Recently, Disney announced an update to their cancelation policy for bookings made directly through the company. These are bookings for nights at Disney hotels. The update to the policy could make it tougher for tourists to choose between booking directly with Disney or a third party like Expedia or Booking. Currently, guests can cancel their reservations made at Disney hotels up to 5 days before their arrival. If they alter their reservations any time before those 5 days, they’ll be able to access a full refund. That’s going to change starting in 2025. Under the new policy, guests will have to cancel up to 8 days in advance if they want to get their money back. Right now, if folks cancel within the 4-day period before their trip, they get charged a fee that’s usually around 200 dollars. If it’s a multi-night stay that they are trying to cancel, they’ll most likely get charged for the first night. This is, of course, if they don’t cancel eight days before their trip or sooner. The Disney company mentioned that these cancellations can be solicited through the My Disney app. If, for whatever reason, the reservation isn’t accessible through the app, people are encouraged to contact customer service directly. They will be able to walk people through the process. If they cancel with enough time to spare, there shouldn’t be an issue. There isn’t too much information available on why this policy update is coming into effect.
The cancellation policy for full vacation packages through the app remains the same. You can cancel up to 30 days prior to your arrival for a full refund. If you cancel on day 29 or up to 2 days before the trip is set, then you’ll be charged $200. Canceling a day before your arrival is no longer possible. In that situation, you’d get charged the entire cost of the vacation.
There are certain benefits to buying travel packages directly from the Disney app. Season pass holders, in particular, can get access to all sorts of discounts when they purchase directly from the company. Having said this, it’s also true that the cancellation policy is not a strong suit of the program. It’ll be much less so when the updates take place in 2025. There are a few things that people can do to potentially “extend” the cancelation option. One of them is to book through another site. These travel sites sometimes run promos for nights at Disney hotels. Although, the likelihood of finding better deals outside of Disney itself has gone down a bit over the last few years. In that situation, though, you could be dealing with a separate cancellation policy that’s offered by the specific site that you decide to book your vacation through. The other option that will be on the table is to purchase travelers insurance that covers last-minute cancellations. There are a multitude of these available. It’s really important to read the fine print before deciding to buy any policy!
