What tickets? Park tickets? If I get a campground day and don’t stay there, would I likely be able to get and keep my FP?
What loophole was that?
Thanks.
Until last year, you could have a friend on MDE with an AP, and book FPs for them. Then take one of their bands and use their FPs for yourself, the friend not being there at all.
They changed it so that a magic band has to be used to enter the park before FPs can be used. Otherwise the MDE account gets locked - not the “friend’s” but the person who booked the FPs.
And yes, park tickets. If you have a package and you then change the reservation and have to technically “cancel” it, then you have no valid tickets until you either book another package or buy a stand-alone ticket and link it to MDE.
Does anyone by any chance know what the original thread was? Would this trick work for DVC members? Just off the top of my head I don’t think that it would. If you borrow points from next year you cant return them, you have to use them, so I don’t think you could do this. Anyone know for sure?
Me, being Mr. Rule Follower, is rather bothered by this. But, as has been the case most of the time with such loopholes, I suspect Disney will eventually catch wind of it and plug the loophole. In the meantime, it does kind of cheat others out of their rightful FP opportunities.
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If I were traveling and staying on points, and I wanted to use a leading reservation or an early extension, I would book it separately using cash/credit/DisneyGiftCards - so that when whatever refund from the cancellation comes through, it’s back in your pocket immediately.
I would NOT use points to book a leading reservation.
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Borrowing points is a final transaction p, so you would have to have enough points to be able to book without borrowing. Unless you then get MS to do a reallocation of points to use the borrowed points and you then bank your current points to next year. Which you can do.
I used this loophole on our June trip. I had a problem with snow days and the school year being extended. I called Disney to try and reschedule our trip and was told by the CM to just add days to the end of the trip and when I find out what day school ends to call and modify at that time. This way we would not lose our room because the handicapped room I wanted was limited and we were on the summer free QS plan.
You weren’t really gaming the system, then. You had a legitimate reason to modify your trip.
Yes ture, but I played the hand that I was dealt and played it well with FP but lost with ADRs. We missed out on Ohana but picked up Boma. While Boma was nice I see no reason to go out of my way to go back.
Well – not everybody wins. People who play by the rules lose out reservations they hoped to get.
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I believe there is confusion on what playing by the rules means in this case. Taking advantage of the reservation policy is perfectly within the rules.
No one should feel entitled just because they didn’t get snowed in or because their plans never change or because they can craft perfectly rigid vacations two years out.
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But as I understand what you are saying, none of those situations apply to you. You are booking a reservation with no intention of keeping it in order to get a leg up on everyone else who is not doing that. There’s a difference between what is technically permitted under the rules and what is ethically shady. That’s what I’m saying.
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This is why we can’t have nice things.
Behavior like this is the reason we have cancellation fees and prepayment requirements.
I think saying “taking advantage of the reservation policy is perfectly within the rules” is a bit more than a stretch. Booking a room reservation a few days early to get FPPs you’ll eventually use is one thing but setting up multiple MDE accounts, and doubling up on ADRs, is plain wrong. The latter is surely something Disney would act on if they were aware one had done it.
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I stumbled upon this by accident actually. Our original plan was to stay onsite for several days then switch to my parent’s timeshare which is offsite. However, we recently moved to Florida and decided we could now go to WDW pretty much whenever we wanted to so I reduced our onsite visit to only one day.
I believe my reason to modify is as good as any. I also believe that I am in no position to judge anyone’s vacation plans no matter how extreme. I mean, everyone celebrated @profmatt’s plan changes so I know I’m not alone in this.
And sure, this might not last. Just like the rider switch which was abused to death but in the meantime it is there for everyone to enjoy.
I am quite sure that Disney has people monitor these and all the other forums looking for ways that people expose loopholes.
One way or another they will fix this one too.
Meh. This is almost certainly only used by a fraction of a sliver of their attendance. It may be something they’d like to eliminate eventually, but given how infrequently it’s actually used, it’s probably not high on their list of things to care about.