Cancellation due to change in covid protocol

[CisforCookie991]

Hi! Hoping someone can help me out because I'm a little confused. I got an email today saying that Disney is dropping the testing requirement and that sailings after a certain date have 2 weeks to cancel with no imposed penalties. Part of my deposit was from a concierge booking that we moved (no longer concierge). I called DCL and the agent told me that original concierge money is still not refundable? That doesn't really make sense to me but she sounded really sure. Wouldn't that be a Disney imposed penalty? Has anyone been able to cancel under this situation and get the full refund?

 

[lanejudy]

A similar 2-week cancellation period was allowed when DCL has changed rules previously and that DID allow concierge to cancel. Do you have a TA? If so, the TA needs to be the one calling. The only thing I can think that may impact your situation is if you had pushed out your booking using the former "Cruise Date Flexibility" which allowed guests to push out a cruise when within 59-15 days prior to embarkation. That did have specific penalties if cancelled in the future, so I don't know how that might be handled.

 

[CisforCookie991]

Unfortunately I do not have a TA. I tried to switch the original booking over to one before moving it but it was too late. When I moved the original, it was well outside 59 days - it was almost 4 months before sailing date. We're not even sure if we want to cancel, just would be nice to know if it's an option so we can consider it. Maybe I'll call again and see if the agent was just mistaken, or if they can explain it to me better.

 

[gilsan]

I also have a previous concierge reservation I am hoping to cancel. We were in a concierge room and moved the sailing 6+ months before the cruise to a non concierge room. We are not planning on cruising anytime soon and would rather have our money back vs having to keep pushing the cruise further out.

Based on "Guests booked on sailings departing from the U.S. on or after February 1, 2023, may modify or cancel their sailing by November 17, 2022 without any Disney-imposed cancellation fees" We should be able to get a full refund.

I have contacted our TA to cancel, I will let you know how it goes, but they should cancel without penalty. I would call back later and see if you get a different answer with a different CM.

 

[CisforCookie991]

I also have a previous concierge reservation I am hoping to cancel. We were in a concierge room and moved the sailing 6+ months before the cruise to a non concierge room. We are not planning on cruising anytime soon and would rather have our money back vs having to keep pushing the cruise further out.

Based on "Guests booked on sailings departing from the U.S. on or after February 1, 2023, may modify or cancel their sailing by November 17, 2022 without any Disney-imposed cancellation fees" We should be able to get a full refund.

I have contacted our TA to cancel, I will let you know how it goes, but they should cancel without penalty. I would call back later and see if you get a different answer with a different CM.

Yes! It sounds like we're in the exact same situation. I'm on hold (again) but would love to know if your TA is successful.

 

[dcassetta]

Not quite the same situation, but we decided to cancel due to the new policy and will be getting a full refund on a GT cruise. It should have been non-refundable due to GT cancellation policies. Perhaps calling back and asking to speak to guest services would help.

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

It would be great to hear everyone’s results as I am in the same situation and hoping to cancel and get my deposit back. I believe even concierge has been able to get the deposit back in the past when they have changed Covid policies, so hopefully OP was misinformed by DCL.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi! Hoping someone can help me out because I'm a little confused. I got an email today saying that Disney is dropping the testing requirement and that sailings after a certain date have 2 weeks to cancel with no imposed penalties. Part of my deposit was from a concierge booking that we moved (no longer concierge). I called DCL and the agent told me that original concierge money is still not refundable? That doesn't really make sense to me but she sounded really sure. Wouldn't that be a Disney imposed penalty? Has anyone been able to cancel under this situation and get the full refund?

Concierge deposits are always non-refundable. Even if you subsequently change to a non-concierge booking. Even before COVID policies.

 

[CisforCookie991]

I get a person and she's waiting to talk to Guest Services. Will update once she gets back on the line.

 

[gilsan]

Concierge deposits are always non-refundable. Even if you subsequently change to a non-concierge booking. Even before COVID policies.

Disney sent this out earlier today and it looks like the deposits for concierge rooms will be temporarily refundable. Guests booked on sailings departing from the U.S. on or after February 1, 2023, may modify or cancel their sailing by November 17, 2022 without any Disney-imposed cancellation fees.

As mentioned above Disney has refunded concierge rooms because of the change in Covid protocols.

 

[CisforCookie991]

Ok just finished with them. She confirmed that, because it was concierge, it remains non-refundable despite the language about "no Disney-imposed penalties." Basically the only way to get the refund would be to get covid right before the cruise. I specifically asked about the previous poster who said she was able to cancel her GT and the agent said that's a different situation. So guess we're still stuck.

 

[gilsan]

Ok just finished with them. She confirmed that, because it was concierge, it remains non-refundable despite the language about "no Disney-imposed penalties." Basically the only way to get the refund would be to get covid right before the cruise. I specifically asked about the previous poster who said she was able to cancel her GT and the agent said that's a different situation. So guess we're still stuck.

That doesn't make sense. I will let you know if we have any luck with out travel agent. I know when they allowed cancelations in the past due to Covid restriction change concierge guests were able to cancel.

 

[CisforCookie991]

That doesn't make sense. I will let you know if we have any luck with out travel agent. I know when they allowed cancelations in the past due to Covid restriction change concierge guests were able to cancel.

Yup makes zero sense to me too, but I asked the question really clearly and she said it's not refundable. Maybe they changed the rules for this round? Who knows.

 

[gilsan]

Yup makes zero sense to me too, but I asked the question really clearly and she said it's not refundable. Maybe they changed the rules for this round? Who knows.

I checked around and found this on Social Media from a fairly large group run by a travel agent the Travel Agent is the red poster and states that concierge is included. This is from a relaxed cancelation a few months ago but the wording is exactly the same in the email sent then. I would wait a day or two and call back again I think the information they gave you is wrong. The emails were just sent out today and maybe all the CM's have not been informed.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just speculating here, but since the change has to do with making things more "normal" in the cruising world, "normal" would mean that concierge deposits are again non-refundable, regardless of reason for cancelling.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Hi! Hoping someone can help me out because I'm a little confused. I got an email today saying that Disney is dropping the testing requirement and that sailings after a certain date have 2 weeks to cancel with no imposed penalties. Part of my deposit was from a concierge booking that we moved (no longer concierge). I called DCL and the agent told me that original concierge money is still not refundable? That doesn't really make sense to me but she sounded really sure. Wouldn't that be a Disney imposed penalty? Has anyone been able to cancel under this situation and get the full refund?

The issue here on your end is that you moved the money from a previously concierge reservation.

Disney still tracks that. Even if they say "no disney cancellation fees for cancelling" it goes back to the original requirements that you had for your original reservation. Not the current one that you have.

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

Based on the wording of the email I was sent, I don’t see how they can exclude concierge deposits from “without any Disney-imposed cancellation fees”. The DCL website clearly states the cancellation fee for concierge is the deposit. I’m sure DCL goes through many rounds of vetting these emails to make sure they are not promising something they aren’t going to deliver.

Hopefully since the policy just changed today the cast members are just misinformed. Otherwise I expect to get a revised email explicitly saying concierge deposits are not included in this new policy.

However, if it doesn’t work out in the end and I can’t get my money back I won’t be surprised. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[lanejudy]

Concierge deposits are always non-refundable.

Under "normal" circumstances, yes. However precedent of the past year with special cancellation periods has shown that even concierge has been allowed full refund.

I think it may be a case of untrained or uninformed phone reps. Unfortunately not uncommon. It may also be because OP is posing this as a question and not saying "cancel now." I do recall at least a couple reports that concierge cancellations had to be escalated to another department to finalize the full refund due to the non-refundable deposit.

 

[CisforCookie991]

The issue here on your end is that you moved the money from a previously concierge reservation.

Disney still tracks that. Even if they say "no disney cancellation fees for cancelling" it goes back to the original requirements that you had for your original reservation. Not the current one that you have.

I did specifically ask what would have happened if this had been a new concierge reservation and not a moved one, and she said it still wouldn't qualify. I'm with PrincessSchmoo - I'm thinking maybe they're getting more restrictive now than when the last time they had the 2 week cancellation window.

 

[CisforCookie991]

Under "normal" circumstances, yes. However precedent of the past year with special cancellation periods has shown that even concierge has been allowed full refund.

I think it may be a case of untrained or uninformed phone reps. Unfortunately not uncommon. It may also be because OP is posing this as a question and not saying "cancel now." I do recall at least a couple reports that concierge cancellations had to be escalated to another department to finalize the full refund due to the non-refundable deposit.

When I called to move the original reservation, it got a little complicated and they had to escalate to Guest Services to get it done, so I wonder if that's the general "escalation" department? Guest Services is who the cast member had to talk to today to get clarification on the policy. I think I'm going to give up and just go on the cruise, but hopefully it works out for anyone else who's trying.