Disappointing experience with modifying a Resort Reservation at FW

[BigAlsGal]

Yeah it's irritating for sure. DH and I like to take quick weekend trips. Almost every time I look up 3 night stays the only thing I get is the most expensive deluxe rooms or fw cabins or something I don't want or need. Then low and behold I open up the search to 4 or 5 days and all of a sudden my favorite and preferred resorts pop up! I've always managed to find something eventually but they're definitely making it harder for shorter trips.

 

[Shanti]

Hello-
My family are lucky enough to be able to camp at FW 3-4 times a year as we live only an hour away. Due to my busy schedule I often book a larger window and end up trimming down my resort reservation when we get closer (usually due to my work schedule). We have never had a single issue modifying reservatons.......until today.

We are going (or were going) this coming weekend for Mothers day. We had reservations to arrive on friday and to leave the following tuesday. We called earlier today to modify our reservation to leave on Sunday.

The cast member on the phone actually told us we could not modify our reservation because there was no availability.......HUH? Funnily enough this was a very similar message to the one we got when we tried to modify our reservation online (hence the call).

So basically it appears as though they are not treating the modification as a modification but as a new ressie. I am still outside of the 1 week limitation to get a full refund. I am aware of no other restrictions.

The castmember put in a request with customer service to change the ressie and told us they would get back to us within 24 hours to let us know if they were going to allow us to change the ressie.

I am so pissed and confused at this point. I know there are always alot of changes going on at Disney and usually not for the better. Perhaps a new policy i was not aware of.

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience recently?

-B

Disney is strict about that because people used to make long reservations they never intended to fully keep, in order to get 180+10 ADR's earlier than they would be able to otherwise. Then they would cancel the front portion of their reservation. This happened enough & messed with enough inventory, that Disney put a stop to it by requiring these types of modifications to be separate reservations.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

"unwritten" rules that only Disney knows.

"Double Secret Probation"

 

[Sur]

With regards to length-of-stay requirements for the Fort- had this been in place, we wouldn't have had a few stays. We had to piece together reservations, day by day, for holiday stays. During the stay, it was a pain in that we had to check out and check back in each day (for whatever reason the stay could not be combined upon arrival), but perhaps this could help the OP- book a few reservation lengths and cancel the part you end up not using.

oh, and to add, using the bands (multiple ones, as declining them was not possible at the time) to charge was highly problematic due to the check out- check in issue... I just charged all to my credit card.

This edit is to say to Disney- we now have family nearby and intend to stay with them when Disney makes reservations difficult... can't find a site, it's off to the family's house!

 

[SamRoc]

Yes...exactly! I was just typing a very long response to that post but you said everything I was thinking. I don't think it would be too difficult for Disney to "fix" the throwaway room/campsite reservations issues and I'm not sure why they haven't done it. I think the big things are to require more than a 1-night stay for free magic bands and only allow 1 day of FP reservations for a 1-night room-only/campsite reservation. That would eliminate a lot of throwaway reservations since the reasons that people seem to do that are for the free magic bands and the ability to book all of their FPs 60 days out even if not really staying on property. Disney already requires a minimum length of stay and ticket purchase to get promotional pricing so it doesn't seem crazy to require at least 2 nights to get certain benefits.

I too think it would be easy for Disney to fix this problem, i mean seriously who is going to tent camp at Fort Wilderness for one night with 10 people? They are aware that the abuse is going on that people can make their dining and fast pass reservations in advance just like the rest of us, but then they cancel one night and still get to keep these benefits? I don't know why there isn't a minimum stay at the campsites. I did go over to the theme park board when i first heard about this throwaway room thing and was so surprised at all of the people who were so proud of beating the system. The worst post i read was from a name i saw that I recognized from one post here from a woman asking about parking her car at fort wilderness when she checked in, and everyone one here was so helpful. Well on the theme park board she bragged about how she has a throwaway campsite at fort wilderness, and is staying in a beautiful 6 bedroom home off site and will just be parking her car for free at the fort so she can take the boat to the magic kingdom. If you cancel your reservation, your adr, fast pass and free parking should all be cancelled.

 

[bgula]

I've done this for years. For Christmas, if I can actually book a stay without having to piece it together, I will book early as sometimes I want to come early, but won't know that until closer to my stay. If I'm not coming in early, I will drop those days. Never been a problem. This year has been a challenge as my wife is a teacher and it has been up in the air as to when the Christmas holidays will start - either Dec. 17 or the 24th. So I had to book and extra week until we found out what way the school board was going to go. I just hope I don't have a problem modifying my ressie this year as it was another one of those years trying to piece it together basically one day at a time!

 

[Barnabus]

Disney is strict about that because people used to make long reservations they never intended to fully keep, in order to get 180+10 ADR's earlier than they would be able to otherwise. Then they would cancel the front portion of their reservation. This happened enough & messed with enough inventory, that Disney put a stop to it by requiring these types of modifications to be separate reservations.

But I am not cancelling my reservation. I have no ADRs. I do have FPs (that were only made a week ago) and I will still be staying at the Fort for two days.

 

[Barnabus]

I've done this for years. For Christmas, if I can actually book a stay without having to piece it together, I will book early as sometimes I want to come early, but won't know that until closer to my stay. If I'm not coming in early, I will drop those days. Never been a problem. This year has been a challenge as my wife is a teacher and it has been up in the air as to when the Christmas holidays will start - either Dec. 17 or the 24th. So I had to book and extra week until we found out what way the school board was going to go. I just hope I don't have a problem modifying my ressie this year as it was another one of those years trying to piece it together basically one day at a time!

Personally I think they are trying to make it harder but if you push hard enough they will allow changes to reservations. As I said earlier - in their most current T&Cs it still does not say you cannot modify ressies just that you must call in if you have issues. The old Bait and switch.

 

[Sur]

Remember, different CMs handle things differently....call until you achieve the results you want.

 

[Shanti]

But I am not cancelling my reservation. I have no ADRs. I do have FPs (that were only made a week ago) and I will still be staying at the Fort for two days.

The people who did that didn't out & out cancel. They only cut short their trips, lopping off the first half. That's the point- it was so easy to do that as a modification to the reservation. It's much harder to pull that trick now because Disney makes you cancel. That's why they made the strict rule.

 

[peg110]

Remember, different CMs handle things differently....call until you achieve the results you want.

I think the point is, is that you shouldn't have to. There should be rules and guidelines that are clear to the guests AND the CM's to follow. Making reservations at WDW is bad enough but to continually have to jump through hoops.... Let's just say, it's not the way to keep the customer happy. You know.... the people giving them their money!

 

[Sur]

I think the point is, is that you shouldn't have to. There should be rules and guidelines that are clear to the guests AND the CM's to follow. Making reservations at WDW is bad enough but to continually have to jump through hoops.... Let's just say, it's not the way to keep the customer happy. You know.... the people giving them their money!

Right you are.

 

[21stamps]

hi jeffrey- Trying to shorten the stay not lengthen. Hence my confusion.

-B

I had this same problem a few months ago at a different resort. You can no longer 'shorten your stay' at many places.

There is a 'length of stay requirement' that can not be found in any small print, but some rooms will show available for 1or 2 nights, but not available for 3, yet are available for 4. It's frustrating, but apparently what's going on now. I ended up having to extend my stay because of it.

 

[KristinU]

So what happens if the OP waits until they are there and tells them they are checking out early? Are they on the hook for those final days?

 

[peg110]

So what happens if the OP waits until they are there and tells them they are checking out early? Are they on the hook for those final days?

Depends on the cancellation policy in effect at that time. If they are within the time frame, I don't believe there is much they can do except maybe to ask you to leave at that point (even earlier).

 

[Sarubo]

I'm glad I found this thread!! I think this is what happened this afternoon when my DH called to add a day onto our trip. We will be there last week in Nov and first week of Dec. The CM said we couldn't add a day as there was nothing available, however when I go online and put in just the last day we want to add, I get available sites. Hmmmm. May have to call again and see if we can't fix this. Thanks for this information, because I would have just assumed that it meant there were no sites available at all and wouldn't have even bothered to double check online.

 

[bgula]

I'm glad I found this thread!! I think this is what happened this afternoon when my DH called to add a day onto our trip. We will be there last week in Nov and first week of Dec. The CM said we couldn't add a day as there was nothing available, however when I go online and put in just the last day we want to add, I get available sites. Hmmmm. May have to call again and see if we can't fix this. Thanks for this information, because I would have just assumed that it meant there were no sites available at all and wouldn't have even bothered to double check online.

Adding a day shouldn't be a problem. The big thing now is apparently trying to REMOVE days from a reservation. I was worried as I had to remove days from my Dec. ressie. In the past there was no issue. When the CM attempted, she said she was having trouble getting the system to do it, but after talking with someone else, she was able to get it done. Not sure if I'm going to run into problems in the future, however, especially around Christmas time.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

The big thing now is apparently trying to REMOVE days from a reservation

1) YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.
2) As I previously posted in this thread, this is trying to halt the abuses of overbookings, then cancelling.
3) Inconvenient to those who truly must change their plans, but correcting the larger abuse issue.

 

[bama_ed]

I'm glad I found this thread!! I think this is what happened this afternoon when my DH called to add a day onto our trip. We will be there last week in Nov and first week of Dec. The CM said we couldn't add a day as there was nothing available, however when I go online and put in just the last day we want to add, I get available sites. Hmmmm. May have to call again and see if we can't fix this. Thanks for this information, because I would have just assumed that it meant there were no sites available at all and wouldn't have even bothered to double check online.

You will have to make a separate reservation for just that one day you are trying to add. I went through this same thing about a week ago.

I have a Preferred campsite for January in Marathon week and wanted to pick up a night in front of my arrival day - to "change a reservation" to arrive one day sooner. That one day was available on-line per Disney's reservation system. Disney's system looks for a "new" reservation in its inventory for the whole longer time - it doesn't consider your existing reservation already. This is the same treatment they use to stop people from booking speculative Free Dining dates as room only before FD is announced and then flipping them to FD after they are announced.

So I just took it and will have to deal with it. You will too if you want that extra day.

Bama Ed

 

[articfox676]

Being forced to book 499 days in advance for holidays is a must. Then the school schedule comes out and dates change. Life happens. I don't call this not following the rules.