Credit Card Holds and ADR cancellation

[Belle5]

How far in advance do you really have to cancel in order to not be charged $10 per person. If you get into your reservations online and you are able to cancel them there, will you be charged for a no show? Is there an online message of some sort that says, for example, "You are cancelling less than 24 hours prior to your reservation. If you continue with cancellation you will be charged $10 per person"?

My specific situation is this...we are checking in late two nights from now. If we are too tired (due to flight delays, etc.) for our breakfast the next morning, can we cancel upon check-in (or from our computer in our room) without penalty?

 

[goofyintoronto]

Apparently you need to give them 24 hours notice, or more. So if you cancel tonight (for breakfast tomorrow morning), you will be charged. That has been the experience of several people i know.

 

[Belle5]

Apparently you need to give them 24 hours notice, or more. So if you cancel tonight (for breakfast tomorrow morning), you will be charged. That has been the experience of several people i know.

Wow! That's awful! But, thanks!

 

[figment_jii]

Apparently you need to give them 24 hours notice, or more. So if you cancel tonight (for breakfast tomorrow morning), you will be charged. That has been the experience of several people i know.

Did this change recently? Last October I had to cancel a 5 pm dinner the night before (around 9:30 pm) and I did not get charged the no show penalty. I thought you had to cancel by 10 pm the night before your ADR. For example, for a Wednesday ADR (regardless of the time), you must cancel by 10 pm ET on Tuesday.

 

[TDC Nala]

Did this change recently? Last October I had to cancel a 5 pm dinner the night before (around 9:30 pm) and I did not get charged the no show penalty. I thought you had to cancel by 10 pm the night before your ADR. For example, for a Wednesday ADR (regardless of the time), you must cancel by 10 pm ET on Tuesday.

That is the language that was on WDW's website, but apparently it is no longer on the website since the major changes that were made to it. Don't know if that means it has to be 24 hours now or not. I haven't seen any official Disney communications that say anything about 24 hours. The cancellation policy on the one reservation I am holding that requires a credit card says "1 Day/$10 Cancellation Policy."

Could be that we are now back to the original wording when the policy went into effect, where 1 Day could mean whatever Disney wanted it to mean.

 

[Belle5]

Did this change recently? Last October I had to cancel a 5 pm dinner the night before (around 9:30 pm) and I did not get charged the no show penalty. I thought you had to cancel by 10 pm the night before your ADR. For example, for a Wednesday ADR (regardless of the time), you must cancel by 10 pm ET on Tuesday.

That would be doable. I'm sure I could know by 10 pm the night before...

 

[Belle5]

That is the language that was on WDW's website, but apparently it is no longer on the website since the major changes that were made to it.

Are you saying the current rule is 24 hour cancellation?

 

[figment_jii]

Are you saying the current rule is 24 hour cancellation?

Sadly, it sounds like (from what TDC Nala said), we don't know for sure what the policy is. Given that, I'd be conservative and assume that you must cancel at least 24-hours in advance.

 

[TDC Nala]

I"m saying there may no longer be any consistent policy among all restaurants. The new restaurant FAQ says "each restaurant maintains its own cancellation policy." This is quite different from the old FAQ language which was very specific and appeared to apply to ALL restaurants. It is probably best to either carefully read the information noted on the online system before booking, or to ask a WDW-DINE agent what the specific restaurant's cancellation policies are.

All I see on the reservation I have already made is that the cancellation policy is 1 Day. It does not say what 1 day means. It makes no reference to 24 hours or whether 1 day means until close of business the day before. It says only 1 Day.

 

[Belle5]

Actually, this is the message that pops up if I scroll over my ADR's.

"For dining reservations guaranteed by a credit card, Guests who cancel within 48 hours of their reservation time or fail to show will be charged a $10 per person fee for each Guest on the reservation."

48 hours! That's just ridiculous!

 

[figment_jii]

Actually, this is the message that pops up if I scroll over my ADR's.

"For dining reservations guaranteed by a credit card, Guests who cancel within 48 hours of their reservation time or fail to show will be charged a $10 per person fee for each Guest on the reservation."

48 hours! That's just ridiculous!

Sounds like this is another one of the "new" site glitches.

I get the same message when hovering over the exclamation point next to "Guaranteed by Credit Card" on the main reservation page.

Yet, when I open up the reservation details, under the Guest Polices, it says:
"CANCEL
1 Day/$10 Cancellation Policy"

Sigh...

 

[ses1230]

The DDP brochure still says cancel by 10pm the day prior to the reservation. Maybe that is considered "official" information?

 

[mousefan1972]

The DDP brochure still says cancel by 10pm the day prior to the reservation. Maybe that is considered "official" information?

This is correct. No matter the time of day of your reservation, you have to cancel it some time the day before, prior to 10 p.m. to avoid the no show charge.

For example, we had an 8:05 a.m. reservation at Tusker House during our trip this past Christmas. The evening before we decided not to spend the day at AK, so we wanted to cancel the reservation. I cancelled it in person at the BWV concierge desk at 7 p.m. the night before, so about 13 hours before the reservation. But because it was still the day before, I was not charged. The concierge CM who helped me confirmed this. I did check my credit card and no charge ever appeared.

 

[eeyoresnr]

The DDP brochure still says cancel by 10pm the day prior to the reservation. Maybe that is considered "official" information?

but not everyone books through the DDP and therefor I would go with whatever your reservation itself says to be on the safe side..if I had to guess with Disney all rules are subject to change at their discretion..

 

[ses1230]

but not everyone books through the DDP and therefor I would go with whatever your reservation itself says to be on the safe side..if I had to guess with Disney all rules are subject to change at their discretion..

But ADRs are not different for those on the dining plan.

What I was referring to was the fact that the old website addressed the rule and the new website does not (or I can't find it on the new website), but the brochure still addresses it like before.

 

[TDC Nala]

Whether you are on DDP or not makes no difference to the resort reservation system as far as cancellation.

 

[cigar95]

If WDW continues to send out the same brochure with the old (night-before) cancellation policy, then they're responsible for living up to those terms. It doesn't mean that a guest will not be charged in the event of a night-before cancel, but it does mean the guest would have legitimate grounds to dispute the charge.

An exception to this would be if the brochure contains language that says something like "policies subject to change without notice", which it very likely does. That would not give them absolute power to change things, but it would give them a lot more flexibility.