Not sure if this is widely known or not, but if you move rather than cancel a WDW Resort "room only" reservation within five days of your arrival, you are not charged the one night cancellation fee. Normally you are charged a full night's cost as a penalty.
We were supposed to arrive on 12/23, but my mom had too much pain from a cracked tooth (owie!) so we called in on 12/22 to cancel. I thought we would have to pay the one night's fee since we cancelled within 5 days (heck within 24 hours!), but a CM who cancelled our PS said if we moved the date and didn't cancel completely no fee would be assessed. We know we are going next year, so we picked a October 2005 date to move the reservation to and were not assessed the cancellation fee. Once we know my vacation schedule we'll move it again to a known date if the 10/05 date won't work.
I'm not sure what I said to the CM, but I think I asked her if there was any way to avoid the fee or possibly if a dentist's note would suffice as a medical excuse, and she said "If you have another date of travel, that will be considered a modification not a cancellation". She did not offer this information when I first said we needed to cancel: IMHO, I see this to be a general policy, not one specific to our cancellation issue, so hopefully it can help someone else. I am glad I asked her whatever I asked her, that's for sure!
Everything moved over smoothly according to our new hardcopy confirmation - it also updated on the Disney.com website where you set up your travel plans!
Now we have two 2005 trips to make!
We were supposed to arrive on 12/23, but my mom had too much pain from a cracked tooth (owie!) so we called in on 12/22 to cancel. I thought we would have to pay the one night's fee since we cancelled within 5 days (heck within 24 hours!), but a CM who cancelled our PS said if we moved the date and didn't cancel completely no fee would be assessed. We know we are going next year, so we picked a October 2005 date to move the reservation to and were not assessed the cancellation fee. Once we know my vacation schedule we'll move it again to a known date if the 10/05 date won't work.
I'm not sure what I said to the CM, but I think I asked her if there was any way to avoid the fee or possibly if a dentist's note would suffice as a medical excuse, and she said "If you have another date of travel, that will be considered a modification not a cancellation". She did not offer this information when I first said we needed to cancel: IMHO, I see this to be a general policy, not one specific to our cancellation issue, so hopefully it can help someone else. I am glad I asked her whatever I asked her, that's for sure!
Everything moved over smoothly according to our new hardcopy confirmation - it also updated on the Disney.com website where you set up your travel plans!
Now we have two 2005 trips to make!
