Zika Cancellation/Deposit lost ... signs that Disney stopped caring

[Jon84]

yes of course, but there are no such penalties on US disney packages, only disney.UK....
very draconian penalties....much much much worse than US penalty fees..

No point comparing apples and pears. Most holiday companies in the UK work this way.

 

[disneyholic family]

No point comparing apples and pears. Most holiday companies in the UK work this way.

the OP was complaining about the deposit that she didn't get back from disney though it's many months away from her travel date..

the americans who came into this post could not understand why she didn't get her deposit back, since in the US, you do get the deposit back up to something like 5 days in advance of the reservation date..

i was explaining to them that there is a difference between UK and US packages...

as for comparing apples and orangutans.....
i really don't care that this is the going practice in the UK....
it still ticks me off that disney.UK does this as it IS a disney company..
they don't HAVE to do it....they CHOOSE to do it...
it is a disney company...when you call them, you speak with CMs located in the regular disney call center..

in any case, regarding the OP, when she cancelled for zika, disney could have forgiven the deposit...they CHOSE not to do so...
not the most user friendly business decision...

 

[robinb]

It's because your total cost must have gone down.

If you increase the total cost there is no fee.

yes of course, but there are no such penalties on US disney packages, only disney.UK....
very draconian penalties....much much much worse than US penalty fees..

I believe that Disney will also allow US residents to change a package after the 45-day mark with no change fee as long as it makes your package more expensive.

 

[robinb]

the OP was complaining about the deposit that she didn't get back from disney though it's many months away from her travel date..

the americans who came into this post could not understand why she didn't get her deposit back, since in the US, you do get the deposit back up to something like 5 days in advance of the reservation date..

i was explaining to them that there is a difference between UK and US packages...

as for comparing apples and orangutans.....
i really don't care that this is the going practice in the UK....
it still ticks me off that disney.UK does this as it IS a disney company..
they don't HAVE to do it....they CHOOSE to do it...
it is a disney company...when you call them, you speak with CMs located in the regular disney call center..

in any case, regarding the OP, when she cancelled for zika, disney could have forgiven the deposit...they CHOSE not to do so...
not the most user friendly business decision...

This has been an interesting discussion. I'm glad that @Jon84 told we Americans that Disney's rules for holiday deposits are in line with other companies. Finding out the the company that people in the UK use is actually a UK company means to me that them keeping the deposit is perfectly normal. As for forgiving the deposit ... I think if the OP was pregnant then she's have a valid argument since the UK warning about zika and Florida is for pregnant women. But she's NOT pregnant.

 

[Jon84]

This has been an interesting discussion. I'm glad that @Jon84 told we Americans that Disney's rules for holiday deposits are in line with other companies. Finding out the the company that people in the UK use is actually a UK company means to me that them keeping the deposit is perfectly normal. As for forgiving the deposit ... I think if the OP was pregnant then she's have a valid argument since the UK warning about zika and Florida is for pregnant women. But she's NOT pregnant.

The head office of the the UK Holiday Company is in London. Fees from other tour operators can reach into the hundreds of £ per person. So the £50 per booking on a UK Disney Holiday is pretty minimal

 

[Jon84]

it is a disney company...when you call them, you speak with CMs located in the regular disney call center..

When I call Apple I get through to a call centre in Ireland, but I don't expect a Tax refund on my purchase as a result.

in any case, regarding the OP, when she cancelled for zika, disney could have forgiven the deposit...they CHOSE not to do so...
not the most user friendly business decision...

If I missed 6 months of payments on my mortgage I'd fully expect them to foreclose on my house, not let me off.

 

[disneyholic family]

oh yes, the disney cheerleaders at it again...
no rules are set in stone...they are subject to discretion....not necessarily by the first level, but they have someone they can contact to permit exceptions...
just as when i had to cancel a US package 1 day before our arrival, they forgave everything, including the deposit...
obviously the CM had to go up the food chain to get permission, but the exception was allowed...

regarding zika warnings - they are to pregnant women and women planning on getting pregnant....the guaranteed birth defects will occur in the first trimester, when you don't know you're pregnant....and as the OP noted, you probably won't even know you're sick, since it is such a mild disease (other than for a fetus)...
and you can't see the particular birth defect until the 3rd trimester, making abortions a bit of a problem to say the least....so she's absolutely correct in her concerns...
the fact that florida is currently zika free (seemingly), doesn't mean it will be in may....so she had a legitimate reason to have second thoughts about her reservation...

 

[robinb]

oh yes, the disney cheerleaders at it again...

Far from it!

no rules are set in stone...they are subject to discretion....not necessarily by the first level, but they have someone they can contact to permit exceptions...
just as when i had to cancel a US package 1 day before our arrival, they forgave everything, including the deposit...
obviously the CM had to go up the food chain to get permission, but the exception was allowed...

Why did you have to cancel?

regarding zika warnings - they are to pregnant women and women planning on getting pregnant....

I did find the actual warning and not just reports on it. It warns pregnant women and women planning to get pregnant within the next 6 months two different things. It recommends that pregnant women don't go to places with zika and it recommends the women planning to get pregnant speak to their doctor prior to going and use contraception for 6 months after returning.

Here it is: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/zika-virus-travel-advice

the guaranteed birth defects will occur in the first trimester, when you don't know you're pregnant....and as the OP noted, you probably won't even know you're sick, since it is such a mild disease (other than for a fetus)...
and you can't see the particular birth defect until the 3rd trimester, making abortions a bit of a problem to say the least....so she's absolutely correct in her concerns...
the fact that florida is currently zika free (seemingly), doesn't mean it will be in may....so she had a legitimate reason to have second thoughts about her reservation...

Birth defects are not guaranteed. Every pregnant woman who contracts zika does not have a baby with microcephaly. Researchers put the risk at between 1 percent and 13 percent if the infection is in the 1st trimester. But remember, not every mosquito carries zika and it has not (to this date) been spread in Orlando.

As someone who is not currently pregnant and who may or may not have plans to get pregnant she is absolutely allowed to be as concerned about contracting zika as she likes. She should make the choice to go or cancel that makes the most sense to her. I totally respect that. What she can't do, is expect Disney to refund her money because of her choice. The public health department has very specific warnings and her current condition does not fall within those warnings. If she were already pregnant, then I could understand "going up the food chain" to get a full refund. But no, I don't support a full refund based on fears that zika might come to Orlando and she (or her partner) might get bitten by a mosquito and that mosquito might have zika and she might have to wait 6 months to get pregnant.

 

[Jon84]

oh yes, the disney cheerleaders at it again...

You clearly just have a huge chip on your shoulder.

 

[wilkeliza]

oh yes, the disney cheerleaders at it again...
no rules are set in stone...they are subject to discretion....not necessarily by the first level, but they have someone they can contact to permit exceptions...
just as when i had to cancel a US package 1 day before our arrival, they forgave everything, including the deposit...
obviously the CM had to go up the food chain to get permission, but the exception was allowed...

regarding zika warnings - they are to pregnant women and women planning on getting pregnant....the guaranteed birth defects will occur in the first trimester, when you don't know you're pregnant....and as the OP noted, you probably won't even know you're sick, since it is such a mild disease (other than for a fetus)...
and you can't see the particular birth defect until the 3rd trimester, making abortions a bit of a problem to say the least....so she's absolutely correct in her concerns...
the fact that florida is currently zika free (seemingly), doesn't mean it will be in may....so she had a legitimate reason to have second thoughts about her reservation...

Not a Disney cheerleader by any means. If there was actually Zika in Orlando or even Florida it would be a different case. Also depending on when they booked Zika has been at the forefront of major world news since the summer when it was originally deemed an epidemic. I could see that now several months later (even several months since it was found in Miami) Disney would see it as a unfounded excuses and thus not need to give back the 100. Sure Universal gave it back but I wonder what Universal's terms and conditions are for UK bookings. I don't know so can't say if they actually did anything special. Exceptions are allowed but they can't make an exception for everyone or what would be the point of the non-refundable deposit in the first place.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

oh yes, the disney cheerleaders at it again...
no rules are set in stone...they are subject to discretion....not necessarily by the first level, but they have someone they can contact to permit exceptions...
just as when i had to cancel a US package 1 day before our arrival, they forgave everything, including the deposit...
obviously the CM had to go up the food chain to get permission, but the exception was allowed...

regarding zika warnings - they are to pregnant women and women planning on getting pregnant....the guaranteed birth defects will occur in the first trimester, when you don't know you're pregnant....and as the OP noted, you probably won't even know you're sick, since it is such a mild disease (other than for a fetus)...
and you can't see the particular birth defect until the 3rd trimester, making abortions a bit of a problem to say the least....so she's absolutely correct in her concerns...
the fact that florida is currently zika free (seemingly), doesn't mean it will be in may....so she had a legitimate reason to have second thoughts about her reservation...

Exceptions...are an annoyance to me. I know that sure I have been given exceptions at times but I understand and don't expect it to be given to me again. You got an exception on the USO refund so now you expect Disney (but you could insert any other company that deals with travel stuff just given the context of the thread) to do the same.

The last company I worked at a hotbed topic was a late fee, usually $10, if you paid your insurance bill late...I had one manager who said absolutely no way do I want to take an escalation call based on a $10 late fee. If anyone asks you to waive it just do it (meaning the insurance agent, the customer or the billing representative) then it became a few years later to just do a "one-time courtesy" waiving of the late fee (one-time was such a joke of a term).....so guess what??? Certain types of customers got used to those late fees being waived and would just choose not to pay their bills on time...exceptions yeah they are good when they really are exceptions and for very good reasons but can turn into expectations.

FWIW while Zika should be taken seriously IMO I do not find it a very good reason to have Disney refund monies. The thing with Zika is it concerns many people as a whole not just a one off situational issue that may cause a person to seek out a refund (such as a sudden death in the family or something like that).

I find the Disney cheerleader comment to be quite humorous. Fairly certain people are coming from a practical standpoint not a Disney can do no wrong standpoint

 

[Lucys dad]

Sorry you had to cancel your trip. However, to be honest I'd be more surprised if Disney DID refund your £100 deposit under these circumstances. As it happens I've also booked for May 2017 and certainly wont be cancelling because of Trump, Brexit, the Nightclub shooting or the remote threat from Zika. Each to their own though.

 

[CarolynU]

I use the UK site to book my hotels all the time. A few years ago I was going to WDW staying for 5 nights and then on a road trip and then back to WDW for a further 7 nights. I suddenly realised months out that I had got my dates wrong by one day following the roadie. I needed the last stay to be one day later arriving and leaving so so I wanted to just cancel a day at the beginning and book one more days stay at the end. Yep I was charged a £50 cancellation fee for making that change as the first day incurred a cancellation fee. I thought it was a bit harsh but as it's in the t&c and was my mistake I just sucked it up.
I'm really not sure why Disney should refund a £100 deposit though for the OP to cancel their trip simply because of perceived risks when there is no specific warning in place or the OP does not fall into a high risk category, at this specific time.

 

[robinb]

I'm at WDW now and thought of this thread ...

 

[tcufrog]

Florida is about 15,000 sq miles larger than England. Should I stop visiting Bath if there's problems in London?

 

[RossK]

yes of course, but there are no such penalties on US disney packages, only disney.UK....
very draconian penalties....much much much worse than US penalty fees..

But they make up for it with our much better tickets

 

[Jon84]

But they make up for it with our much better tickets

And better availability of free dining, which is why disneyholic used the UK site!