While UK people get amazing deals on WDW theme park tickets, we really get the shaft when it comes to hotel and package terms and conditions.
On 18th March, I wrote to WDW UK to cancel my June trip. I received a reply today telling me they would be happy to cancel the reservation for a £100 ($125) fee.
It was announced today that Wimbledon is cancelled this year. That takes place in July. Glastonbury was cancelled some weeks ago — that takes place at the end of June. The Tokyo Olympics have been rescheduled — they were due to take place the end of July, beginning of August.
Does anyone really think WDW is going to be up and running in June?
Apparently UK Disney does.
So I’ve rescinded my cancellation. Woo hoo! I’m still going. And I will wait for them to cancel and refund my booking in full without deduction of cancellation fees. I’m having to do this with my flights (which are otherwise non-refundable) anyway, so I may as well wait.
I have a couple non Disney travel things in the same situation. I get companies not wanting to cancel things in June until more is known. We are facing an unprecedented situation and there are a lot of legitimate reasons to think things won’t be even close to normal in June, but there are legitimate reasons to think things may improve by then. So I get them not want to cancel all of their business that far ahead.
This reminds me of the early days of Google Maps. As an Easter egg, they had it so that if you tried to plan a route from the United States to UK, it would tell you to Jet-ski across the Atlantic.
I will tell you all this. IF Disney World is open again by the time of my June trip and IF Virgin is flying to the US and hasn’t gone bust and IF the US is letting UK citizens back into the US and IF the UK is letting UK citizens out of the UK THEN I am damn well going on that trip.
Keep in mind, they have had to cancel all kinds of qualifying events for the Olympics and many athletes are currently unable to train, so I think those were some pretty big influencers. It would have been a gutted event even if things stabilized by then.
I think I’m sticking with my prediction of a mid-July WDW re-open date. But I hope I’m wrong and it’s June!
IMHO. I wouldn’t plan on anything before July 4th, at the earliest, and I think Labor day is a more realistic date. A local newscast indicated that the peak in FL will likely not occur until May If that is the case, it’s going to take at least 3-4 months before things settle down enough to open high-concentration major parks.
I’ve come to terms that its highly unlikely WDW will be open during our planned trip June 20-26. I’m not canceling my room only at ASMovies or changing the tickets yet as I’m hoping to get free dining or something out of the change. We had been hatching a short weekend trip Oct 1-4 before all the virus stuff happened (and we had a crazy plan to get APs, that’s off) so now that’s the plan, I hope.
In Virginia they have a stay at home order until June 10. That’s right next door to me; I’m in Maryland. So, I’m assuming that “they” are already all planning for things like school to be cancelled for the rest of the year, although right now my kids supposedly go back end of April. I just saw today that the Virginia governor expects the peak to be either in late April or late May. And how could the peak next door be in late May and my kids be back in school. Just sayin’ b/c you’re talking about June. My kids last day of school is supposed to be June 9; it will probably be the last day of “remote learning.”
