Confusion around recovery deal

Kaley0492

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 4, 2020
So I pretty much felt forced to cancel my trip I had booked in May.. then September. My husband and I go to Disney almost every year and were still planning on going despite COVID-19. No fireworks or parades was still worth it to us.
We had 3 day park tickets with the park hopper which we changed to 4 day tickets since park hopper wasn’t an option anymore. I needed to extend my stay by one night (September 13-17 changed to September 13-18) so we could visit all 4 parks. The cast member helping me modify my vacation said that I couldn’t add a day without losing my 35% off recovery deal. I thought about it all evening and decided it would be better to cancel..

I’m wondering if anyone else had this problem. I told him I was able to add a day when I rebooked from May to September.. his response: “well I’m going to let that go since it’s already been done.. but she was not supposed to do that for you” Alrighty then.

I cancelled over a week ago but I’m still upset over it. I haven’t been able to find this in writing anywhere.. if anyone can confirm this rule for the recovery package it would make me feel better.
 
No experience with adding a day but my Travel agent was able to move my Labor Day week trip to Veterans Day week and retain the 35% discount. I would suggest asking for supervisor
 
We booked a bounce back offer August, 2019 for this August with free dining. Disney took away the free dining and have us the 35% off room discount. Well, we really didn't get a 35% discount, because when we booked the rate for POP was $149 per night. 35% would have been approximately $100 per night. Disney used a room rate of $189 per night. We are now paying approximately $120 per night. We never changed a thing about our trip! Our price should have been "locked in" at the $ 149 rate. So our 11 night stay is costing us approximately $220 more than the 35% discount.

when I called to remove the park hopper portion of our ticket (4 day) and add more days to make it 10 day pass. I was told if I touched or modified the tickets I would Lose the 35% discount. I specifically asked about making the tickets 10 day and was assured there would be no problem. We agreed to leave everything as is.

fast forward, Disney is no longer selling 10 day tickets. Called Disney, their advice wait still till we arrive and change tickets to 7 day park tickets and they will refund the park hopper portion. If we still want 10 day tickets, we will need to buy an additional three day pass, times three people for an additional $900. Needless to say a guest service management (and I do mean management) will help us figure this all out.

To add insult, Disney is upgrading guests to moderate and deluxe resorts from values (resorts closrd) and offered us absolutely nothing. The upgrades are "price guaranteed" if you move, where Disney places you. If you want something different, you pay upcharge.

Yes, we could still cancel and probably should. But this year we have had 4 hospital stays, two rehab stays and one person not able to stand or walk in over 200 days. We need our "happy" place more than ever! We will survive and we will use our legs again (to stand and walk).

Sad thing, is this is nine years straight going to Disney. It is my happy place. Total amount spent on room, tickets, dining over the last nine years - $50,000 plus and this is the way Disney treats their l loyal guests saddens me.
 
My TA said that they had made things so that if you change anything on the reservation that you would lose the 35%. I’m in the same boat with the prices going up and I 100% agree that others getting upgraded and us getting nothing but the shaft bites. They made us purchase tickets to get free dining and then took it away. In May we bought my husband a 7 day park hopper, I have an AP. I could have gotten my AP discount on the room but, it makes no price difference. We were going to add 2 days to my husband’s ticket but, they won’t do 9 days. Therefore, we have to keep the 2 day tickets so my husband can get into the parks 9 days. We can’t even get our money back for the hopper part because I bought his ticket from undercover tourist. I don’t appreciate how we’ve been treated on this. I’m thinking long and hard about renewing my AP when May comes around.
 


Two members in my party are annual passholders, making their 4 day park hopper tickets really useless. We usually added that value toward a renewal of,annual passes. I figure, this is our last year, if Disney choses not to make this entire situation right. It's in Disney hands. (Added: I personally have been going to Disney since 1975\first stay - Contemporary tower room less than $100 a night).
 
Yup, those of us booked at Pop and AOA are SOL with the upgrade given to the other values. And I don’t really think the 35% comes close to making up for the free dining discount we lost. I estimate, with the adult beverages included, the value of a QS meal is around $25, for the two of us, times 4 plus 4 SC at a minimum of $5 per comes to $120 per day times our 5 day trip is $600 in lost value.
I know I am preaching to the choir here. I still want to go. Disney is my happy place too, just venting.
 
And my TA dropped my PH, made my grandson 9 again since adult meals on FREE DDP for him no longer mattered and moved the entire trip from September to November and kept the 35%. Kind of a lot of changes 🤷‍♀️
 


Yup, those of us booked at Pop and AOA are SOL with the upgrade given to the other values. And I don’t really think the 35% comes close to making up for the free dining discount we lost. I estimate, with the adult beverages included, the value of a QS meal is around $25, for the two of us, times 4 plus 4 SC at a minimum of $5 per comes to $120 per day times our 5 day trip is $600 in lost value.
I know I am preaching to the choir here. I still want to go. Disney is my happy place too, just venting.
AOA is now being moved to Rivera or Cabins at Ft Wilderness cause it doesn't open til November 1st. It's onlythose that originally booked at POP and their loyal guests that they are doing this to. I'm venting too, but originally when they were reopening, they were (at least what Disney told us) moving everyone. Again, not true.

as far as the value of free dining on a 11 night stay for 2 adults and one Disney adult. $57 per person equals $175 per night. Room discount the way It was figured $20 a night!
 
I personally know someone who got moved from a little mermaid room in AOA to a Wilderness Lodge Villa. Good for them but, stinks for us.
 
I’m happy for guests that have talked with helpful, accommodating cast members (which is what I’m used to..just not this year I guess) Don’t get me wrong, It’s great that some are getting pretty sweet upgrades etc but it makes the rest of us loyal guests feel like we don’t matter. When I needed to change from AOA to another resort, he acted like Pop was my only option and actually seemed peeved that I wanted to pay the upcharge to stay at a different resort.

I’ve been hearing that Disney doesn’t really care if you cancel or not right now because they don’t want too many guests in the parks anyway. It sure does seem that way. I understand that this whole process is new and fluid but they’re dropping the ball when it comes to consistency and fairness :(
 
And I think this has always been true, just more noticable now. Getting a straight answer (or a consistent one) out of Guest Relations is a crap shoot. It always depends on who you get and what they had for breakfast. I think this is true for all service industries, not just Disney. Rule of thumb is "if you don't get what you want, hang up, call again & ask somebody different.
 
A new wrinkle to add to this one:

I was just able to modify a Recovery20 room-only reservation by phone. I was told that I couldn’t change the dates, but could change the resort, which I did.

Original Reservation (made in Dec. 2019): Room-Only Bounceback (30%) at BWI Garden View - 5 nights
First Modification (done July 27, 2020): Room-Only Recovery20 (35%) at Beach Club Villas - Standard View, same dates
Second Modification (done August 14, 2020): Room-Only Recovery20 (35%) at Yacht Club Water View, same dates

Still would like to drop a day from this trip, since it was originally for my Mom and I and now she can’t come along due to Covid. However, at rack rate that would cost more than my current reservation. Hoping for some good AP or GP discounts in the near future!
 
Was able to move our trip beginning Tues (wahhhhh!!!) to this Dec, keeping the recovery discount. Unfortunately had to keep the 10 day PH to keep the discount, even though trip was cut down by 4 nights, plus it cost over 500+ for the new dates. Stayed with POP so we could try the skyliner. Hoping the trip actually happens even though I now have to find affordable airfare... Is Dec that much more wonderful to justify the almost 600 more cost? I know we will be happy to miss the heat.
 
It really does depend on the cast member you talk to. I had Free Dining for the beginning of Sept and park hoppers for 6 days. The free dining was changed to the 35% off the room which doesn't come close to an equal discount. My resort is closed for our reservation dates (ASMusic) so I called to change resorts. I was moved to POP for the same price. I did mention the park hoppers and the cast member said he was not suppose to change any tickets in order to keep the room discount. He proceeded to tell me he would "see what he could do". He ended up taking the park hoppers off with no change to the 35% off room discount, but the park hopper refund was based on today's prices so it wasn't as much off the total as I paid for.

Now my question is what happens if I have to move my trip dates? We are scheduled for the beginning of Sept and because of my kids' school, I may need to move it to Oct. Would I lose the 35% if I did that?
 
This, IMO, shows why a good TA is so worth it. Mine got all this done for me. I didn’t have to lift a finger except to type an email to her. Dropped DGSs age, dropped the PHs and moved the dates of the trip while maintaining the 35% discount. Am I crazy about the 35% versus my Free DDP? No but it’s better than nothing right now. I always planned my own trips but this year has taught me the value of a good Travel Agent.
 
As others have said, it all depends on the cast member you speak to. I originally booked for April - moved it to August with the Free Dining. Free Dining was then converted to the 35% off. When we thought we could keep those dates, we were moved from ASSp to Pop. We also had the 2 day base tickets removed at that point - but still retained the 35% off. Then, after deciding we still couldn't go for August due to NY restriction, we moved it to New Years - dropping it down to 3 nights from 6 and were still able to retain the discount (which - when I compared to rack rates vs. what our total cost came to - was somehow a 61% discount! No idea how the cast member pulled that one off).
 
As others have said, it all depends on the cast member you speak to. I originally booked for April - moved it to August with the Free Dining. Free Dining was then converted to the 35% off. When we thought we could keep those dates, we were moved from ASSp to Pop. We also had the 2 day base tickets removed at that point - but still retained the 35% off. Then, after deciding we still couldn't go for August due to NY restriction, we moved it to New Years - dropping it down to 3 nights from 6 and were still able to retain the discount (which - when I compared to rack rates vs. what our total cost came to - was somehow a 61% discount! No idea how the cast member pulled that one off).
That's awesome! Well, if I have to move my trip, I will just call until I get it moved with the 35% intact :)
 
Thought I would give an update. We arrived Tuesday (18th). We changed nothing on our original reservation, before arriving. We had three 4_day park hopper tickets. Two members of our party didn't need the tickets since they are annual passholders.

Went through the gates (after prioritizing their annual passes) at M K. We immediately proceeded to Guest Relations. We were refunded for two 4 day park hopper tickets (those with annual passes). Total refund was $407 (plus change) per ticket. The other person 's ticket, we took the park hopper option off, received a refund of $93 (plus change). Then changed the Ticket from a 4 day ticket to 7 day park ticket, at a cost of $30 (plus change). tHat ticket received a refund of $60. All refunds were issued on gift cards. We requested two gift cards one for $407 and the other gift card for $407 plus the $60.

we never received an upgrade for our room. But POP is what we paid for and we could have not received a refund for $407 times 2, because it was required for our package. And we did get a discount on our room portion. (Even though, it definitely didn't come out to 35%. )
 
We basically paid $164 a night for a standard room including tax. When we booked our pack age the option rate (rack) was $149 per night, plus tax). Not sure if my math, but they say I figure we were charged $164 for a room that was originally $158 per night. According to Disney, that is a 35% discount, on the room! If someone comes up differently, please let me know.
 
so today i spent the morning making calls to Disney, the airlines and my DH. After finding out that our airport is part of the 15 suspended airports for AA, i was needing to refigure flights/airports....go that done and had to pay $86 more than our original flight from the closest airpot-25 min from us (yes i got sweet tickets originally and only $156). the flights we now have were only $104RT a month ago and its 2 hrs from us(still not bad) so I went ahead and booked the flights..Next up was Disney-I tried to modify on line but it had a number that said i had to call. I had called earlier and had the hopper removed-no discounts and DDP was removed by Disney before that.

so a very nice gentleman answered and proceeded to ask what i needed to change, I told him how I now have to fly a different airport, due to AA suspending flights and will need to change our dates and that any Disney is better than none. He asked as to room preference(Pop century-its just a room)i said it wasn't a big issue-just a room and a vacation that is needed in this crazy time. He then worked on adding a day to my passes and adding another night on the beginning and taking 3 off the end of the trip and added that it was our anniversary. he then tells me the total and i asked a few times to check because it seemed too low. he reassured me that it was correct....after the call i looked on my disney experience and was able to see that he indeed was correct on the price and added the Recovery20 discount (35%off room)-I am still in shock-a bit of Disney magic that i really didn't expect-i guess we are meant to go(we've gone back and forth as to go or postpone)DH said if we go short now, we can go again in the spring and then our normal in the fall....i guess i can say welcome to being empty nesters as our last went to college last week
 

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