Reservation under Canadian Discount but booked through US site? Any one else have this issue!?!!

[StarSeven7]

It's the Free Dining promotion! I think it is identical to the US free dining promotion except that apparently, you need to show your Canadian passport to prove residency when you check in. Which I would absolutely do if I was Canadian and had booked through the actual Canadian site. YES! EXACTLY! THANK YOU!! Even though it was ages ago I've def seen that happen before when visiting family/friends in Canada and trying to do a large multi-person booking with them. As far as I know, you NEED a valid CA address in order to even book on the CA site and my reservation had my very valid US address so it made exactly zero sense that we could've ended up booking through any kind of CA promo instead of the US. I think they realized it had to have been an IT error and that's why they agreed to honor it. but since the promotion is long over it seemed they were really trying hard to not have to honor it which was very off-putting. I'm glad they did in the end though

I'm glad you got it straightened out but I agree, what a pain! With free dining I think the Canadian version of the promo might have had a few more dates that it was available for and that's why they were being particular about having to show proof of residency. But the system definitely shouldn't have let you book it in the first place! Hope you have a great trip!

 

[invinciblesummer]

The TPAS board is full of people indicating the website keeps defaulting to Canada, even though they are in the US. If your trip is in April, there are lots of offers out now for US general public, Disney Visa holders and Annual Passholders. I would check for other offers now. No reason to pay rack rate! I would cancel that reservation and rebook under one of the offers for US residents ASAP.

We booked in April for this December through Christmas actually! The promo has been over for a couple months now so I panicked a little but refused to get off the phone until they did SOMETHING. We're going for my niece's birthday and she is beyond excited so there was no way I could just take a cancellation. I would've tried to rebook if they really really didn't want to honor the package but it would've been impossible. We were checking room inventory recently to try and price something out for family members to join us (they decided not to) but there are almost no rooms left over our dates plus it's the most expensive time of year. I don't know how we could've made it work so I'm super grateful that they did honor it in the end

 

[vinotinto]

We booked in April for this December through Christmas actually! The promo has been over for a couple months now so I panicked a little but refused to get off the phone until they did SOMETHING. We're going for my niece's birthday and she is beyond excited so there was no way I could just take a cancellation. I would've tried to rebook if they really really didn't want to honor the package but it would've been impossible. We were checking room inventory recently to try and price something out for family members to join us (they decided not to) but there are almost no rooms left over our dates plus it's the most expensive time of year. I don't know how we could've made it work so I'm super grateful that they did honor it in the end

I totally misread your post and I didn't realize the reservation was for December. Yeah, those discounts have been out a while. I bet it's pretty picked over. Makes you wonder what would have happened if you hadn't called to cancel the other reservation and showed up at your hotel with your Canadian reservation.

 

[Sue M]

Glad you stuck to your guns and didn’t let them brush you off. Having to fight and spend 3 hrs to rectify their mistake is terrible. The days of great Disney customer service are long gone it seems. Their web site and app are so glitchy more often than not.

 

[reluctantredhead]

It took 3+ hours but I finally got it resolved! I asked to speak with a Manager and they connected me with Guest Services who at first kind of threw up their hands like "well it was booked under the CA promo so we can't do anything for you if you're not actually a Canadian citizen" but I persisted and explained that there was no way they couldn't do something because I booked using the US site and nothing in any paperwork I was sent says anything about it being a Canadian promo and that we would need CA passports. They were ready to just cancel my reservation and then search for availability elsewhere but I wouldn't let them do that because the first cast member I spoke with said that the only thing they could do was put us in a Pirate room and the total would increase by just over $300. Since we have very specific reasons for booking a CBR Preferred room (as someone in our party has mobility issues) I didn't want to risk just blindly canceling what we had and then not getting something comparable. Thankfully the cast member I was speaking with understood this and she contacted CBR before canceling anything. After like another 45 minutes on hold, CBR agreed to honor the package at the exact same price and all we would need is a new confirmation number. Apparently, our previous tickets were valid for a full 14 days and now they're only valid for the duration of the stay but that's honestly fine. All is not well that ends well because I'm so surprised that they weren't willing to make it right from the get-go. I had to be very persistent in order to get them to honor the package and that doesn't sit right with me with how much we paid for this vacation. I am glad that they did right by me in the end but it was very surprising to have to fight for it that hard especially when the error was completely on their end. Also, it worries me for folks who might have the same issue and then not find out until they go to check-in!! If I had just finished paying online instead of calling we would've had no clue until we got there that something wasn't right.

@invinciblesummer I've been thinking about your situation all day, and I'm so glad that Disney finally made it right, although I'm so sorry that it took so much of your time on the phone and so much persistence on your part. And I completely understand about needing the specific room type and the lack of availability. We'll be there about the same time as you (12/20-12/27). We needed specific room types too, and as fate would have it we booked at about the same time as you did (also in April), and I was stunned at how little availability there already was, even without a discount.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful trip, and here's to smooth sailing from now on!

 

[vinotinto]

It took 3+ hours but I finally got it resolved! I asked to speak with a Manager and they connected me with Guest Services who at first kind of threw up their hands like "well it was booked under the CA promo so we can't do anything for you if you're not actually a Canadian citizen" but I persisted and explained that there was no way they couldn't do something because I booked using the US site and nothing in any paperwork I was sent says anything about it being a Canadian promo and that we would need CA passports. They were ready to just cancel my reservation and then search for availability elsewhere but I wouldn't let them do that because the first cast member I spoke with said that the only thing they could do was put us in a Pirate room and the total would increase by just over $300. Since we have very specific reasons for booking a CBR Preferred room (as someone in our party has mobility issues) I didn't want to risk just blindly canceling what we had and then not getting something comparable. Thankfully the cast member I was speaking with understood this and she contacted CBR before canceling anything. After like another 45 minutes on hold, CBR agreed to honor the package at the exact same price and all we would need is a new confirmation number. Apparently, our previous tickets were valid for a full 14 days and now they're only valid for the duration of the stay but that's honestly fine. All is not well that ends well because I'm so surprised that they weren't willing to make it right from the get-go. I had to be very persistent in order to get them to honor the package and that doesn't sit right with me with how much we paid for this vacation. I am glad that they did right by me in the end but it was very surprising to have to fight for it that hard especially when the error was completely on their end. Also, it worries me for folks who might have the same issue and then not find out until they go to check-in!! If I had just finished paying online instead of calling we would've had no clue until we got there that something wasn't right.

Thanks for coming back and sharing your entire experience. Wow, that is really bad, and with the way the website has been acting, it could have happened to anyone here! I guess there is something to be said for booking over the phone.