Hurricanes and points

[PolyRob]

Our flight for tomorrow AM was canceled. Just found out before we disembarked the Fantasy at 6AM. Next available flight not until Sept 4 so MS canceled our CCV 1 bd for tonight (I apparently am never going to stay there ) and put my points back, but wouldn’t un-borrow them.

Almost to the Georgia border drving a rental back to Detroit to pick up our car at the airport & drive home to Canada. I have to teach Tues & I also want away from the fallout zone.

Car rental employee asked us if we wanted the extra insurance on the vehicle.

Me: our cruise was rerouted, my husband was exposed to a nut he is allergic to last night on our cruise and puffed up like a puffer fish, and we disembarked to find our flight canceled this morning... yeah, I need me some insurance .

What an adventure . If you’re on the East coast stay safe

Wow, so sorry to hear about your troubles. At least you will be ahead of the storm now!

Bummer about the borrowed points. I was reading the MS website last night and the notification states "If you must cancel your reservation due to Hurricane Dorian, all Vacation Points and Reservation Points will be returned to the Membership in the way they were utilized for the reservation." If they were borrowed for the reservation, I would think MS should unborrow them by this statement. It mentioned cancelling and e-mailing MS for the adjustment. Maybe try an e-mail?

 

[Madame]

Wow, so sorry to hear about your troubles. At least you will be ahead of the storm now!

Bummer about the borrowed points. I was reading the MS website last night and the notification states "If you must cancel your reservation due to Hurricane Dorian, all Vacation Points and Reservation Points will be returned to the Membership in the way they were utilized for the reservation." If they were borrowed for the reservation, I would think MS should unborrow them by this statement. It mentioned cancelling and e-mailing MS for the adjustment. Maybe try an e-mail?

Thanks! Just sent off an email. Can’t hurt to try!

 

[PolyRob]

Thanks! Just sent off an email. Can’t hurt to try!

Exactly! Good luck, and safe travels!

 

[Stinkomann20x6]

Thanks! Just sent off an email. Can’t hurt to try!

We had 2 rooms for 9 nights at the Poly and had to borrow 100 points from 2020, and they were returned no problem. It just will take likem7 to 10 days to get out of holding and show on the system I guess. I’d def try back. If they were banked from previous year, then might not work, but borrowed should be covered under the “without penalty” part of dvc hurricane policy. Hope it’s taken care of quick!

 

[crisi]

Thanks, the challenge is that the official policy is, honestly, ridiculous, because a hurricane warning will only be issued 36 hours before they expect tropical storm winds to hit … that is a pretty unreasonable official policy considering the travel involved for many people to get there. As you mention, the unwritten policy appears to be much more lenient (with reports on other threads of others already getting full refunds, despite the lack of a hurricane warning), but it makes it hard to decide/plan. I can change my return airline ticket for Tuesday with no penalty, but Disney's official policy is that I can't change a reservation for Monday night until 36 hours before the tropical storm is supposed to get there. It's a poor look on Disney (and I love Disney!).

DVC really doesn't have a choice. Florida will have several Hurricane watches every year. They sold enough points to basically fill the resorts year round. If they allowed everyone to cancel without penalty several times a year, and enough people did so, they'd be in a position where they would have oversold the resorts to members - that would be a legal nightmare putting them in violation of timeshare law - as well as creating a situation where some members could not use their points because other people did not buy travel insurance.

Orlando is far enough inland where loss of life during a hurricane is unlikely as long as people are safe (stay inside, away from flash flood zones, etc) - by the time a hurricane reaches Orlando its a big storm.....you wouldn't want to be outside, but they don't evacuate Orlando. Its a bummer to get weather so bad for your vacation that you end up staying indoors - I've had some experience with that - including having my hotel evacuated for a tsunami. But Disney pixie dust can't change the reality of the numbers - there simply isn't room in the system to allow for very many weather related non-penalty cancellations.

Once in a while Disney makes exceptions to their cancellation policies - but it would surprise me if this particular exception became anything normal - I suspect some DVC manager is going to look at this in retrospect and realize that 1) there isn't enough room in the system for this to be regular and 2) they've now set an unsustainable expectation.

 

[StephandDick]

We were scheduled to arrive at Hilton Head tomorrow and they just issued a mandatory evacuation order starting tomorrow at noon. I cancelled online and emailed MS to ask for the points to be removed from holding. It’s not a hurricane warning (yet) but we can’t get there (interstate inbound is being reversed to outbound). I do not expect there will an issue. We generally get trip insurance from our carrier but I am curious about the use year insurance coverage offered.

 

[stuartsong]

We have Poly booked this Saturday and have a September Use year. They will allow me to cancel but will not allow me to bank the points so they will be lost. It’s only around 20 points. Any ideas?

I would speak to another CM. We just cancelled a reservation and asked the banked points from 2018 to be banked again since there was no availability for any of the months before the points expired. They got it handled and banked the points into next year within a day.

 

[Madame]

Wow, so sorry to hear about your troubles. At least you will be ahead of the storm now!

Bummer about the borrowed points. I was reading the MS website last night and the notification states "If you must cancel your reservation due to Hurricane Dorian, all Vacation Points and Reservation Points will be returned to the Membership in the way they were utilized for the reservation." If they were borrowed for the reservation, I would think MS should unborrow them by this statement. It mentioned cancelling and e-mailing MS for the adjustment. Maybe try an e-mail?

I sent an email yesterday and my 38 points were put back in my 2020 UY. Thank-you so much again! I can actually use them now instead of trying to rent them out which wouldn’t have been easy with such a small amount (18 SSR & 20 BCV). Cheers!

@sky2823 try sending an email.

 

[PolyRob]

I sent an email yesterday and my 38 points were put back in my 2020 UY. Thank-you so much again! I can actually use them now instead of trying to rent them out which wouldn’t have been easy with such a small amount (18 SSR & 20 BCV). Cheers!

@sky2823 try sending an email.

Yay, so glad it worked out and no points went to waste!