mamabunny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 3,834
Not quite.
When it comes to booking those rooms through WDW for someone not in the US, Disney will still apply the same rules to those rooms as they do for anyone in the US.
At any property the US, Disney has to offer both ADA/HA rooms and "regular" rooms at each property (Resort hote or DVC property) regardless of promotion/special or time of year that may be in effect for any date range. They are not allowed to rent rooms only to the able-bodied; additionally, if they offer a special or promotion - like 30% off for pre-booking in January - that same discount will apply to all room types (like ADA/HA roll-in shower rooms) that fall within the scope of the promotion.
Disney is allowed to say that a promotion is only for certain hotel properties, and/or only for certain dates, and/or only for other certain conditions ("If a 3-day Park pass is purchased at time of reservation" or "If the Disney Dining Plan is purchased with at least 2 Park days") but they cannot exclude anyone because of their ability, ethnicity, appearance, personal belief system, or political party affiliation.
Disney does handle it's ADA rooms a bit differently than a lot of other companies, however. When you (or I, or anyone) books an ADA room, that room is removed from the available inventory on the website instantly, so that it can't be "double-booked" by accident.
For example, let's say that Wilderness Lodge has 7 roll-in shower rooms with 2 queen beds (not sure how many they actually have since the most recent renovation, so that's just an example) and you book one for your travel dates. When you go back to the web site, and you still see that room type is available to rent for the same dates after you have reserved your room, it means that they still have at least 1 of the other 7 rooms left (besides the 1 you rented). If you see that there are no roll-in shower rooms with 2 queen beds for your travel dates, then you got the last one. The same will apply to any of the ADA/HA room types at any Disney property.
If an ADA/HA room type is not available, it's because they are all booked up - provided those rooms have been released for booking. As an example, even though I am right here in the US, it doesn't matter how hard I try, I can't book a room at Disney World for 2023. Those rooms have not yet been released for booking by anyone. ADA/HA rooms are released at the same time as "regular" rooms are.
There are times when "regular" people will book ADA/HA rooms, either because there are no more rooms available in the room type they wanted at the Resort they want/need, or becasuse they used those room types when trying to "walk" a reservation to a certain date; either way, they don't realize how it impacts those of us who actually need those rooms, and most people are unaware of how Disney manages the ADA/HA room inventory.
Sorry, I probably just over-explained that LOL; it's either very late, or very early depending on where you are standing, so please forgive me!
I do recommend reaching out to Disability Services here in the US with any questions you may have about specific room types and availability for your dates of travel. Contact Disability Services at (407) 560-2547 or email disability.services@disneyparks.com
