For AP holders, seems like the right strategy is to request a refund no?

[ars0525]

I am a local with a Gold AP. My renewal date is December 1st.

Unless Disney offers some amazing amount on the refund compared to what I paid for how long they actually end up being closed I am planning to just take the extension. I wouldn't mind having my renewal date moved from December 1st to after the holidays cause having that credit card bill right after Christmas is a little even though I know it's coming.

 

[epcotty]

absolutely. even when it does reopen it'll be nothing like before and unbearable for all those who find it to be hot and humid in the first place

 

[Primeval Princess]

If Disney decided to refund AP holders based on the number of days closed (let's assume March 15 until July 1st), then I assume the numbers will be close to what I have below.
On Disney website, the cost of a Platinum pass is $1,272.68/365 days = $3.5 per day x 108 days of closure (March 15 until July 1st) = $377.
As we are out of state AP holders who have only used 7 days of our tickets and were planning to take 2-3 more trips this year (not going to happen), this money will definitely help!!

This is exactly our issue. In fact, I was considering making a separate thread for it as most posters on this thread seem to be Floridians with monthly payment plan FPs, which is a somewhat different situation.

We are from out of state & activated our expensive Platinum APs in December and used only 3 days of them. We were planning a big summer trip for June, followed by another trip in December '20, which would have justified the cost of the passes. Well, the June trip has been rescheduled for late July & we don't even know if it will be open then. Park touring with masks is a non-starter for us, so this trip probably isn't going to happen. Who knows if the mask requirement will still be there in December? If it is, we're not going. In addition to masks, there is the issue of park access being limited, attractions & entertainment being limited, possibly no water parks & pools (a huge part of our summer trips).

Each pass cost $1,200 & a $400 refund or a few months extension is NOT an acceptable reimbursement for all of this. We are tied to a strict school year & custody schedule, so we cannot go to WDW from January to May. So an extension is worthless. I want most of the money on our passes refunded if masks are going to be the new normal for 2020. Disney is good about refunding cancelled resort packages due to this. They should also refund most of the cost of the APs for people who have only used a few days, since the new Disney experience is going to bear so little resemblance to what was offered in 2019 when they sold us these passes. We paid Disney top dollar for a year of full access on our own schedule. Not for a year of severe restrictions on their schedule.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

This is exactly our issue. In fact, I was considering making a separate thread for it as most posters on this thread seem to be Floridians with monthly payment plan FPs, which is a somewhat different situation.

We are from out of state & activated our expensive Platinum APs in December and used only 3 days of them. We were planning a big summer trip for June, followed by another trip in December '20, which would have justified the cost of the passes. Well, the June trip has been rescheduled for late July & we don't even know if it will be open then. Park touring with masks is a non-starter for us, so this trip probably isn't going to happen. Who knows if the mask requirement will still be there in December? If it is, we're not going. In addition to masks, there is the issue of park access being limited, attractions & entertainment being limited, possibly no water parks & pools (a huge part of our summer trips).

Each pass cost $1,200 & a $400 refund or a few months extension is NOT an acceptable reimbursement for all of this. We are tied to a strict school year & custody schedule, so we cannot go to WDW from January to May. So an extension is worthless. I want most of the money on our passes refunded if masks are going to be the new normal for 2020. Disney is good about refunding cancelled resort packages due to this. They should also refund most of the cost of the APs for people who have only used a few days, since the new Disney experience is going to bear so little resemblance to what was offered in 2019 when they sold us these passes. We paid Disney top dollar for a year of full access on our own schedule. Not for a year of severe restrictions on their schedule.

I am an overseas APH holder but I don’t think anyone can expect WDW or any other party to bear the entire risk and consequences of Covid. There has to be at least an element of reasonableness and compromise.

 

[Primeval Princess]

I am an overseas APH holder but I don’t think anyone can expect WDW or any other party to bear the entire risk and consequences of Covid. There has to be at least an element of reasonableness and compromise.

I don't think expecting a majority of my money refunded is unreasonable. We only used three days of the pass, and the experience they're now offering bears very little resemblance to what they offered when I purchased them. It's like when airlines reschedule your selected flight for a totally different time, you're entitled to a refund. Disney refunds resort packages for people who won't or can't go due to all the changes. I think they should do more for people who bought their top dollar APs, as well. Or at least let us decide a "restart" date for our APs, as many of us can't use the extension due to scheduling constraints.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

This is exactly our issue. In fact, I was considering making a separate thread for it as most posters on this thread seem to be Floridians with monthly payment plan FPs, which is a somewhat different situation.

We are from out of state & activated our expensive Platinum APs in December and used only 3 days of them. We were planning a big summer trip for June, followed by another trip in December '20, which would have justified the cost of the passes. Well, the June trip has been rescheduled for late July & we don't even know if it will be open then. Park touring with masks is a non-starter for us, so this trip probably isn't going to happen. Who knows if the mask requirement will still be there in December? If it is, we're not going. In addition to masks, there is the issue of park access being limited, attractions & entertainment being limited, possibly no water parks & pools (a huge part of our summer trips).

Each pass cost $1,200 & a $400 refund or a few months extension is NOT an acceptable reimbursement for all of this. We are tied to a strict school year & custody schedule, so we cannot go to WDW from January to May. So an extension is worthless. I want most of the money on our passes refunded if masks are going to be the new normal for 2020. Disney is good about refunding cancelled resort packages due to this. They should also refund most of the cost of the APs for people who have only used a few days, since the new Disney experience is going to bear so little resemblance to what was offered in 2019 when they sold us these passes. We paid Disney top dollar for a year of full access on our own schedule. Not for a year of severe restrictions on their schedule.

I am a passholder on the monthly payment plan. For weeks Disney has said they were going to refund what they took out for March and April. I still have received nothing. Come on Disney, do you know what or get off the pot. When the parks re-open has nothing to do with when they should refund our monthly payment.

 

[Kaadk]

I am a passholder on the monthly payment plan. For weeks Disney has said they were going to refund what they took out for March and April. I still have received nothing. Come on Disney, do you know what or get off the pot. When the parks re-open has nothing to do with when they should refund our monthly payment.

I know it sucks, and there isn't a GOOD reason why they haven't, but to offer an a possible LOUSY reason, but still a reason, on why they haven't:

Maybe they're waiting to process all the refunds in one shot, in order to only send one request for refunds to the various credit processors. In order to do that, they'll need to wait for the re-open, which they need in order to know how much to refund the paid-in-full APs.

 

[keishashadow]

Let us know what you find out! We are in exactly the same boat.
We always buy the DVC-discounted Gold pass but chose the Platinum this year since we were going to be there in April during the Easter blackout dates. The passes were renewed in February, so have not even used them yet AND they were purchased after the price increase. We really hit the jackpot of bad luck around the renewal of APs this year! I'm with you in being a little annoyed, but realizing it's small potatoes in the scheme of the current global situation. ++socially distant high five++
I think the refund is likely the way to go money-wise (refund at Platinum level, I'll renew at Gold level in the future), but I will need to run some numbers once we know the full length of the closure, so I can decide what's best for us.

Lol high 5 right back at ya

I called the APH department. They aren’t permitted to ‘touch’ any APHs at this point. It’s all going to be handled by the regular ticketing department...appears they will be pulling them on a manual basis

OMG, can you imagine how long that is going to take?

They are attaching “notes” to the APHs & tickets though when people do call into them. Especially, if they have ‘special requests’, as in wanting to drop down to a lower APH level if they found themselves unable to utilize an upgrade.

APH department said they ‘should be able to adjust the price back down to Gold’...took my phone number & asked when a good time would be to call me once the parks reopen. She actually looked up via various credit card numbers I have as to the date of the purchases, which I found interesting.

CM did say to run the numbers though, it may be more beneficial to take the refund based on Platinum pricing vs Gold, even factoring in a refund for closure or extension of tix. I haven’t tackled that mess yet, sounds like a spreadsheet is in order lol.

Told the credit would process back to the form of payment used to purchase. A bit complicated with ours, I used cash to upgrade one when we snuck down for a quickie president’s days trip & stayed offsite. CM said that is quite rare, not sure how they will handle that. I said to note I’d be happy with a disney GC.

CM did try to press me to decide whether we were all in on taking the extension or the refund. Kept my options open & said it would all depend on the length of time parks are closed. We all have staggered expiration dates for our APHs to help lessen the hit on the wallet all at once.

Maybe they're waiting to process all the refunds in one shot, in order to only send one request for refunds to the various credit processors. In order to do that, they'll need to wait for the re-open, which they need in order to know how much to refund the paid-in-full APs.

I was told each one will be processed separately to keep a paper trail of sorts. Ugh

 

[Kaadk]

...I was told each one will be processed separately to keep a paper trail of sorts. Ugh

Some of the work I do is on business systems that communicate with credit processors. They're right that they're processed separately, but they could still be requested in batch. As in, "here's a list of refunds we need you to do", each one is processed separately, and the credit processors then reply with "here's your list back with the the result of each one". They'd still have the necessary 'paper' trail for each and every refund requested, but without the overhead of making separate communications with the credit processors for each and every request.

...Told the credit would process back to the form of payment used to purchase. A bit complicated with ours, I used cash to upgrade one when we snuck down for a quickie president’s days trip & stayed offsite. CM said that is quite rare, not sure how they will handle that. I said to note I’d be happy with a disney GC.
...

You do bring up a good point. Refunding back to cards are easy, but for any cash purchased APs, or cash upgraded APs in your case, they'd either have to send out Disney GC, or cheque's. It'd probably be in their best interest to issue them as GCs, as that would pretty much lock the money still in with Disney.... But that wouldn't be in the best interest of the AP holders.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

I know it sucks, and there isn't a GOOD reason why they haven't, but to offer an a possible LOUSY reason, but still a reason, on why they haven't:

Maybe they're waiting to process all the refunds in one shot, in order to only send one request for refunds to the various credit processors. In order to do that, they'll need to wait for the re-open, which they need in order to know how much to refund the paid-in-full APs.

I TOTALLY agree it sucks. Thank you for your input.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I don't think expecting a majority of my money refunded is unreasonable. We only used three days of the pass, and the experience they're now offering bears very little resemblance to what they offered when I purchased them. It's like when airlines reschedule your selected flight for a totally different time, you're entitled to a refund. Disney refunds resort packages for people who won't or can't go due to all the changes. I think they should do more for people who bought their top dollar APs, as well. Or at least let us decide a "restart" date for our APs, as many of us can't use the extension due to scheduling constraints.

So given that Covid was reasonably foreseeable by neither Disney nor you/me, how much of the loss do you consider should be borne by Disney and you/me? A 50/50 split?
Disney is able to partially perform the contract, in that for 365 days less the shut down period, the services that Disney contracted to provide were available to you. I do not consider that the contract has been frustrated or that Disney are in repudiatory breach, do you? So how does that impact any ‘spilt’? 70/30?
Could you actually travel to Orlando, during the time Disney is closed? Is your country/state/ you in ‘lockdown’? How does that impact the split?
There is no fault on Disney’s part: Just arguing Covid so Disney should bear the entire loss and you/I should bear no loss at all, seems unreasonable and contractually without legal merit.

 

[Primeval Princess]

So given that Covid was reasonably foreseeable by neither Disney nor you/me, how much of the loss do you consider should be borne by Disney and you/me? A 50/50 split?
Disney is able to partially perform the contract, in that for 365 days less the shut down period, the services that Disney contracted to provide were available to you. I do not consider that the contract has been frustrated or that Disney are in repudiatory breach, do you? So how does that impact any ‘spilt’? 70/30?
Could you actually travel to Orlando, during the time Disney is closed? Is your country/state/ you in ‘lockdown’? How does that impact the split?
There is no fault on Disney’s part: Just arguing Covid so Disney should bear the entire loss and you/I should bear no loss at all, seems unreasonable and contractually without legal merit.

Then we'll agree to disagree. No, I don't think 50/50 is fair, although it would at least be better than what we're being offered now, which is less than that. If Disney can refund resort packages, they should also be able to refund the unused portion of an AP. They are capable and it's a matter of goodwill. We've spent 10's of thousands of dollars on Disney over the years and would like to spend more in the future. But them being stingy with AP refunds, when APs were extremely expensive and offered a totally different experience and time frame than is being offered today, is a roadblock to us to wanting to spend a lot of money on them in the future.

It would be logical and beneficial for them to be flexible with loyal customers under these extraordinary circumstances, and it would be fair for us, because we are not getting what we paid for.

 

[Kaadk]

Then we'll agree to disagree. No, I don't think 50/50 is fair, although it would at least be better than what we're being offered now, which is less than that. If Disney can refund resort packages, they should also be able to refund the unused portion of an AP. They are capable and it's a matter of goodwill. We've spent 10's of thousands of dollars on Disney over the years and would like to spend more in the future. But them being stingy with AP refunds, when APs were extremely expensive and offered a totally different experience and time frame than is being offered today, is a roadblock to us to wanting to spend a lot of money on them in the future.

It would be logical and beneficial for them to be flexible with loyal customers under these extraordinary circumstances, and it would be fair for us, because we are not getting what we paid for.

What you paid for was a 'chance' to enter the Disney Parks, over a period of 366 days. You didn't buy a set number of days, or a set number of trips, or whatnot. If Disney is open, but you can't go, or don't want to go, that's not their responsibility. They are compensating you for the days that they were in control of the fact of the you couldn't go, by being closed, which in the broad spectrum, is fair to all.

Now, your point about the reduced experience. According to their press release for Shanghai, they're also extending the days they have reduce experiences in Shanghai, which is more than fair and above and beyond what most companies will do:

**The validity period of a Shanghai Disneyland Annual Pass will be extended for the number of lost days falling between the park’s closure date of January 25, 2020 and the end of the “Advanced Reservation Period.” A Shanghai Disneyland Annual Pass that expired before January 25, 2020 or that was purchased after the end of the “Advanced Reservation Period” will not be extended. The same extension policy will apply to the validity period for General Admission tickets for Shanghai Disneyland. The detailed extension policy, including block-out days, will be communicated with Pass and ticket holders separately.

Why does everyone assume they won't do the same here?

 

[Primeval Princess]

According to their press release for Shanghai, they're also extending the days they have reduce experiences in Shanghai, which is more than fair and above and beyond what most companies will do:

Why does everyone assume they won't do the same here?

Because the Disney website only says APs will be reimbursed for the closure period.

 

[Primeval Princess]

What you paid for was a 'chance' to enter the Disney Parks, over a period of 366 days. You didn't buy a set number of days, or a set number of trips, or whatnot.

We paid for 365 consecutive days which allows guests to plan when they can travel based on their schedule. The closure is taking away some of the most important days that we're able to travel. We cannot travel from January - May, so an extension is worthless to us. That's why I also said I'd be satisfied if they let AP holders set the restart date for their passes (to include the number of days that would have been left since closure began). That would solve the problem of people's schedules not working with the closure period. Disney should be flexible with guests under these extraordinary circumstances, given how much we've paid them for these passes.

 

[LizzyDragon]

I'm a local silver AP holder that is PIF. I'm planning on just taking the extension as I normally renew each year anyway. Right now, I only see myself requesting a refund if my current job furlough lasts much longer than expected and I need the money back for bills.

 

[princessbride6205]

Lol high 5 right back at ya

I called the APH department. They aren’t permitted to ‘touch’ any APHs at this point. It’s all going to be handled by the regular ticketing department...appears they will be pulling them on a manual basis

OMG, can you imagine how long that is going to take?

They are attaching “notes” to the APHs & tickets though when people do call into them. Especially, if they have ‘special requests’, as in wanting to drop down to a lower APH level if they found themselves unable to utilize an upgrade.

APH department said they ‘should be able to adjust the price back down to Gold’...took my phone number & asked when a good time would be to call me once the parks reopen. She actually looked up via various credit card numbers I have as to the date of the purchases, which I found interesting.

CM did say to run the numbers though, it may be more beneficial to take the refund based on Platinum pricing vs Gold, even factoring in a refund for closure or extension of tix. I haven’t tackled that mess yet, sounds like a spreadsheet is in order lol.

Told the credit would process back to the form of payment used to purchase. A bit complicated with ours, I used cash to upgrade one when we snuck down for a quickie president’s days trip & stayed offsite. CM said that is quite rare, not sure how they will handle that. I said to note I’d be happy with a disney GC.

CM did try to press me to decide whether we were all in on taking the extension or the refund. Kept my options open & said it would all depend on the length of time parks are closed. We all have staggered expiration dates for our APHs to help lessen the hit on the wallet all at once.

Thanks for posting your experience! I'll give them a call to see about refunding the difference between Platinum and Gold pass - at least get the note on my file. I'm going to be doing that spreadsheet as well to figure out extension versus refund. A refund is probably worth more in dollars, but I'd love my renew date to be May rather than Feb, so I may lean towards the extension.

 

[keishashadow]

Because the Disney website only says APs will be reimbursed for the closure period.

I do think anything is written in stone here. Disney will do whatever it will take to get people back into the parks.

I look at it as a fluid work in progress as to proceeding. They will tweak the current operating policy as they go IMO

APH guests are loyal fans, doesn’t bode well if disney doesn’t do all they can to promote a sense of goodwill.

 

[DebbieB]

Because the Disney website only says APs will be reimbursed for the closure period.

In Shanghai, they are including the reservations only period as part of the closure time for AP extensions. We don’t know if they will do that here but the reservations seem likely. Bob Chapek said they don’t want more people showing up at the gate than they have capacity for.

 

[dragonflymom]

We only used three days of the pass, and the experience they're now offering bears very little resemblance to what they offered when I purchased them.

I am in the same boat--got only 3 days from quick trip last December holidays and was planning to visit again this April and Oct. April didn't happen and we are passing on October because I am not ready to go on a 5-hour cross country flight until there's a vaccine. I do think a refund for park closure days is fair. I do think that we should cut Disney some slack in the Covid and post-Covid world and not expect the same experience we had before. And that extends to not only Disney, but a lot of day-to-day experience like restaurants, shopping, sports and attending college via online classes (but still with a hefty price tag). This last one hits close to home as I have two in college now distance learning at home...no reduction in tuition plus I have to upgrade my home internet and constantly cook, clean and do laundry

As consumers, we have the right to demand what we paid for. Just keep in mind Disney are not the bad guys here. Through no fault of theirs, they are losing boat loads of money everyday and cast members have no idea how long they will be furloughed. If anything, their cost is going to increase when they open at way below capacity because of their high fixed costs and also because of the extra manpower now needed to enforce social distancing and other safety measures. I won't be surprised if they cut down on discounts and promotions in order to limit attendees so as not to exceed reduced park capacity. This may just work out for both Disney and guests as guests self-select and space out their return...some will go back as soon as parks re-open and won't mind the reduced experience while others will only go back when a vaccine is available and Disney can be fully magical again.