Disney to cancel FPs if room is cancelled

[ljmiii]

But that loophole wasn't closed at all - I've yet to see anyone say they canceled an onsite stay and their FPs were canceled. Until that starts happening, nothing has changed in that regard.

If a room is cancelled it isn't a "throwaway room" - that phrase refers to a room that is reserved and payed for but 'thrown away' because it isn't used. And as crvetter said, the 'rent an onsite room for one night and your 60 day offsite window opens' loophole IS closed.

 

[piccolopat]

It *seems* the bigger target was the split stay people, because they've been the most impacted. Which is unfortunate, because as I posted before sometimes it's hard to get a resort for the entire length of a stay, which is the boat my DVC family is in now. Disney needed to come up with some FP+ availability for the new hotels and whatever they are planning for the paid FP+ changes later this year. It seems the biggest way to get more availability was to close the split stay reservations.

I've been checking the campsites for my week in May for the past two months, both before the announcement and after, and there seems to be the same availability. I'm not convinced the campsite throwaways are the biggest target since they don't seem to be used as much. There's not a lot of them to begin with, there's still availability---I just checked my dates again and there are campsites (all three types) for Monday to Friday for my week. Two hundred campsites vs. several thousands of resort rooms with split stays....seems pretty obvious which one was a bigger issue as to where the FP+ were going. There are a lot of people who spend a few days onsite and a few offsite too. They have their rolling window closed now too.

I think booking a campsite throwaway still has value, even without the rolling FP+. From what I've read on this board, doing this will give you two days free park parking, 2 days of FP+ at 60 days and free magic bands for up to 10 people. I don't see the campsite throwaway going away unless Disney sets a minimum 3 day stay and a charge for magic bands if the reservation is cancelled (taken out of the cancellation refund).

 

[AngiTN]

I think the bottom line is that Disney needs FP+ inventory to sell down the line when the paid FP+ comes later this year. They need to get that inventory from somewhere, whether it's from eliminating the rolling FP+ windows for everyone with split stays and/or only allowing FP+ booking for length of resort stays. This puts people into the position of NEEDING to pay for FP+ down the line. They're doing it slowly, to get people used to the idea of limited FP+ (as if some weren't already limited!). Just like the ticket price increase this week...most people won't notice if it's done quietly and it's not a drastic change in price. If the announcement was made today that suddenly FP+ was going to a paid system all h*** would break loose and Disney would experience enormous backlash.

We are the boiling frogs right now.

Then again, WDWMagic may be as correct about their Paid FP rumor as they've been about their canceled FP for canceled room rumor.

 

[AngiTN]

I think booking a campsite throwaway still has value, even without the rolling FP+. From what I've read on this board, doing this will give you two days free park parking, 2 days of FP+ at 60 days and free magic bands for up to 10 people. I don't see the campsite throwaway going away unless Disney sets a minimum 3 day stay and a charge for magic bands if the reservation is cancelled (taken out of the cancellation refund).

Yet, I have noticed an increase in campsites appearing on the list of rooms available when searching for openings lately. So something has changed in this regards. Previously, they never appeared as available. People who really wanted to camp had a dickens of a time booking one. In the past couple of weeks, I've had one come up as an option every date I search for the later summer dates. Very unusual. I hope it means those who want to camp, can.

 

[ljmiii]

I think booking a campsite throwaway still has value, even without the rolling FP+. From what I've read on this board, doing this will give you two days free park parking, 2 days of FP+ at 60 days and free magic bands for up to 10 people. I don't see the campsite throwaway going away unless Disney sets a minimum 3 day stay and a charge for magic bands if the reservation is cancelled (taken out of the cancellation refund).

Well, yes. $100-ish/day for up to 10 people to get 60 day FPs instead of 30 day is completely worth it for many families. I don't think a campground minimum stay requirement changes that at all - people doing this just book the campground for their length of stay offsite.

As for the magic band thing I think it is now a red herring. By taking away the 60 day opening for offsite stays Disney has made getting a 'free' magic band way, way down the list of financial impacts.

 

[mckennarose]

I think booking a campsite throwaway still has value, even without the rolling FP+. From what I've read on this board, doing this will give you two days free park parking, 2 days of FP+ at 60 days and free magic bands for up to 10 people. I don't see the campsite throwaway going away unless Disney sets a minimum 3 day stay and a charge for magic bands if the reservation is cancelled (taken out of the cancellation refund).

I don't think a minimum stay policy would change the throwaway situation. People are already booking a throwaway for every other day to get FP+ for their entire stay. (And again, I'm not against a throwaway room, I'm just stating what I've seen on here)

When you have people clamoring to pay for FP+ for SWGE, people already using DAH as their entire Disney trip instead of regular park tickets, and people hiring plaids now or to get into SWGE, money is not a factor for some.

Cost of a plaid: beginning around $3,000, which will most likely go up for SWGE
DAH for one day for a family of 4: $500
Cost of campground for 3 days at $84 (rate for May, not incl. tax): $252

A campground throwaway for 3 days is much cheaper than what a lot of people are paying for early/special access now. It's the paid FP+ thing that is going to change things a lot, and I believe it's coming in one form or another.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Actually, they don't. If you call central reservations, a supervisor can override the system and make this a single stay with a single confirmation number (unless one is a package and the other room only, or two different packages).

I'd argue that they do. You may know to call, others may know they can call, some don't know and ask on a thread they create, others never think to ask they just go by what's available and I suspect that's how most others not in any way shape or form "in the know" operate as well. People are very used to booking other hotels online I'm not sure it would even dawn on a portion of the folks to assume differently when it comes to Disney.

 

[ljmiii]

Actually, they don't. If you call central reservations, a supervisor can override the system and make this a single stay with a single confirmation number...

I’m curious...have you done this for two DVC reservations? I’ve done it for two cash reservations when the day I was missing became available. But in general, WDW reservations doesn’t deal directly with DVC reservations.

I’m not even sure how that would work if your DVC reservations came from different home resorts or use years.

 

[crvetter]

I’m curious...have you done this for two DVC reservations?

For DVC reservations (if you have exact same booking category and resort) they can either link the reservations (still two separate) or merge the reservations if you call Member Services. The preferred route is to merge the reservations as guarantee a continuous room. Example reasons they may not be able to merge: crossing Use Year for a single contract or using points from contracts with different Use Years (so the points can't go into a single pot).

Typically DVC people need to split stay across resorts as availability/capacity is meant to run at 100% and Disney doesn't discourage this because DVC members pay for all costs related to split stays so it is no skin off Disney's back. Generally you will see DVC members are well versed to ask Member Services to merge or link their reservations if they needed to piece together a stay (since that process is much more common on that side).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I guess.
But as I see it, 60 days is 60 days.
Each check-in gets the same 60 days as everyone else gets. Seems fair to me.
You had an advantage previously. They took the advantage away.
They didn't give you a disadvantage.
That's a difference.
Yeah, it's a bummer when you don't want the split stay

 

[smscrapbooks]

I've been reading this thread and I'm so shocked and suprized. We booked the first night of our December trip at the campground and we will NOT be cancelling but the rest of our trip we are staying off property. We are a family of 5 and the value resorts that accommodate our family of 5 are just out of our price range. So that means I can only schedule one day of FP 60 days out? The rest will be 30 days out? Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding it correctly. Ironically, this change means that we probably won't stay on property at all for future visits; there's really not much reason to stay anymore. Has Disney publicized this change? I explained to the CM on the phone why we were booking only one night on property and the rest off property, but she never told me that our FPs would be affected.

 

[Moliphino]

I've been reading this thread and I'm so shocked and suprized. We booked the first night of our December trip at the campground and we will NOT be cancelling but the rest of our trip we are staying off property. We are a family of 5 and the value resorts that accommodate our family of 5 are just out of our price range. So that means I can only schedule one day of FP 60 days out? The rest will be 30 days out? Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding it correctly. Ironically, this change means that we probably won't stay on property at all for future visits; there's really not much reason to stay anymore. Has Disney publicized this change? I explained to the CM on the phone why we were booking only one night on property and the rest off property, but she never told me that our FPs would be affected.

Two days, check in and check out. The rest at 30 days.

 

[crvetter]

I've been reading this thread and I'm so shocked and suprized. We booked the first night of our December trip at the campground and we will NOT be cancelling but the rest of our trip we are staying off property. We are a family of 5 and the value resorts that accommodate our family of 5 are just out of our price range. So that means I can only schedule one day of FP 60 days out? The rest will be 30 days out? Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding it correctly. Ironically, this change means that we probably won't stay on property at all for future visits; there's really not much reason to stay anymore. Has Disney publicized this change? I explained to the CM on the phone why we were booking only one night on property and the rest off property, but she never told me that our FPs would be affected.

Correct what you are explaining is explicitly what has been closed, throwaway rooms. You will get FP on your check in and check out day (Disney has decided to enforce the length of stay requirement). After your check out day you will need to wait until the 30 day window.

I feel your pain on it being expensive to stay at WDW.

 

[AngiTN]

Lucky for me I'm too dumb to get your joke/dig

 

[anomamatt]

Side note: I’ve had sooooo many friends insist that Under the Sea is the most under-appreciated ride in all of WDW. I have to admit I haven’t ever done it.

@CJN : I read in the "pay for FP" thread that WDW is considering an all-day UtS FP package! I thought you would be excited to know that.

 

[CJN]

@CJN : I read in the "pay for FP" thread that WDW is considering an all-day UtS FP package! I thought you would be excited to know that.

That’s the clamshell ride in MK, right? Not the show?

 

[kungaloosh22]

But why? How are split stays impacted? Negatively that is
I get that you no longer can book for both stays when the window opens for your first stay but where is that hurting folks?
I guess I'm missing it
We book split stays a lot, on purpose. I'm not seeing how it will be negative, except I'll have to get up early several mornings, instead of 1. Which is only an issue if it falls on a weekend. I'm already up for work during the week.

Lucky for you, but for many people it IS an issue. The booking window opens at 4am in my timezone. We love split stays, and sometimes need them for point reasons, but I am NOT happy at the prospect of even more middle-of-the-night booking sessions. As if it's not already bad enough with the existing FP nights + dining nights@3am + DVC 11-month bookings for critical times/room types + DVC 7-month adjustments. It's exhausting.

I also don't see why, if (for example) I have a 9-night stay on property, I shouldn't get the same +9 advantage as someone who stays at only 1 resort for the entire stay.

 

[cisco911]

I've been reading this thread and I'm so shocked and suprized. We booked the first night of our December trip at the campground and we will NOT be cancelling but the rest of our trip we are staying off property. We are a family of 5 and the value resorts that accommodate our family of 5 are just out of our price range. So that means I can only schedule one day of FP 60 days out? The rest will be 30 days out? Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding it correctly. Ironically, this change means that we probably won't stay on property at all for future visits; there's really not much reason to stay anymore. Has Disney publicized this change? I explained to the CM on the phone why we were booking only one night on property and the rest off property, but she never told me that our FPs would be affected.

It is exactly because of situations like yours that Disney has changed the system. The 60 day FP+ window is for people staying ON PROPERTY. If you are not on property those days, then you shouldn't be able to FP+ on those days at 60 days in advance. Technically that has always been the rule. Disney just hasn't enforced it until now. I completely understand your comment on cost. I am finding Disney to be more and more unattainable cost wise. We usually stay at a moderate and this time around we are staying at a value to cut down on the costs. I'm okay with it because I think POP is more fun for the kids than Port Orleans(our preferred moderate), but technically we are still downgrading to keep the costs reasonable. That being said, If I am paying a premium to stay on property for the week at a disneyworld resort, then my family should have that perk for the 7 days but the family that has a 1 night stay and a 6 night off site stay should not.

 

[otten]

Lucky for you, but for many people it IS an issue. The booking window opens at 4am in my timezone. We love split stays, and sometimes need them for point reasons, but I am NOT happy at the prospect of even more middle-of-the-night booking sessions. As if it's not already bad enough with the existing FP nights + dining nights@3am + DVC 11-month bookings for critical times/room types + DVC 7-month adjustments. It's exhausting.

I also don't see why, if (for example) I have a 9-night stay on property, I shouldn't get the same +9 advantage as someone who stays at only 1 resort for the entire stay.

Exactly. We are on property for 10 nights in May. I do think it's unfair that simply because we are staying at different resorts we did not get 60+10 like we would have if we'd stayed at a single resort. That change means not getting fastpasses for some headliners so yes I do see that as a disadvantage. Disney is still getting our money, and a lot of it, for those 10 nights.

 

[Ensusieasm]

Exactly. We are on property for 10 nights in May. I do think it's unfair that simply because we are staying at different resorts we did not get 60+10 like we would have if we'd stayed at a single resort. That change means not getting fastpasses for some headliners so yes I do see that as a disadvantage. Disney is still getting our money, and a lot of it, for those 10 nights.

I agree! It’s not fair at all. It’s especially not fair if you booked this trip before the new policy became effective.