Cancelling 31 days before question

When we found out that The Chew was going to be taping at Epcot several days before the start of our trip, we got really excited. We were lucky to book 3 extra nights at the beginning of our trip. I check several times per day for Chew tickets, but nothing yet. If we can't get in to the Chew, then we don't want those 3 nights, and we'll just stick with our original arrival date. (We're driving.)

Is there somewhere that tells exactly what date that the reservation should be cancelled by in order not to risk our points going in to holding? If not, then when figuring....is the 31st day the day before the check in day, or the day of, or ???? The extra 3 nights are Weds, Oct 5h thru Fri, Oct 7th. What day will I need to cancel the Oct 5th night by?

Thanks so much for any help you can give me on this.

The check-in day/day of arrival is the first day.
You must cancel before Sept 4th 23:59 (11:59 PM) to ensure the points do not go into holding.

That is on or before September 4. The rule is that if you cancel 30 days or less before arrival date, the points go into holding. Since the added days were to the beginning of your trip, Oct 5 is your arrival date, making Sep 4 thirty-one days before that date. You also can often have a second issue that might dictate canceling even earlier -- if your banking deadline runs out before you cancel, you will not be able to bank the points. Moreover, particularly for that time of year, during or near Columbus Day weekend, when travel to Orlando is heavy, you need to consider what happens if you try to change flights -- the price for a change may be a lot, the flight you want may be full, or both, the closer you get to your trip date.

Since we're driving this trip, we don't have to worry about the flights. The rest of our family is flying in, and arriving on Oct 9th. My husband and I were planning to arrive the day before, on Oct 8th. Our only reason for arriving earlier than that was to go to the taping of The Chew. I'm worried that I won't know about the show tickets until after our deadline for cancelling, and I definitely don't want our points to go in to holding.

It sounds like Sept 4th then is the last possible day to wait, and I would want to cancel the Oct 5th day during MS hours. I just looked at the calendar, and that's the Sunday of Labor Day week-end. Hopefully, they will be open. However, if they are closed Labor Day, I wouldn't be able to cancel the next day (Oct 6th) on Sept 5th.

If we're modifying a DVC reservation by cancelling days at the beginning of the trip, that can't be done on the computer....can it? Won't I need to do that on the phone with MS?

Thanks again for all the help and info.

Yes, cancelling part of a reservation requires a phone call to MS since it is impossible to modify a reservation on line unless you cancel the whole thing and make a new reservation (with the high risk of lack of availability for that time of year), meaning you must call before MS closes on Sep 4. I am not sure about what you mean by cancelling next day Oct 6 on Sep 5. If you are going to cancel, you should cancel whatever you are going to cancel at once. But you will not be able to do a cancellation on Sep 5 since MS will be closed.

What I meant by cancelling the next day is that if I'm still waiting for Chew tickets, then I would have 1 day longer to wait before cancelling the next night. However, because of Labor Day, I will have to cancel both nights on my call to MS on Sept 4th. We might end up keeping our Friday night, Oct 7th, just in case.

Yes, if MS is closed, then you will have to cancel a night in which that day would be day 31 prior to the reservation. So, canceling on the 4th for the 5th and 6th would be necessary since you can't cancel the 6th on Labor Day.

Hopefully, you'll get news this week!