Maximum Night Stay Being Enforced At Select Resort(s) for Select Dates

[mom2rtk]

I wonder if they are doing this to prevent people from booking throwaway rooms to get the earliest access to ADRs and FPs. That seems like a crazy fix for that though. You'd think they would have better alternatives than maximum night stays.

Regardless, it seems hard to wrap my head around. I hope it bites them in the butt and they end up with excess unsold rooms.

 

[Nohal]

Two weeks ago we booked a trip for January 2018. We had no problems booking for 11 nights.

 

[Planogirl]

I was just playing around on Expedia. I checked the first full week of December (8 nights)and almost nothing was available. I checked the same week with it split into two halves and lots of resorts opened up for both halves. Interesting that this might be a thing through Expedia as well.

 

[Pennstate6411]

I wonder if it's because with a room-only you can cancel up to five days ahead and get all of your money back. So they would rather have more groups booking a hypothetical room within a time period. Increases the likelihood of the room being occupied for some portion of the time period.

Makes me think they will move to requiring a two-day deposit and/or requiring cancellation further in advance. I should probably shut up now before they get ideas lol

I know I am not speaking for the majority here but I honestly would love for Disney to do the same as packages and room only would be required to pay in full or cancel 30 days in advance. I think this cuts down on ADR abuse and FP+ abuse. Also, I think doing this would again open up more rooms and thus these computer algorithms will change and people might be able to get the discounts and dates they want and need

 

[ArwenMarie]

I know I am not speaking for the majority here but I honestly would love for Disney to do the same as packages and room only would be required to pay in full or cancel 30 days in advance. I think this cuts down on ADR abuse and FP+ abuse. Also, I think doing this would again open up more rooms and thus these computer algorithms will change and people might be able to get the discounts and dates they want and need

I hear your point.

On the flip side, I would never stay onsite again if I had to pay in full 30 days in advance with no refund. We have cancelled quite a few trips within that window due to my husband's work schedule.

So I guess there is a balance there that they are walking

 

[VeronicaZS]

I wonder if they are doing this to prevent people from booking throwaway rooms to get the earliest access to ADRs and FPs. That seems like a crazy fix for that though. You'd think they would have better alternatives than maximum night stays.

Regardless, it seems hard to wrap my head around. I hope it bites them in the butt and they end up with excess unsold rooms.

I don't see how that would address the problem. You can cancel 5 days before your trip with no penalty and laugh your way over to Bonnet Creek for 1/3 the price with brand new Magic Bands and your 60 day FP+ in place.

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't see how that would address the problem. You can cancel 5 days before your trip with no penalty and laugh your way over to Bonnet Creek for 1/3 the price with brand new Magic Bands and your 60 day FP+ in place.

If they're making longer stays harder to book, it's harder to get FPs and ADRs at 180 or 60 +10 or 14 or whatever.

 

[Pennstate6411]

I don't see how that would address the problem. You can cancel 5 days before your trip with no penalty and laugh your way over to Bonnet Creek for 1/3 the price with brand new Magic Bands and your 60 day FP+ in place.

I wonder if Disney will close this loop hole so that people wont do this. I personally would never think of something like this but I can see people doing it. I would think Disney has to catch on to this at some point and eventually put in their room agreements that if you cancel your reservation be it package or room only that you lose your FP+ that have been booked. It would be easy to remove the FP+ from the Magic Bands that have already been sent out. People would and probably still do this for ADRs on a regular basis so there has to be some way of tempering that abuse as well, but I guess Disney hasn't figured out how to do it. As I said though- Disney definitely should have cancellation at 30 for all reservations and I think they should and could implement the FP+ removal if you decide to stay off site. This keeps you on site if you really want your FP+ rides and it keeps people honest with their intentions. And at 30 days for room and package you are at the 30 day window for FP+ for those offsite which means you can book or rebook any FP+ available then.

Edit: Wanted to add that I think it would benefit Disney to find "cost free" ways to incentivize you to keep your reservations and to not switch to offsite 5 days prior

 

[VeronicaZS]

I wonder if Disney will close this loop hole so that people wont do this. I personally would never think of something like this but I can see people doing it. I would think Disney has to catch on to this at some point and eventually put in their room agreements that if you cancel your reservation be it package or room only that you lose your FP+ that have been booked. It would be easy to remove the FP+ from the Magic Bands that have already been sent out. People would and probably still do this for ADRs on a regular basis so there has to be some way of tempering that abuse as well, but I guess Disney hasn't figured out how to do it. As I said though- Disney definitely should have cancellation at 30 for all reservations and I think they should and could implement the FP+ removal if you decide to stay off site. This keeps you on site if you really want your FP+ rides and it keeps people honest with their intentions. And at 30 days for room and package you are at the 30 day window for FP+ for those offsite which means you can book or rebook any FP+ available then.

Edit: Wanted to add that I think it would benefit Disney to find "cost free" ways to incentivize you to keep your reservations and to not switch to offsite 5 days prior

I believe the cancellation policy used to be 45 days, then 30 days and now 5. They are not moving in the right direction...

For my dates I actually see much more availability if I put a date range of 10+ days. I think Disney is playing both with minimum and maximum stay requirements.

 

[cwis]

We can't. We can navigate the site and price a vacation but are blocked from being able to book through it. Once it gets to the point of billing information we need to put in a postcode and country.

Can't you use a dummy address? I often use addresses of various hotels where I'm staying when I need an address abroad. Since Disney UK sends absolutely nothing by post, I believe they wouldn't actually check the address anyway.

 

[maxiesmom]

Can't you use a dummy address? I often use addresses of various hotels where I'm staying when I need an address abroad. Since Disney UK sends absolutely nothing by post, I believe they wouldn't actually check the address anyway.

Just NO. You must not be aware it is against the rules of the Disboards to post ways to try and get around Disney's rules.

 

[cwis]

Just NO. You must not be aware it is against the rules of the Disboards to post ways to try and get around Disney's rules.

Thanks, though I was not suggesting this. I would never risk mentionning an address where nobody knows about me and actually miss something important and ruin my vacation. I forgot about the requirements for an European address when booking at Disney UK, and this anwers my questions about why US people did not use those discounts.

Back to the topic, I was wondering if there would not been some logic into setting up a minimum-length requirement as well as a maximum-length. For example, require stays 4-6 nights. This would forbid anyone from staying 9 nights, engaging people into booking 10-12 nights, and driving profits up. If a maximum-length stay is going to be enforced, would this become a possibility?

 

[focusondisney]

I believe the cancellation policy used to be 45 days, then 30 days and now 5. They are not moving in the right direction...

For my dates I actually see much more availability if I put a date range of 10+ days. I think Disney is playing both with minimum and maximum stay requirements.

Package cancellations recently went from 45 to 30 days. Room only has been 5 days for at least the last 25 years.

 

[writerguyfl]

I was just playing around on Expedia. I checked the first full week of December (8 nights)and almost nothing was available. I checked the same week with it split into two halves and lots of resorts opened up for both halves. Interesting that this might be a thing through Expedia as well.

Online travel agencies like Expedia have a different set of inventory than Disney. They typically purchase large blocks of rooms that they sell on their own. It's not unusual for Expedia to have rooms while Disney is sold out. The reserve also is true.

I know I am not speaking for the majority here but I honestly would love for Disney to do the same as packages and room only would be required to pay in full or cancel 30 days in advance. I think this cuts down on ADR abuse and FP+ abuse. Also, I think doing this would again open up more rooms and thus these computer algorithms will change and people might be able to get the discounts and dates they want and need

The likelihood of that happening is slim. Disney couldn't afford to alienate room-only guests (like Florida residents) by switching to what would effectively be a 30-day cancelation. If they did, all those people would either not come or simply stay off-site. While Disney does want to eliminate ADR and Fast Pass abuses, they won't do it in any manner that might lose revenue.

Although Disney doesn't publish hotel occupancy levels, most people agree that they are doing better than the industry average. Part of the reason for that fact is their use of revenue management. When hotel rooms are in demand like they are right now, they aren't going to make any drastic changes.

 

[Sue M]

This is completely absurd to me.

We are booked for 12 night at Pop in November - the trip was booked sometime in February.

We travel from Canada and to make the trip worthwhile (flights, exchange, etc) we stay long periods. If we can no longer do that we won't be going. Plain and simple. No dramatic exclamation, just fact.

I know we're not Disney's target customers but there has to be a significant amount of international travellers who stay more than 4/5/6 nights per trip.

If we can continue to book our 12 nights stays but break them up into multiple shorter stays I will, but not if it means continuously changing rooms. That doesn't seem very vacation-y to me.

What a gong show Disney reservations is turning into.

Rant over

Us too. And we live on the west coast, so it's a minimum of 6hr flight if we can get a direct one from SeaTac plus the 45 min connector flight to SeaTac. And with having to be at airport 3 hrs before flight to get thru customs and security, and the hour or more layover, makes for a long travel day.

So our stays are anywhere from 10-14 days to make it worthwhile too! Usually 14 days. WDW is an international destination. It's crazy to have 6 night max stays. For a 14 day stay that could have us change rooms 3x. That's just nuts. It is a gong show. I won't be breaking up trip and have to pack up multiple times to change rooms, or check out/in. Definitely not very vacation-y!! What happened to the "WDW carefree vacation"?
Not everyone is a quick 2-3 hr flight away.

I don't see how that would address the problem. You can cancel 5 days before your trip with no penalty and laugh your way over to Bonnet Creek for 1/3 the price with brand new Magic Bands and your 60 day FP+ in place.

WDW should cancel FPs, ADRs and de-activate MB if you cancel stay.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Won't let me book two nights @ Pop in October, but will let me book 4 nights. Not liking this at all.

I've booked the longer stay that the system forced me to, then called back & had them drop either the front or end days I didn't want. They did it. Even left the discount on the actual days I wanted. I don't feel bad about it, and would do it again, if it's the only way to get the length of stay I want.

 

[mom2rtk]

I've booked the longer stay that the system forced me to, then called back & had them drop either the front or end days I didn't want. They did it. Even left the discount on the actual days I wanted. I don't feel bad about it, and would do it again, if it's the only way to get the length of stay I want.

How long ago did you do that? Because they did start cracking down on that a while ago. Not sure if they stuck with it or not, but at least when I tried they told me they could not do it and had to rebook from start, subject to availability.

 

[TeresaNJ]

How long ago did you do that? Because they did start cracking down on that a while ago. Not sure if they stuck with it or not, but at least when I tried they told me they could not do it and had to rebook from start, subject to availability.

I did it this past November. They had no problem doing it. Said guest services had to do it, so put me on hold, then came back and said it was all taken care of. I told them our dates changed due to unforseen circumstances. It's worth a shot.

 

[mom2rtk]

I did it this past November. They had no problem doing it. Said guest services had to do it, so put me on hold, then came back and said it was all taken care of. I told them our dates changed due to unforseen circumstances. It's worth a shot.

That's encouraging! I've always hoped that they had to back down off of that crazy policy. My experience was right after it started, so they wouldn't give an inch.

 

[dansdad]

That's encouraging! I've always hoped that they had to back down off of that crazy policy. My experience was right after it started, so they wouldn't give an inch.

Just be aware that yes Guest Services has the ability to override the system, but they don't always do it. The answer is no more often than yes.