cm said I cannot change my stay

[Nechville]

Feeling a bit burned and worried and I haven't even tried myself yet to change. Last year we ended up needing to add a day at the beginning of the trip for airfare. Nothing left for my package so had to add a one night room only, full priced reservation. So this year, I book that extra day, just in case. And now it's looking like airfare won't matter and I want to drop my first night.
Realizing that won't be allowed, what happens if we don't check in until the second day? I'll pay for the night we won't be there, and call and let them know of our delay. They won't cancel our entire stay, will they?

 

[Disneylover99]

Feeling a bit burned and worried and I haven't even tried myself yet to change. Last year we ended up needing to add a day at the beginning of the trip for airfare. Nothing left for my package so had to add a one night room only, full priced reservation. So this year, I book that extra day, just in case. And now it's looking like airfare won't matter and I want to drop my first night.
Realizing that won't be allowed, what happens if we don't check in until the second day? I'll pay for the night we won't be there, and call and let them know of our delay. They won't cancel our entire stay, will they?

If you know for sure you don't want that first night, I would definitely call and try to drop it ASAP. Don't let unnecessary worry creep in. Just explain your situation of last year and this year. Maybe your time frame will allow it. Or maybe you'll get a sympathetic cm Who will be able to help you out. Good luck!

 

[Lehuaann]

***My results***
I called back this morning to try and change reservation again. The first person that I talked to was having problems until she realized it was booked under a bounceback offer. She transferred me to the bounce back department. The CM told me that she would have to complete a form and send to guest services and they would have to make the decision on whether the change could be made. She completed form and sent while we were on the phone and told me that I would get a response within 24 hours either way. She said that it would also update on My Disney Experience. I checked about 1:00pm and reservation has already been changed. Hope this helps someone!!!

I need to modify my BB dates, so thank you for posting this info.

 

[BigAlsGal]

I had a little experience with it recently. On a previous trip we wanted to take a quick 3 night trip. I typed in my search criteria for a AP discount and the ONLY resorts that came up were deluxe resorts and fort wilderness cabins! I was floored. I can't afford deluxe! Were they sold out?
No.
I increased my search criteria by 3 days and almost every resort came available with AP discounts. I called and asked the CM if I could book the longer time then shrink it down but keep my room category. They said yes.

Fast forward to this trip. I did the same thing. I needed 5 nights but no resorts that I wanted to stay at came up. Lengthened my search to 7 nights and up comes the resort I want. I book the longer stay and call to shorten it only to be told that room category isn't available the time I want to stay. She puts me on a short hold and comes back and says my request has been granted. Whew!

There is no way this policy is going to fly for very long. I understand the business point of view but it looks completely shady and not customer friendly.

 

[Nechville]

If you know for sure you don't want that first night, I would definitely call and try to drop it ASAP. Don't let unnecessary worry creep in. Just explain your situation of last year and this year. Maybe your time frame will allow it. Or maybe you'll get a sympathetic cm Who will be able to help you out. Good luck!

Problem is, like most people, I don't have all the plans in place yet, with work, kids' school, and airfare. I think it would just be less stress to accept paying for the extra night, as long as I know I won't show up a day late to find the entire trip was cancelled!

 

[animalkingdom15]

I have done this resently due to better room category being available, and lessened the number of days I had on the original reservation and had no problem at all.

 

[canyoncam]

NO PROBLEMS HERE

Got VERY panicked when I started reading this as had a two week BB reservation for this October. I am one of the guilty ones who does not know their plans for a year out so tried to cover all bases. In fact to begin with I only had it for one week but called back in March to change the dates while planning still to leave it at only one week but the CM said best to leave the other days on since it is "always" possible to remove dates but there may not be availability to add dates.

So last month I finalized my dates with airfare (though totally refundable airfare), all my other hotel stays for trip, time off work, yet had not modified BB reservation yet. When I read this I just thought I'll take another trip to Disneyland if I can't modify but need to cancel instead. (I actually MAY still do this as I still have until 45 days out to cancel).

Anyway I had NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER. CM did not question anything or need to ask anyone. Actually shortest call I ever made to Disney reservations as I had no hold time before either. 5 minutes total.

 

[Momtomouselover]

Wow! All you guys who were able to make your modification got a nicer CM than I did or maybe they already lightened up the policy. Mine flat out refused to reduce the number of days. I was able to make the needed changes but had to check the website consistently for a many days and kept modifying until I had what I needed. Yesterday I received a survey about my experience of "modifying my upcoming vacation". I let them know all about it, lol. One question specifically asked if my modification had to due with the free dining offer. Hmm, no not in my case but curious that they asked.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think right now they are in a transition phase with this. It sounds like the CMs are going to some sort of a supervisor and getting approval (or not) to override what the system is trying to stop them from doing. I wouldn't expect this to last forever though. That could be why it seems to be unevenly applied as well.

 

[sharadoc]

Same way they cracked down on dining because of people booking and not using the reservation. Someone noticed how many man hours were being used to make all these changes, in addition to the unused rooms lost revenue. So they want to control costs. That's better for me than raising prices to cover it. OH WAIT A MINUTE..........

 

[Bree]

I had to change my stay around today and it was a nightmare. We were supposed to be at BC Club level, but my DH and DS won't be coming along this trip. I only booked that resort because we were only going to visit HS & EP. Now that it is just my 9yo DD and me, we moved over to the Poly since we will be at MK nearly everyday. I wanted to downgrade to a Standard room and I can't justify CL expense for just the two of us. The value isn't there, IMO. I could not get the six nights in a row. I could only get a combo of 1 night, 2 nights & 3 nights. I tried to see if there was a way for them to override the system and get me all 6 nights in a row, but was told no even though I had success doing this for WL in January and again at CBR in February. My BC reservation was paid in full and I did not want to tie up more of my funds and/or risk having to change rooms because of the 3 different reservations. I played around online and was able to book 8 nights. I called back and asked for the other two to be removed and the CM was giving me a hard time so I asked nicely to speak to a supervisor. I was on hold for 28 minutes, but she came back on the line and said that guest services did it as a one time courtesy. This is irritating.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I had to change my stay around today and it was a nightmare. We were supposed to be at BC Club level, but my DH and DS won't be coming along this trip. I only booked that resort because we were only going to visit HS & EP. Now that it is just my 9yo DD and me, we moved over to the Poly since we will be at MK nearly everyday. I wanted to downgrade to a Standard room and I can't justify CL expense for just the two of us. The value isn't there, IMO. I could not get the six nights in a row. I could only get a combo of 1 night, 2 nights & 3 nights. I tried to see if there was a way for them to override the system and get me all 6 nights in a row, but was told no even though I had success doing this for WL in January and again at CBR in February. My BC reservation was paid in full and I did not want to tie up more of my funds and/or risk having to change rooms because of the 3 different reservations. I played around online and was able to book 8 nights. I called back and asked for the other two to be removed and the CM was giving me a hard time so I asked nicely to speak to a supervisor. I was on hold for 28 minutes, but she came back on the line and said that guest services did it as a one time courtesy. This is irritating.

That's odd they would only give you those combos, I thought the idea was to push people into longer stays. Maybe because you were looking for a standard room? Were there higher-priced rooms at the Poly that had availability for the nights that you wanted?

 

[JohnDaleswife]

This is just more corporate greed. When does it stop?

 

[dansdad]

This is just more corporate greed. When does it stop?

Only when people stop coming.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

Only when people stop coming.

Unfortunately that is true. If we get to go back next year and get to stay at the Poly, I might just start looking elsewhere after that. But, after a stay at the Poly......

 

[Bree]

That's odd they would only give you those combos, I thought the idea was to push people into longer stays. Maybe because you were looking for a standard room? Were there higher-priced rooms at the Poly that had availability for the nights that you wanted?

Yes. There was a club level room for $425 a night and a standard was $304. I love club level and could afford it, but I don't find the value when it will be just my 9yo DD and me. She is still into character dining so I'd rather spend the money on that instead of club level while the magic is still there for her.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Only when people stop coming.

Yep.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Confession here. I have dropped days, after booking a longer trip, on purpose. Sometimes when I look for a specific resort, it would come up as not available (at a discount). But if I put in a longer stay, I could get it. BUT, it was a CM on the phone, who clued me in one time on this situation. She said, let's try for a longer stay, and then reduce it once it is booked. It worked. So, after that, I would do that myself on occasion. Honestly, I never would have thought of trying it.

They may now be trying to encourage longer stays, to give better discounts to the longer stays. (For me, it was usually to get a room for a couple of nights, before a DVC longer stay. And, it was not involving free food, I avoid free food time periods if at all possible, and never book that). Universal does this, larger discount for a longer stay, but they explain that upfront.

PS it can help to call back and try another CM, some of them are better at working the system than others. But if they have tightened up the rules, maybe not.

 

[KELLY]

I wonder how this will affect us ? We always book a FD BB so we go for 14-17 days. But because of air I always have to switch my dates by a day or 2. But we never actually take any off. This year our original reservation was for 8/22 to 9/5. But we are coming in on late Friday so it made more sense to book a RO for the first 2 days. Then start our FD package on the 23rd to 9/6 instead. It was cheaper for us to fly out Friday 8/21 then to come home labor day on 9/7 so we added the RO. So my dates are always off by a couple of days or so.

I was able to switch it around after I booked air with no problem back in February.

 

[Bree]

The way the CM explained it to me is that they have blocks of rooms for a specific amount of nights. So Block A is for one night stays, Block B is for two night stays, Block C is for 3 night stays, etc......

It makes sense, but makes planning harder for people that don't know their exact dates or situations arise where resorts need to be changed or days added/subtracted.