Is this discrimination as people without disability can book

[Chelseagirl1962]

We were excited with Disney releasing there promotion for there 50th anniversary in the UK .We are very disappointed that we can not book a disabled room as they are not released to the UK for our dates and part of the promotion will be over by the time they are released is this discrimination as people without disability can book this promotion

 

[lanejudy]

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not familiar with the promotion you mention because UK promotions tend to be different than what's available to the US, and we have no promotions available for the anniversary time here in the US. I do know that resort room availability is already very limited for the fall. Is it possible there are no HA rooms available for the dates you want? Are HA rooms usually withheld and released later for the UK promotions? That's a very odd situation for me to grasp as it wouldn't be allowed in the US.

 

[Evita_W]

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not familiar with the promotion you mention because UK promotions tend to be different than what's available to the US, and we have no promotions available for the anniversary time here in the US. I do know that resort room availability is already very limited for the fall. Is it possible there are no HA rooms available for the dates you want? Are HA rooms usually withheld and released later for the UK promotions? That's a very odd situation for me to grasp as it wouldn't be allowed in the US.

Since they are booking a trip in the U.S., wouldn't U.S. ADA laws apply? It really shouldn't matter where they live.

We were excited with Disney releasing there promotion for there 50th anniversary in the UK .We are very disappointed that we can not book a disabled room as they are not released to the UK for our dates and part of the promotion will be over by the time they are released is this discrimination as people without disability can book this promotion

Well, depending on disability, you may be able to book a standard room and be ok, Disney is usually pretty good about providing things like shower chairs and such if needed in a non accessible room. Just if you can't do stairs, avoid the few resorts without elevators if you can't get an accessible room.

I would also go to disneyworld.com and see if you can book an accessible room without the promo, if you can, then you should be able to call Disney and have them book the promo. In fact, Disney might be requiring phone calls to book accessible rooms to help ensure that those that actually need them can get them. I know they sometimes do this on the DVC side. Hopefully Disney has a UK number that you can call, I honestly don't know.

 

[lanejudy]

Since they are booking a trip in the U.S., wouldn't U.S. ADA laws apply? It really shouldn't matter where they live.

I would think so, but I don't know marketing laws in the UK and they would need to adhere to any requirements there for a promotion targeted at the UK. Also why I asked if this was common for UK promotions to release HA rooms separately. Seems odd to me. I'm leaning more towards there simply aren't HA rooms available for OP's specific dates. Fully-booked for 1 night can make the whole 1- or 2- week vacation appear unavailable.

 

[lanejudy]

OP - I did some digging, and are you referring to the "October Half-Term" offer for 7 nights at All Star Movies with arrival on Oct. 23rd? Maybe like US promotions it lists the lowest priced option but can be booked for a different resort and/or longer/shorter stay.

FWIW... I don't find any HA room availability at Movies for that time period in the US booking system, so I don't think it's a case of "not released yet." There does appear to be HA rooms available in the US booking system at a few other resorts if the promotion allows for that.

 

[Chelseagirl1962]

Thank you for your replies
We have been coming to Disney since 1999 our daughter has special needs and her mobility has got worse over the years and we now need an accessible wet room which has worked for us in the past and the reason cant be that there are no rooms available as we are trying to book for nov 15th at coronado springs but The Disney Travel UK told us that rooms are not released to the UK until 499 days from our actual resort leaving day if we did not need an accessible room we could book it today

 

[SueM in MN]

Since they are booking a trip in the U.S., wouldn't U.S. ADA laws apply? It really shouldn't matter where they live.


Well, depending on disability, you may be able to book a standard room and be ok, Disney is usually pretty good about providing things like shower chairs and such if needed in a non accessible room. Just if you can't do stairs, avoid the few resorts without elevators if you can't get an accessible room.

I would also go to disneyworld.com and see if you can book an accessible room without the promo, if you can, then you should be able to call Disney and have them book the promo. In fact, Disney might be requiring phone calls to book accessible rooms to help ensure that those that actually need them can get them. I know they sometimes do this on the DVC side. Hopefully Disney has a UK number that you can call, I honestly don't know.

I don’t know what the story is for UK promotions, but in the US, the ADA requires that accessible rooms are able to be booked by whatever methods non-accessible rooms are able to be booked. I can’t look the date of the change, but it’s been at least a couple of years. WDW made some changes to their website to enable checking and booking accessible rooms. The change to the ADA also required accessible rooms to be blocked at the time of booking, so hotels are not overbooking accessible rooms.
The last few years we’ve booked our accessible DVC rooms online.

 

[Starwind]

I wonder if the problem is an artifact of room only reservations in the US (which are the furtherst out bookable... packages can't be booked this far out) can only be booked 499 days out... which means for a highly restricted room class [which the accessible rooms are] they won't know availability until that 499 day mark. Whereas with the "normal" rooms availability would not be an issue that far out.

So for example...If they are accepting/blocking the reservations but not actually putting them into the "system" until 499d out then they would be fine almost all the time for a normal room but could run into problems for accessible rooms where they had booked out but there wasn't actually any availability when it came time to load it into the system. The "easy" way to avoid it is wait to allow booking until you actually can fully book, but that creates the unfair mismatch.

OTOH the issue may be something entirely different. But is is suspicious with the dates involved.

Just speculating on the potential cause of the issue.

 

[lanejudy]

Oh, are you asking about Nov. 15, 2022? Sorry, I thought you meant this fall 2021 for the 50th anniversary. The TA is correct, rooms cannot be booked more than 499 days in advance of check-out. Not a promotion, but I know that in the US when packages are released for the following year, you still can't book more than 499 days out. (For example, packages have typically been released in June for the following year, but one cannot book a December package at that point.)

 

[dancingdiva14]

I have booked an accessible room for pop century in august 2022 with the current 50th anniversary package. Up until the 3rd of august for the $200 gift card but after that u won’t get the gift card but the dining credits. 499 days from the 2nd august is 14th December 2022. So you should still be able to get the offer.

 

[Princess Oma]

Please read up on the law.Companies do not have to have exact promotions across the board. Such as: Disney is offering the promotion- unfortunately HA rooms are not currently included( as you say) Handicapped people are NOT being excluded from staying at Disney-you can still get a promotion-just not the DESIRED room you want. Same goes with cruise lines. There are only so many handicapped rooms- if you want the handicapped room- sometimes you HAVE to book full price to get it and not the promotional price. And sometimes companies only have 100 promotions available and say only 10% are allotted for handicapped rooms-it being capped.
Discrimination would be you Can not book at All Stars because they only allow purple people there.
If you filed suit- your case would have no merit.
But you could always call nicely and find out more information and not be so defensive and accusatory And see if there was some sort of misinformation, misunderstanding, the number of rooms allotted for that time period already sold out,or it just was not included.

Ie: Just like if they have a promotion only for people from New York- you have to be from New York to get the promotion-but they can divide up how much inventory and what resorts that are given to the New Yorkers to choose to get that promotion.

 

[lanejudy]

if we did not need an accessible room we could book it today

I think the TA is incorrect about this. I can book a non-promotional US package through mid-October 2022 today (actually a little more than 499 days). But I cannot book late-October or November or December. Room type doesn't matter -- wheelchair accessible or not, preferred, suite, etc. That is too far out to book.

I suggest you check back with the TA in about a month (maybe Jul 3rd) and see if they can book a Nov. 15, 2022 arrival for you then.

 

[Evita_W]

Please read up on the law.Companies do not have to have exact promotions across the board. Such as: Disney is offering the promotion- unfortunately HA rooms are not currently included( as you say) Handicapped people are NOT being excluded from staying at Disney-you can still get a promotion-just not the DESIRED room you want. Same goes with cruise lines. There are only so many handicapped rooms- if you want the handicapped room- sometimes you HAVE to book full price to get it and not the promotional price. And sometimes companies only have 100 promotions available and say only 10% are allotted for handicapped rooms-it being capped.
Discrimination would be you Can not book at All Stars because they only allow purple people there.
If you filed suit- your case would have no merit.
But you could always call nicely and find out more information and not be so defensive and accusatory And see if there was some sort of misinformation, misunderstanding, the number of rooms allotted for that time period already sold out,or it just was not included.

Ie: Just like if they have a promotion only for people from New York- you have to be from New York to get the promotion-but they can divide up how much inventory and what resorts that are given to the New Yorkers to choose to get that promotion.

Actually this isn't accurate, any promotion must be made available for an equivalent accessible room. I.e. Standard View vs Standard View Accessible would both have to have the same promotion available for as long as the accessible rooms are not booked.

It comes down to accessible rooms can't be a higher rate than equivalent non-accessible rooms, that is a clear violation of ADA.

 

[Chelseagirl1962]

We do not want a law suit would just like to be able to get my daughter into the bathroom hence need wider doorways with wet room

 

[Evita_W]

We do not want a law suit would just like to be able to get my daughter into the bathroom hence need wider doorways with wet room

I would try to call Disney direct instead of through a TA in this case.

 

[mamabunny]

We do not want a law suit would just like to be able to get my daughter into the bathroom hence need wider doorways with wet room

You can always reach out to Disability Services, and ask them any questions you have about specific rooms/room types and/or availibility:

Contact Disability Services at (407) 560-2547 or email disability.services@disneyparks.com.

 

[Starwind]

I would reach out to Disability Services as mamabunny suggests as something seems weird.

They could be sold out of accessible rooms. Or there could be a problem that they need to fix.

I went to the Disney UK website.

OP, I assume you are wanting to book the "Magical 2022 Package for the World's Most Magical Celebration" ?

I did a search for that package for both hotel+tickets and for hotel only, for two adults, 14 nights starting Nov 15 2022.

For hotel-only, 13 hotels match with availability, including Coronado Springs.




This is what I got when I did the same search but flagged I needed an accessible room, whether for 2, 7, or 14 nights:



So clearly a problem with the accessible rooms, either they can't be booked online for some reason, or there is a glitch making them not available, or they are sold out already.

Either way, call and speak to a Disney human to find out what is going on.

SW

 

[Starwind]

Booking site for the package: https://www.disneypackages.co.uk/?DHredirect=DisneyPackages

 

[Chelseagirl1962]

Thanks for your help but we have spoken to a Disney human and they said if we want the full promotion which ends on the 17th July we could book a standard room and hope Disney USA release accessible rooms at Coronado to the UK on 18th July which is 499 days before our leaving resort date if they don't we lose our deposit
If I was being honest with our 2019 holiday being cancelled we just want to book a holiday to look forward to

 

[Chelseagirl1962]

Please read up on the law.Companies do not have to have exact promotions across the board. Such as: Disney is offering the promotion- unfortunately HA rooms are not currently included( as you say) Handicapped people are NOT being excluded from staying at Disney-you can still get a promotion-just not the DESIRED room you want. Same goes with cruise lines. There are only so many handicapped rooms- if you want the handicapped room- sometimes you HAVE to book full price to get it and not the promotional price. And sometimes companies only have 100 promotions available and say only 10% are allotted for handicapped rooms-it being capped.
Discrimination would be you Can not book at All Stars because they only allow purple people there.
If you filed suit- your case would have no merit.
But you could always call nicely and find out more information and not be so defensive and accusatory And see if there was some sort of misinformation, misunderstanding, the number of rooms allotted for that time period already sold out,or it just was not included.

Ie: Just like if they have a promotion only for people from New York- you have to be from New York to get the promotion-but they can divide up how much inventory and what resorts that are given to the New Yorkers to choose to get that promotion.

I totally agree with what you said it is up to Disney. Dates what resorts and what groups of people are included IE New Yorkers what if one of your New Yorkers is disabled and need a accessible room and and Disney does not make any accessible rooms available that is discrimination or is your New Yorker promotion only for able-bodied Yew Yorkers ( if Disney make just one room available which is booked on first come basis that's fine)