CRO's 5-day prior to arrival cancellation policy

[disneyberry]

okay, all you CRO experts! i need your help/opinion about how to interpret the cancellation policy.

here's my hypothetical questions:


1) if i have a ressie for check-in date December 13th, what is the absolute last day that i can call CRO to cancel?

is it by the end of the day on December 8th?


2) also, if my ressie is for Dec 13th - Dec 18th: 5 nights; and i want to shorten my trip to Dec 13th - Dec 15th: 2 nights... what is the absolute last day that i can call CRO to make this change?

since i am not cancelling my reservation, but just dropping some days on the end, does this mean that i could theoretically call CRO the day before i arrive to shorten the dates?


3) what about the scenario where, originally i have Dec 13th - Dec 18th: 5 nights; and i want to change that to Dec 15th - Dec 17th: 2 nights. since i would be arriving 2 days later, and need to cancel the nights of 13th and 14th, does this mean, i still have to follow the 5-day-prior-to-arrival rule?


i tried to ask CRO these questions, but i keep getting conflicting answers, they seemed very confused by what i meant.
so, thought i would post here to see what people think.

 

[kem330]

The five day rule applies in all cases.
1. Dec 8th should be the last day to cancel
2. If you want to drop the 15 - 18 you need to call by Dec 10. There is a chance that while you are there they may let you get away with an early check out with no penalty, but I wouldn't count on it.
3. Yes you still have to cancel 5 days ahead of original reservation.

In all the above cases you are modifying your original reservation so you need to abide by the 5 day rule. As stated the only exception may be that if you check out early they may not enforce the cancellation fee- that is a BIG MAYBE

 

[disneyberry]

okay... thank you, kem330... now why couldn't any of the CRO agents answer me this clearly?

so for question#1, i just want to verify:

the absolute last day to cancel is December 8th.

not December 7th? (i had one CRO CM tell me this date).

 

[kem330]

Well I would look carefully at the wording. In my mind, "5 days PRIOR" to Arrival Date would be five days before check in, therefore Dec 8. If it said "must be PRIOR to 5 days before arrival date, than Dec 7 would be correct. We have this with Vacation Club cancellations, we have to cancel "Prior to 30 days in advance of check in", which means it must be cancelled no later than 31 days in advance of arrival. This semantics thing can drive you crazy!! So I would double check the wording with CRO but the key is:" 5 days prior to check" in vs. "Prior to 5 days in advance of check in". I'm pretty sure it's the former.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

The cancelation also has to be before 5:00 pm eastern time (according to the CM I spoke with).

 

[kem330]

Disneyberry- FYI I just checked room availablity on the disney world web site and in there terms and conditions, they mentionned a 6 day in advance cancel policy- so maybe they have changed things? I would clarify this with a supervisor.

 

[disneyberry]

hmm... i wonder about the 6-day thing you mentioned, kem...
but, then again, i seem to recall that the WDW website always has different cancellation policies than when you call CRO.

anyway, old ressie confirmations i had clearly state cancellation must be "5 days prior to your arrival date".

TigrLvsPooh, i was wondering about that one also, if we had to cancel by a certain time of day. i'll keep that in mind.

thanks.