Disney to cancel FPs if room is cancelled

[Marionnette]

The real question is what kind of customer service nightmare is this going to create. Us DISers that are well versed in the new ramifications are a VERY VERY small subset of the people visiting Disney. Only time will tell when your average family that doesn’t obsessively stalk MDE adjusts their trip by a day only to show up and realize all of their FPs are gone. Those are going to be some very unhappy campers. And there are a lot more of them than us.

FWIW, whenever you cancelled a cash reservation online in the past, you were warned that all FPs associated with the reservation would also be cancelled, even though they apparently weren’t. I would hope that if a reservation were to be modified online, a similar warning would now be made. And it goes without saying that all phone CMs should be versed in telling guests who cancel or modify that they will lose any FPs associated with the reservation. I guess time will tell.

 

[wilma-bride]

There ABSOLUTELY was a change to booking split stay FPs verified by numerous people. The DIS (mesaboy) has even changed the FP sticky. So that is a MAJOR change that is verified and has happened.

Except somebody reported on the DVC board that they were able to make a split stay for April (2 x 1 night stays) and make FPs across both stays just today. So maybe DVC is the exception to the rule (she says hopefully).

 

[JenniferYoung44]

I don’t think FPs will be associated with a particular reservation number.

They have to be if a specific reservation is going to cancel them.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

What I'm most curious about is this: someone books a 4 night at YC & a 4 night at GF. They books FP at 60 days for YC stay and at 60 day for GF stay.
43 days before arriving at YC, they switch to all 8 nights at GF because it's suddenly available. What happens when they cancels the YC portion? Do those FP disappear or are they safe because they still on site.

 

[Runnsally]

They have to be if a specific reservation is going to cancel them.

The FPs will not be linked to a specific reservation #. However, they may be linked to a specific onsite reservation date, but I’m skeptical...

 

[crvetter]

What I'm most curious about is this: someone books a 4 night at YC & a 4 night at GF. They books FP at 60 days for YC stay and at 60 day for GF stay.
43 days before arriving at YC, they switch to all 8 nights at GF because it's suddenly available. What happens when they cancels the YC portion? Do those FP disappear or are they safe because they still on site.

I would think since you are removing a split stay it would work. Though I didn’t ask Disney this question. I only asked about creating a split stay (which they told me would lead to issues). I would think the easiest thing would be to take the 4 at YC move those to 4 at GF which isn’t supposed drop the Fastpasses then just link the reservations. As for modifying the GF one to all 8 days I’m not entirely sure. But I would talk to reservation about it.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

But that’s what’s so odd to me. As long as you are still on site, I don’t see why they care.

 

[Gentry2004]

Imagine that you live in a different time zone than Florida. Maybe you live in England or just the western coast of the US. In London, they’re 5 hours ahead and of Florida. In LA, they are 3 hours behind Orlando. Would you really want to have to book each and every day at noon London time or 4AM PT? That’s not very guest-friendly.

I get where you’re going with this idea but it’s just not practical for a large group of guests (not the majority, but still a large group).

Neither is cancelling ALL my FP’s because I shortened my trip by a day.

 

[Gentry2004]

Plus Disney wants you to stay on property for your entire stay - removing this benefit would decrease the incentive to do that

You’d still have to stay on property for each day you wanted the 60 day FP’s. No more rolling window. I don’t think it would change much.

 

[SL6827]

I will admit, after our trip here soon, end of March/first of April I believe my husband will not return without us ponying up more money for hard ticket events with less crowds. We have never experienced the crowd levels we are going to face with our next trip. I am nervous, anxious and unsure of how my group will react to this. Even though I do have good fast passes, I know the DAH and the EMM events would make it so much more relaxed during those times. Right now, I have decided against doing those because of price. Next visit I'm sure I will need to budget for those and budget more for those. I think this may very well be the way we tour in the future verses buying traditional park tickets.

Right now I am paying $880 for three 3-day base tickets with one night at POR through a TA. I was able to secure my fast passes last month for my entire stay at POR and SSR. Now I am not sure how this will play out in the future. Maybe the changes will make more hard to get fast passes available at 61-63 days out?

 

[SL6827]

Except somebody reported on the DVC board that they were able to make a split stay for April (2 x 1 night stays) and make FPs across both stays just today. So maybe DVC is the exception to the rule (she says hopefully).

I don't have enough points to test this out with DVC, but if I did, I would.

 

[DisBuckMan]

Except somebody reported on the DVC board that they were able to make a split stay for April (2 x 1 night stays) and make FPs across both stays just today. So maybe DVC is the exception to the rule (she says hopefully).

Reports are that DVC will be an exception.

 

[wilma-bride]

I don't have enough points to test this out with DVC, but if I did, I would.

Me too

 

[DisBuckMan]

I don't have enough points to test this out with DVC, but if I did, I would.

I have the points, but with a June use year, I banked all of them last month to keep from losing any.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Based on a conversation with a Travel agent focused on Disney, Disney communicated to them that the real driver of this is late cancelled rooms going unused.

This may actually help some with FP availability if all the games stop, but Disney was actually having a decent number of rooms sit empty and unpaid for. Because people were using reservations to get FP's, waiting until the last moment (5 days) and cancelling the reservation.

We are all looking at it from a FP perspective. Disney is looking at it from an occupancy perspective. If FP rules were negatively hitting occupancy, they need to change. I believe the split stay impact is more of a side effect based on how they were able to implement the fix, not the intended effect.

Disney communicating that level of operational detail to a travel agent would be highly unusual. It could have been a CM speculating.

Time will tell what the overall changes are and what the impact will be.

 

[piccolopat]

A throwaway split stay. Building in that break day gives another days advantage on FP booking under the old system. Maybe Disney thinks taking that away will deter people enough that they won’t do it just for free parking and the bands.

Perhaps Disney needs to consider a 2 or 3 night minimum stay for the campsites.

 

[rteetz]

Disney communicating that level of operational detail to a travel agent would be highly unusual. It could have been a CM speculating.

Time will tell what the overall changes are and what the impact will be.

Yeah I certainly have never seen that level of detail.

 

[DaveNan]

Maybe a dumb question, but were trying to book before 7:00am this morning?

No it was about 7:40 EST

 

[JeninTexas]

I have a split stay that I booked in January. I have 5 nights at CR and then 2 nights at GF CL. I just called Signature Services to discuss my FP situation because I never would have booked a split stay in the first place had I known of these new changes. The CM I spoke with at DSS told me that I would be able to book all my FPs for the length of my stay when my FP window opens on the CR reservation. She said there should be no problems with it, and verified when my FP window would open for the entire length of stay.

Of course, this is completely different from what others have been told by CMs. I'm hoping DSS is right, but I'm afraid they are not. Just more inconsistency in what information is being given out.

 

[crvetter]

I have a split stay that I booked in January. I have 5 nights at CR and then 2 nights at GF CL. I just called Signature Services to discuss my FP situation because I never would have booked a split stay in the first place had I known of these new changes. The CM I spoke with at DSS told me that I would be able to book all my FPs for the length of my stay when my FP window opens on the CR reservation. She said there should be no problems with it, and verified when my FP window would open for the entire length of stay.

Of course, this is completely different from what others have been told by CMs. I'm hoping DSS is right, but I'm afraid they are not. Just more inconsistency in what information is being given out.

So far people said when they tested it didn’t work for cash booking. Hopefully this isn’t permanent. Though MDE help and reservations told me they were two separate booking windows now like ADR.

Please report how it ends up working for you when you go to book Fastpasses.