Looking for advice - to cancel myself, or wait for ABD to cancel?

[floribr1]

Hello - I am hoping some of you wise, experienced ABDers here will be able to offer some advice. I am currently booked on the ABD Peru / Machu Picchu trip that is scheduled to begin on May 20. Given all that is currently going on in Peru right now, we are seriously reconsidering our options. We are getting quite close to our PIF date. Our travel agent spoke with Disney about our concerns, and she was given the standard response, "we are closely monitoring the events taking place in Peru..."

My concern here is that one of two scenarios happen... Either (i) the country manages to get its act together... sort of... so ABD does not cancel the trip, but instead gives us something "watered down;" or (ii) ABD does cancel the trip, but the decision is so last minute that it is impossible for us to make alternate plans. This trip was going to be our very first ABD trip. Going to Peru is very likely a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us, so I really don't want a watered down experience. Given the current situation in Peru, I really am feeling that this is probably not the right time to go.

If ABD ends up cancelling the trip (due to safety, the attractions not being open, whatever), do they offer any kind of special compensation, e.g., 125% credit for a future trip? Or is it just a full refund of what you have already paid? Any thoughts on how early they typically cancel in similar situations? If there is some potential tangible benefit to waiting for Disney to cancel, I my consider that... However, my gut is telling me that I should just cancel now and see about booking something else.

I would really appreciate any thoughts or pearls of wisdom you all may have!

Thank you!

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

We were in a similar situation for the Japan ABD in 2022... PIF date was approaching and they hadn't announced that our adventure would be canceled (which should have been a no-brainer given Japan hadn't yet reopened). I called them the day before PIF date and got verbal confirmation that it would be cancelled. My advice would be for you to do the same and document the conversation just in case.

Hope that helps.

 

[floribr1]

We were in a similar situation for the Japan ABD in 2022... PIF date was approaching and they hadn't announced that our adventure would be canceled (which should have been a no-brainer given Japan hadn't yet reopened). I called them the day before PIF date and got verbal confirmation that it would be cancelled. My advice would be for you to do the same and document the conversation just in case.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for sharing your experience! Do you know if I were to cancel myself now, would I receive a full credit for the 10% deposit that I made when I first booked the trip? Or would I forfeit that, since ABD had not officially cancelled the trip yet?

I do have a backup ABD trip in mind. The backup trip takes place at the same time as my scheduled trip; if I could simply switch the reservation over, I would happily do that (approximately same price, similar dates, etc.). I just worry about the availability for that backup trip going away.

Thanks again...

 

[sayhello]

Thank you for sharing your experience! Do you know if I were to cancel myself now, would I receive a full credit for the 10% deposit that I made when I first booked the trip? Or would I forfeit that, since ABD had not officially cancelled the trip yet?

I do have a backup ABD trip in mind. The backup trip takes place at the same time as my scheduled trip; if I could simply switch the reservation over, I would happily do that (approximately same price, similar dates, etc.). I just worry about the availability for that backup trip going away.

Thanks again...

I totally understand about not wanting to go to Peru right now. I'd want to postpone a trip there myself at the moment. I will also say that ABD's recent history has been, in this kind of situation, to "wait and see" until very close to the trip.

To my knowledge, assuming the rules haven't changed, you are allowed to move a deposit once to another ABD, but only *prior* to Paid in Full. So if you really want to do that alternate ABD, I would look into doing that. ABD will not, however, compensate you in any way for any airfare you may have already purchased. You are on your own with the airline as to whether or not they'd let you modify the reservation to the new destination. If *you* out and out cancel, you will not get your deposit back.

If ABD cancels your trip, you have the option to either get a full refund or apply your payments (deposit, Paid in Full, wherever you are at the point it's canceled) OR have the payments applied to a new departure OR a different ABD (your backup ABD). The two advantages to moving to another ABD are 1) ABD will let you book the new ABD at whatever the price was for this new ABD at the time you booked Peru. 2) If you booked your airfare through ABD, they will take care of booking the airfare to the new destination (within reason). If you did not book your airfare through ABD, they will cover any charges (again, within reason) from the airline to change your flights to the new destination. The downside to taking the refund and not re-booking is that if you booked your airfare yourself and don't rebook, you are on your own with the airline for your airfare. I am not sure what the current policy is about airfare purchased through ABD if you take the refund.

Sometimes, if they do water down the trip *too* much, they'll give you the option to cancel or change the trip. But that seems to be very much on a case-by-case basis.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any further questions. I'd definitely have your travel agent verify all this before making any decisions, because ABD policies definitely *do* change all the time.

Sayhello

 

[floribr1]

I totally understand about not wanting to go to Peru right now. I'd want to postpone a trip there myself at the moment. I will also say that ABD's recent history has been, in this kind of situation, to "wait and see" until very close to the trip.

To my knowledge, assuming the rules haven't changed, you are allowed to move a deposit once to another ABD, but only *prior* to Paid in Full. So if you really want to do that alternate ABD, I would look into doing that. ABD will not, however, compensate you in any way for any airfare you may have already purchased. You are on your own with the airline as to whether or not they'd let you modify the reservation to the new destination. If *you* out and out cancel, you will not get your deposit back.

If ABD cancels your trip, you have the option to either get a full refund or apply your payments (deposit, Paid in Full, wherever you are at the point it's canceled) OR have the payments applied to a new departure OR a different ABD (your backup ABD). The two advantages to moving to another ABD are 1) ABD will let you book the new ABD at whatever the price was for this new ABD at the time you booked Peru. 2) If you booked your airfare through ABD, they will take care of booking the airfare to the new destination (within reason). If you did not book your airfare through ABD, they will cover any charges (again, within reason) from the airline to change your flights to the new destination. The downside to taking the refund and not re-booking is that if you booked your airfare yourself and don't rebook, you are on your own with the airline for your airfare. I am not sure what the current policy is about airfare purchased through ABD if you take the refund.

Sometimes, if they do water down the trip *too* much, they'll give you the option to cancel or change the trip. But that seems to be very much on a case-by-case basis.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any further questions. I'd definitely have your travel agent verify all this before making any decisions, because ABD policies definitely *do* change all the time.

Sayhello

Fantastic - thank you so much for this detailed response!

I think we will be switching to our backup ABD. I was so looking forward to Peru, but sadly, it does not seem to be in the cards for us right now.

 

[sayhello]

Fantastic - thank you so much for this detailed response!

I think we will be switching to our backup ABD. I was so looking forward to Peru, but sadly, it does not seem to be in the cards for us right now.

It just seems like the less stressful thing to do at this point. Let us know how it turns out!

Sayhello

 

[floribr1]

It just seems like the less stressful thing to do at this point. Let us know how it turns out!

Sayhello

I was able to cancel, and rebook the Disneyland/SoCal trip that starts 5/21! It’s not quite the international adventure I had in mind, but we had been wanting to do that one for a while and this seemed like a good opportunity. Our TA was able to apply a DVC discount, which greatly reduced the cost, to the point we had a credit due to us ($1800).

So all-in-all, I think we are satisfied. Hopefully Peru is in our future in a year or two. Thanks again for your help/advice!

 

[sayhello]

I was able to cancel, and rebook the Disneyland/SoCal trip that starts 5/21! It’s not quite the international adventure I had in mind, but we had been wanting to do that one for a while and this seemed like a good opportunity. Our TA was able to apply a DVC discount, which greatly reduced the cost, to the point we had a credit due to us ($1800).

So all-in-all, I think we are satisfied. Hopefully Peru is in our future in a year or two. Thanks again for your help/advice!

So glad it all worked out! I'm sure you will love your new ABD, and Peru will be a better option again in the future!

Sayhello

 

[Chiasgirl]

I realize that you’ve found an answer that works for your family. I’m sharing my experience in case anyone is still wondering how AbD might handle upcoming Peru trips.
We were booked on the Dec 24th departure. They cancelled the Dec 20th, 24th, and 28th (I think, might have been a day or two off) all on Dec 16th. We called repeatedly the weeks prior and kept getting told they were monitoring the situation.
AbD refunded 100% to the original method of payment. No extras offered. They also would not allow us to transfer funds to another trip departing that week as their numbers (for hotels etc) had been finalized.
We are a family of 3 - my husband and I and are 17 year old son. In the days before the cancellation, I had come up with a backup plan that we immediately put into action. Within 3 hours of being cancelled, we had changed our flights to go to Basel and return out of Amsterdam and were booked on an AMAWaterways river cruise. It ended up being one of our best vacations ever. The only glitch is the refund from AbD didn’t hit our credit card until after we had to pay for our new booking. All this to say, if you do decide to keep your booking with AbD, be prepared to pivot at the last minute.

 

[floribr1]

I am glad this worked out for you! Actually, I saw your original Peru thread that you posted back in December. It was a major reason why I decided not to wait for Disney to cancel ours...

To be completely fair to ABD, the situation in Peru only cropped up in early December; they were probably hoping the whole thing would blow over quickly and that the late December trips would be able to go forward. [Sadly, that has not been the case...] I think that ABD must have cancelled all of their April and May 2023 Peru trips shortly after we decided to switch out ours.