How easy is it to postpone a Disney Vacation

[Leigh Bacon]

Hi! My DH and I were planning on celebrating, kind of, our empty nest with a trip to DW in November. We have our reservations and tickets, and have paid for them, but honestly, and I know this is selfish, I don’t want to go without the dining plan. We visited Disney as a newly married couple, and wanted to visit it again now that our sweet babies are more or less out on their own. Does anyone have any experience with postponing their vacation? Not cancelling, just moving it by a year. Is there any penalty to it? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[FreeTime]

I wouldn’t cancel it due to not having the dining plan as things could change and it may never come back. The Disney site gives no indication of a return date. I would suggest taking whatever money you would have paid for the dining plan and set that aside for your meals. Concerning how hard is it to cancel or move a trip, it isn’t too difficult but expect increased rates depending on when you want to travel. Penalties will vary from nothing to quite a bit depending on who you booked through (Disney, travel agent, wholesale club, AmEx travel) and the terms of what you purchased. Best bet is to pull out the confirmation you have from your package details and check there.

 

[Best Aunt]

I assume that Disney uses the dining plan to fill rooms. If Disney doesn't have empty rooms to fill, it won't be offered. Take a look at the Resort forum - people have been posting about how there is no availability for the time frames they want to book.

It's a Whole New World under the Cheapak regime. It's not safe to assume that anything will be brought back if it doesn't make sense for the Disney bottom line.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Disney is very good about letting you change around your vacation. I will say though, that don't cancel just because of the dining plan. My husband wanted to cancel our November vacation because we didn't have the dining plan. I convinced him to go anyway. We still made reservations at all our favorite places. I had Disney gift cards that were equal to about the cost of the dining plan. We ended up spending less money than the dining plan because we didn't feel like we had to order things we didn't want - like 2 deserts. We still ordered desert, but usually just 1 to share.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Things can change, and they likely will. A package cancellation can incur costs, you may Not get the resort, dates and even the restaurants you want if you try n re-book.
nov is a long way away… I’d hold out n keep ur eyes n ears open.
pixie dust ur way…

 

[Sinder]

I wouldn’t postpone over not having the dining plan. It would be one thing if it was like the good ole days when it actually could be used to save you some money, but now its just pre-paying for food you may not even eat all of.
We started putting money on GC’s purchased at a discount and used that for all our dining costs.
Go and enjoy being empty nesters!

 

[mco65]

I too miss the Dining Plan.. the free one that is!

I have cancelled or basically rescheduled a few times... its not hard at all as long as there is availability but i fear you may be pushing this one out for a while waiting on the Dining plan... unfortunately!

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I assume that Disney uses the dining plan to fill rooms. If Disney doesn't have empty rooms to fill, it won't be offered. Take a look at the Resort forum - people have been posting about how there is no availability for the time frames they want to book.

It's a Whole New World under the Cheapak regime. It's not safe to assume that anything will be brought back if it doesn't make sense for the Disney bottom line.

They gave the dining plan for "free" as a promotion to fill rooms, but without the promotion the dining plan was a huge money maker for Disney. Very few people saved money or broke even using it. I don't think room availability has anything to do with if/when it will return.... it has more to do with getting all the restaurants reopened and fully staffed.

 

[_19disnA]

Not sure how having/not having a dining plan makes that big of a difference in your vacation plans. Many older threads on here debate the value of the dining plans that used to be offered by Disney. Many at best break even on the cost of their meals and it is simply a way to pay upfront for dining. If you are talking about have a FREE dining plan as part of some promotion offered by Disney, there is no way to predict if/when Disney will again offer dining plans. Disney offers discounts to help fill vacant rooms. Not sure until covid is well behind us will things return to normal to see how many people are actually planning a future Disney trip.

Other then the dining plan issue, trying to move your existing reservation to a different date could run into issues if the prices aren't the same. You would have to call Disney to see what could be done. I doubt anyone can predict what Disney prices would be a year from now. You have to make reservations for a specific set of dates. It's not like you can have a 'placeholder' and then keep moving it around if your plans change.

If you cancel your reservations a certain number of days prior to the trip, there is no cancellation fees. Disney website has more specifics about that.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I wouldn’t postpone over not having the dining plan. It would be one thing if it was like the good ole days when it actually could be used to save you some money, but now its just pre-paying for food you may not even eat all of.
We started putting money on GC’s purchased at a discount and used that for all our dining costs.
Go and enjoy being empty nesters!

We do the same thing!

 

[Dashzap]

We have our reservations and tickets, and have paid for them...Does anyone have any experience with postponing their vacation? Not cancelling, just moving it by a year. Is there any penalty to it? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

Did you book the resort reservation and tickets together as a package? Or did you book a room only reservation and standalone tickets? It works differently depending how you set it up.

 

[lanejudy]

Does anyone have any experience with postponing their vacation? Not cancelling, just moving it by a year. Is there any penalty to it?

WDW is very easy to modify. No penalty unless you are within 30 days of arrival (for a package), and even then the change fee is typically waived if the new package is equal or greater cost than the current one. That said, you mention a November trip and I don't think you can push out beyond Dec. 2022 at this time so your current options are to cancel for refund or wait until 2023 packages are available.