New reservations, post Hurricane Ian

[RoseGold]

Looks like I will be able to make it Sunday. But when I called, they wouldn't let me change room category because there are no "new" bookings. Can someone please let me know if they are able to change room class or make a new booking after Ian?

 

[drusba]

Not sure what was meant. It could just mean that there is no availability shown for whatever room category you wanted to change to, which when attempting to make a change this close to arrival date is a common occurrence, particularly now that we have entered DVC's high to extremely high demand season that runs late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan. The website itself is currently showing that nothing anywhere at the WDW DVC resorts is available for multiple days starting Sunday.

 

[RoseGold]

Not sure what was meant. It could just mean that there is no availability shown for whatever room category you wanted to change to, which when attempting to make a change this close to arrival date is a common occurrence. The website itself is currently showing that nothing anywhere at the WDW DVC resorts is available for multiple days starting Sunday.

Right, but it's artificial. They are hiding availability. Obviously a lot of people canceled. On the phone yesterday, MS said I could't change the room because it was a "new booking." I'd rather not be in a 2BR by myself, when who knows what is available with the cancellations. At some point that should lift.

You're allowed to make reservations for the next day, just not same day. I've done it.

 

[CarolMN]

Believe they have stopped allowing new bookings until after the storm passes. I believe many Floridians evacuated to WDW and it wouldn't surprise me if they were full due to that.

 

[Wedgeout]

To add being currently at Old Key West..Villas also being used for the CM’s for the volunteer emergency team providing safety care of the property and us. (They have been amazing).

 

[Sandisw]

I’d venture to guess that they have kept the rooms available for those there, for CMs, etc.

My guess is that they are not necessarily updating the system that shows booked when it was done at the resort level, with extending stays for those there.

Makes sense that they are not allowing any modifications to existing because they don’t know for sure those rooms are not still occupied.

 

[drusba]

It appears Disney announced, as a result of the coming of Ian, that it would not accept any new reservations with a start date from Sep 28 to Oct 1, which yesterday it modified to Oct 2, and thus, the earliest start date you can get today is Tuesday, Oct 3, see https://www.kennythepirate.com/2022...on-new-resort-reservations-for-hurricane-ian/. That apparently includes trying to change the type of room on an exsting reservation.

 

[paults]

drusba, Tuesday is Oct the 4th

 

[sethschroeder]

Question does anyone else have an issue with this?

I understand cash but if Disney shut down booking they better have used their points to hold and book all those rooms.

Yet another case where I feel Disney oversteps their power they legally are entitled to.

 

[Sandisw]

Question does anyone else have an issue with this?

I understand cash but if Disney shut down booking they better have used their points to hold and book all those rooms.

Yet another case where I feel Disney oversteps their power they legally are entitled to.

Based on the way the contract reads, rooms still available within 60 days are in their control.

Sure, it’s normally to create breakage income but the point is that once inside that window, DVC controls the bookings and what happens to those rooms.

So, IMO, I don’t think they overstepped since it sounds like those rooms went to guests who were already onsite. .

Here is the language and it would appear what they did falls in line with D… their discretion..I’d say the hurricane warning and needing to provide additional rooms for guests would be an acceptable use for any rooms that were canceled last minute.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

Question does anyone else have an issue with this?

I understand cash but if Disney shut down booking they better have used their points to hold and book all those rooms.

Yet another case where I feel Disney oversteps their power they legally are entitled to.

Seems like Disney has been pretty liberal with cancellations this week. Either allowing people to cancel or moving borrowed points back to original use year. I've also read reports of DVC allowing points that should go to holding stay "normal" points.

I get DVC tried some shady stuff with the lock off premiums, but at the end of the day I feel they did a fair job during this hurricane. There is probably some give and take that personally I'm okay with. And really, what are people going to do if they don't like it...sue? For certain things it might make sense. For hurricane operations...good luck I guess.

 

[sethschroeder]

I get DVC tried some shady stuff with the lock off premiums, but at the end of the day I feel they did a fair job during this hurricane.

Issue is what you just described creates a shortage of inventory compounded by shutting off new bookings.

So that is actually to the detriment of the membership as a whole.

I saw various postings about members unable to book rooms at WDW to the point of booking off-site so they had a hotel. Not sure if that ever got corrected for some or all of them but that's an issue.

Just because it works for you doesn't mean it's not shady or in line with terms/policy.

 

[JodyK]

I was at Disney during the hurricane and had to change my reservation and this is what it seemed like from my experience... Disney was putting all the bookings in the hands of the individual hotels and not member services because things were changing so rapidly and only the hotels themselves had the most up-to-date details. This allowed them to take care of the people they had at the hotels (both guests and staff) without adding the extra element of new outside bookings coming in. In this case, all bookings weren't blocked just the website and MS weren't able to make bookings and only the back side of the hotel was not even the front desk. I was able to make a new booking with points while on-site with the hotel. It did take a lot of back and forth and it wasn't entirely easy because the situation with people canceling was fluid.

I'm not well versed enough to know if that violates terms or anything so I'll leave that up to everyone here to decide. Would it have been easier for me to be able to go to the website and see the 2 nights I needed and book with my points without multiple 2-hour waits at the front desk? Sure. I do think however if all those cancellations just opened up online it could have caused an even bigger disaster, probably. So overall I think it was the best way to handle the situation given what was going on. If that still extends now days later? I'm not sure.

All that being said I did pay the full regular points rate during 2 hurricane nights.

 

[Sandisw]

I was at Disney during the hurricane and had to change my reservation and this is what it seemed like from my experience... Disney was putting all the bookings in the hands of the individual hotels and not member services because things were changing so rapidly and only the hotels themselves had the most up-to-date details. This allowed them to take care of the people they had at the hotels (both guests and staff) without adding the extra element of new outside bookings coming in. In this case, all bookings weren't blocked just the website and MS weren't able to make bookings and only the back side of the hotel was not even the front desk. I was able to make a new booking with points while on-site with the hotel. It did take a lot of back and forth and it wasn't entirely easy because the situation with people canceling was fluid.

I'm not well versed enough to know if that violates terms or anything so I'll leave that up to everyone here to decide. Would it have been easier for me to be able to go to the website and see the 2 nights I needed and book with my points without multiple 2-hour waits at the front desk? Sure. I do think however if all those cancellations just opened up online it could have caused an even bigger disaster, probably. So overall I think it was the best way to handle the situation given what was going on. If that still extends now days later? I'm not sure.

All that being said I did pay the full regular points rate during 2 hurricane nights.

As I posted above, the terms do seem to allow for things to have been handled the way it was so it’s good to have first hand experience of how it all played out.

Glad it worked out and you stayed safe!

 

[KPeterso]

I was at Disney during the hurricane and had to change my reservation and this is what it seemed like from my experience... Disney was putting all the bookings in the hands of the individual hotels and not member services because things were changing so rapidly and only the hotels themselves had the most up-to-date details. This allowed them to take care of the people they had at the hotels (both guests and staff) without adding the extra element of new outside bookings coming in. In this case, all bookings weren't blocked just the website and MS weren't able to make bookings and only the back side of the hotel was not even the front desk. I was able to make a new booking with points while on-site with the hotel. It did take a lot of back and forth and it wasn't entirely easy because the situation with people canceling was fluid.

I'm not well versed enough to know if that violates terms or anything so I'll leave that up to everyone here to decide. Would it have been easier for me to be able to go to the website and see the 2 nights I needed and book with my points without multiple 2-hour waits at the front desk? Sure. I do think however if all those cancellations just opened up online it could have caused an even bigger disaster, probably. So overall I think it was the best way to handle the situation given what was going on. If that still extends now days later? I'm not sure.

All that being said I did pay the full regular points rate during 2 hurricane nights.

I was at Boardwalk Villas and my experience was pretty similar. The front desk checked in back to see if they could now make me the reservation. And then the CM at the front desk called DVC (I assume member services) and got the points piece figured out for me.

 

[JodyK]

That's good! I ended up having to call MS myself in the middle of 2 front desk trips so it deff wasn't a perfect system. I will say it was probably a result of my timing since my first trip to the front desk on Tuesday evening was right around the time the news was coming out they were waiving fees and allowing points not to go into holding etc.

 

[DMKEDM]

I was also at WDW (staying on points at the VGF...reservation was 9/24-10/1)...HUGE kudos to all Disney personnel on how they handled Ian--in all ways. It was truly amazing. But with respect to changing reservations: there was LOTS of talk among us guests about the need to extend a stay due to the hurricane. We talked to a fair number of people who were scheduled to check out Wed or Thurs or Fri--the Thurs check-out people seemed to have had the most trouble--apparently the earlier someone tried to make changes, the harder it was. By Thursday late afternoon, though, the situation seems to have stabilized. I know I got very nervous because the airport was still closed with no news about when it would reopen, and the hurricane was projected to head north and possibly impact my destination. So I went over to the front desk (around 4 Thursday afternoon) and they couldn't have been nicer--it took about 15 minutes and the end result was they put a hold on my room (same room, no moving required) for Saturday night (10/1) in case the airport hadn't opened by then, or if my destination airport closed down (or if my flight canceled). They checked w/me to make sure I was ok with the need to borrow points if it turned out I needed the room. Then they told me I could stay in my room (in the Big Pine Key building) if I needed to; just to let them know as soon as I found out what I would need. Amazing! So, yes, the extra night (which I turned out not to need after all) would have cost me points. But they announced early-on (don't remember if it was Tues, Wed or Thurs) that MS would be closed and that no new bookings would be accepted until 10/3...when I went to the front desk, I just asked "what should I do?" The idea of putting the hold on the room (after asking me if that was ok w/me) was their idea.

I can't rave enough about great Disney was during the hurricane. They were completely fantastic. They had good food, at reasonable (even low-cost) prices, available for each day, all day. They had in-the-lobby entertainment in the main building (both for kids and for adults). They put board games out in the lobby area of the Big Pine Key. They were incredibly helpful. The sundries shop remained pretty much fully stocked. The shops stayed open (mostly; a few closed--like Basin on the second floor). The clean-up was amazingly fast...pools were open by Friday and all the walkways were free of debris (of which there was a LOT) by Friday afternoon.

I just was on the website trying to make a change to my January reservation, and it shows no availability for any room of any size at any resort for my dates--I'm guessing the system hasn't quite recovered yet from the hurricane-related changes (at least I hope so; I need an extra night in a one-bed at SSR in mid-January)...

Anyway, major gold stars, kudos and praise to Disney...they were amazing.