How often does Disney cancel adventures?

[abacab]

Just wondering; how often does Disney cancel the trip because there are not enough guests? Is this something to be concerned about?

 

[tufbuf]

Back in 2009 when the economy was going bad, they made a number of trip cancellations. We were affected by it and they made us choose a different adventure or reschedule the date. They also paid for all the penalties accrued from airfare cancellations. Last year, we were booked to go to Egypt and that was canceled too in Feb. (we were scheduled to go Aug.) and refunded us the payment and assisted us in waiving the penalty for rebooking our airfare.

I think they are managing the dates better and other than safety concerns, I don't think they will be canceling as much as they did back in 2009.

 

[sayhello]

I agree with tufbuf. In 2009, it was a case of over-expansion just before the economy tanked. They just had too many departures and not enough people. My Canadian Rockies trip only had 3 people signed up, if I remember correctly, when ABD canceled it. They bent over backwards to get me on another trip (ended up doing an Alaska trip that started the day before the Canada one.) They took care of the cost to move my plane ticket. I think they are much more conservative about expansion now, so I doubt there will be much of that again.

The only cancellations I've heard of since, that I can remember, were, as tufbuf said, for safety reasons. The political unrest in Egypt got that trip canceled. And I remember we had someone post that their trip got cancelled because a major road was washed out. I don't remember the details.

But I feel pretty safe these days. I've had trips go with 14 and 15 people, so the numbers have to be pretty low for them to cancel for that reason.

Sayhello

 

[pxlbarrel]

Our April China trip only had 24 people on it. We heard that the June trips (the ones happening in a few weeks in fact) had the maximum number of 40 people on them. I don't think you have anything to worry about next year.

 

[Bobo912]

Our guide last summer mentioned to me that there were some cancellations in 2011 due to low bookings. I was surprised, since we hadn't heard about it on the board, but, of course, we don't hear about everything. I don't know what the minimum is, and it probably depends on the itinerary, but our last trip was only 16, so it doesn't take a lot of bookings for the trip to be a go.

I was a vicitm of the 2009 cancellations, as well. But I didn't hesitate to book with ABD again. In my case the cancellation came very early. Our trip was scheduled for June and we were informed of the cancellation in January. I hadn't booked our flight yet, so all we had to do was select another trip. ABD was very helpful in rearranging our plans. We were originally traveling to Australia, but ended up going to Alaska. Since the stock market had just tanked and I'd lost about half my retirement savings, it was a bit of a relief to have the opportunity to switch to a less expensive itinerary. Honestly, I wouldn't be concerned about cancellations. It's probably not likely, but if it happens you will be taken care of.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Oh... and congrats for booking China. You'll love it!! The pandas are so amazing!!!

 

[rbgeorge]

ABD just cancel two fall excursions to China...too few guests.

Cancelled trips should be posted on their website for accountability. Additionally some system to warn guests that this may be likely. If we had known a month earlier that this was a possibility, then possibilities existed...they refund trip/points/airfare...what about the lost income from booked vacation with no place to go!

 

[sayhello]

ABD just cancel two fall excursions to China...too few guests.

Cancelled trips should be posted on their website for accountability. Additionally some system to warn guests that this may be likely. If we had known a month earlier that this was a possibility, then possibilities existed...they refund trip/points/airfare...what about the lost income from booked vacation with no place to go!

Oh, wow! Thanks for letting us know. I haven't heard of any trips being canceled in a long time. Can you tell us what the dates were for the canceled trips?

I'm sorry this happened to you. Are you unable to book a different ABD? I had my ABD canceled in 2009 (but that was the year of the huge expansion just before the economy went bust) and was lucky enough to be able to switch to a different trip that left the day before my canceled trip was supposed to leave.

Again, so sorry this happened. I hope you get it all worked out.

Sayhello