Yesterday I got a call from Disney Guest Services regarding my lengthy letter on the Best Rate Program. The gal was wonderful and did an excellent job in answering my questions, being honest, and assuring me that others "up the line" would definitely "hear" my concerns and comments. Below is a quick summary of our discussion, as an FYI.
We talked for about 1/2 hour. Basically, what it came down to is this ...
1) Disney is saying that there will not be any new AP rates that come out other than through the BRP. But she said they originally said the 120 days wouldn't change and obviously it did -- since they just lowered it to 60 days.
2) She said they are being bombarded with emails and letters about the BRP. While she wouldn't specifically tell me their leaning she very much "implied" that there were many, many, many, many people upset about the new BRP program. Bascially, we talked about the fact that most don't like the non-refundable deposit and are concerned Disney is going to change the refund policy on both pac kages and room only. Again, she indicated that this seemed to be a common concern among MANY.
3) If a new AP rate were to come out those with ressies under the BRP would not automatically get that rate. They would have to call and have the new rate applied. She said that many people are voicing the opinion that they are VERY upset about this. We talked about the fact that I felt, as many on the boards also felt, that the lower rate should be automatically applied to a ressie that was in the BRP since the program was suppose to be the best AP rate available... She told me that lots of emails were also voicing this concern, too.
4) She was very sympathetic to my concerns and said that ALL emails, letters, calls are being documented and ALL info is being passed on up the line. She indicated that the 120 days was changed to 60 days out --- she assumed -- due to the enormous influx of correspondence from AP holders.
5) I explained my concern to her regarding the huge increase in price from last year's AP rate to this year for same time/same property.... and how I felt it was way too much of an increase for one year. We talked about the fact that if Disney continues on this route that the "most loyal and fanatic" Disney AP holders will probably alter their vacation spending habits and look to spend their money elsewhere. She said that they had also received many emails and letters stating just that.
Overall, she told me that, the official word from Disney is that they will not be offering any lower AP rates, but that I should "stay tuned" as things seem to change regularly. Also, that the NO BRP reservations would automatically receive a lower AP rate if it were offered -- that would still be handled how it was in the past by the ressie holder calling and having it applied to the reservation.
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What do you guys think?
We have POR for $89/night from Dec 3 to the 6th... That saves us $150.53 off of rack for POR ...
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