gets the 180 days, there would be no reason to book early. Much fairer fix, IMO.

 

[tiger4me2]

I can totally see this as a way to deter booking prior dates for ADR advantage. However, I plan to book this coming Monday (if the rumors about Visa FD hold true) and my issue is that we fly Southwest on points, and the flight schedules are not yet out for those dates. I planned to book a Saturday arrival, not fulling knowing for certain if we would really be able to check in Saturday or Sunday, but now what do I do? This policy therefore is inadvertently shortening my trip because I feel it's only safe to book for a Sunday arrival, instead of trying to delete Saturday if the schedule doesn't work for us.

I would book the days you want and cancel. As far as I am concern you should be able to drop the days. With FD you pay rack rate so they are not losing money. Good luck. There is nothing on the web site

 

[Meldev]

I would book the days you want and cancel. As far as I am concern you should be able to drop the days. With FD you pay rack rate so they are not losing money. Good luck. There is nothing on the web site

That's a good point - I think I will ask a "what if" when I speak to the CM if I go ahead and book for saturday arrival.

 

[tiger4me2]

When I booked my room only I didn't do it for the 180 + in fact it took me a month later to make my ADR's. And I didn't book any that went beyond the days I assume we would drop unless I stayed longer than DH. But we are paying out of pocket. So not many ADR.

 

[tiger4me2]

This is essentially what has happened to me. I still haven't gotten my flight information and time off set, so I can't cancel even yet. I booked max days with the option of cancelling the nights we wouldn't need/trying for availability on extra nights if needed.

This is bad. I am looking at the Waldorf Bonnet Creek as a back up. When the time comes to solidify dates, I will have to cancel if I can't adjust the trip.

I don't what Disney is doing bad enough they charge why too much for a room ( my views) and then tell you to book and and then if something turn up let them know before 45 day or at 45 days no penalty. If package, room 5 days before to cancel. Think they should make it clear on the web site & on the Travel Company the new rules. If you made them before the rules came out it should be okay. If not then they will see more & more people staying off site in my view only.

Good luck !

 

[Babsy]

I wonder how this will work for anyone flying that has a flight delayed for a day. This has been known to happen when flying from the north in the winter. You used to be able to call and get the day removed from your reservation, placing your arrival the next day. Will you now lose your entire reservation or lose any rate that you might have booked?

This is a scary new policy. Lots of difficult implications.

 

[cakebaker]

So it is ok for guests to do it to save money, but not for the corporation to make money?

It does seem a very strange situation, but even if it is being done for profit, I can't hold it against them. Seems very strange though. But it kind of reminds me of trying to buy concert tickets for a discount=--sometimes I want 2, but they only want to sell me 4. Seems the same sort of thing.

I think it is designed to put a stop to the practice of booking a long stay just to get a jump on fp+'s, then cancelling down to just 1 throwaway night. There's been a lot of talk lately about people doing that.

A lot of people have tried to warn others Disney would eventually crack down and one can't blame them for doing it.

It's a shame that it costs innocent guests, but I think it just finally got to be a big enough problem that they had to do something to stop it.

 

[rachel09985]

Don't they have to have availability with the discount to change your reservation to the new time? That isn't new. I have tried to take off a night with a passholder discount in the past and I wasn't able to.

 

[dansdad]

Don't they have to have availability with the discount to change your reservation to the new time? That isn't new. I have tried to take off a night with a passholder discount in the past and I wasn't able to.

But the issue here is if you booked a 7 night stay and then realize you can't stay 7 nights, only 6. Disney is telling guests they cant drop the one night . They are saying you would have to cancel and try to rebook for 6 nights depending on availability. They are saying this whether you have a discount or not.

 

[Disneylover99]

Two weeks ago, I changed my four day room only bb offer from a September stay to an October stay and I took off a day. It was no problem then. I would have been upset if I was told my room category was unavailable, or that it had to be rebooked at a different rate too.

 

[trishadono]

Has anyone tried the new change feature online to do this? Curious if same results.

 

[TRICKY_TINK]

Yep I can confirm they are cutting back on people shortening their stays. As another poster wrote. I live locally and cannot ever get a weekend only reservation within a month of arrival. I would be forced to book an entire week and then cut off the days ahead or behind my actual stay. The online booking system would show everything as sold out but then plenty of availability in all room categories for longer stays. A Disney phone rep even told me they are trying to encourage longer stays. So beware, if like me you've needed to do this to get a room onsite to make use of your annual passes. I'm pretty over Disney they are tripled their worth in the last few years gouging their consumers. Enough is enough---bring the magic back

 

[mickeynut1]

I'm sorry, but between the stress of planning every meal and ride, and now the inability to adjust my reservation if necessary, I am getting more angst out of planning than the vacation is worth.

I couldn't agree more .

This is just a hunch on my part, so I could be completely off base with my theory. But does anyone think that this has something to do with people booking stays for more days than they intend to stay so that they can get the 180+10 advantage on their ADRs for the dates that they intend to stay?

For instance, let's say that you want to stay from Nov. 8 - Nov. 15 and you really, REALLY, REALLY want to score specific ADRs at coveted restaurants. You could book for Nov. 5 - Nov. 15 and get a 3-day advantage for the last 3 days of your stay. Then, after scoring your breakfast at Cindy's or BOG dinner, you cancel the first 3 days of your stay because you never intended to stay that long.

I've seen this workaround referred to in other forums and I wonder if this is Disney's way of stopping the practice.

This is very possible as I have seen this referenced to as well. If that is the reason for the change, it's a shame Disney has to go to that extent and punish those who don't try to play the system.

Is this for the BB or AP ? I have a military discount for Sept. I booked for the full amount of days allowed as I was sure when DH would be able to take off. I was told when I booked to do this.

I saw a thread the other day where someone had a reservation at rack rate and tried to take 2 nights off and was told it wasn't possible. The poster spoke to a manager/supervisor who adjusted their reservation, but was told the new policy doesn't allow for that unless the nights for the shorter stay was available.

I can totally see this as a way to deter booking prior dates for ADR advantage. However, I plan to book this coming Monday (if the rumors about Visa FD hold true) and my issue is that we fly Southwest on points, and the flight schedules are not yet out for those dates. I planned to book a Saturday arrival, not fulling knowing for certain if we would really be able to check in Saturday or Sunday, but now what do I do? This policy therefore is inadvertently shortening my trip because I feel it's only safe to book for a Sunday arrival, instead of trying to delete Saturday if the schedule doesn't work for us.

We do this as well. As others have stated, airfare sometimes isn't out yet when we book (we fly SWA, too) and if we have to work around work/school schedules, it makes it hard to pin point exact dates far out.

This is essentially what has happened to me. I still haven't gotten my flight information and time off set, so I can't cancel even yet. I booked max days with the option of cancelling the nights we wouldn't need/trying for availability on extra nights if needed.

This is bad. I am looking at the Waldorf Bonnet Creek as a back up. When the time comes to solidify dates, I will have to cancel if I can't adjust the trip.

We are in the same boat. We are booked for August under the new discount and have a few extra nights added as it will have to be tweaked to work around schedules (i.e., less nights), so if I can't modify my reservation by taking nights off, I will cancel.

It's really a terrible policy! I would much rather that they stopped the 180 + 10 policy, if they have to do this to stop people taking advantage of it. Seriously, it is punishing people with a legitimate need to adjust dates because a perk may be abused. If everyone just gets the 180 days, there would be no reason to book early. Much fairer fix, IMO.

I would book the days you want and cancel. As far as I am concern you should be able to drop the days. With FD you pay rack rate so they are not losing money. Good luck. There is nothing on the web site

From what I've seen, the policy applies to all bookings, not just ones with discounts.

Has anyone tried the new change feature online to do this? Curious if same results.

Good question.

 

[jennyerin]

This is making me nervous about our trip. We booked a bounceback for the end of August last year. First the local school district moved up the start of the school year so we had to move it up a few days for my daughter. My son will go to college this Fall and we didn't know his start date or college so we booked a back-up reservation for the beginning of August in the event he is not available for our BB reservation. Now that he has chosen a school we'll actually have to cancel the early August reservation but cut a few days off the end of the BB reservation (since the freshman have to start a few days earlier than the other students) and create a new reservation to add some days to the front of the reservation (since that one starts on the first day of the free-dining BB). I sure hope they don't give us a hard time about this...

 

[aaarcher86]

I think it is designed to put a stop to the practice of booking a long stay just to get a jump on fp+'s, then cancelling down to just 1 throwaway night. There's been a lot of talk lately about people doing that.

A lot of people have tried to warn others Disney would eventually crack down and one can't blame them for doing it.

It's a shame that it costs innocent guests, but I think it just finally got to be a big enough problem that they had to do something to stop it.

You'd think it's be more cost effective to just erase the FP selections for days removed from resort stays. Even within thirty days, lose your FP and start over.

 

[gwynne]

You'd think it's be more cost effective to just erase the FP selections for days removed from resort stays. Even within thirty days, lose your FP and start over.

That is an excellent suggestion.
If WDW thinks this change will "force" people to book longer stays, I think they are wrong. Many people will book what they think is safe, a shorter trip. WDW is expensive. One of the big benefits was some flexibility in booking. If that is gone, then we will probably start splitting with a few days onsite, and then move to one of the offsite hotels.

 

[marsh0013]

If it's really because of FP+ and/or ADR bookings, then they should implement changes as others have suggested. Or have a cut off of 45 days like for packages, you can drop days before 45 days out, but inside of 45 days only if there's availability. Or make it 60 days instead.

So many valid reasons people need to shave days off a reservation.

 

[cakebaker]

You'd think it's be more cost effective to just erase the FP selections for days removed from resort stays. Even within thirty days, lose your FP and start over.

I've always said that the changes Disney implements to stop abuses or problems aren't what I'd choose. It's why I'd prefer these things not be done in in the first place. If people weren't doing it, there would be no need for any stricter policies. And perhaps people should consider the long term consequences. Surely no one thought people could continue making reservations they never intended to keep without Disney eventually stopping it.

And it could well be there's more to it than this and this was the easiest for them to implement. Who knows.