Best strategy for cancelling

Given that this Summer will not provide the Disney experience I hoper for, we’re going to reschedule for next summer. My question to you, how do I best accomplish this without losing money?

We’re booked for an Aug 9 arrival. We have 9 day hopper passes and a 10 day stay at FQ. The hopper passes we’re booked with a memory maker, and we’re done separately from our FQ booking, but all were made direct with Disney.

I don’t want to pay the hotel in full - that’s due on July 10.

Your thoughts?

So you have a room-only reservation booked with Disney? And you’re in the US?

I think you can cancel up to 5 days before and get a full refund. Packages have a 30 day cancellation period for a full refund, otherwise there’s a fee.

For the tickets you can apply the value of those against future tickets when you decide you want to go. If you rebook before they expire (ie rebook before your current date) then I think you can modify the dates online; otherwise you can do it by phone.

In other words, you’re not close enough to your dates to need any special cancellation conditions.

I would call. The parks blog post this week seems to imply they will work with you:

We’re in Canada. When I booked everything it was cheapest to book FQ on sale and then use a Cdn discount rate for the hopper passes.

I agree with calling.

But I don’t think OP’s cancellation is any different to the run of the mill cancellation. “DD made the athletics team and we can’t travel”, “DS made the school band and hast to attend camp in October“ reasons see people cancelling all the time.

They are well over 30 days out, and with a room-only a straight forward cancellation is 5 days out. Interested whether you have a different view.

Unless they want to try and rebook the same stay for next year at the same price. In which case it’s worth a try but I wouldn’t be too hopeful for their dates just yet. @Lionaround12, can you clarify whether you want to cancel outright or modify?

I read the blog post as “this might not be the vacation you planned so we will work with you”.

Yes, but why do you think OP’s cancellation requires a special “intervention”? Why would DIsney need to work with them simply in order to cancel?

So unless your usual cancellation policies are different, you should be fine with a “normal” cancellation to get a full refund.

And any ticket bought direct can be traded for it’s value at a later date if it’s unused.

If you want to modify it to a later date then hopefully they’ll work with you.

Either way I would call, as @PrincipalTinker said.

We won’t have a travel window to go again until Summer 2021. But here’s my problem, we’re a group of 6 and one of our traveling members can’t select vacation dates for next summer until November, so if i simply move our package to new dates for summer 2021, she may not be able to secure those exact dates.

When you book through Disney and cancel your hotel reservation do you normally lose the deposit?

Would the hopper passes just stay as a credit on file to be used at a later date? Would the memory maker be the same?

As far as I understand, US and Canadian cancellations get a full refund if you’re “in time”.

The tickets will just stay in your account until you either change the date or call to do so. You could ask when you call to cancel though, they may refund you.

The balance for room only reservations are typically due at check-in so unless this room is part of a vacation package, I’m not sure what type of room reservation this is. I would call now and find out the cancellation policy for your reservation.

I canceled a room-only reservation online not that long ago. It was super easy.

In your shoes, I’d re-book for summer 2021 with your best guess dates, and if your guess doesn’t work, just call back in November and re-book again.

Thank you Julsie, I think that’s what we’ll do. I’m waiting to see what the reopening plans look like, just in case they’ll cancel for me.