WDW COVID-19 Operational Changes- Reservation System-Rope Drop Procedures

Rather off topic but any thoughts....do you think the 35% room discount instead of free dining might include Disney Aulani?🤞🏻
 
Is anyone else just sadly looking at their FPs and dining reservations on the app/website before they go away? They were so perfect! I worked so hard! Sigh. But mostly I am finding the humor in all of it, because what else can you do at this point. (Answer: Cry. But I really don't want to do that!)
Yes, and debating taking a picture to remember how perfect they were.
 
Add me to the list of peeved people. I totally understand needing to cancel FP and ADRs, although I do feel for people having theirs cancelled.

But cancelling our dining plan and instead giving us a room discount is going to up the price of our trip $1500. That’s ridiculous. We’re likely going to have to cancel and it makes me so sad because it was the one thing I was looking forward to.

Edit: we had booked free dining as a BB offer, so we’re actually losing out on the money. It wasn’t “given” to us because we had to cancel because of the closures.
This happened to us too. Booked trip last August, and if I'm understanding this correctly, I can attend my package trip which is for rack rate room, park hopper tickets and no free dining, for the total price of the package when I had the free dining, or I can cancel my trip. Not the way to treat a family that has been a loyal customer....
 


This happened to us too. Booked trip last August, and if I'm understanding this correctly, I can attend my package trip which is for rack rate room, park hopper tickets and no free dining, for the total price of the package when I had the free dining, or I can cancel my trip. Not the way to treat a family that has been a loyal customer....
I'm in the same boat. And yes, we can still keep our rack rate room and tickets, but now pay for our own food on top of it.
 
Is anyone else just sadly looking at their FPs and dining reservations on the app/website before they go away? They were so perfect! I worked so hard! Sigh. But mostly I am finding the humor in all of it, because what else can you do at this point. (Answer: Cry. But I really don't want to do that!)
Haha, I was totally doing this. We've never gotten to eat dinner at O'Hana before and always wanted to. Goodbye sweet reservations!

I am not sure the wording is vague, but the posting states that I can re-book at a later date with a 35% discount -- this seems to me that if you booked a recovery package that the resort stay as well as the dining will be canceled for these guests. Hope I am wrong, but will have to think long and hard about going to Disney with all these changes and along with the risk of contracting the virus.
I can't remember where I read it now...this has been such a blur. But I know for sure one of the things I read was that guests who had a dining package booked would receive a refund if they had already paid for the dining, or a reduction in package price if they hadn't yet paid in full. That seems to imply they are only cancelling the dining part. For free dining, there's no refund or reduction, but you get the 35% if you rebook to a later date.
 
Holding onto the thin thread of hope that everything works out somehow. I know this is minimal in the grand scheme of things with all that's going on in the world right now, but its really something that was keeping a smile on my face, in lieu of all the mess that's going on around us. Will stay tuned for clearer information.
 


I know that various insiders were talking about different re-opening plans that were being kicked around, and I have to wonder if that recovery free dining was mostly contingent on a more optimistic one that didn't end up panning out for whatever reason. Still, it's pretty lame to snatch it away like Lucy and the football. I feel for the people who were counting on that.
I think they should have had a fail safe measure in place and only allotted “ X number” of free dining, once they reached the free dining limit, move to a different recovery offer. For a business to give something like that and then take it away is really unheard of. Most people’s vacation packages went up at least a thousand dollars or more to get the free dining because they lost their room discounts. In the very least they should give back the room discount and not just say something like “aren’t you lucky, for a full price room, no free dining, reduced hours, no fireworks or parade, you get to reserve a spot in our parks first, have a magical day”.
 
I'm in the same boat. And yes, we can still keep our rack rate room and tickets, but now pay for our own food on top of it.
What feels so crummy about it is that just yesterday, I could have dropped my free dining and rebooked with a room discount. Now I can't even do that after they've slashed my free dining.

I am really hoping that after they do the "park reservation" thingie and let people start booking/modifying resort reservations again, I'll be able to rebook my resort stay with fewer days and room discount to make up the cost of dining.
 
Where did you see that people with resort reservations will get first dibs? Thanks!
New Ticket Sales and Hotel Reservations: At this time, we are temporarily pausing new ticket sales and Disney Resort hotel reservations so we can focus on guests with existing tickets and reservations. Existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders will be able to make a theme park reservation before new tickets are sold; we will be reaching out to these guests soon to provide additional details. We will resume new sales of tickets and Disney Resort hotel reservations after that period of time. Theme park reservations will be limited due to attendance limitations and will be subject to availability.

Based on this the current people with current resort reservations on property should have first dibs. Then AP, then regular non-on property ticket holders
 
I think they should have had a fail safe measure in place and only allotted “ X number” of free dining, once they reached the free dining limit, move to a different recovery offer. For a business to give something like that and then take it away is really unheard of. Most people’s vacation packages went up at least a thousand dollars or more to get the free dining because they lost their room discounts. In the very least they should give back the room discount and not just say something like “aren’t you lucky, for a full price room, no free dining, reduced hours, no fireworks or parade, you get to reserve a spot in our parks first, have a magical day”.

It really is unprecedented isnt it. It's basically the same thing as giving someone a room discount (e.g., fun and sun) and then saying, nope, now you owe full price. I actually read through the terms and conditions in my reservation email and I honestly can't see anything that permits it. They made an offer, we accepted; now they're backing out of our deal. The closest thing I can find in the contract is that "features for all packages are subject to change" but I that is so vague, I really don't think they have a solid argument it covers this radical a change.
 
What feels so crummy about it is that just yesterday, I could have dropped my free dining and rebooked with a room discount. Now I can't even do that after they've slashed my free dining.

I am really hoping that after they do the "park reservation" thingie and let people start booking/modifying resort reservations again, I'll be able to rebook my resort stay with fewer days and room discount to make up the cost of dining.
I'm right there with you. I will definitely shave a couple days off my reservation but I believe they aren't going to offer the Sun and Fun discount any longer. I guess we'll see.
 
I think they should have had a fail safe measure in place and only allotted “ X number” of free dining, once they reached the free dining limit, move to a different recovery offer. For a business to give something like that and then take it away is really unheard of. Most people’s vacation packages went up at least a thousand dollars or more to get the free dining because they lost their room discounts. In the very least they should give back the room discount and not just say something like “aren’t you lucky, for a full price room, no free dining, reduced hours, no fireworks or parade, you get to reserve a spot in our parks first, have a magical day”.

Honestly, I think they did it the way they did because they know many people are not going to spend the kind of money it takes for a WDW vacation with these limitations and wanted people to cancel for summer and put trips until next year so they can keep the numbers down,

The fact that they came out with all of this before the details of the reservation system seems like they knew they had to maybe get more people cancele?

I am DVC so for me, parks are secondary, so limitations are not as big of a deal. But, if I was a cash paying guest who didn’t go often, I probably would be canceling.

I am sorry this is not turning out to be the trip you wanted.
 
It really is unprecedented isnt it. It's basically the same thing as giving someone a room discount (e.g., fun and sun) and then saying, nope, now you owe full price. I actually read through the terms and conditions in my reservation email and I honestly can't see anything that permits it. They made an offer, we accepted; now they're backing out of our deal. The closest thing I can find in the contract is that "features for all packages are subject to change" but I that is so vague, I really don't think they have a solid argument it covers this radical a change.
I feel it is dishonest and it makes me sad that Disney thinks this is okay. I have never heard of a business doing this. Even in department stores, they honor the price of something that you are buying, even if they marked the price wrong, they will give you the marked price. It’s like “bait and switch” very disheartening. I don’t understand how they can get by with it.
 
Haha, I was totally doing this. We've never gotten to eat dinner at O'Hana before and always wanted to. Goodbye sweet reservations!


I can't remember where I read it now...this has been such a blur. But I know for sure one of the things I read was that guests who had a dining package booked would receive a refund if they had already paid for the dining, or a reduction in package price if they hadn't yet paid in full. That seems to imply they are only cancelling the dining part. For free dining, there's no refund or reduction, but you get the 35% if you rebook to a later date.
The later date is the problem for me. The only week available for me was booked on the free dining guest recovery, so that resort reservation will be canceled. I am disappointed and sad, but not suffering a financial hardship and everyone is healthy in my family during these challenging times. Those are the true blessings each day.
 
I feel it is dishonest and it makes me sad that Disney thinks this is okay. I have never heard of a business doing this. Even in department stores, they honor the price of something that you are buying, even if they marked the price wrong, they will give you the marked price. It’s like “bait and switch” very disheartening. I don’t understand how they can get by with it.
I can only surmise that they want to encourage people to reschedule with the 35% off later. They want the fewest number possible showing up, I guess. But it's super shady.
 
I can only surmise that they want to encourage people to reschedule with the 35% off later. They want the fewest number possible showing up, I guess. But it's super shady.

I also wonder if they didn’t realize the level of reduced capacity that would be needed to open and had hoped that restaurants would be able to hold more than they are allowed via task force guidelines.

Maybe though, they will come out next year with better deals to make up for this year.
 
I feel it is dishonest and it makes me sad that Disney thinks this is okay. I have never heard of a business doing this. Even in department stores, they honor the price of something that you are buying, even if they marked the price wrong, they will give you the marked price. It’s like “bait and switch” very disheartening. I don’t understand how they can get by with it.
This all really does feel so "un-Disney." I remember when I got the free dining recovery offer, I remember thinking at least you can count on Disney to do the right thing and try to make it up to folks. Now it's a slap in the face.

So my thought is they have (had) too many ADRs for the limited TS seating plus limited park hours. They wouldn’t be able to honor all, so they canceled all. The 35% offer is to encourage rebooking to keep crowds down in the near-term.
Which would explain the cancellation of ADRs but not the cancellation of the dining plan. With my dining plan, I could still use my TS credit at a quick service if no TS restaurants were available. Not a great value, but with free dining it still is a cost savings.
 

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